There is something special about Saint-Véran. At the crossroads of two ancient coral reefs, the Rock of Solutré and the Rock of Vergisson, the soils are limestone and more limestone in this part of southern Burgundy. The wines have a cold rush of white stone, nutty yellows and sea-salt greens that misleads my palate further north to places like Saint-Aubin and Chassagne-Montrachet.
A leading certified organic estate, Domaine Barraud is a master of this do-good trickery, making mineral-etched Chardonnay from what might be the greatest white wine terroir south of the Côte de Beaune. There are plenty of less-expensive wines from the Mâconnais, but paying a little more can reward you tenfold (not always the case in Burgundy). Some would call today’s offer a “splurge” for a Mâcon wine, but to me, it’s a bargain for seriously world-class Burgundy Chardonnay. Having offered previous vintages of Barraud’s “Les Pommards,” I was predisposed to like this 2017, and it still exceeded all expectations—this is an insider-y white Burgundy that will out-drink countless more-expensive bottles.
Burgundy is an eternal study session, and the Mâconnais is brutally confusing, even for wine-savvy geography nerds. It is a splattering of noncontiguous vineyard areas between Beaujolais (to the south) and the Côte Chalonnaise (to the north). The all-encompassing appellation is the Mâcon AOC, which includes the store-shelf staple Mâcon-Villages. In the southern cradle of the region is Pouilly-Fuissé, the darling sub-appellation, where a handful of producers make phenomenal wines in an area between the villages of Vergisson and Solutré-Pouilly, or more fittingly, “The Rocks.” Domaine Barraud is in Vergisson. They are Pouilly-Fuissé specialists, but among their 27 acres, a precious sliver sits in Saint-Véran, an odd split appellation. Saint-Véran is like a “head and tail” extension of Pouilly-Fuissé: the “head” (the best part) is an extension of Pouilly-Fuissé’s northern vineyards, while the “tail” extends its southern sector.
For those who know this region deeply, “Les Pommards,” is not some random vineyard: It is arguably the best site of Saint-Véran, sitting just east of the grand Rock of Solutré. The vineyard, next to an old quarry, is pure (yes pure) limestone; it’s a museum of fossilized sea shells, every little groove and dip leaving its singular essence in the final wine. The Barraud’s parcel has a vine age of 40 years, and their vines face an unusual, cooler northeast direction, keeping flavors crisp and not overly round. Daniel Barraud and his son, Julien, are making organic, pristine expressions of Chardonnay that puts them, as Burghound states, “at the very top of the list” among the countless growers in the Mâconnais.
Hand-harvested, the Chardonnay from “Les Pommards” is pressed “full-cluster” (i.e. with the berries intact with their stems). This technique, common in Champagne production, encourages the stems to gently prick the berries, releasing the purest, least manipulated juice. From there, the juice settles overnight and flows via gravity into French oak barrels (20% new) to ferment with its natural yeasts. The wine ages one year in barrel, then rests in steel for 2 months to soften its edges. Bottled without fining and without filtration, this is as close as you can get to drinking a place over a grape. Serve this wine with a slight chill (~50 degrees) and use a Burgundy stem. In the glass, the core is star-bright, a pale straw, moving to a greenish straw, watery rim. The first sense on the nose is cold creamy earth, salted lemon curd, white flowers, and poached white fruits. Bass notes of warm spice and nuts emerge in the background and flesh out the wine on the palate. Former sea creatures leave their impression with a mouthwatering sweet-briny tartness. It would be sacrilegious to devour this wine with anything too big, so stay light and lean. A simple whole-roasted fish craves a wine like “Les Pommards,” and there is no better place to eat simple meals than at home. So, take a cue from Daniel and Julien—don’t try to do too much in the kitchen, be modest, and let the finest ingredients shine!
