This is one of the finest white Burgundy estates, where the wine-making involves minimal interventions. It is run by Jean-Marc Blain and his wife Claudine, the daughter of Jacques Gagnard-Delagrange. The family owns some of the village’s greatest hillsides. New oak barrels are never used to excess, being subtly spread amongst the different cuvées, so that spicy oakiness is never perceptible here. Blain is also prudent with stirring-up of the lees (known as bâtonnage) which, if used to excess, may result in heavy wines which taste mealy. Here, on the contrary, the finished wines have great purity of fruit, with balanced acidity and long, clean flavours which clearly evoke the wines’ precise origins.

Puligny-Montrachet Village comes from a single parcel in the lieu-dit “Rue en Vaches." It has a generous, mint-tinged bouquet with melon and grapefruit. The palate is quite shrill on the entry, with piercing acidity: very citric with notes of sour lemon and orange peel. There is a light marine influence here, almost a Muscadet-like personality on the finish.