Domaine Michel Niellon
While Chassagne-Montrachet is home to many excellent white wine producers, Domaine Michel Niellon is relatively small compared to the others. All of the vineyards cultivated by this family are located within a single village in Côte de Beaune, and the Grand Cru vineyard is so small that it constitutes only a portion of a single vineyard.
Chardonnay is the predominant variety, while a small amount of Pinot Noir is grown for red wine. They have tended the same vineyards for four generations, and their winemaking methods have been deliberately kept simple: early harvesting, whole-cluster pressing, the use of a moderate amount of new oak barrels, and allowing the wine to rest undisturbed until bottling.
Production volumes are low, as they have always been. For many wine enthusiasts, this domaine has long served as the benchmark for classic white Burgundy, characterized by tension rather than weight.
The history
The Niellon family has been growing grapes in Chassagne since the 19th century, and the family's history dates back to Léon Niellon. Born in 1934, Michel Niellon began working alongside his father, Marcel, in the 1950s. In the 1960s, he began bottling wine under the domaine's own name, a decision that shaped all subsequent developments.
Michel ran the winery for 50 years until his death in 2020; during that time, he nearly doubled the estate's size from approximately 4 hectares to its current family-run scale. He was also the first person visitors thought of when they recalled the place. Tastings were held in a cramped, old stone cellar beneath the house at the top of the village.
His son-in-law, Michel Coutoux, joined the domaine in 1991 after marrying Françoise, Michel's daughter, and currently runs the domaine. The fourth generation has already joined the domaine through Mathieu Bresson (Michel Niellon's grandson) and Lucie Coutoux.
One practical change stands out: the production facilities were moved from that cramped cellar to a new building located in the light industrial park below the village, where several other major Chassagne growers have also relocated. While the charm has diminished, the effort required for transport has been significantly reduced.
The vineyards
All the grapevines belong to Chassagne-Montrachet, but there is one small exception: the young vineyard planted in front of the new winery, which uses only the Bourgogne Blanc designation of origin. The total area measures around 7.5 hectares.
More important than the total area is the distribution of the plots. Rather than a few large parcels, this domaine owns numerous small vineyards:
- Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru, 0.23 ha, and Bâtard-Montrachet, 0.12 ha
- Six Premier Cru climats for white wine: Chaumées, Clos Saint-Jean, La Maltroie, Champs Gain, Les Vergers, and Chenevottes
- For red wine, there are the Premier Cru vineyards La Maltroie and Clos Saint-Jean, both of which are less than 0.5 hectares.
- The white wine from Village, which covers approximately 2.21 ha, is produced from 10 individual vineyards scattered around Chassagne.
- Village red wine is produced from vineyards such as Battaudes and Concis des Champs, which complement Pinot Noir well.
Weeds are removed through tilling rather than the use of herbicides, and pest control is carried out only when the vines actually need it, in accordance with the principles of lutte raisonnée (reasoned management). Harvesting is done by hand.
The winemaking
Whole-bunch pressing is the first step; the grapes are fed into the press whole, along with their stems. Since the juice is allowed to settle only minimally afterward, a slightly higher amount of solids enters the barrels. Fermentation proceeds using the natural yeasts present in the grapes from the vineyard.
The proportion of new oak barrels is maintained at 20-25%, and this ratio applies uniformly across the entire product line, regardless of whether it is a Village Chassagne or a Grand Cru. The barrels are French. The aging process is conducted with an emphasis on minimizing intervention. The wine is not transferred at all during the aging period; it is moved only when the wine from the barrels is transferred to tanks for blending prior to bottling ahead of the next harvest.
In addition, experiments have been conducted using concrete egg-shaped fermentation tanks designed to keep the sediment in constant motion without the need for stirring. In a bumper harvest year, the domaine's total production reaches approximately 50,000 bottles. Since this volume is distributed among a dozen or so different bottled products, there is virtually no surplus of any single product.
The wines
Domaine Michel Niellon wines span all levels of the Burgundy classification system and include approximately 12 Chassagne-Montrachet cuvées, the lowest-ranked Bourgogne Blanc, and the two top-ranked Grand Crus.
At the Village level, the Chassagne-Montrachet Blanc is produced by blending grapes from 10 scattered plots, while the Chassagne-Montrachet Rouge comes from vineyards such as Battaudes and Concis du Champs.
Among the Premier Cru wines, Chassagne-Montrachet Clos Saint-Jean is available in both white and red. Chassagne-Montrachet La Maltroie is also vinified as both white and red. Other Premier Cru climats stored in the cellar include Les Chaumées, Champsgains, Les Vergers, and Chenevottes.
At the very top is the Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru; this vineyard is so small that even a single row of vines is significant. Bâtard-Montrachet is another Grand Cru, but that plot has been replanted, and wine production has been temporarily suspended while the young vines mature.
Frequently asked questions
Why are the wines so hard to find?
The parcels are tiny, several of them well under half a hectare, and total output in a good year still sits around the 50,000-bottle mark spread across a dozen wines.
Does Domaine Michel Niellon make red wine?
Yes. Pinot Noir accounts for roughly a quarter of the vineyard, bottled as village Chassagne-Montrachet rouge and as premier cru Clos Saint-Jean and La Maltroie.
