Louis Jadot 2022 "Couvent des Jacobins" Chardonnay

£15.10
Tasting notes
With fresh floral aromas and lemony with a hint of vanillin. The wine shows elegant, rich fruit on the palate: stone fruits (e.g. apricots), lemony. Pairs with vegetable terrines, poultry and goat cheese.

Why we recommend this wine
Rich, somewhat oaky Burgundy is one of the wonders of the world (and costs the earth). This is a great value-for-money expression.

The wine
Louis Jadot Bourgogne Blanc is vinified and blended from 100% Chardonnay grapes selected from quality growers in the Côte d’Or and the Côte Mâconnais. Made in a more full-bodied and structured style, the wine is partially fermented and aged in oak casks for about 8 months to add a rich, round character. It has a texture and age that shows more complexity than is normally found at this level. It can challenge some village appellation wines.

The wine estate
Maison Louis Jadot was founded in 1859 by the man whose name it bears, Louis Henry Denis Jadot. The first of his family arrived in Beaune from Belgium in 1794. The Maison remained in Family hands until 1985 when ,in order to ensure the company's future, Madame Jadot decided to sell the company to the family of Rudy Kopf, Jadot's US importer.
In order to achieve the best possible quality they have, for the past 20 years, banished all use of synthetic products (fertilisers, herbicides, etc) on their vineyards soils and have taken up traditional practices instead. Their work is done either by tractor or, for the most inaccessible vineyards, by horse. They don't work their soil deeply but prefer to concentrate on surface actions in order to preserve its innate structure. They encourage their vines to grow their roots in such a way as to enable them to mine the soil's minerality.
Jadot’s cellar practices, including long macerations, the choice of wild yeast when possible for fermentation, fermentation temperature and other winemaking methods are also designed to preserve the character of the fruit in the wines. For both red and white wines, Maison Louis Jadot places great importance on the restrained use of new oak in the aging process. Time in cask and percentage of new oak is dictated differently by each vintage. In keeping with its non-interventionist philosophy, Jadot considers that very great vintages, complete and harmonious by themselves, require minimum contact with new oak.
louisjadot.com

Food and wine
A rich white wine needs a similar richness in the food to accompany it - so think cream sauces, truffles, soft cheeses. Also see our guide to pairing food and wine here.

Did you know?
Jadot follows an expensive practice called réplis, in which wines of a higher appellation are incorporated into a wine bearing the appellation below them thus improving their quality. Beacuse of strict French wine laws about how many hectolitres of wine are allowed to be produced per hectare in bountiful years all winemakers practice réplis. Thus if you know your vintages you can pick up everyday wines that are fabulous because they contain wine from the winemakers better vineyards.