100% Chardonnay

Food pairings: Elegant starters, warm goat cheese in pastry, langoustines or grilled prawns, delicate white fish, roast chicken, and blue cheeses such as Bleu de Bresse.

Winemaking: The grapes are hand-picked into small crates and pressed whole, slowly, in a pneumatic press. After 24 hours of cold settling, the juice ferments in barrel. In 2023 the wine was vinified 80% in 350-liter barrels and 20% in stainless steel; the family kept all of the lees that year and stirred them only once or twice, and the wine was bottled at the end of August 2024. 2023 is the domaine's first officially certified organic vintage.

Vineyards and terroir: Les Combottes lies in the climat "Les Plantes des Champs et Combottes," a steep hillside facing southwest just beyond the village of Pernand-Vergelesses. Its name is a diminutive of "combe," a nod to the rolling, valley-like lie of the land. The soil is white, marly and fairly light; the rows are short, with ditches between them to limit erosion. The vines were planted in the early 2000s.

Family and history: The Rapet family has grown vines in Pernand-Vergelesses since at least 1765, when a tastevin bearing the family name was made; it is still kept from generation to generation. After Robert and Roland Rapet, Vincent Rapet, who joined his father in 1991, and his wife Sylvette run the domaine at the foot of the hill of Corton, now joined by their sons Robin and Louis. Vincent was named Burgundy Winegrower of the Year in the Guide Hachette des Vins 2024.

In the pictures: Vincent Rapet with his sons Robin and Louis in the vineyards above Pernand-Vergelesses; and the domaine's cellar door on the village square in Pernand-Vergelesses (photos courtesy of Domaine Rapet Père & Fils).