Véronique Boss-Drouhin describes it as a wine that smiles and makes you smile. Saint-Véran sits at the southern end of Burgundy, wrapped around Pouilly-Fuissé, and offers much the same pleasure for rather less money.
Tasting Notes
Golden in the glass with a green tint. The nose leads on ripe Chardonnay fruit with a distinct musky note, white peach and citrus behind it, and delicate white flowers over the top. The palate has a pleasant roundness that coats the mouth, layered with green apple, pear and a suggestion of almond, and the Jurassic limestone underneath gives a clean mineral line that keeps the whole thing refreshing rather than heavy. Stylistically it sits very close to Pouilly-Fuissé, and the finish is long and stony.
Quick Facts
- Grape: 100% Chardonnay
- Origin: France, Burgundy, Mâconnais, Saint-Véran AOC
- Soil: Jurassic limestone, a continuation of the same chalky strata that runs through the Côte d'Or
- Viticulture: 8,500 vines per hectare, Guyot pruned, yields kept deliberately low
- Winemaking: Very slow pressing to respect the fruit, the final pressings discarded, no artificial yeasts or enzymes, ageing decisions made by tasting rather than by formula
- Alcohol: Around 13%
- Appellation note: Created by decree in 1971, the youngest appellation in the Mâconnais
Food Pairing
Shellfish and crab, salmon and tuna, seafood pasta, roast chicken, cured meats, and mild soft cheeses. Good with richer dishes that still call for a white.
Serving
Serve at 11 to 12°C. Drinks well on release and holds comfortably for a few years.
About the Producer
Joseph Drouhin founded the house in Beaune in 1880 at the age of 22, and four generations on the family still runs it. Drouhin holds vineyards across Chablis, the Côte de Nuits, the Côte de Beaune and the Côte Chalonnaise, farmed organically and biodynamically, and buys fruit from long term partners under strict specifications for the wines it does not grow itself. The name of the appellation, incidentally, is not quite the name of the village: Saint-Vérand is spelled with a final d.
