Chassagne-Montrachet `Les Houillères`

Sylvain Langoureau

"This husband and wife run operation is snuggled away in the heart of Burgundy, in the tiny hillside village of St. Aubin. They are both oenologists but, 20 years before, Nathalie had been training to become a teacher before meeting the young Sylvain who whisked her away to the world of wine. They are hard-working people and it shows in the quality of their wine. They have just 10hectares, broken up into parcels in St. Aubin, Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet and Mersault. Yields are kept to a strict minimum by pruning the vines to just four or five shoots during winter. During harvest time, the grapes are hand-picked and sorted and natural yeasts are used to induce fermentation. Well this is top-level stuff from the spiritual home of Chardonnay. Each bottle is made with grapes from a single plot and, in a region dominated by oak, they experiment with 50:50 steel and oak fermentations and only a little new oak is used. Wonderful body and individual expression is achieved by this intuitive winemaking duo."