The thing about wine is that the story is ongoing. There are always new regions and new personalities coming along to broaden one’s selection and unusual things coming from places you might not expect. Yes, they do grow some Chardonnay in Beaujolais, some of it pretty good but mostly utilitarian stylistically. Here in the land of granite, Gamay is king. With that in mind, there are apparently rare exceptions. In this case, in and among the Gamay in the Cru Beaujolais villages are plots of Chardonnay. A few of them (well, this one anyway) have soil conditions more akin to those of the Cote d’Or.
Located near the dividing line between Macon and Beaujolais, Domaine de la Sorbiere is the new name for an existing estate that was purchased by Jacques Juilliard and his wife Anne Marie. It was not Jacques original intent to dive deeply into either farming or winemaking. But there was a commitment to making wine in the most non-interventionist way possible and, once he got his hands dirty, it was ‘game on’. Like a lot of small estates these days, the golden rule was to showcase the terroir. In this case, for this area, the ‘terroir’ has more in common with those famous Chardonnay plots to the north. Yeah, it’s the limestone that makes this plot so Chardonnay-friendly here in the land of granite, something rather rare in this part of the world.
Since it was legitimately ‘natural’, it quickly found an audience. But unlike a lot of wines made this way, it is meticulously clean and bright. The juice is fermented with native yeasts and aged in a combination of amphorae and neutral, 600-liter barrels. No sulfur is added during winemaking and only tiny amounts are used during bottling.
This has all of the trappings of something from the Cote de Beaune with crisp minerality and a touch of salinity in the nose. The flavors run from yellow stone fruits to apple with flecks of grilled nuts and stones. It is round in the mouth, reflecting the warm vintage, but has sufficient cut to keep everything lifted and fresh. Very classy juice for the fare.
In the end, the Domaine de la Sorbière Bourgogne Blanc Terre de Roche 2022 bears a strong resemblance to a Chardonnay from more famous terroirs with its unexpected nuance and purity of fruit save for one important aspect…the price ($17.98)!