Monthelie 1er Cru Les Champs Fulliots AOC 2024

A Chardonnay of cool clarity that builds its density without toasty oak notes. Crystalline, focused and long, with a texture that charms without ever becoming broad. A wine that speaks of its origin rather than its barrel, and that needs time to open up.

The grapes grow in the premier cru vineyard Les Champs Fulliots in Monthelie, an appellation of the Côte de Beaune in Burgundy. Domaine Rémi Jobard has worked without chemical aids since the 1990s: synthetic fertilisers and pesticides disappeared in 1994, herbicides in 1998. The vine rows are tended by hand and cover-cropped, fertilisation has been abandoned, and cordon pruning naturally limits yields.

Single-varietal Chardonnay. Two large presses process the grapes with the gentlest possible pressure over many hours: grapes picked in the morning for at least six hours, those picked in the afternoon often overnight, amounting to a full twelve. This way, only the finest must reaches the cellar, free of bitter compounds and unwanted phenols. Ageing takes around 15 months in 600-litre casks made by cooper Stockinger from French, Austrian and Slavonian oak, of which around a fifth are renewed each year. The wine then rests in tank.

Taut yet dense, carried by vibrant acidity. Green apple and lemon stay cool, underpinned by a chalky minerality that carries the finish. The richness comes from ageing time, not from the wood.

With steamed turbot in butter sauce and seared scallops, as well as with Bresse chicken with morels. A mature Comté also finds a fitting partner here.

Large casks rather than small barriques mean less wood contact per litre and slower oxygen exchange. Two winters of ageing give the wine its stability; it is bottled unfiltered. 13.0% vol., dry.