2002 Domaine de Roally Mâcon-Montbellet, $19.55 – 23, 13.5% alc.: We’ve had one other wine from Roally, and loved it, so this is a proverbial no – brainer for us. Medium straw color, with beeswax – honeycomb, chalky wet stones, golden delicious apple and lemon flavors and aromas; medium full bodied, with good weight, excellent acidity and a nice finish. A solid core of rich fruit blends seamlessly with the considerable minerality, giving a wine that’s already a pleasure to drink, and yet boding well for three to five years of aging and development, and we’ve bought more for both options. “The northern Mâconnais ripens later than Pouilly-Fuissé and the Chardonnay plants from Goyard and Thévenet are somehow different. -- there are no clonal selections. Goyard always used masale selections and cuttings from old vines when he planted. As did the generation before him and the generation before that. There is an evolved, mutated and complex vine population that you find nowhere else and that is beautifully expressed in the bottle. This is not simply great Mâcon. This is classic, great White Burgundy. Grand Cru in intent and performance, if not in name.” – Joe Dressner

2004 Jean Manciat Mâcon-Charnay Franclieu, $11.90 – 14, 13% alc.: Unlike our colleague Putnam Weekley, we warmed up to this little number from the first glass we poured. (It took him two bottles over three days.) Medium straw color, with an attractive green apple, lime, mineral and rainwater nose; the big, rich flavors echo and expand, being medium full bodied, with excellent cut and a nice finish. As it opens, the minerality continues to come to the fore on the nose, and while this is nice now for its youthful exuberance, it’ll be much better with at least a few years in the cellar to round it out a bit. “Manciat has a passion for wines fermented and aged in oak barrels, and uses a fair amount of new wood for his Vieilles Vignes cuvée and his miniscule production of Saint-Véran. But the Mâcon-Charnay Franclieu featured here is made in stainless-steel vats, to express the fruity, floral aromas and flinty minerality that characterize the best Chardonnay in the region.” – from the Louis/Dressner website.

- From Imported by Louis Dressner

Reporting from Day-twah,

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