Marcel Couturier

Chardonnay · Pouilly-Fuisse Clos Scelles · Burgundy

$86 per bottle

Clos Scelles is the grandest wine of the range, a blend of old parcels in Fuisse and Chaintre on shale and deep clay, with vines up to ninety years old. This is Pouilly-Fuisse with real ambition: broad yet tightly structured, stone fruit and hazelnut framed by a firm, saline line, the kind of southern-Burgundy white that closes the gap on the Cote d'Or. Give it a few years.

Chardonnay · Pouilly-Loche Le Bourg · Burgundy

$95 per bottle

Le Bourg is a walled Couturier monopole of eighty-year-old vines on almost pure clay, where the limestone has long since dissolved away. The old vines, touched by the court-noue virus, give tiny berries and minute yields, and the wine shows it: concentrated and deep, with outsized flavour for the appellation and the structure to age. A rare, single-vineyard Maconnais worth seeking out.

Chardonnay · Macon-Loche Longues Terres · Burgundy

$56 per bottle

Longues Terres comes from vines over thirty years old around Loche, on a thin clay-limestone layer over hard rock. Made without additions and aged in seasoned barrels, it is vivacious and pure: white peach, citrus and a saline snap, with more depth and persistence than its modest billing suggests. The family has shown bottles a decade on still singing, so there is no rush.

Chardonnay · Macon Aux Scelles · Burgundy

$50 per bottle

Domaine Marcel Couturier works the southern Maconnais from Fuisse, certified organic and biodynamic, with daughter Cladie and son Auxence now alongside Marcel. The vines sit on a geological fault, so several soils meet in a small space. This Macon is the freshest expression: picked by hand, fermented wild and raised in old barrels, all orchard fruit, lemon and a chalky lift. An honest, unforced introduction to a serious grower.

Chardonnay · Pouilly-Loche Vieilles Vignes · Burgundy

$89 per bottle

This comes from the domaine's oldest vines around Loche, close to ninety years of age, and is made only in vintages that warrant it. The rest of the time the fruit disappears into the village wine, so its appearance is a marker of a good year. Expect concentration and quiet power, layers of orchard and citrus fruit over a long, mineral spine. Built to reward the cellar.

Chardonnay · Pouilly-Loche · Burgundy

$84 per bottle

Pouilly-Loche is the smallest village appellation in southern Burgundy, a near neighbour of Pouilly-Fuisse with a fraction of the renown, and Couturier is one of only a handful of estates to bottle it. From east-facing parcels on heavy clay-limestone, this is the structured, architectural side of the Maconnais: firm and serious, citrus and stone wrapped around a mineral core. A white that drinks like it costs more.