Laurent Ponsot Meursault Premier Cru Charmes Cuvee de la Centauree 2020 750ml

Meursault Charmes is a limpid and brilliant lightly accented gold-green, canary yellow or polished bronze-gold depending on its age. The nose is rich with dried fruits, apricots, yellow peaches, and floral and spring scents.
On the palate, a powerful and concentrated wine, with delicious and delightful hazelnut notes, achieving a superbly silky balance between unctuousness and freshness. With a long and structured finish, a Meursault Charmes wine needs time to mature. It’s an excellent white for laying down.
Its aromatic power and exceptional balance between richness and acidity make this one of the great wines of Burgundy. It will go with almost any fine food without blushes. Finely textured fish and meats, grilled shellfish and shellfish in sauce all work well with the lively and supple balance of Meursault Charmes. Even blue cheeses and foie gras are an immediate and happy match.
In Burgundy, the word “Charmes” means fallow land, in the sense of stubble fields where a few thickets of “charme” or hornbeam might grow, these small rustic trees with hard wood being perfect for heating.

• 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.