2015 Seigneurie de Posanges Bourgogne Blanc

2015 Seigneurie de Posanges Bourgogne Blanc

Vintage: 2015

Region: Burgundy, France
Winery: Seigneurie de Posanges

Varieties: Chardonnay

Price: $15 (at Wegmans)

My Rating: 90 Points

The Review: If you're looking for the world's most famous Chardonnay, Burgundy is the place to go. It offers a little bit of everything- slightly oaked and balanced Chardonnays, as well as crisp and minerally unoaked Chardonnays. Either way, the fruit notes and balance are essential to these wines. What you're not going to find here is super over-the-top buttery Chards like you might occasionally have stumbled upon coming out of California. Burgundian winemakers do everything in their power to not have anything outshine the expressive nature of the grape.

Like all French wines (except for wines from Alsace... longish story), Burgundian wines are labeled by region instead of grape. So, unless you want to fight centuries of French snobbery and arrogance, it's your job as an educated consumer to know that white Burgundy is always Chardonnay. If you want to know even more unnecessary things, you can start to study the subregions and styles of Chardonnay from Burgundy, but I'm not going to write all that out. 

I chose the 2015 Seigneurie de Posanges Bourgogne Blanc from Wegmans at the suggestion of my boy Dennis, the resident Weggies wine expert. We were drawn to this one because it's pretty rare to find a white with a touch of age on it, especially for a respectable price. This wine, labeled as "Bourgogne," showed the smallest hints of oak aging, but primarily focused on the balance of delicate white fruits (such as peach and apricot) and even some apple and lemon zest. Like I said, there was the tiniest hint of butter and some faint vanilla. The taste showed incredible minerality that flashed through the palate. There were nice notes of lemon and lime, as well as some green apple and a touch of peach. There was a tiny hint of butter, but the age allowed for this wine to meld incredibly.

I would say that this particular wine has a year or two of life left, but if you can find a white wine with some age to it, it can be a really cool experience. They're particularly nice during winter because they have a bit of body to them, which allows them to hold up to some heartier foods. I'd also encourage you to try a Burgundian Chardonnay if you think you don't like Chardonnay. These wines are a lot more expressive and balanced than Chards from other regions, and are a good way to challenge any previous opinions you had about the grape.

drink what you like,

db