2024 Puligny-Montrachet Les Charmes, Domaine Alain Chavy

• Style: Dry village white Burgundy, oaked Chardonnay, 12.5%
• Taste: Buttery, full-flavoured, saline mineral edge, taut and fresh
• Food: Roast chicken, baked cod, crab, chanterelles in cream, Brie
• Occasion: Date Night; Gifting
• Serve: Open now with a little air; will cellar several more years

In the Glass — Tasting Notes

What Puligny-Montrachet does better than any other village on the Côte de Beaune is hold three things in tension at once – salinity, power and poise – and this 2024 Les Charmes shows exactly that. It is the bottle we reach for when someone asks what serious white Burgundy tastes like without paying grand cru money: buttery breadth across the palate, a mineral, saline edge that keeps it fresh, and a modest 12.5% alcohol that stops any of that richness turning heavy. Its oak influence is why it earned a place among our Whites with Oak, and the 90-point score backs up what we found in it. It is pure Chardonnay, which in this corner of eastern France has always been the only grape behind the great whites, grown on the narrow band of mid-slope vineyards where the soil is neither too thin nor too rich.

The Winery — Domaine Alain Chavy

The Chavy name has been part of Puligny-Montrachet since the 1970s, when the family first began making wine in the village. In 2003 Alain and his brother went their separate ways, dividing the family holdings so each could follow his own path, and Alain set up his own domaine. Today he works ten hectares, among them parcels of some of the village's most prestigious premier crus – Les Clavoillons, for one, was planted by the Chavys back in the 1950s. Alain has built his whole reputation on capturing the balance of salinity, power and elegance that is particular to Puligny, and the cellar helps: at five and a half metres down it is the deepest in the village, giving his cuvées an unhurried, cool élevage. The 2024 Les Charmes is sealed under natural cork. We have no vegan confirmation from the domaine, so do ask if that matters to you. Every wine from Domaine Alain Chavy we list has been chosen with the same care.

At Your Table — Food Pairing & Serving

This is a wine built for the table. The classic Burgundian matches all work: a roast or poached chicken, baked sea bass or cod, crab, anything steamed and finished with butter, and above all chanterelles in a cream sauce. A wedge of Brie or Saint-Nectaire closes the meal nicely. We would happily open it now with a little air, though it has the structure to sit in the cellar for several more years – which makes it as good a gift as it is a date-night bottle. It sits comfortably alongside the rest of our white Burgundy selection, so if you enjoy this style, our Whites with Oak and wider Chardonnay ranges are well worth exploring, as is the full Domaine Alain Chavy line-up.