Bourgogne Blanc, even if it’s from the so- called ‘elevated’ level Bourgogne Cotes d’Or appellation, can be a real catch-all as far as style goes and it’s important to know the producer.  We taste a lot around here and have found wines with that designation can range from the lean, bland and uninteresting to rich, characterful and complete; the very best deals in white Burgundy you’ll ever find. Let’s call  Gaëlle and Jerome Meunier’s Bourgogne Cote-d’Or the latter!   This tiny mom and pop producer is based in Mercurey in the Cotes Chalonnaise and focuses the majority of their production there and in nearby Rully, but they also organically farm several parcels on the other side of the hill in Puligny-Montrachet.  They actually bottle two wines with Bourgogne Blanc designations, one from their Chalon fruit labeled simply Bourgogne Chardonnay and the other, a wine with much more gravitas, from two parcels of vines in greater Puligny, a one-hectare site called Les Champs Perrier on the border with Meursault and other in a parcel that borders Puligny’s Houlieres lieu dit planted in 1980.  The older Chardonnay vines in this latter parcel add considerable oomph to a wine that’s otherwise really long on minerality and finesse. The younger vines are fermented in steel and the older in wood and then they’re blended together to create what Frank and I thought might be the nicest wine from this designation we’ve tasted this year. We loved its really beautiful lemongrass and spice nose, its sheer finesse, light-on-its-feet texture and that sneaky bit of horsepower and well-placed wood.  Lots of wines in this designation can claim to be ‘Baby Puligny,’ ‘Baby Meursault’ or ‘Baby Chassagne’ but, when they do, I can tell you this, they never cost under $40 a bottle!  Like I said, class, distinction AND value.  What a nice new producer to have found.  Only 4000 bottles were produced. 

-Minister of Value and Anne Poole approved.