Burgundy (White)

Run by Georges Pico and his son Thomas, the domaine grew out of Georges' grandfather's domaine Pico Race, based in the village of Courgis, just south west of Chablis.  The 20 hectares of vineyards are farmed organically, and the wines express beautifully the steely and mineral qualities of Chardonnay which are classic to the Chablis region.

The Bouzereau family is one of the great wine-making clans of Meursault, and this estate of 11 hectares is run by Michel and his son Jean-Baptiste. Tradition rules here, though it would be fair to say that Jean-Baptiste has brought a slightly more modern approach to elements of the winemaking. Most importantly, the wines are given 9 months to a year on their lees, and the use of new wood is kept to a relatively modest level, allowing the personality of the individual terroirs to show (the domaine makes seventeen different wines).

The website for Domaine Louis Carillon can be found at http://www.louis-carillon.com

Grégoire Bichot put this domaine together with the help of his father Bénigne, having decided not to join his family's famous négociant firm in Beaune.  He began working out of small cellars in Vosne Romanée which belonged to the firm, but his possession of the buildings proved rather less secure than he had imagined, and his occupation of them ceased in 2008.  Out of adversity however came a great opportunity - when Grégoire heard that a fine 19th century négociant's building (with deep cellars) was to be demolished, he raised the money to buy it and took it over shortly before the 2009 harvest.  He now has a marvellous space in which to work, with wonderful deep cellars, and much of the necessary restoration has been completed.  The future of this fabulous source of Beaune, Beaune 1er Cru and Nuits 1er Cru once more seems secure.

Didier Darviot and his wife Genviève (née Perrin) run this important domaine which has brought together the vineyard holdings of two Meursault and Monthélie families.  This has created one of the few domaines to have vines in the three most important 1er Cru vineyards of Meursault: Perrières, Genevrières and Charmes.  In addition to this, they also have vines in Chassagne 1er Cru Blanchots Dessus - Chassagne's only 1er Cru vineyard on the north side of the N6, immediately abutting Le Montrachet, where the ground falls away, and opposite Criots Bâtard Montrachet.  Didier is a winemaker of prodigious talent, and if his administration leads to frustrations (particularly the fact that he makes his wines available for shipment a year or more after most other growers) that seems a price worth paying for such sublime wine making.

A house with a long history and today the largest vineyard owner in Burgundy, Faiveley was founded in 1825 by Pierre Faiveley.  The foundations of its modern success however were laid by Georges Faiveley, who saw the firm through the difficult inter-war years when it was said that a new barrel cost more than the wine which filled it.  His grandson François, handed control over to his own son Erwan – the 7^th generation – in 2005.  A new team was quickly put in place – most significantly perhaps including Bernard Hervé as Managing Director – who supervised the transformation of Bouchard after Joseph Henriot’s purchase, and an extremely talented winemaker, Jérôme Flous.  Faiveley's winery and principle cellars are in Nuits St Georges - the nerve centre of a genuinely world class operation.

One of the oldest established families of Chablis, the Fèvres have been making wine in the region for more than 250 years, and had already established a formidable reputation for this 47 hectare domaine by the time that it was taken over by Joseph Henriot in 1998.  Henriot, from Champagne, had already transformed the fortunes of the great Beaune house of Bouchard Père et Fils and, since 1998, has taken the wines of William Fèvre to even greater renown, thanks to the incredible talents of his winemaker, Didier Séguier.

Richard Fontaine continues to produce among the very finest whites of the Côte d’Or. His extremely capable daughter Céline is now working with him, and the future of this first class estate has never looked better. Demand for these wines has become enormously strong in recent vintages, and production of the Grands Crus in particular is always very limited. The domaine produces wines of exceptional richness, finesse, and kaleidoscopic mineral complexity. While Fontaine's stellar reputation is based primarily on the immense quality of his whites, the domaine also produces very lovely reds, which are not only beautifully pure expressions of Pinot Noir but also very attractively priced.

More information can be found on the domaine's website: http://www.domaine-fontaine-gagnard.com/

Since the death of the wonderful Jacques Gagnard in July 2009, this domaine has been run by his widow Marie-Josèphe (daughter of Edmond Delagrange) and their grandson Marc-Antonin Blain.  Over the last fifteen years or so, most of the vineyards have been handed on to their two daughters (Laurence, married to Richard Fontaine; and Claudine, married to Jean-Marc Blain).  However, the domaine continues to produce outstanding, long-lived wines from the approximately 3 hectares it retains.  These include a 1er Cru red Chassagne from vines planted in 1928, the year of Jacques' birth.

This 9 hectare estate, with its cellars in Chassagne Montrachet, is run by Sabine Mollard, grand-daughter of Marc Morey, while her father Bernard retains an overseeing eye.  Along with the Gagnard family (see above) the Morey family dominates the village; Bernard and Sabine have made this the finest of the various Morey estates.  Winemaking is traditional in style, with great emphasis placed on the quality of fruit produced in the vineyard.

Jean, originally from Belgium, and his wife Régine own vineyards in the Mâconnais and also in the Jura, due east of Beaune.  In addition, Jean buys grapes from a small number of growers with whom he has forged close links, some in the Mâconnais and some in the Côte de Beaune.  Régine is largely responsible for the vineyards, while Jean’s great genius is as a winemaker and ‘eleveur’ – his work is the cellars, learnt in part from the renowned Jean-Marie Guffens and considerably refined over the years, is extraordinarily hands-on, and profoundly personal.  More than almost any other grower we know, Jean illustrates how intelligent vineyard management, winemaking and élévage can produce spectacular results from vineyards that more often underperform in the hands of others.

Sauzet is among the greatest of Burgundy's white wine producers.  Gerard Boudot, with his daughter Emilie and son-in-law Benoit Riffault, runs this immaculate operation.  We always think that the hosepipe illustrates the extraordinary precision and attention to detail in the cellar!  The wines are sensational.

A fine producer of Mercurey, with cellars in the heart of the village almost in the shadow of its extraordinary medieval church.

A co-operative winery founded by a group of growers in the Mâconnais village of Prissé in 1928 the Cave de Prissé (as it used to be called) has become one of the most successful of its type; since it merged with the co-operatives of the neighbouring villages of Verzé and Sologny, it sources grapes from more than 400 small-scale growers who together own almost 980 hectares of the surrounding vineyards.  Success on this scale is the result of one thing – consistently high quality.