Origin:	France / Bourgogne / Mâconnais
Grape variety:	Chardonnay
Label:	Certified organic or biodynamic wine
Ripening potential:	1 to 6 years after harvest
Drinking temperature:	10 to 12 °C
Food Pairing:	Apéro riche, White cheese, Seafood salad, Vegetable pie
Vinification:	fermentation in steel tank, soft pressing
Maturation:	in steel tank, in large wooden barrel/foudre, some months bottle storage before sale
Volume:	13.0 %
Note:	Contains sulphites

Grape variety

Chardonnay

King or beggar?

Hardly any variety of vine shows such a broad spectrum of quality as the Chardonnay. Its wines range from faceless neutrality to breath-taking class. It is an extremely low-maintenance vine, which explains why it is grown around the world – even in places where it probably should not be. The aromas of the Chardonnay variety are not very pronounced: a bit of green apple, a little hazelnut; in warmer latitudes, also melon and exotic fruits. The wines are often defined by maturing in casks. They develop more or less subtle notes of butter, toasted bread and vanilla. The grapes achieve their highest expression in their region of origin, Burgundy. Its heart beats in the Côte de Beaune: one might think of the plant growth of Meursault or Puligny-Montrachet. With their finesse and complexity, they can survive for decades. Chardonnay also achieves first class in some Blanc-de-Blancs champagnes. It additionally yields great wines in the Burgundian Chablis, and increasingly in Australia and Chile. A simple rule of thumb for pairing with food: When butter and cream are involved, you cannot go wrong with Chardonnay.

Subregion

Mâconnais

Mâconnais: Chardonnay country

Around 7,000 hectares are planted with vines in the Mâconnais, close to 75 percent of which are Chardonnay. The Mâconnais is thus the most significant Chardonnay growing area in Burgundy in terms of numbers. Although it is the southernmost white wine area in Burgundy, distinctively light, crisp wines originate here. Thanks to improvements in quality in the vineyard and cellar, the quality of the wines from the Mâconnais has also increased markedly in recent years.

Region

Bourgogne

Burgundy: home of the crus

Burgundy and Bordeaux are France’s most prestigious wine regions. Nonetheless, they are completely distinct in character: while Bordeaux, as the land of the chateaux, enjoys an aristocratic image, Burgundy has retained its rustic agrarian structure. Burgundy stretches for over 200 kilometres, from Dijon in the north to Lyon in the south. In a highly complex jigsaw of the most diverse of terroirs, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir demonstrate the subtle ways in which they embody their sources.

Country

France

France – Philosophy in a bottle

According to French philosophy, wine should be an expression of the soil and climate. They use the word “terroir” to describe this. Terroir makes every wine different, and many especially good. French wine is regarded worldwide as an expression of cultural perfection. The French believe that humans are responsible for the quality of the berries, the vine variety for their character, and nature for the quantity. This philosophy can be expressed succinctly as: “the truth is the vineyard, not the man.”