Burgundy is built around the primacy of “place,” and its hierarchy is long-established. When it comes to white Burgundy, you’ve got the Côte de Beaune (Puligny-Montrachet, Meursault, etc.) at the top; the Côte Chalonnaise next (Mercurey, Rully, Montagny); then the Mâconnais (Viré-Clessé, Pouilly Fuisse, St-Véran). But as we never tire of telling you, the wines we get most excited about are the ones that upset—or, in the case of today’s wine, shatter—the traditional order.
While they may in fact be less expensive, no longer can whites from Burgundy’s two ‘outer boroughs’ be referred to as the “poor man’s” alternative to the elite stuff from the Côte de Beaune. Nathalie Theulot puts the exclamation mark on that statement with today’s show-stopping Chardonnay. This 2017, from vineyards just outside the Mercurey AOC and carrying the broader Côte Chalonnaise designation, isn’t just the Chardonnay you buy when you don’t feel like springing for Puligny—it’s a wine to be taken very seriously in its own right. Nathalie Theulot is third-generation winemaker and heir to one of the few female dynasties of Burgundy. She’s immensely passionate and indisputably gifted; you have to be in order to abandon the vicious cycle of quantity over quality that’s haunted her region for years. She firmly rejects all modern practices designed to increase yield and decrease the purity of her terroir, instead championing sustainable farming to produce small, concentrated lots of precise and finessed wines. As she succeeds in raising the profile of the Côte Chalonnaise, Nathalie’s wines are popping up on local and international wine lists alike. Today’s offer is a rare opportunity to meet her genius at your own table. This bottle offers all the joys and precision of top-tier white Burgundy without any of the financial strain. Every pure, ringing sip transports you right to the heart of the Côte Chalonnaise and trust me, you won’t want to leave.
Nathalie’s family has held court right in the center of Mercurey for almost 120 years. Her grandfather Émile Juillot founded the estate and developed its terroirs to encompass just under 12 hectares, including six Premier Crus. That being said, it was Émile’s wife, Marguerite, who oversaw the estate and finally passed it onto her granddaughter in 1987—that’s Nathalie! Her maiden name, Juillot, was replaced with Theulot, and today she manages the estate and makes the wines with support from her husband. Every single decision made in both the vineyard and winery are designed to polish the terroir of the Côte Chalonnaise to an unmistakable gleam.
Where many other producers are stuck in a cycle of planting high-yielding clones, harvesting by machine and bringing their product to market as quickly and cheaply as possible, Nathalie takes her time producing wines of extraordinary distinction. She converted to culture raisonée in 2004—an approach by which the most sustainable and “reasonable” agricultural methods are used to improve the quality of the wines as well as the health of the surrounding environment. She carefully thins her crop to increase quality and concentration of flavor, eschews herbicides, and rigorously sorts grapes after manual harvesting.
Today’s Bourgogne Chardonnay was grown in the deep white lime and red clay soils of the plains bordering the Mercurey AOC. The vines were planted in 1993, and the 2017 vintage brought out their most resonant flavors after a warm summer and swift harvest. The wines from 2017 have been met with gushing critical praise—rich, smooth, and indulgently ready-drinking. About 75% of Nathalie’s Bourgogne is aged in barrels, while the final 25% goes in large vats. Both sleep for 11 months before blending and bottling with very light filtration. Her wines are “prettified” in any way because they simply don’t need to be—her terroir speaks for itself.
I’d recommend chilling this wine to a crisp 50 degrees before pouring right from the bottle into Burgundy glasses. Nathalie’s Bourgogne was designed for maximum purity and pleasure with minimum effort, so honor her wishes and don’t overthink things. You’ll smell ripe white nectarines and yellow apple skin balanced by a tidy dose of lime-y minerality. The nose will open up with a few swirls and start to reveal a little exotic fruit—crystallized pineapple and the barest touch of under-ripe yellow guava. On the palate the wine is balanced but nicely plush, neatly corralled by fresh acidity and that same straightforward stoniness that kept the nose in check. The oak aging lends a touch of cinnamon and nutmeg and the whole impression is bright, pure, juicy, and smooth--perfect for an effortless meal. Try this old-fashioned recipe from Edna Lewis’ iconic
The Taste of Country Cooking. “Spoon Bread” should be so soft and pillowy that you don’t need a knife to cut it—just scoop it into a bowl and serve heaped with whole scallions sweated in butter over a low flame, and maybe a few tender prawns. But beware, the sooner you open that bottle the sooner it’ll be gone. Best to have a couple backup bottles chilled for easy yet sophisticated drinking all summer long.
