Meursault Les Narvaux Élevage Prolongé AOC 2023

A Chardonnay whose appeal lies in clarity rather than opulence. The texture is silky, the acidity carries the wine, and the oak remains a discreet frame. A Meursault that demands time.

Les Narvaux is one of the village lieux-dits from which the Domaine harvests in Meursault; its nine hectares are spread across the finest sites in the village. The soils are limestone-based. Synthetic fertilizers and pesticides disappeared in 1994, herbicides in 1998. Today the rows are worked by hand and cover-cropped, no fertilizer is applied any more, and cordon pruning keeps yields low.

100% Chardonnay. Two large presses operate at the lowest possible pressure: grapes picked in the morning press for at least six hours, those picked in the afternoon often overnight, a full twelve hours. This way, only the finest must reaches the barrel, free of bitter compounds and unwanted phenols. This is followed by around 15 months in 600-litre casks from cooper Stockinger, made of French, Austrian and Slavonian oak, of which about a fifth are renewed each year. A resting period in tank follows. The wine remains unfiltered and gains its stability over two winters of ageing.

Cool fruit of yellow apple and lemon zest, underscored by chalky minerality. The attack is juicy, the mid-palate dense and tightly drawn, the finish saline and long. 13.5% vol., dry.

With pan-seared turbot and scallops, as well as with Bresse chicken in morel cream sauce. Aged Comté also finds its match in this wine.

The designation Élevage Prolongé stands for extended ageing: barrel, then tank, then bottle, with no technical shortcuts.