2020 Hubert Bouzereau-Grueres Bourgogne Chardonnay

If you throw a rock into the village of Meursault, you’re likely to hit someone named Bouzereau and, as such, this last name has been synonymous with great Meursault for centuries.  But all Bouzereaus, like all Meursaults, are not created equal. Some, like the tiny Bouzereau-Grueres domaine, have separated themselves from the pack and earned reputations far greater than the others.  In fact, one Burgundy fiend I know told me that Bouzereau-Grueres is ‘Comte Lafon minus a zero on the price tag.’  My kind of Bouzereau!  Currently meticulously farmed by sisters Marie-Laure and Marie-Anne, the eight generation of Bouzereau to work the property, there are vineyards not only in Meursault but also in Chassagne and Saint Aubin representing the Grueres family part of the farm. The domaine’s thoroughly impressive Bourgogne Blanc, though, is 100% from the village of Meursault; younger vines that could easily be labeled (and priced) as such. This is a Bourgogne Chardonnay that drinks very much like its bigger brothers (like their Meursault Les Tillets also in this parcel) at a price tag even a poor wine merchant (and his white Burgundy loving wife) can afford.  2020 is, of course, an excellent vintage for white Burgundy in general and for Meursault in particular- the wines are nicely ripe, easily accessible and have a lovely tension between their gorgeous fruit flavors and ‘hidden’ acidity.  Bouzereau’s Bourgogne is all that….the fruit is, in fact, copious, intense and very forward and, at this young stage of its life, based on Bosc pear and apple pie.  The ‘pie’ part is the toasty lees component, an extra winemaking fillip that evokes a more exalted appellation.  Aged about 25% in new wood (can your Bourgogne Blanc say that?), this is balanced by the wine’s sneaky lemon curd acidity and mineral finish which you can’t really sense until it comes along at the end to clean up your palate and get you ready for another sip!  Drinks too well to ignore right now, but five or six years in the cellar would allow for that delicious front-loaded fruit and that impressive balancing acidity to pull itself even closer together.  Even at $50, this is a fine deal, folks!  My parcel arrives Wednesday next week but I suspect it will all be promised by then.  The Meursault Tillets, by the way, is $99.99 and I only have a case or two to share with the world.