Bourgogne Côte d'Or Vieilles Vignes AOC 2023 1500ml Magnum

A chardonnay of cool fruit and crystalline clarity that shows its origin rather than its élevage. The magnum format gives it even more time for this development. A wine that needs air before it opens up.

Domaine Rémi Jobard is based in Meursault and farms nine hectares across the village's best sites. Since 1994 the estate has worked without synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, and without herbicides since 1998. The rows are kept under cover crops, worked by hand and unfertilised, while cordon pruning keeps yields naturally low. The grapes for this cuvée come from old vines.

Pure chardonnay. Two large presses work at the lowest possible pressure: grapes picked in the morning are pressed for at least six hours, those harvested in the afternoon often overnight, a full twelve hours. This way only the finest must reaches the cellar, free of bitter compounds and unwanted phenols. Élevage takes around 15 months in 600-litre barrels from cooper Stockinger, made of French, Austrian and Slavonian oak, of which about a fifth are renewed each year, followed by a rest in tank. "The oak should support the wine, not dominate it," says Jobard.

Taut and juicy, carried by vibrant acidity and a mineral drive. Lemon zest and green apple stay cool, with hazelnut and a fine flinty note beneath. The texture is silky, the oak remains in the background.

Bottled unfiltered; the wine gains its stability from two winters of ageing rather than technical intervention. Magnum of 1500 ml, 13.5% Vol., dry.