Philippe Pacalet Meursault

Philippe Pacalet founded his maison in 2001 as a direct disciple of Jules Chauvet — the scientist who laid the intellectual groundwork for natural winemaking — and famously declined an offer to make wine at Romanée-Conti to pursue his own vision of terroir transparency. That vision is fully expressed here. Meursault's clay-limestone soils deliver the textural weight Chardonnay needs, while Pacalet's organically farmed plots (uncertified) and yield restriction to ~31–35 hL/ha ensure concentration comes from the land, not the cellar. Whole-cluster pressing over approximately six hours is followed by a maximum 12-hour settling of must — deliberately brief, without temperature control, to preserve wild yeast populations. Fermentation and full malolactic conversion proceed in 228 L French oak pièces on indigenous yeasts, with new oak held below 25% to avoid masking the appellation's character. The wine then ages 12–16 months on lees without racking, kept in suspension via barrel-rolling — a reductive, saline approach that is the house signature across all whites. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, with no sulphur added until the moment of bottling. The 2020 vintage brought drought stress and atypical richness to Pacalet's normally tensile style — village-level wines show more weight than usual and are best approached relatively early in their window.