Winemaker Notes
A flattering wine, nicely balanced with white flower aromas, a nose of almond and a long finish. A wine with an opulent aromatic register, which when young is mainly oriented towards flint. Lively mouth full of complexity, a very elegant wine. It is one of the best climates in Meursault village.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Meursault Les Narvaux is showing just as well as it did immediately after bottling, wafting from the glass with aromas of pear and orange leaf mingled with hints of nutmeg, iodine and hazelnuts. Medium- to full-bodied, satiny and seamless, with excellent concentration and tension, it concludes with a mouthwateringly mordant finish. As I wrote a few years ago, this can go head-to-head with the appellation's élite.
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Jasper Morris
Clean pale fresh colour. The bouquet is a little more backward but suggests some density to follow. The 2020 Narvaux starts discreetly but delivers a huge volume of fruit at the finish, which has retained its vivacity. A feeling of more layers to come out with further time in bottle.
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.
Known to offer a magical balance of smoothness and freshness, Meursault's quality is hard to rival. The village lies in the middle of Côte de Beaune, just south of Volnay. Meursault is said to mean “mouse’s jump” because in the past the plots producing Pinot Noir and those producing Chardonnay were no more than a mouse’s jump from one another. Today the village is almost exclusively Chardonnay. A tiny bit of Pinot Noir is produced here with the best coming from Les Santenots on its northern side near Volnay.
While there are no Grands Crus, Meursault’s numerous acclaimed Premiers Crus can compete with any other top-notch white Burgundy. Some to know are Les Perrières, Les Genevrières, Les Charmes, Le Poruzot, Les Bouchères and Les Gouttes d’Or.
Meursault produces outstanding village level wines as well. In general great Premiers Crus and even village level Meursault (Chardonnay) have enticing aromas of lime peel, tropical fruit, crushed rocks, spice and hazelnut. On the palate there is a wonderful balance of brightness and a seductive length with flavors of white peach, pineapple and citrus.