2024 La Pierre Ronde (Antoine Lepetit de la Bigne) Meursault "Les Perchots"

If you wanted to know who actually ran the vineyards at Domaine Leflaive during the Anne-Claude years, the answer was Antoine Lepetit de la Bigne. A Polytechnique graduate in agronomy and oenology, he spent eight years at Leflaive as the house’s biodynamic brain, co-founded the École du Vin et des Terroirs with Anne-Claude in 2008, and wrote the book on the subject (literally: “What’s So Special About Biodynamic Wines,” 2012). After her death in 2015 he left to consult, and half the serious organic cellars in the Côte de Beaune have had him walk their rows since. In 2021 started his own label, using fruit form the greatest growers he had come to know over his years in the Cote D'Or. Meursault is where the project shows its strength. The village wines come from old vines on the Volnay side, Les Perchots above and Les Malpoiriers below, next to En la Barre, and there’s a premier cru from Charmes Dessus, the upper, more limestone half of Meursault’s most famous climat. The winemaking is a practice in restraint: native yeasts, a mix of barrels and terracotta amphorae, with wood kept fairly quiet, leading to wines led by orchard fruits and depth of texture, with excellent drive and energy, and flashes of balanced weight. The Perchots and the Charmes Dessus are made in quantities of a few barrels each, so allocations are small and the wines don’t around often.