2023 Santenay Blanc, Jane Eyre

• Style: Pale lemon, dry white Burgundy
• Taste: Crisp citrus, subtle toasted oak, mineral grip
• Food: Roasted chicken, poached sole, butter-enriched fish
• Occasion: Elegant table wine, food-forward occasions
• Serve: 13.5% ABV, drink now, serve chilled

In the Glass — Tasting Notes

The 2023 Santenay Blanc from Jane Eyre is Chardonnay from one high plot at the southern end of the Côte de Beaune — the village's western edge, where the appellation runs into Maranges — and that cool site is the whole point: village white Burgundy that leads with cut rather than weight. Pale lemon in the glass, it presents crisp citrus with subtle toasted oak, moving across a surprisingly rich palate held together by stony minerality and linear acidity. The wine's crystalline backbone speaks to limestone soils at 400 metres elevation—this is food-forward Burgundy, built for the table rather than the shelf. The Wine Front scored it 94, which is the short answer to whether it is worth buying.

The Winery — Jane Eyre

Eyre has run a micro-négociant operation out of her Cissey winery since 2004, after stints in Margaret River, New Zealand and the Mosel: she picks the parcels, she makes the wine, she keeps the handling light. The route in was not the usual one — a Melbourne hairdresser whose client turned out to be married to Jeremy Oliver, the wine writer, and who took their advice to go and learn in Burgundy. Revue des Vins de France made her its Négociant of the Year in 2021 — no woman had held the title before — and if that sends you looking for more of her wines, the Maison Jane Eyre shelf has the rest. The vintage was plentiful and ripe: a generous crop, a hot and sunny run into September, a hail scare in July and careful sorting at harvest. In the cellar the bunches go in whole and the juice settles before it ferments in French oak. A year's ageing follows, split between 228-litre fûts and larger 500-litre barrels, with one racking before bottling — enough wood to build texture and depth, not enough to shout.

At Your Table — Food Pairing & Serving

Roasted chicken, poached sole and butter-enriched fish are made for this wine. That precision and freshness are what make the matches work, especially with delicate, richly sauced dishes. This is a Sunday-lunch bottle rather than an aperitif — it wants food and company — and it suits anyone who has found oaked Chardonnay heavy going and wants a reason to come back to the grape. Entirely vegan-friendly and at 13.5% alcohol, this white is drink-ready now—no decanting needed. Serve chilled in a standard white wine glass. It lives on our Beaune shelf beside the rest of the Côte, and the wider France range is the next step out when you want to set it against the rest of the country.