100% Chardonnay

Food pairings: Goat cheese, grilled fish, shrimp and scallops, roast chicken, poultry in cream sauce, quiche and light vegetable dishes.

Winemaking: Maison Joseph Drouhin makes its Saint-Véran from grapes and musts bought from long-term supply partners under strict specifications. The grapes are gently pressed in a pneumatic press; after settling, two-thirds of the juice ferments in stainless steel vats and one-third in 500-liter oak barrels, and the wine ages for 6 to 10 months before blending and bottling. The 2022 vintage brought good ripeness and particularly aromatic whites: citrus and ripe fruit with floral and lightly spicy pastry notes, and a tender, fleshy palate.

Vineyards and terroir: Saint-Véran lies at the southern end of Burgundy in the Mâconnais, just north of Beaujolais, and spans the communes of Chânes, Chasselas, Davayé, Leynes, Prissé, Saint-Amour-Bellevue, Saint-Vérand and Solutré-Pouilly. Created in 1971, it is the youngest appellation of the Mâconnais (the village itself is spelled Saint-Vérand). Its Jurassic limestone soils, a continuation of the chalky strata of the Côte d'Or, are ideal for Chardonnay, and the wine is stylistically close to neighboring Pouilly-Fuissé.

Family and history: Joseph Drouhin founded his house in Beaune in 1880. Its cellars run beneath the heart of the town and include vaults once used by the Dukes of Burgundy and the Kings of France, which is why the label reads "aux celliers des Rois de France et des Ducs de Bourgogne". Today the fourth generation of the family, Philippe, Véronique, Laurent and Frédéric, runs the house, with Véronique Boss-Drouhin in charge of winemaking.

In the pictures: Winemaker Véronique Boss-Drouhin in the cellar; and the Maison Joseph Drouhin buildings in Beaune, beside the old Parliament of the Dukes of Burgundy that houses the family's wine library (photos courtesy of Maison Joseph Drouhin).