Château de Melin sits twelve kilometers southwest of Beaune in Auxey-Duresses, where the slate-roofed towers of a château first built in 1551 overlook 28 hectares of vines spread across the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits. Hélène and Arnaud Derats acquired the estate in 1999 and restored it while folding in the family's own vineyards, part of a winegrowing lineage that traces back seven generations to before the French Revolution. In 2009 the family committed the entire domaine to organic farming, giving up pesticides, herbicides and synthetic chemicals in favor of plowing, cover-crop management and treatments limited to natural sulfur and copper, a practice now certified annually by Ecocert. Two of the Derats' sons, Thomas and Guillaume, have since joined the estate, carrying the operation into its eighth generation.

La Corvée des Vignes is a 0.30-hectare parcel with south-east exposure, its limestone-and-marl soil topped by a thin layer of silt that drains quickly after rain. Fermentation happens entirely in oak barrel, 15% new, without any addition of commercial yeast, and the wine spends a full twelve months in wood before bottling, developing the tension and minerality Puligny-Montrachet is known for.

Why You'll Love It

• A single, tightly-defined parcel bottling of Puligny-Montrachet, one of Burgundy's most celebrated white-wine villages.
• Tight and mineral on the nose, with a structured, precise character straight out of the barrel-fermentation process.
• Discreet acidity gives way to an intensely mellow mid-palate and impressively long finish.
• Full barrel fermentation and twelve months of oak aging (15% new) build texture without masking the site's minerality.
• Organic, Ecocert-certified fruit from a south-east-facing slope built for consistent ripeness.
• Built to reward a few years in the cellar, developing further complexity with time.

How To Serve It

• Serve cool, at 52-55°F, to preserve the wine's precision and minerality.
• No decanting needed; a few minutes in the glass is plenty.
• Pour into all-purpose white wine stems.
• Pair with pan-seared veal and wild mushrooms, or go bolder with grilled lobster or a torchon of foie gras.