AFFORDABLE WHITE BURGUNDIES

You will often hear the red Tuscan wine Rosso di Montalcino called “a baby Brunello (di Montalcino)” or a Valpolicella Ripasso nicknamed “a baby Amarone (della Valpolicella).” While the “baby” wines may be produced in the same vicinity and by the same winemakers, they radically differ from their more prestigious—and, always, more expensive—stepsiblings. It is the wine world’s variant on gilt by association. 

Sometimes, when the wine is a kind of supernova, it less shines its light on those around it as it pulls them all into it. A woman asked—begged—me the other day if I could tell her of “a Montrachet that costs less.” What she wanted was another white Burgundy made of chardonnay that carried the force of Le Montrachet (to call it by its full name) but not its price. No such animal exists. 

Even a perfectly rendered Puligny-Montrachet or Chassagne-Montrachet is not a “Le Montrachet” at a lesser charge. (Note how, long ago, the two villages appended the high church name to their little sanctuaries.)  

No, there is no “baby Montrachet”; no “baby Puligny” even. But there is very delicious, very well priced white Burgundy nonetheless. We need merely cascade down the wee waterfall that is all chardonnay produced in Burgundy, home to highest expression of the grape in all the world.  

To bank on a skilled grower and maker of chardonnay, who works in a less well-known region of Burgundy, is to place, to my way of thinking, as safe a bet on white wine as there is. You just need to know whom to seek out and where to look. 

“Where” is easy: the districts of Burgundy around the villages of Chablis, Mâcon and Chalon (full names: Chablis, Mâconnais, La Côte Chalonnaise). The “who” is at your own research or recommendations from your trusted sources. 

Chablis
Yes, wildly expensive Chablis is out there, but it issues from truly worthy vineyards at the epicenter of the region. The value wine comes at the hands of solid producers who make regional “Chablis” so named. (Wine named “Petit Chablis” is riskier.) 

You’ll find terrific Chablis—one of chardonnay’s purest expressions—in the neighborhood of $30 dollars a bottle from Drouhin Vaudon, La Chablisienne, Boudin, Simonnet-Febvre, Louis Moreau, Moreau Père et Fils, Servin or Joseph Faiveley, to name a handful. 

An administrative enclave of Chablis called Saint-Bris makes Burgundy’s only sauvignon blanc, more in the style of the Loire’s Sancerre or Touraine, but very Chablis-like in character: incisive, pure, clean, super fresh. Several of the regional Chablis producers named above also make notable Saint-Bris, as do Jean-Marc Brocard, Clotilde Davenne and Ghislaine & Jean-Hughes Goisot. It is, of course, the perfect wine to serve at a bris. 

Mâcon
The calcareous, silicate soils of Mâcon are well suited for chardonnay. The whole newfound interest in “minerality” in wine began with an appreciation for Mâcon whites. 

Forty-one villages in the area allow use of their name, as in “Mâcon Viré-Clessé” or (my favorite) Mâcon La Roche-Vineuse. How could you not adore a chardonnay named after a rock that weeps wine? 

For a long while, the most well-known of all Mâcon chardonnay (at least in the U.K. and U.S.A.) was Pouilly-Fuissé. While it used to be wretchedly overpriced due to that demand, it has scaled down in price because so many other worthy Mâcons joined it in the same markets. 

At its best, Pouilly-Fuissé is a large-busted version of chardonnay, complex and full at once. 

Châlon
While the town “Châlon-sur-Marne” names only the district, not the wines, its neighboring villages Rully and Montagny make for splendid and well-priced chardonnay, especially favored for its rustic, even earthy, character. 

You can spend more than $35 a bottle here, but you need not.