100% Chardonnay

Food pairings: Roast poultry, Bresse chicken in cream, grilled or poached fish, shellfish, creamy dishes and goat cheese.

Winemaking: Quintaine is the estate's historic cuvée, made since 1985 and its only wine until 2014. The grapes are picked by hand at full ripeness and pressed gently; the juice settles overnight in the cold, then alcoholic and malolactic fermentations happen naturally in concrete vats with indigenous yeasts and bacteria. The wine stays on its lees until bottling in early summer. 2022 was hot and dry, marked by the July heatwave, so the harvest was spread over the whole of September; healthy grapes and controlled ripeness gave a seductive wine without heaviness, already ready to drink.

Vineyards and terroir: The wine is a blend of almost all of the family's old Chardonnay vines, around 55 to 60 years old, grown around the hamlet of Quintaine, between the villages of Viré and Clessé, in the heart of the Viré-Clessé appellation, one of the three crus of the Mâconnais. The vines have been farmed organically since 1982 and biodynamically since 1991 (Demeter certified 1992-2017, Biodyvin since 2018), with mechanical soil work and plant-based preparations made at the domaine.

Family and history: In 1982 Pierrette Michel and her husband Marc Guillemot returned to Pierrette's family estate after studying viticulture and oenology, and in 1985 they bottled their first vintage under the Guillemot-Michel name. Since 2012-2013 their daughter Sophie, an agronomist and oenologist, has gradually taken over, now helped by her husband Gautier.

In the pictures: The family house of Domaine Guillemot-Michel at Quintaine, and the estate's vines at sunset (photos courtesy of Domaine Guillemot-Michel).