If today’s sensational Bourgogne Blanc came with an opening line it would be the following: Chassagne drinkers, take serious note! This Chardonnay rarity, from a prized single vineyard solely owned by Domaine Borgeot, is one of the greatest diamond-in-the-rough white Burgundies you’ll encounter.
For a wine geek like me, this wine serves many valuable purposes. Firstly, I can hold it up as undeniable proof that prominent values still exist in Burgundy. Secondly, I can “blind” sommelier friends and they’ll peg it as something much more expensive, maybe even a Chassagne or Puligny-Montrachet. And thirdly, it’s yet another shining example of Burgundy’s game of inches: The tiny “Clos de la Carbonade” vineyard lies in the village of Bouzeron, just three miles south of the world’s most brutally expensive Chardonnay plantings. So yes, this singular wine is a $34 phenomenon—which is why the Borgeot brothers give the name of the vineyard pride of place on the front label. It may not carry any elevated ranking in France, but for a wine geek like me, “Clos de la Carbonade” exists as a deeply special site that’s far superior to most Bourgogne Blancs. We arranged a special cellar-direct order for Borgeot’s 2019 release and can allow up to 12-bottle purchases so load up and drink like a prince on a pauper’s budget for years to come!
Fourth-generation brothers Pascal and Laurent (“P&L”) Borgeot are two salt-of-the-earth vignerons whose reputation extends well beyond their tiny home village of Rémigny, a little hamlet right on the edge of Chassagne-Montrachet. Even though the Borgeots farm some serious Premier Cru real estate in Puligny, Meursault, and Chassagne, today’s “Clos de la Carbonade,” located further south in the Côte Chalonnaise village of Bouzeron, never suffers by comparison. In fact, when you factor value-for-dollar into the equation, this might be the family’s crown jewel. It challenges everything you think you know about Burgundy’s classifications and pricing structure, and it has something else going for it—hand-farmed, hand-crafted authenticity.
It’s not easy to find much information about “Clos de la Carbonade” beyond its location in Bouzeron, the fact that it’s a small monopole (a vineyard with a single owner), and that its vines exceed 30 years of age with some well beyond. Although they make every effort to follow organic practices in their farming, the Borgeots describe their approach—as so many do in Burgundy—as lutte raisonnée in which organic methods are followed except in the most extreme circumstances. The grapes are harvested by hand and after fermenting in stainless steel, the resulting wine matures in a combination of new and (mostly) used French barrels for approximately one year before bottling.
The amount of purity and concentration this bottling delivers, year in and year out, is simply extraordinary and although 2019s are still trickling out of Burgundian cellars, I’ve been stoked with the vintage thus far. In fact, Domaine Faiveley’s former director has already commented that it could “perhaps rival 1865, the greatest vintage of all.” Borgeot’s “Carbonade” flaunts mineral intensity, rich tension, and superb freshness that spills out of a Burgundy stem with vigor. In the glass, it’s a bright yellow with flecks of neon green, offering up inviting aromas of mashed yellow apple, lime zest, fleshy nectarine, lees, acacia, honeysuckle, finely crushed white stone, and citrus blossoms. Each layer has serious depth and precision that bestows the taster with vividly ripe aromas of yellow citrus and orchard fruit before finishing with a lengthy mineral presence akin to prestigious Côte de Beaune bottlings.
