A thoroughbred beauty with no mank, plank or cheese in sight

There is nothing quite like great white Burgundy, says Matthew Jukes – especially when it's Viré-Clessé.

Matthew Jukes
By Matthew Jukes
published

821-wine-634

2014 Vir-Cless, Vieilles Vignes, Florent Rouve Slection, Mconnais, Burgundy, France (£13.50, Marks & Spencer, MarksAndSpencer.com/wineshop).

There is nothing quite like great white Burgundy. When the chardonnay grape is fermented skilfully, with just the right amount of oak, this is one of the world's most coveted wine styles. Sadly, manyof them prove to be lean, manky, planky and cheesy, and this is why Australia, New Zealand, California and other interlopers are attracting so much business with this mesmerising white-wine grape.

Having said that, every so often a wine comes along with every single molecule in the right place. These thoroughbred beauties usually cost the earth and I will gladly, but sadly not as often as I would like, pay the price. Unicorn Burgundies, as I like to call them, are very rare indeed and this old vine chardonnay from the erstwhile appellation of Mcon-Cless is just such a beast. It is dreamy, lusty, succulent and yet refreshing. The oak is old and it doesn't mark the wine it merely caresses its flanks, which shimmer and shudder in the glass.

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The wine is lovingly assembled by wine-maker Florent Rouve, and his respect for the calibre of fruit and its complexity is evident before you take a sip because a nose never lies. The scent of this wondrous wine is thrilling. I can still recall its aroma some three weeks after I tasted it.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (MatthewJukes.com).

Matthew Jukes
Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy.  His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.

 

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