Domaine Pascal & Mireille Renaud "Vieilles Vignes" Pouilly Fuissé 2022 France

Tastes are certainly personal and wine is subjective, but when it comes to Chardonnay, it's my opinion that nothing beats the pure freshness and stellar value you find in the Pouilly-Fuissé appellation of southern Burgundy. Elegant and full of charm, these 100% Chardonnay wines range from pale to deep gold and textures that go from racy to richly opulent. Renaud's Vieilles Vignes (old vines - 50 to 80 years) is a mineral-textured, vibrant white wine rich with acidity, ripe with flavors of dried yellow peach and apricot followed by hints of toast and buttery notes. The wine is crisp on the attack, opening slowly as it fills out into a dense wine that has structure and depth of flavor. It is full-bodied and unlike those heavily wooded Chardonnays on our domestic front it is beautifully balanced. Oenophiles rant and rave about Montrachet which arguably produces the greatest, dry white wines in the world though few of us can spare the small fortune these lovely Chardonnays command. And yet just to the south is Pouilly-Fuissé where the best producers there are making world-class wines crafting what I call baby Montrachets at a price that makes sense. So here's your opportunity to get a taste for what you've been missing and to experience what pure, white Burgundy is really like. At $30 - a finer Chardonnay you will not find.