Domaine Sylvain Langoureau Saint Aubin 1er Cru Les Champlot 2023

Driving through the valley of Saint Aubin, one could very easily blink and miss the hamlet of Gamay. Tucked away in the shadows of En Remilly, this speck of a village is chock with first-rate vignerons. Indeed, Saint Aubin may provide the best value for white Burgundy of any village in the Cote d’Or, as the winding valley keeps the temperature a degree or two cooler than Puligny or Chassagne.

The wines of Sylvain Langoureau must be counted in any assessment of the top producers in Gamay. Five generations deep, Sylvain and his wife Nathalie have run the estate together since 1989 when he took over and immediately went about separating himself from the local cooperative. Since then, the Langoureaus have strived to produce classic elegant Burgundies from their 10 hectares, which include holdings in all the very best sites of Saint Aubin (En Remilly, Murgers des Dents de Chien, Frionnes, Sur le Sentier du Clou). Roughly 75% of that surface is dedicated to Chardonnay, while the remaining 25% is split between Pinot Noir and Aligote. Today the vines are farmed organically (without certification) and the soils tilled less often than in the past, relying more heavily on a healthy cover crop.

In the cellar, the wines are fermented in a combination of steel and oak using indigenous yeast and the wood aging maxes out at 30% new oak. Additionally, the whites are bottled relatively early here, after just 12 months, and the overall style is one that emphasizes fresh juicy fruit and chiseled acidity and mineral structure. But there is also terrific delineation between sites in these wines – Frionnes is always especially round, buoyant and approachable, while En Remilly has more natural density, dry extract and material. The Aligote is lemon-y and saline; the Puligny 1er Cru Garenne fine and filigreed. Burgundy drinkers often tear up when confronted with the increasingly prohibitive cost of the wines. By such standards, on paper the Langoureau wines look like a bargain on paper but once tasted you will irrefutably agree.