Etienne Sauzet Bourgogne Blanc

When co-heir Jean-Marc Boillot withdrew his share of the Sauzet vineyards in the early 1990s, the family was forced to rebuild through new acquisitions and a deliberate négociant arm — the estate as it exists today is a post-reconstruction project, not an inherited monolith. That structural decision also explains why Sauzet cannot formally label its wines 'Domaine': roughly one-third of production blends purchased fruit with estate-grown grapes, a legally unusual hybrid that prioritises quality consistency over appellative prestige. The Bourgogne Blanc draws from clay-and-limestone (argilo-calcaire) soils across Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet, where the chalk fraction drives the tensile, site-specific minerality that separates this village-level wine from generic Burgundy Blanc. Whole-cluster pneumatic pressing feeds fermentation in French oak casks at 18–20°C with indigenous yeasts; the wine ages 12 months in barrel on approximately 20% new oak, then rests a further six months in stainless-steel tank on a proportion of its lees before bottling — an 18-month total lees program that is the house signature at every tier. That extended tank phase is the special feature: most village Burgundy is bottled at 12 months; Sauzet's additional six months in tank builds textural weight without adding oak. The 2013 vintage in Burgundy delivered naturally high acidity and precise, tightly wound structure — this wine is drinking well now but retains the chalky backbone for continued development.