La Soufrandière Pouilly-Vinzelles Les Quarts 2021

Biodynamic. This steep vineyard is the cradle of the Soufrandière estate and one of the Mâcon’s most significant sites. Ploughed mostly by horse and farmed biodynamically since 2001, it’s a vineyard that produces the Bret brothers’ most profound wines. Here, the Bajocian-era limestone soils are high in both calcium carbonate and quartz, and rich in iron (giving the rock an ochre tint). There is also some granitic influence. Most of the vineyard sits on soil only 20 to 30cm in depth before the roots hit the mother rock. In some sections, the topsoil can be scraped aside by hand to reveal the bare limestone. Such a situation, when matched with the appropriate viticulture, results in wines with the mineral clout to cut through even the ripest, juiciest fruit.

What we love about this wine is that it’s so proudly Mâconnais—with layers of textured, voluminous fruit—and yet it is also incredibly precise, with the poise, length and mineral freshness that is so familiar from the best Côte de Beaune whites. It helps that the massale selection vines are aged between 45 and 80 years (with younger vine material at the site declassified into the straight Pouilly-Vinzelles). Right now, the wine is compact and pent-up, yet still exhibiting exceptional density on the palate with crunchy stone fruit, woven through with a hint of matchstick, white flower, salty citrus, sweet herbs and a splash of chalky mineral. All this framed by intense, rocky, mineral freshness and outstanding persistence. Electric Dreams. By any measure, this is stunning white Burgundy at a very fair price.