One thing I’ve noticed lately is a huge surge in quality among Burgundy wines at the lower end of the price spectrum—and how often I’m compelled to look behind the curtain, so to speak, of wines labeled with the catch-all ‘Bourgogne Chardonnay’ designation.
Part of the success of these wines owes to a string of excellent vintages, but there’s more to it than that: When you learn the backstory behind today’s 2017 from Domaine Jessiaume, for example, its $29 price tag feels incongruous, to say the least. To me, the wine is a focused and powerful evocation of top-quality Chassagne-Montrachet, and to be able to drink a wine of this level at this price is what SommSelect is all about. Now, I’m not saying that this is the “new normal” for the Bourgogne Chardonnay category, but there’s no question it’s more exciting—and treated with much more respect—than ever before. My first tasting impression of this wine is a one-worder: “Fire.” Anyone looking to elevate their everyday experience should grab a case of this and
celebrate the score, as it promises lots of delicious drinking in the months and years ahead!
With two warmer vintages (’18 and ’19) in the queue, 2017 is a pitch-perfect Chardonnay vintage that echoes the intensity of 2014, yet the wines feel a bit more relaxed and open. According to Burgundy savant Jasper Morris, white Burgundy enthusiasts can “go long in 2017.” Located in the southern Côte de Beaune in the village of Santenay, Domaine Jessiaume is experiencing an unusual renaissance. It’s the story of outsiders shaking things up at a traditional 19th-century estate. If there is one region in the world where being an outsider has generous waves of adversity and iron curtains, that place is Burgundy. The estate had remained in the Jessiaume family for four consecutive generations until 2007, when a Scottish businessman named Sir David Murray purchased the property. He started his own company at the age of 23, then lost both of his legs in a horrific car crash two years later. Needless to say, Sir David likes a challenge.
As Sir David was making his mark in Burgundy, so was American Megan McClune, who moved to the countryside a few years prior to work for fellow American-turned-Burgundy-winemaker Alex Gambal, eventually becoming his director of finance and sales. The needle at Domaine Jessiaume began to shift in 2014 when Sir David hired McClune, whose vision was to refocus the domaine by relinquishing a huge part of their négociant (merchant) business and channeling their efforts towards their estate vineyards in the Côte de Beaune. In a bold move, she hired a new winemaker, William Waterkyn, a young vigneron with impeccable technical skills and, above all, an openness to change—someone who, as Megan states, was “hungry to make his own way.”
With Sir David as the fearless enabler, McClune and Waterkyn put their heads down and pushed forward. In sacrificing a good chunk of their leased vineyards and declassifying some of their Premier Cru vines into village wines, they streamlined their portfolio from 30 wines to thirteen. They transitioned to 100% organic farming (the 2019 vintage will mark the first vintage with the Bio organic label), and they renovated the old cellar—fixing lighting and fixtures, replacing the floors, and getting rid of the old fermentation barrels. In a mere five years, the trio of Murray, McClune, and Waterkyn has made a clear u-turn in the Côte de Beaune, climbing towards what legendary wines are made of—an obsessive attention to detail and an insatiable thirst for wines of purity.
The Chardonnay in today’s bottle is mostly Santenay fruit with a small portion coming from the Côte Chalonnaise. The average age of the vines is 25 years, mature vines not young ones, which make this simple “Bourgogne” not so simple. The organically farmed fruit is hand-harvested, de-stemmed and directly pressed into stainless steel tanks to let the juice settle. Then, the juice is gravity-fed into neutral 350-liter barrels for fermentation with wild yeasts, followed by aging on the lees for 12 months before racking and bottling.
If you haven’t yet invested in Burgundy glasses, today’s wine merits one because it needs a little more space to shine. You can give the wine a quick decant and serve at a proper Chassagne-like temperature, 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit. In the glass, a medium-straw core becomes pale straw, then silvery at the rim. On the nose, you can sense a subtle richness from the fermentation in neutral barrel—golden apple, lime and lemon blossom, with shaved hazelnut and salty crumb. The palate is a nice balance of creamy and tart, round yet taut, energized by a rush of cold stones and sweet lemony acidity. The influence of oak and time on the lees adds complexity with the mouthwatering illusion of pastry—the light cream, toasted nuts and crumb, reminiscent of a fine Chassagne-Montrachet. Use a charming Burgundy vintage to your advantage and show off Chardonnay’s ability to complement something indulgent and saucy, like the classic Béarnaise sauce. A derivative of its mother sauce, Hollandaise, use Béarnaise sauce to give the royal treatment to almost any fish—wild salmon, monkfish, scallops, or shrimp. The wine will more than hold its own. Cheers!
