Meursault Sous la Velle AOC 2023 1500ml Magnum

A Chardonnay of cool fruit and clear definition, built on minerality rather than toasty oak notes. In Meursault, Rémi Jobard works to let the site speak rather than the barrel: "The oak should support the wine, not dominate it." Despite its 14.0% ABV, the Sous la Velle remains taut and needs time to open up.

Sous la Velle is one of the lieux-dits from which the domaine's village wines come, alongside Chevalières, Narvaux and En Luraule. A good two and a half hectares of the nine hectares in total are devoted to these village sites. The conversion came early: synthetic fertilisers and pesticides disappeared in 1994, herbicides in 1998. Today the entire estate is Ecocert-certified, the vine rows are worked by hand, cover-cropped and unfertilised, and cordon pruning limits yields.

Pure Chardonnay. Grapes picked in the morning are pressed for at least six hours, those picked in the afternoon often overnight, a full twelve hours, at the lowest possible pressure. Ageing takes around 15 months in 600-litre barrels from the cooper Stockinger, made of French, Austrian and Slavonian oak, of which only around a fifth are renewed each year; the wine then rests further in tank. It is bottled unfiltered, drawing its stability from two winters of ageing.

A creamy entry carried by vibrant acidity: yellow pear, white peach and citrus zest, alongside hazelnut and beeswax. The finish remains long and chalky.

With lobster in beurre blanc, scallops on pea purée, veal sweetbreads with morels or aged Comté.

1500 ml magnum, unfiltered bottling, Ecocert-certified viticulture.