By now, loudly trumpeting the insane value represented by Boyer-de Bar’s "Les Peyrarols" Chardonnay is an annual tradition here at SommSelect. The story will be familiar for those who’ve followed our lead for the last few years and stocked their fridges to the brim with this slam dunk cuvée. For the uninitiated, here’s the rundown: In 2018, one of our favorite producers, Vincent Boyer, from maybe our favorite white Burgundy appellation, Meursault, teamed up with his childhood friend Lucas De Bar to make wine in Lucas’ home region, the Languedoc. From the get-go, the results were stunning. They’re full of ripe, juicy stone fruit that screams “south of France,” married to breezy minerality and a poise that calls to mind Vincent’s home base. Vincent, after all, lavishes as much attention on his Languedoc wines as his Premier Cru Burgundies, fermenting and aging them identically, and using fruit from only the best sites the friends have access to. This is the Chardonnay equivalent of the B-side that hits just as hard as the chart-topping single, but in a different register. You’ll want to go deep; at this price, you’re going to want to pop “Les Peyrarols” every night of the week!
Vincent Boyer is one of those winemakers who just seems to have “the touch.” His family’s estate, Domaine Boyer-Martenot, has been around for four generations, but it was really only upon Vincent’s arrival that they entered the upper echelon of the Côte de Beaune. Meursault is one of the two or three most esteemed white wine appellations in all of France, so it’s tempting for many producers to simply hire a winemaker, farm for high yields, and bank on the region’s renown for sales. But Vincent is a true vigneron, out in the vineyards everyday, farming for quality over quantity, and making his wines with only wild yeasts and a minimum of filtration. He does real dirt-under-his-nails work in the vines, and shows no less care for his “everyday” village wines than he does for his bottlings from famed Premier Crus like “Genevrières” and “Perrières.”
He applies that same work ethic and passion to Boyer de Bar. Vincent and Emmanuel Lucas De Bar met while at enology school, then remained best friends after they returned to their family estates. Emmanuel’s family are longtime organic growers in the Hérault department of the Languedoc and they’d previously sold most of their fruit. In 2018, Emmanuel and Vincent teamed up to create a new domaine and keep the fruit from the family’s best sites for themselves. “Peyrarols” is one such site, a north-facing vineyard containing a mixture of clay and limestone soils much like in Meursault. If a Burgundian were to dream up the ideal Chardonnay vineyard in the Languedoc, it’d probably look a lot like “Peyrarols.”
Once the grapes are harvested, Vincent takes them up to his cellar in Meursault, where they ferment alongside his most expensive cuvées. “Les Peyrarols” ferments in barrel for a year, then transfers it for 8 months of further aging in stainless steel. That 20-month aging regimen just so happens to be exactly how he handles his 1er Cru bottlings. Despite its affordability, “Les Peyrarols” demonstrates every drop of know-how and love Vincent puts into it. It pours a shimmering pale yellow with hints of gold. From the first inhalation, you know this is wide open, fruit-inflected goodness just begging to be drunk with abandon. White peach, jasmine, white cherry, pear skin, lemon zest, fresh cream, and a faint hint of warm spices sit atop a subtle crushed chalk minerality. The palate is medium-full, its breadth and weight belying its warm Mediterranean origins, but with a brilliant zip of acidity keeping it all in check. Lemon and spray in the finish make for a supremely refreshing package. You’re going to want to stock up here, not for aging, but because you’ll be reveling in “Les Peyrarols” near-Burgundian glory every chance you get!
