What do you do when your spouse insists on drinking great White Burgundy but you’re too cheap to spend an arm and a leg to keep peace in the family? The obvious answer is to buy a good Macon Village and simply lie about the price. With a wine like the Sylvaine & Alain Normand’s ultra-reliable Macon La Roche Vineuse, you are more than likely to get away with it because the wine is complex, delicious and has more than a passing resemblance to the good stuff! The ‘regular’ cuvee is a longtime PRIMA favorite made by a husband and wife team, from 35 hectares spread out among the best villages of the region, this is wonderful Chardonnay from a world-class winegrowing region. But there are eight acres of a particular parcel that were planted just after World War II and represent the best vines they farm. They are reserved for the family’s Vieilles Vignes cuvee. A hand-built wine from the second it is harvested, it gets an extended fermentation and partial new wood cellaring, sometimes, like this 2021, taking over two years to complete. There were fewer than 2000 cases made of the 2021 Normand La Roche Vineuse Vieilles Vignes. While there is considerable oomph here, more like a Chassagne than a Macon, it has all the stony minerality typical of a well-made Macon, with a touch of fresh citrus and a gorgeous rounded texture and a long, long finish. More serious than the ‘regular’ cuvee, it’s still quite easy to pair with your favorite comfort foods and all too easy to drink an entire bottle at one sitting. And, at under $30 a bottle, you’re getting an awful lot of fun white Burgundy here! -Frank Rothstein, PRIMA’s Minister of Value, certified!