France

Michel Goubard’s family has grown wine in the village of Saint-Désert and Mont-Avril since the 17th century, and his sons, Pierre-François and Vincent, proudly continue the tradition of quality at this venerated Côte Chalonnaise domaine situated on Mont-Avril. Mont-Avril is the named Lieu Dits for the estate, originally planted in the early 1900s. Restored and replanted in 1990.

92 Points! The 2023 Arbois Chardonnay Grand Curoulet bursts from the glass with ripe yellow apple, flint, pear and wet stone. The medium-bodied palate delivers a balance of elevated flavor concentration and lively acids. This delicious Jura Chardonnay offers impressive substance while maintaining a sense of restraint. - Nicolas Greinacher, Vinous

From the importer: Defaix’s “Côte de Lechet” is a master class in mineral precision. This remarkably steep site (a 45% gradient) with very poor soil produces a wine that Danny describes as embodying “the real, true mineral expression of Chablis.” Freshly blasted chalk dominates the nose, with notes of lemon, honey, and fresh herbs lurking underneath; still, this is a wine of minerality first and foremost. The family owns a 3.5-hectare parcel of 45-year-old vines in this distinctive cru, most of which are planted within a parcel known as the Clos des Moines.

From the importer: With its three hectares of 85-year-old Chardonnay, the Clos des Rocs produces a Pouilly-Loché like no other. Its due-easterly exposition allows for optimal ripeness, and its iron-streaked calcareous topsoil extends a mere 30 centimeters before reaching limestone mother-rock. Aged 13 months in used barrels, this wine—in true grand-cru-like fashion—synthesizes the positive attributes of all its cellarmates: gleaming acidity, fine but tunneling minerality, and stunning concentration. With their low levels of sulfur and their open-knit generosity, Olivier’s wines are never forbidding in their youth, but this deserves some time in bottle to properly unfurl its multilayered complexity.

Exciting new rockstar Champagne discovery, Cedric Bouchard's buddy and 'next door neighbor'! Yes, Julien Prélat utilizes some of the same parcels that the cult-fave Bouchard uses for his Champagnes, with the same brilliant results! 100% Chardonnay here from Presle's kimmeridgian soils, fermented in stainless, bottled with 3g/l dosage. 

From a parcelof less than an acre. This Montmains comes from the Butteaux part of the appellation, right in front of the village of Courgis. The vines are old, planted in the late 1950s.

96 Points! The 2023 Chablis 1er Cru La Forest is nothing short of superb in bottle and ranks among the year's most authoritative wines. A pure, marine-inflected opening—iodine, lemon peel and oyster liquor mingled with beeswax and dried apricot—precedes a concentrated yet tensile palate of taut muscularity. Bright acidity and abundant chalky extract lend the wine a bracing, kinetic edge, culminating in an intensely saline, persistent finish. Dauvissat here once again affirms its status as one of the site's greatest interpreters. - Kristaps Karklins, robertparker.com

92 Points! The 2023 Chablis—sourced chiefly from vineyard parcels that border La Forest—continues to distinguish itself as one of the finest examples in its category. Its bouquet weaves together citrus oils, pear and white peach. The medium- to full-bodied palate is ample and textural, displaying considerable depth and energy that persist through to a long, sapid finish. While it can—and undoubtedly will—be approached young, it possesses all the prerequisites for graceful evolution, bearing in mind that a wine’s longevity depends not on the vineyard-site name alone but on the way it is worked and made. - Kristaps Karklins, robertparker.com

97+ Points! An example of purity and stony tension, Vincent Dauvissat’s 2022 Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses is the crowning achievement of an extraordinary portfolio. With an understated Chablisien character, it opens in the glass to reveal a marine bouquet of oyster shell and iodine mingling with lemon zest and white flowers. Refined and laden with incisive acids, an abundance of chalky structuring extract and with a persistent, searingly saline finish, it is more ethereal and elegant than Les Clos yet possesses all the prerequisites to age as gracefully. - Kristaps Karklins, robertparker.com

97 Points! A cuvée I would never bet against, Vincent Dauvissat’s 2022 Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos is generously structured and leaps from the glass with a bouquet of kaleidoscopic complexity, featuring notes of white peach, beeswax and lemon oil blending with marine flavors. Multidimensional and concentrated, it is supported by racy acidity and concludes with a long, chalky finish. At present, it is more fruit-forward and muscular than Les Preuses but not at the expense of the tension and chalky extract one expects from it. Which will ultimately prevail is open to interpretation, so at this early stage, I'll refrain from premature coronation. - Kristaps Karklins, robertparker.com

The low-yielding vines here in ‘Margotes,’ at the forest line and facing full south, were planted in 1947. The best of all worlds: high-altitude fruit with verve and cut married with Rully yellow-fruited flesh and silk.

90+ Points! The 2023 Rully Maizières Blanc wafts from the glass with notes of white flowers, crisp orchard fruit, warm oatmeal and honeycomb. Medium- to full-bodied, satiny and incisive, with a tangy spine of acidity, it concludes with a long, mouthwatering finish. - William Kelley, robertparker.com

90 Points! Offering up aromas of pear, toasted nuts, beeswax and white flowers, the 2023 Rully Blanc is medium-bodied, fresh and charming, with succulent acids and a gently honeyed finish. - William Kelley, robertparker.com

From a small parcel in lieu-dit La Combe in Puligny-Montrachet, Dureuil's 2023 Bourgogne Chardonnay offers up notes of citrus oil, crisp orchard fruit and freshly baked bread, followed by a medium-bodied, satiny and bright palate that's fine-boned and mouthwatering. - William Kelley, robertparker.com