2022 Domaine Coteaux des Margots Macon-Villages Chardonnay 750 ml

“Cancel your flight,” Pierre-Julien Duroussay told his brother Paul. “It’s already over.”

Pierre-Julien was calling from the Burgundy town of Pierreclos. Over 6,000 miles away in the Bay Area, Paul had been packing his bags to fly home to help his family harvest their vineyards. But Mother Nature had other plans, and thanks to a hot August, most of the fruit was already picked by September 1—and it was excellent.

“It’s a great vintage,” Paul told us, barely concealing a smile. “The maturity of the skins was perfect, and we had good yields.” As Robb Report said: “The Burgundy 2022 harvest is showing to be excellent in both quality and quantity.”

Savvy Chardonnay lovers have long known that in the Mâconnais, small, conscientious producers are producing some of the most dynamic Chardonnays in France—at prices that put their peers in Chassagne and Puligny to shame. But not as many know that the chalky hills of Pierreclos are a true sweet spot, made famous by the likes of Guffens-Heynen ($80+). In 2022, the Duroussays nailed the warm vintage. 

Domaine Côteaux des Margots is a family affair in Pierreclos, where Jean-Luc Duroussay, his wife Veronique, and son Pierre-Julien do all of the farming, winemaking, and selling together—helped occasionally by their son Paul, an importer in the Bay Area.

The domaine was launched by patriarch Joannes Duroussay in 1945, after he was released from a four-year stretch in a German prison camp. He made his living by day as a courtier, or wine broker, and by playing saxophone at night. Somehow he also found time to plant Chardonnay vines, which are still cranking out concentrated fruit in their 50s and 60s.