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Domaine Bouard-Bonnefoy, Bourgogne Chardonnay

Burgundy, France 2016 (750mL)
$34.00
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Domaine Bouard-Bonnefoy, Bourgogne Chardonnay

As we emphasized when we offered the 2015 vintage of today’s wine, the generic-sounding ‘Bourgogne’ appellation doesn’t begin to do it justice. This is even more true in 2016, a vintage which stands shoulder-to-shoulder with its predecessor in quality (if not quantity).
For Bouard-Bonnefoy, whom we had the great pleasure of visiting just a month ago, 2016 was especially small: Spring frosts in their home base of Chassagne-Montrachet reduced their eventual crop by a whopping 75%. Not the best news for a winery that is garage-scale to begin with, but as we’ve come to expect from Fabrice Bouard, what little wine he was able to make was stellar. While often tragically small in terms of yield, 2016 bears a strong resemblance to the showy 2015 in many ways, as we learned firsthand over several days in Burgundy. And seeing Bouard’s tiny cellar and visiting his vineyards only deepened our already considerable admiration for both the man and his wines. Having served for many years in the French equivalent of the secret service, Fabrice is now in his second career, working alongside his wife, Carinne Bonnefoy, and her father (more on him below). The purity, place-specificity, and considerable power of this 2016 is truly remarkable. I wish we could have gotten more, because this is an under-valued white Burgundy to stock up on; it’s already delicious and expressive and is only going to get better!
The Bouard-Bonnefoy domaine is a tiny one, with about 8 hectares of vines in Chassagne-Montrachet that were passed down via Carine Bonnefoy’s family. Carine is descended from a long line of vignerons in Chassagne, one of whom is her father—who was puttering in the vineyard behind the cellar when we arrived for our visit (about 10 vine rows away, Jean-Claude Ramonet of Domaine Ramonet was doing some winter pruning). Our visit coincided with a time of year when vignerons plow their vineyards push tilled soil up over the trunks of the vines, which is meant to protect them from frost. This technique, called buttage, requires careful piloting of the plow (and horse/tractor) to avoid damaging the roots. Bonnefoy père, according to his son-in-law, is a buttage legend in Chassagne and has been a mentor to many. Does knowing this bit of local farmer lore make the wine taste better? Yes, in fact, it does.

The Bouard-Bonnefoy family are effectively gardeners at this scale, farming according to lutte raisonnée (‘reasoned struggle’) principles. Chemical herbicides and pesticides are avoided at all costs, only indigenous yeasts are used in fermentations, and grapes are always harvested by hand. The couple still use an antique, hand-cranked wooden press and overwhelmingly favor used barrels for fermentation and aging. They even bottle their wines by hand (according to their importer, they probably only produce about 50 cases of Bourgogne Blanc in total in any given vintage—hardly a wine you’re going to see on every store shelf).

This bottling is also every inch a “baby Chassagne”: It is sourced from a lieu-dit (named vineyard) called “Plantelonge,” a high-elevation, southeast-facing site not far from the villages-designated vineyard “Les Pierres.” The wine was fermented on indigenous yeasts in used French oak, then aged in barrels (20% new) for one year.

Following in the footsteps of the luscious 2015, this 2016 Bourgogne Chardonnay isn’t simply ‘ripe’: it’s deep, broad-shouldered, but also crisp and deeply mineral. In the glass, it’s a deep yellow-gold with hints of green at the rim, with heady aromas of green and yellow apple, citrus peel, bosc pear, white flowers, chalk, and crushed stones. It is medium-plus in body and very generous in its youth, but there’s also enough backbone for a good 5+ years in the cellar—not bad at all for a mid-$30s Bourgogne Blanc! This wine will blossom beautifully after 30 minutes in a decanter: serve it at 50-55 degrees in all-purpose whites or larger Burgundy stems and, yes, this is the wine for whichever roast chicken methodology you favor. The salsa verde and lemon in Chef Jonathan Waxman’s version add some complimentary flavors to the mix. Enjoy!
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Country
France
Region
Burgundy
Sub-Region
FranceCôte de Beaune / Chassagne-Montrachet
Soil
Limestone and Clay
Farming
Organic
Blend
Chardonnay
Alcohol
14.0
OAK
Mostly Neutral French
TEMP.
45-50
Glassware
Burgundy Stems
Drinking
Now-2022
Decanting
30 Minutes
Pairing
Jonathan Waxman Roast Chicken

France

Bourgogne

Beaujolais

Enjoying the greatest wines of Beaujolais starts, as it usually does, with the lay of the land. In Beaujolais, 10 localities have been given their own AOC (Appellation of Controlled Origin) designation. They are: Saint Amour; Juliénas; Chénas; Moulin-à Vent; Fleurie; Chiroubles; Morgon; Régnié; Côte de Brouilly; and Brouilly.

Southwestern France

Bordeaux

Bordeaux surrounds two rivers, the Dordogne and Garonne, which intersect north of the city of Bordeaux to form the Gironde Estuary, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The region is at the 45th parallel (California’s Napa Valley is at the38th), with a mild, Atlantic-influenced climate enabling the maturation of late-ripening varieties.

Central France

Loire Valley

The Loire is France’s longest river (634 miles), originating in the southerly Cévennes Mountains, flowing north towards Paris, then curving westward and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean near Nantes. The Loire and its tributaries cover a huge swath of central France, with most of the wine appellations on an east-west stretch at47 degrees north (the same latitude as Burgundy).

Northeastern France

Alsace

Alsace, in Northeastern France, is one of the most geologically diverse wine regions in the world, with vineyards running from the foothills of theVosges Mountains down to the Rhine River Valley below.

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