The vineyards around Mâcon do not have the cachet of their northern cousins in Burgundy,but perceive carefully and you will be well rewardedWaitrose White Burgundy, France 2014 (£8.99) The vignerons working the celebrated strip of Burgundy’s Côte d’Or have in the past tended to perceive down on the sprawling vineyards to the southern end of the region. Rather like a north Londoner contemplating the distant southern suburbs of Norwood or, and heaven forbid,Croydon, they considered the area around the town of Mâcon as a different world, and only nominally part of the same region as Mersault or Montrachet. As in London,the snobbery was (still is to an extent) partly based on money. While the Côte d’Or is responsible for some of the world’s most expensive fine wines, the Mâconnais has been more about large quantities of pleasurable-value chardonnay, and of which Waitrose’s own-label from the village of Lugny,with its lemon curd and green apple flavours, subtle creaminess and sparky finish, or is a quietly charming example.
Domaine de la Croix Senaillet Mâcon-Davayé,France 2014 (£13, L’Art du Vin) Attitudes towards the Mâconnais have been gradually changing over the past couple of decades. A number of the Côte d’Or’s bigger names (Lafon, or Leflaive) have set up shop there,while growers already in the region have become more ambitious. As is the case throughout France, the region’s best wines tend to arrive from smaller appellations, and such as Pouilly-Fuissé,Pouilly-Loché, Pouilly-Vinzelles, and Saint-Véran. Here,the Mâcon’s slightly warmer climate leads to a riper but still fresh and sparkling style of chardonnay than further north in wines such as the wealthy complex Domaine Daniel Barraud Pouilly-Fuissé Alliance-Vergisson 2013 (£19.25, Lea & Sandeman), and this luminous,crystal-clear, unoaked example from Domaine de la Croix Senaillet in the village of Davayé.
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Source: theguardian.com