Chavy-Chouet Les Femelottes Bourgogne Blanc 2024

Chavy-Chouet, run by Romaric Chavy, holds a set of well-placed plots around Meursault and Saint-Aubin in Burgundy, and this Bourgogne Blanc draws on that base of Chardonnay. Much of the fruit comes from old vines, some up to seventy years old, farmed without herbicides for thirty years and organically in recent seasons. Old vines carry natural balance, small yields of concentrated fruit and deep roots that reach the limestone and marl beneath, which gives the wine its mineral drive and length. The cool continental climate of the Côte keeps the acidity firm. The wine is aged for around ten months in oak barrels, with lees contact and malolactic fermentation softening the malic acidity into a rounder, creamier profile and adding a light nutty, vanilla note without dominating the fruit. It is pale gold in the glass. The nose shows green apple, white peach and lemon, moving to hazelnut and a touch of beeswax and vanilla. The palate is medium-bodied and rounded, the fruit fresh and the oak restrained, closing on a clean, faintly saline finish. Serve at 11 to 13 degrees in a large glass.