Winemaker Notes
Delicate on the nose, with aromas of fruit and white flowers. The palate is straightforward and tense, then taken over by a pleasant roundness with notes of white pear. The very mineral finish is typical of the limestone terroir of the Mâconnais area. It is a very pure and expressive wine.
Blend: 100% Chardonnay
Professional Ratings
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Jasper Morris
On both sides of the valley. Pale lemon yellow, clean crisp white fruit yet still with generosity. Fresh apples. Really cheerful classy fruit, crunch at the back. You just want to grab another glass of this.
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Vinous
The 2022 Mâcon-Verzé is a blend of all the Domaine's parcels in the middle of the slope on chalky soils and went through an eight-month fermentation. This has a crisp nose of lemon rind and crushed stone. It's focused and not complex, but it displays commendable vigor. The palate is medium-bodied with pretty white and yellow fruit and slightly higher acidity that lends more precision and nervosité to the finish.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
These are the fun, fruit-driven and lively Chardonnays of white Burgundy, often offering some fantastic values and options that you don’t have to cellar. Flavors range from fresh green apple and lemon to melon or pineapple; some of the best are fleshy and mineral driven or balanced by a light touch of oak.
Mâconnais Chardonnay may have the weight of their more serious Côte de Beaune sisters, but not quite the refinement. Still, this appellation is one of the best ways to jump from California Chardonnay to something new and begin to understand white Burgundy.
The Mâconnais region is warmer and drier than the rest of Burgundy to its north (Côte d’Or) and has a landscape of rolling hills and farmland interspersed among vineyards. The region produces a lot of Chardonnay—Viré-Clessé and Pouilly-Fuisse are among the best—and a very small amount of red wine from Gamay and Pinot Noir. The soils of Mâconnais remain limestone dominant like in the Côte d’Or, making it a wonderful spot for Chardonnay to thrive. Gamay's home of Beaujolais lies just to the south.