Keeping up with the Chattos (Jim and wife Daisy) and their moves between the Hunter Valley, Tasmania and Burgundy isn’t easy. The story begins in 1994, when Jim moves from Tasmania to enrol in Charles Sturt University’s distance wine science course. He is smitten by McWilliam’s 1984 Mount Pleasant Lovedale Semillon, and applies for a cellarhand position, but isn’t successful so applies to neighbour Tamburlaine, spending the next two years there. In 1998 he accepts the role of winemaker at the newly constructed Rosevears Winery in Tasmania’s Tamar Valley.
In 2000 he returns the Hunter Valley to work in the early years at First Creek winery, and makes the first moves to establish his and Daisy’s eponymous winery in Tasmania’s Huon Valley. In 2007 he joins Pepper Tree Wines as chief winemaker, with an overview of its wines in Orange, Coonawarra and Wrattonbully. On 1 May 2013 he is appointed chief winemaker for McWilliam’s Mount Pleasant and its vineyards in the Hilltops, Coonawarra and Margaret River.
By 2013 he and Daisy have planted a 1.5ha pinot noir vineyard and built a house for their two small children at Glaziers Bay in the Huon Valley of Tasmania and Jim has made superb 2013 wines from the Hunter Valley. On 17 August 2013 a joint press release by McWilliam’s and Pipers Brook/Kreglinger announces his appointment as chief winemaker for both groups.
Then Covid 19 strikes, and in that same year bushfires in southern Tasmania destroy the pinot noir (smoke taint), and imperil a long-planned sojourn in Burgundy. But they went, and – at Daisy’s behest – made a 2019 Burgundy while they were there, followed the following year by the 2020 Savigny-Lès-Beaune profiled this week. They made two Savigny-Lès-Beaunes premier crus in 2022; all this has been made possible by Jane Eyre, an Australian winemaker who has lived and worked in Burgundy since 2004.
A 3 March 2023 press release announced that Jim Chatto has returned to Pepper Tree as consultant winemaker commencing with the 2023 vintage, and Chatto is finding time to make his 2023s.
As one does.
2021 Chatto Isle Huon Valley Pinot Noir
Four clones: 777, Abel, 667 and 115, all co-fermented with 12.5% whole bunch, the balance whole berry; matured for 10 months in French puncheons (20% new). The bouquet is full of wonder, unfolding as it is retasted, and the palate powers through to a peacock’s tail finish.
97 points, drink to 2035, 13.2% alc, Screwcap, $90
2021 Chatto Intrigue Huon Valley Pinot Noir
From eight clones, it opens with cherry fruit, spice, and cigar box oak, but the vibrant, fresh and pure palate, with its flavours of wild strawberries, and a savoury reprise of spice, set the wine off in a different direction.
96 points, drink to 2035, 13.3% alc, Screwcap, $75
2020 Chatto Savigny-Lès-Beaune 1er Cru Aux Vergelesses
15% whole bunch; 2 weeks on skins; matured 12 months in French barriques. This is a bargain. The perfumed bouquet is a garden of roses, the palate with red berries and cherries, given structure by the gently savoury tannins on the finish.
96 points, drink to 2035, 13.5% alc, Screwcap, $125
