2015 Simonnet-Febvre Bourgogne Chardonnay Burgundy 750 ml

This nicely under-$20 Simonnet-Febvre Bourgogne from 2015 is the object of our current obsession. It’s a wine that was unfamiliar to us until Louis Latour’s Bernard Retornaz sent us a bottle and told us to meet him at Point Reyes for oysters and slabs of Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam triple crème. You bet we obliged. 

But more to the point, as we would discover, it’s just now entering its prime drinking window. White Burgundy begins peaking right around its fifth year in the bottle, and this is no exception. At $17, no other region can deliver an equally complex, taut and focused Chardonnay with five years of glorious cellar age. This is a miraculous wine, delivering green apple, Asian pear, quince, white flowers, and flinty minerality backed by bright Burgundian acid tension—it was delicious washing down every oyster and utterly heart-warming with that Mt. Tam. Thanks, Bernard. Case-buys are highly recommended. 

With Simonnet-Febvre, we’ve historically gravitated to the label’s lip-smacking, unbeatably priced Chablis wines. But beginning in 2014, they quietly released a “Bourgogne” Chardonnay, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. In 2015, a generous summer in Burgundy led to magnificent wines of incredible depth and weight, absolutely evident in this Simonnet-Febvre Bourgogne. One Decanter critic wrote, “the 2015s in barrel evoke the 1985s: the best white vintage I ever tasted.” Now, heading into their fifth year in the bottle, many are just singing. 

Ever since 2003, when Louis-Fabrice Latour scooped up Simonnet-Febvre, the label has risen in stature, effectively getting what we’re calling the “Latour Treatment.” No matter the site—Grand Cru, Premier Cru, village-level—Latour is unique in that they treat all their parcels the same in the cellar: they handle grapes from the village level with the same care as those from their most-prized Grands Crus.

Inextricably linked to the evolution of Burgundy over the last three centuries, the Latour family were first notable coopers and eventually purchased their first vineyards in the Côte d’Or in 1731. From that point, the family patiently but persistently built a reputation as one of the preeminent wine négociants in Burgundy, and steadily built a significant portfolio of top vineyards over the course of the last 289 years.

White Burgundy peaks around its fifth year in the bottle, and this is no exception. At $17, you can enjoy utterly complex, taut and focused Chardonnay, if you just know where (and when) to look.