Monthelie 1er Cru Les Champs Fulliots AOC 2023 1500ml Magnum

A Chardonnay of cool clarity and quiet tension. Rémi Jobard builds his white wines lean and transparent, without intrusive toasty notes, and the Premier Cru Les Champs Fulliots shows exactly this signature: crystalline fruit, fine structure, a finish that needs time in the glass.

Monthelie lies in the Côte de Beaune, immediately west of Volnay and Meursault. Les Champs Fulliots is among the commune's best-known Premier Cru plots. The vineyard is farmed organically: synthetic fertilizers and pesticides disappeared in 1994, herbicides in 1998. The vine rows are worked by hand and cover-cropped, cordon pruning limits yields.

Pure Chardonnay, handled in the cellar with deliberate slowness. Two large presses work at the lowest possible pressure — grapes picked in the morning press for at least six hours, those picked in the afternoon often twelve hours overnight, so that only the finest must, free of bitter compounds, reaches the cellar. Ageing lasts around 15 months in 600-litre casks from cooper Stockinger, about a fifth of which are renewed each year; the wine then rests in tank. It is bottled unfiltered, with stability coming from two winters of ageing.

Taut and cool, lemon zest and white peach over lively acidity, with pear and a touch of hazelnut behind. The finish draws long and saline-mineral, the large cask leaves texture rather than aroma.

With pan-seared turbot in beurre blanc, poached char, coq au vin blanc and chicken in morel cream sauce. Also with poached veal in a light sauce, mushroom risotto and aged Comté.

In magnum format, ageing proceeds more slowly and evenly; the format is built for long cellaring and large tables.