Domaine des Granges Macon-Villages 2023

Region: Mâconnais, Burgundy, France

Grape Variety: Chardonnay

In April 2019 I visited Yannick Paquet and his father, which turned out to be a revelatory experience. The family has been farming their vineyards for generations but only started making wine in the past few years. They boast a collection of very old vines on impossibly steep slopes, the perfect combination for world class wines. It was also fun to watch the twinkle in his father’s eye as we gushed about the superb quality of the wines.

It is important to emphasize that these are not your typical Mâcon and Pouilly-Fuissé wines. The combination of limestone soils, old vines and steep, high elevation vineyards produces wines with incredible intensity. If you love White Burgundy and find the $100+ prices for Côte d’Or bottlings tough to stomach then dip into these and see why you do not have to spend that much for world class wine.

This wine is made from 50 year old vines growing on the lower slopes of Chaintré, one of the four villages of Pouilly-Fuisse. All of the grapes are hand harvested and pressed to stainless steel tank, settled then fermented in tank as well. It delivers a nose with intense minerality, offering additional notes of Meyer lemon, orange peel, buttercream and white cardamom. It is nicely concentrated on the palate with the fruit framed by a nice sense of minerality into the long finish. This is far better Mâcon than the norm, a wine that performs more like village level Cote d’Or than many of its peers.