Many years ago, a friend told me about a great vigneron: Fabrice Larochette. I made contact with him and scheduled an appointment with him for my next trip to France. After chatting with him for fifteen minutes, it felt like we were old friends. Fabrice tasted me through his whole lineup of wines, and they were incredible! That first meeting was the start of a fantastic relationship, and Fabrice's wines have been staples of our white Burgundy selection ever since. He refuses to use any oak, believing the barrels take away from the pure essence of the Chardonnay grape. His wines are some of the best values on the market today and an easy choice for my house Burgundy! The Larochette family has been in the wine business for four generations. Fabrice uses their 10+ hectares of land to produce white Burgundies exclusively. It is his true passion in life, and I have met few winemakers more devoted to the cause of terroir-driven wines.

Fabrice Larochette's Saint-Véran is an absolute home run. On the nose, the Saint-Véran exhibits notes of ripe cantaloupe and a touch of vanilla, mixed with a gorgeous stony minerality. This is a medium-bodied Chardonnay with a lemon meringue fruitiness on the attack, followed by a mouth-coating, creamy texture on the mid-palate. It finishes with a wonderfully delicate acidity that balances the wine beautifully. The purity of fruits matched with superior winemaking result in an elegant white Burgundy that will please almost any wine drinker at the table.