In 2010, a new Carillon vineyard was founded. Enough to delight the lovers of grand Puligny-Montrachet wines as this name is a guarantee of good quality. François Carillon had to build up a repute. Things did not take long.
The Carillon family has been growing vines in Puligny-Montrachet for several centuries: 500 years! Yet each era had its challenges and evolutions. François Carillon knows a lot about it. His grandfather, Jean Carillon, worked the vine as early as 1520, he has been signing his wines for only ten years. Indeed until 2010, François managed the vineyards of the family estate, Louis Carillon, working in good cooperation with his father and his brother before becoming independent. A challenge when you have spent most of the time in the vineyard and without experience in marketing.
Writing your own history is never easy in the wine world and François's choice deserves to be praised at least for his courage. But the man is not endowed only with this unique quality and success soon came. Undoubtedly because it is part of a generous and hedonistic approach to wine: "I put all that I am in my wine, without concession. I love life, I like people: I think my wines are less austere than my father's. I like refinement in simplicity, the scents of hawthorn and peach. I like the elegance of purity," he explained in the press a few years after he settled.
There are also figures that do not lie when it comes to illustrate this success: starting with 6.5 hectares François Carillon's estate now totals 16. In the range, a triptych of AOC Villages that lovers of great Chardonnay place in their pantheon: Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet and Saint-Aubin. A dozen Premier Crus: Champs Gain, Les Folatières, Combettes, Perrières, Les Murgers des Dents de Chien, Chenevottes, Clos Saint Jean …
To highlight each of his plots, François Carillon practices a rigorous viticulture, adapted to the peculiarities of the plots: work of the soil (he no longer uses weedkillers since 1992), controlled yields, search for the ideal maturity during the harvest. The grapes are put in the press as fresh as possible and most often in the morning to avoid the hottest temperatures of the day.
On the winemaking side, practices are part of the logic of maximum respect for the work done in the vineyard. Anything that can blur the message of the land is avoided: inputs, especially sulfur, are limited to the bare minimum or simply prohibited.
The search for "the perfect frame" in his wines is his ultimate quest. The last vintages allowed him to approach it.
Laurent Gotti
Domaine François Carillon, Bourgogne Aligoté 2017
Beautiful intense color, deep golden yellow. A nose that barely feels a very well managed and discreet élevage and a nice fruity grapefruit with a slight tropical note. Tense first taste with a lovely freshness, a mid-palate of beautiful structure and a short and gourmet finish. A beautiful wine that raises Aligoté to a class superior to its reputation. Ageing: to enjoy now.
Domaine François Carillon, Puligny-Montrachet 2017
Beautiful dense and very bright golden yellow color. A discreet nose with tropical notes, ripe golden apple and sweet spices. Beautiful palate, creamy as expected for a Puligny, a growing evolution of beautiful density in the mid-palate with a finish of beautiful length and expressive from an olfactory point of view. Very typical and of classic style. Ageing: to enjoy now – 2023.
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