Waitrose White Burgundy, France 2014 (£8.99) The vignerons working the celebrated strip of Burgundy’s Côte d’Or have in the past tended to look down on the sprawling vineyards to the southern end of the region. Rather like a north Londoner contemplating the distant southern suburbs of Norwood or, heaven forbid, Croydon, they considered the area around the town of Mâcon as a different world, only nominally part of the same region as Mersault or Montrachet. As in London, the snobbery was (still is to an extent) partly based on money. While the Côte d’Or is responsible for some of the world’s most expensive fine wines, the Mâconnais has been more about large quantities of good-value chardonnay, of which Waitrose’s own-label from the village of Lugny, with its lemon curd and green apple flavours, subtle creaminess and sparky finish, is a quietly charming example.
Domaine de la Croix Senaillet Mâcon-Davayé, France 2014 (£13, L’Art du Vin) Attitudes towards the Mâconnais have been gradually changing over the past couple of decades. A number of the Côte d’Or’s bigger names (Lafon, Leflaive) have set up shop there, while growers already in the region have become more ambitious. As is the case throughout France, the region’s best wines tend to come from smaller appellations, such as Pouilly-Fuissé, Pouilly-Loché, Pouilly-Vinzelles, and Saint-Véran. Here, the Mâcon’s slightly warmer climate leads to a riper but still fresh and bright style of chardonnay than further north in wines such as the rich complex Domaine Daniel Barraud Pouilly-Fuissé Alliance-Vergisson 2013 (£19.25, Lea & Sandeman), or this luminous, crystal-clear, unoaked example from Domaine de la Croix Senaillet in the village of Davayé.
Louis Jadot Les Roches Rouges, Mâcon, France 2014 (£12.99, Majestic) While the best Mâconnais chardonnays are not flattered by comparisons with whites from starrier parts of Burgundy, the area’s much smaller production of red wines is perhaps better thought of as a companion to the wines of Beaujolais just to the south. Certainly, there’s that same kind of light, sappy, thirst-quenching, cherry-berry charm you find in decent Beaujolais in delightfully brisk and sinuous wines such as Marks & Spencer Mâcon Rouge 2014 (£10.50) and Burgundy big gun Louis Jadot’s Les Roches Rouges. That’s no surprise: both are made largely from Beaujolais variety gamay, with a splash of Burgundy’s pinot noir. And both, too, work beautifully, chilled, with Rosette de Lyon saucisson.
