100% Chardonnay

Food pairings: Oysters, shellfish and other seafood, grilled white fish, sole meunière, roast poultry and fresh goat cheese.

Winemaking: The grapes are picked by hand into 25-kilo cases and sorted, then pressed whole in a pneumatic press, followed by a light settling of the must. Fermentation takes place in 228-liter barrels with natural yeasts and is long, lasting four to eight months, with very little new oak and no stirring of the lees. The wine ages on its lees for 12 to 15 months and is bottled after its second winter, with only a light filtration if needed.

Vineyards and terroir: La Grande Châtelaine is a high-altitude vineyard at 350 to 400 meters on the south- and southeast-facing slope of the Combe de Bouze, north of Beaune, on clay-limestone soils dominated by limestone. Its open exposure brings long hours of sunshine but also cool westerly winds, and the wide swing between day and night temperatures keeps the wine fresh and aromatic. The domaine's vines here are about 40 years old, and yields are kept to around 35 to 40 hectoliters per hectare. The vineyard is farmed organically.

Family and history: Domaine Chantal Lescure was founded in 1975 by Chantal Lescure and Xavier Machard de Gramont. After Chantal's death in 1996, her sons Aymeric and Thibault Machard de Gramont took over and gave the technical direction to François Chaveriat, who held the post until his retirement in 2024. From 1997 they stopped using chemicals so the soils could come back to life, and the domaine, with vineyards from Meursault to Vougeot, is fully certified organic. Burgundian entrepreneur Jean-Philippe Girard now leads the domaine, in partnership with Éric Rousseau of Domaine Armand Rousseau in Gevrey-Chambertin.

In the pictures: Barrels in the vaulted cellar of Domaine Chantal Lescure (courtesy of Domaine Chantal Lescure).