2021 Domaine La Folie Rully Blanc 'Clos La Folie' 

Rully, near the regional city of Chalon-sur-Soane and just three miles south of Chassagne-Montrachet as the Burgundian crow flies, has long been the source of some of the most over-achieving white values in all of Burgundy.  The area has long been dominated by large negociants who have traditionally purchased the grapes from a score or more of small growers and truck the wine or grapes to their establishments further north. Historically, there have been only a very few pure domaines who grow and make all their own wine in Rully (roo-ee) proper.  By far the oldest and most esteemed is the venerable Domaine La Folie.   This small family-owned operation farms 13 hectares of vines in Rully’s best climats, including the entirety of the Premier Crus Clos St. Jacques and Clos du Chaigne, the two most important vineyards in the appellation.  It’s the two-hectare Clos La Folie site, though, where their tiny cellars are located.  Sitting at the highest point of the entire Rully appellation, atop the Montagne de La Folie, their postage stamp-sized hilltop vineyard, also a monopole of the family, makes the perfect gateway Chardonnay with which to explore this extraordinary estate.  Rully Blanc has long been known for its gravitas and noble restraint, and La Folie’s very traditional approach (300 years of it!) makes their wines particularly so.  The 2021 La Folie come from a classic year where fruit comes front and center while maintaining a sleek, elegant, very mineral-driven white Burgundy mouthfeel and palate.  Here is all the severity of a top notch Rully Blanc covered with a lovely veneer of lemon curd-apricot fruit that hides its deep core of freshly-mined flint.  It’s a stupendous wine that does excellent service with all kinds of cuisine, even oysters! Maybe a rich traditional fish pie? You can turn the intensity meter up a notch or two with the Clos du Chaigne, one of La Folie’s two Premier Cru monopoles further up the slope. Planted in 1961, it’s also a clos, or vineyard enclosed by a wall, and there’s only a pile of stones separating it from the marvelous view of of Chassagne just a few kilometers away.  Clos du Chaigne is about 40% aged in oak, a small portion of which is new, but you’d never know it to taste this ultra-fine, ultra-elegant white Burgundy.  The wood fits in seamlessly, adding to the wine’s texture but not to its taste, leaving pure, ravishingly complex Chardonnay fruit and an armature of vibrant acidity to run the show.  Richer on the palate but lighter on its feet, it’s a white Burgundy that can fool you into thinking it’s Chassagne, but a really pretty Chassagne!  The good news is both are in stock. The bad? The quantities are awful and the prices are up. And there’s NO Clos Saint Jacques either. I hate to allocate wines like this- particularly the Clos La Folie which belongs in EVERYONE’s cellar. Don’t shoot the messenger!