A Love Letter to Chardonnay: One Grape, Infinite Expressions

If there’s one grape that can truly reflect where it’s grown and who makes it, it’s Chardonnay. It’s often described as a winemaker’s grape — adaptable, neutral, a blank canvas. But that’s only half the truth. Chardonnay can absolutely speak volumes on its own — if you know how to listen. No other white grape is more transparent to terroir, more responsive to elevation, soil, climate, and cellar decisions. From reductive mineral tension to generous, layered opulence, Chardonnay contains multitudes — and nowhere is that more evident than in Burgundy.

Burgundy: The Reference Point

Burgundy is Chardonnay’s spiritual and historical home. And while Chardonnay is grown all over the world, the region remains the benchmark for its complexity, longevity, and site specificity.

Burgundy’s magic lies in its climats — small, precisely delineated vineyard parcels, often just meters apart, each with its own soil composition, slope, drainage, exposure, and temperature. Add to that a long tradition of restrained, terroir-focused winemaking, and you get an astonishing diversity of styles even within a single village.

Chablis: Chalk and Steel

Starting in the north, Chablis is defined by Kimmeridgian limestone — fossil-rich, ancient seabeds — which gives the wines their signature minerality and saline drive. These wines are lean, sharp, and etched with acidity. The winemaking is often intentionally reductive: minimal oxygen exposure, stainless steel, older barrels or concrete, long lees aging. You’ll get green apple, lemon, flint, and sometimes a hint of oyster shell or wet stone.

• Petit Chablis: Usually grown on higher, wind-exposed sites with Portlandian soils. Crisp, straightforward.

• Chablis AOC: Classic citrus-mineral profile.

• Premier Cru / Grand Cru: More depth, weight, and potential for aging. The best (e.g. Les Clos, Vaillons) can age 10–20+ years and rival top Côte de Beaune whites in complexity — just in a different register.

Côte de Beaune: The Soul of Chardonnay

Move south into the Côte de Beaune, and Chardonnay reveals a broader range of personalities. Here, you encounter wines that are richer, but still rooted in structure and site transparency.

Meursault: Texture and Savory Layers

Meursault doesn’t have any Grand Crus, but many of its Premier Cru vineyards (like Perrières, Genevrières, Charmes) are just as esteemed. The soils here are a mix of marl and limestone. The wines are known for their nutty, creamy, almost mealy texture — not necessarily buttery in a modern sense, but layered and rounded.

• Winemaking is typically oxidative but balanced: bâtonnage (lees stirring), aging in oak (often 20–30% new), partial or full malolactic fermentation.

• Signature flavors: roasted hazelnuts, white flowers, ripe orchard fruit, and crushed stone.

Producers based here and making wines from Meursault holdings to look out for include : Comtes Lafon, Roulot, Pierre Vincent Girardin, Domaine Lafouge, Coche-Dury, Antoine Jobard, Domaine Lafouge, Henri Germain, Chavy Chouet, Anne Boisson, Remi Jobard, Pierre Boisson.

Puligny-Montrachet: Precision and Purity

Puligny is often seen as the most mineral and tense expression in the Côte de Beaune. The soils are lighter, chalkier, and the slope angle sharper in many parts. The wines show tighter citrus profiles, more linearity, and a long saline finish. Think of it as Chablis with added depth and texture.

• The Grand Crus here — Bienvenues-Bâtard, Chevalier, and a portion of Montrachet — represent Chardonnay at its most finessed and age-worthy.

• Top Puligny wines can show reductive notes (matchstick, struck flint), and notes of iodine, salinity, especially from producers like Alvina Pernot or Domaine Leflaive. Other producers to look out for are Francois Carillon, Thomas Collardot, Paul Pernot, Henri Boillot, Etienne Sauzet.

Chassagne-Montrachet: Broad Shoulders and Earth

Chassagne, neighboring Puligny, tends to produce broader, more muscular wines (with some notable exceptions such as the incredible Paul Pillot) More clay in the soils means more power and fruit richness. There’s also a touch more generosity here, often showing stone fruit, honeysuckle, and spice. But the best producers still keep freshness and structure at the forefront.

• Grand Crus like Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet and the shared Montrachet vineyard produce some of the richest yet most balanced white wines on earth.

• In warmer years, style can push toward tropical notes if not handled with care.

The village has a raft of superstar producers such as Domaine Ramonet, Paul Pillot, Marc Morey, Vincent Dancer, Lamy Caillat, Alex and Benoit Moreau and more. 

Saint-Aubin, Auxey-Duresses, and Beyond

Just off the “main stage,” these villages offer value and freshness. Higher altitude and cooler microclimates make them especially compelling in warmer vintages. Saint-Aubin, in particular, is now seen as a serious source of taut, mineral-driven Chardonnay at a more accessible price. Domaine Hubert Lamy and Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey are reference point producers but there are a host of other great names based in the village as well as those from neighbouring appellations making Saint-Aubin. Names such as Simon Colin, Bachelet-Monnot, Marc Colin, Ramonet and more.

In Saint Romain look out for Domaine Germain and Gilles et Henri Boisson.

In Auxey-Duresses the reference is Domaine Lafouge (and Domaine Leroy if you can afford £3000/bt!) plus Jean-Marc Vincent (Santenay)

Maranges - Bachelet-Monnot make some of the most delicious wines in the region and who also have holdings in Puligny, Meursault, Chassagne and Saint-Aubin.

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Winemaking Choices: The Invisible Hand

Even within Burgundy, style differences often reflect a philosophical divide in the cellar:

• Reductive vs. Oxidative: Reductive winemaking (limited oxygen, minimal stirring) produces flinty, matchstick notes and taut profiles. Oxidative approaches (lees stirring, more oxygen exposure) lead to richer textures and more overt flavors.

• Oak Use: Most serious Burgundy producers use some oak, but how much and how new varies. Too much and it smothers terroir. Just enough, and it adds dimension without distraction.

• Lees Contact: Extended aging on fine lees gives creaminess and complexity. Stirring (bâtonnage) can enhance this but also risks losing definition if overused.

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Final Thoughts: Why It Matters

Chardonnay in Burgundy shows us the full potential of what this grape can be. It isn’t just about ripeness, or oak, or texture — it’s about how tiny shifts in soil, elevation, and philosophy produce radically different wines. It rewards close study, vintage variation, and producer focus. And while you can find great Chardonnay elsewhere — and we absolutely should — Burgundy remains the ultimate masterclass in nuance and site expression.

If you’re willing to dig, taste, and compare, Chardonnay becomes one of the most intellectually and emotionally engaging wines out there.

And that’s why, despite trends and backlash, hype and fatigue, we keep coming back to it.