100% Chardonnay

Food pairings: Oysters and shellfish, grilled snapper or other white fish, ceviche and salmon tartare, sushi, roast chicken, escargots with garlic butter, goat cheese and soft cheeses.

Winemaking: The grapes are picked by hand into small crates to keep the fruit intact, then pressed gently and fermented in oak barrels from Louis Jadot's own cooperage, one third of them new. The wine ages for about 15 months on its fine lees before it is prepared for bottling. The 2022 is largely a blend of Premier Cru sites bottled as village Saint-Aubin, which gives it extra energy and depth.

Vineyards and terroir: Saint-Aubin lies on the western fringe of the Côte de Beaune, in the hills overlooking Auxey-Duresses, Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet and Santenay. Its vineyards fall into two zones of roughly equal size set almost at right angles to each other: one faces south and southeast on chalky limestone soils, the other has a cooler, more easterly exposure on soils with more gravel and clay. The limestone gives Saint-Aubin its penetrating, mineral style.

Family and history: Maison Louis Jadot was founded in Beaune in 1859 and grew into one of Burgundy's great houses, with vineyards from Chablis to Beaujolais. It vinifies most of its wines itself and ages every cuvée in its own cellars in Beaune, and since 1996 has had its own cooperage to control the selection and toasting of the oak for its barrels.

In the pictures: Large oak fermenting vats in the Louis Jadot winery in Beaune (photo: Megan Mallen, 2010, CC BY 2.0); and the Louis Jadot cuverie with its overhead system for moving grapes into the vats (photo: Megan Mallen, 2010, CC BY 2.0).