Puligny-Montrachet, Domaine Bzikot 2022

Sylvain Bzikot is traditional and respectful in his approach to winemaking and the effect really shows in the end product. The grapes for this, his village level wine, are hand harvested and half of it is matured in 1yr old oak barrels to add some richness and density, with the other half matured in stainless steel to preserve the freshness and delicacy of flavour of the fruits. It's full of quite upfront nectarine, peach, honeysuckle and fresh citrus fruit flavours with buttery and hazelnut notes coming through mid-palate.

Drinking beautifully now and only getting better over the next few years, this is a perfect match for things like seared scallops, roast guinea fowl with wild mushrooms, or a wedge of aged Comté.

Based in the heart of the Côte de Beaune village of Puligny-Montrachet Sylvain Bzikot makes wines with real personality. His medium sized estate was originally created by his grandparents in the 1940s who arrived, as Polish immigrants, to work in the vineyards around the neighbouring village of Meursault. After a few years of working in the fields they were able to gradually acquire small parcels of land. At first it wasn't just vines; cereals were also cultivated and cattle raised. But now that his parents have retired Sylvain's focus is on the vineyards and the estate started bottling their own wines around the turn of the century. Vineyard work is carried out in a traditional manner and all grapes for village wines are handpicked before being pneumatically pressed to aid soft extraction.