2021 Domaine Jean-Charles Fagot, Rully Blanc, White Burgundy, France.
The second wine I tried from Jean-Charles Fagot, after their lovely Chassagne-Montrachet Rouge, was this precise, cool toned, mineral driven and pure Rully Blanc, which is an impressive dry, crisp and medium bodied Chardonnay with classic lemon, apple and Bosc pear fruits, along with delicate floral aromas, wet stones, clove spice and hazelnut notes. This pale gold/straw hued steely 2021 Rully is a more than a solid value and, with the prices of Burgundy these days, delivers a performance way beyond expectations in this price point. Rully, with grapes grown in the communes of Rully and Chagny, is in the Côte Chalonnaise subregion of Burgundy and a great place for bargain hunters, I’ve long been a fan of this AOC. Rully was originally granted its AOC back in 1939 and now includes Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with both appellations having Village wines, as seen here, and Premier Crus. This wine was native yeast fermented in a combination of used large foudres and small barriques and rest up to 18 months before bottling, promoting transparency and freshness, as well as more depth and evolution on release. I found this tasty wine, with its stony/chalky underlying nature, sits somewhere between a Chablis and a Chassagne-Montrachet in style and almost in quality.
The Domaine Jean Charles Fagot, as noted before in my prior reviews, run by Restaurant owner and Vigneron Jean-Charles, who started making wine in 1989, has just about 3 hectares of estate owned vines, but though his contracts or leases, the range of wines he produces is rather wide. Lovers and fans the Côte d’Or may even know his restaurant Auberge du Vieux Vigneron which is noted for having a good range of wines on the list, sourced from all over the Burgundy region. Jean-Chales, who is actually the fifth generation to own vineyards and grow grapes, but the first to make wines under a domaine label and he has grown the operation to about 3,000 cases annually. The wines are made traditionally and not to be overt or showy, more to be enjoyed as part of a meal, but are still terroir driven and pedigreed, drinking with a non pretense nobility of form, as seen in Jean-Charles’ Rully Blanc and as mentioned in this rare Chassagne Rouge. The winery, just outside Chassagne-Montrachet, is located near some of the most prestigious vineyards. Jean-Charles Fagot’s collection of wide ranging vine parcels give this domaine many diverse terroirs to show off and flavors to offer, which gives a lot of choices and I look forward to exploring more of the lineup, and I recommend chasing some down.
($35 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive