Full disclosure: I started this post as a quick paragraph for the Best Things We Drank in 2024 post on Vancouver Magazine, but I started typing and typing and gushing and explaining and it soon became apparent that my fellow editors, upon seeing that I had written 500 words when I was asked for a “few sentences” might be…off-put. But I realized I needed more space to express my enthusiasm for chosen tipple, so here goes.

I was lucky enough to be in Burgundy (or Bourgogne, BOUR-goy-nyah, as the French call it—and they’d like us to as well, btw) this fall, and like most visitors to this hallowed ground I had a pecking order of greatest hits I wanted to check off. Chambertin Clos de Beze is my fave vineyard, so that was on it. The wines of Domaine Dujac have been long time faves, so that was another proposed stop. But in wine, as in life, it’s the unexpected that is often the one that sneaks up and grabs a hold of your heart and for me that was the wine of the Maconnais.

A quick, perhaps overly simplified, geography lesson, if I may. The boldest names in Burgundy come from the Cote de Nuits (predominantly reds) and the Cote de Beaune (both red and white, but the whites ). The regions, respectively produce the most prized and expensive wine around the globe. South of them is the Maconnais, a large area that includes the charming town of Macon and where most of the wine is white and is made with Chardonnay. The flagship wine here is Pouilly Fuissé, a wine that in the 1970s and early 80s had an unprecedented name recognition (please read my story on it being name-checked on both the Facts of Life and the Mary Tyler Moore Show). The wine is still famous but in terms of pecking order I think it’s fair to say it’s been surpassed by its northern Cote de Beaune neighbours of Meursault, Montrachet and Corton-Charlemagne (all of which, it should be noted, costs several factors more than Pouilly Fuissé).

So all this, is the background to visiting the Maconnais. First of it’s a stunning area and to me, with its craggy cliffs and round valleys, is the most beautiful part of Bourgogne. But it was the wines—the Saint Veran as well as the Pouilly that blew my doors off. The thoughtful producers, who take care of their vines and are really judicious with their grape selection are making wine that 100% deserves to be in the conversation with their more lauded neighbours as to who is currently making the greatest Chardonnay on earth. I know that sound hyperbolic and to be clear, I don’t drink enough $800 of Montrachet to make an informed comparison with the very top end, but I can tell you if I were asked to choose between spending $60 on a Pouilly-Fuissé or $150 on an entry level bottle of Meursault I’d choose the PF so fast it would make your beret spin.

And now here’s the payoff if you’ve read this far: the two producers I most admired are available in BC. Big deal, you say, but given how little wine is produced in Bourgogne and the vagaries of the BCL this is beyond a big deal – this is a Christmas miracle. Literally needle in a haystack occurrence given the variables, we’re dealing with. I can’t recommend this wine strongly enough and the price point is not that higher than in France.

Chateau de Beauregard Pouilly Fuissé Ver Cras 2020 $65

Beauregard is a beautiful historic property, ideally situate in the best part of the valley and with significant holding throughout the area. I loved all the wines and my notes for the Ver Cras, grown on the vineyards that surround the Chateau talk of a wine that is both restrained, yet full of energy, like a thoroughbred in a starting gate. There’s a thoughtful use of oak but the wine just feels so fantastically complete. All this for less an entry level bottle of Rombauer. And while only the Ver Cras is available here, Beauregard has good distribution for their wines—if you see them, snag ’em.

 

Domaine Thibert Pere et Fils Pouilly Fuissé Heritage 2018 $62

Domaine Thibert is a smaller operation, tucked into a very spare and modern space in the middle of the small town of Fuissé. It’s the sort of place that when you walk in and see just how everything has a casual, but focussed style that you have a sense they they’re going to make the sort of wine you like (the curse/benefit of working at a design magazine for all these years). And if anything my sense underplayed just how good they are: I was tasting early on a Saturday morning and the wines arrived with such electricity that my wits (and tastebuds) were instantly alive and excited. This is a masterclass in balancing elegance with power and the tension that results keeps these wines taut like piano wire in Lapland. The grapes in this bottle come from very old vines (avg. 75 years) and they produce a wine that absolutely speak to Pouilly Fuissé’s place in the pantheon of great wines. It was one of those special occasions that 30 minutes in, I knew I’d be searching these wines out every time I walk through a wine store or flip open a wine list.