Jean-Michel Gaunoux Meursault 2022 750ml

Since his first vintage in 1990, Jean Michel has produced incredibly pure white and red Burgundies, farmed with intention and vinified with a minimum of gloss. Today he and his son Henri run the estate together but with little change. The yields are kept low with short pruning and green harvest. The wines see a maximum of 30% new oak and bottled without fining or filtration. The Meursault village is perhaps the signature wine of the estate. Assembled from four parcels – Les Terres Blanches, Les Pelles, Les Meix Tavaux, and Les Criots – and aged in 20% new oak for just shy of 18 months, this is truly textbook Meursault, with ripe stone fruit and a touch of crisp pineapple offset by a firm mineral core. Even in ripe vintages, this wine is always racy and beautifully fresh.

• Country: France
• Region: Burgundy
• Appellation: Cote De Beaune
• Sub Appellation: Meursault
• Size: 750ml
• Color: White

Varietal

Chardonnay

Of all the white wine grape varietals, surely the one that has spread the furthest and is most widely appreciated is Chardonnay. This green-skinned grape is now grown all over the Old and New Worlds, from New Zealand to the Americas, from England to Chile, and is one of the first varietals people think of when considering white wine grapes. Perhaps this is because of its huge popularity, which reached a peak in the 1990s, thanks to new technologies combining with traditional methods to bring the very best features out of the Chardonnay grape and allow its unique qualities to shine through. Most fine Chardonnay wines use a process known as malolactic fermentation, wherein the malic acids in the grape juice are converted to lactic acids, allowing a creamier, buttery nature to come forward in the wine. No grape varietal is better suited to this process than Chardonnay, which manages to balance these silky, creamy notes with fresh white fruit flavors beautifully.