Bourgogne Côte d'Or Vieilles Vignes AOC 2022

The Bourgogne Côte d'Or Vieilles Vignes AOC 2022 is a dry Chardonnay from Domaine Rémi Jobard in Meursault, crystalline in its precision yet powerful at the same time. In the glass, a medium-intensity straw yellow with green highlights; 13.0% vol. carries it without any heaviness.

Bourgogne Côte d'Or is a recently introduced appellation that limits the production zone to the heart of the Côte d'Or. The grapes come exclusively from plots bordering Meursault, two of which lie directly below the 1er Cru Les Charmes. The domaine's guiding theme is Meursault's limestone soils.

Pure Chardonnay from old vines. Grapes picked in the morning are pressed for at least six hours, those picked in the afternoon often overnight, a full twelve hours, so that only the finest must, free of bitter compounds, makes it into the barrel. Ageing takes around 15 months in 600-litre foudres made by cooper Stockinger from French, Austrian and Slavonian oak, about a fifth of which are replaced each year; the wine then rests in tank. It remains unfiltered and gains its stability over two winters of ageing.

The nose leans toward the green-yellow spectrum: lemon oil, lemon blossom and lemon balm, along with Granny Smith, more the peel than the flesh, and a touch of grated lime zest. On the palate it is crystal-clear and polished, with a vibrant acid backbone and an almost powdery-fine phenolic structure that lends it pace. Despite all this finesse, the power of the 2022 vintage shows through: high intensity, a deep bass note, saline and cool finish.

It pairs with vegetable terrine with tarragon sour cream, freshwater fish terrine with dill sour cream and rabbit terrine with chervil sour cream.

The large foudres mean less wood contact per litre and a slow, controlled oxygen exchange; the oak is meant to support the wine, not define it. In the vineyard, synthetic fertilisers and pesticides were dropped in 1994, herbicides in 1998. The vine rows are cover-cropped and worked by hand, and cordon pruning limits yields.