2024 Domaine Dupeuble Beaujolais Blanc 750 ml

A few years ago, on a trip through France, we were blown away by a white wine while we were in Burgundy. It was from the area, made entirely from Chardonnay, and it completely caught us off guard.

On its face, there’s nothing surprising about it: Old-vine Chardonnay from southern Burgundy, boasting the same limestone tension that defines the Côte d’Or. Fashioned by a 500-year-old estate that’s been showered with critical praise, it has the ring of a $100 blue-chip bottle.

But the name on the label wasn’t Bourgogne, but Beaujolais—and white wines labeled that way are quite rare. That’s because much of northern Beaujolais overlaps with the Mâcon, and it’s much easier to sell white wines labeled as Mâcon-Village or Pouilly-Fuissé, which can easily command $75 or more in today’s market. But Domaine Dupeuble’s wines are proudly Beaujolais, which is where they’ve been making wine for generations. 

Grown on just five acres in the sunny, warm commune of Le Breuil, this is a hidden gem. While unoaked, the wine’s creamy texture could easily mislead you into thinking this saw the inside of a very expensive barrel. At the same time, it embodies the Burgundian concept of légèreté, or lightness, almost skimming across the palate.

Vinous has called Domaine Dupeuble’s wines “insanely easy to drink,” proposing they “ought to be bottled exclusively in magnums for single-serving portions.” Noting that the estate is growing its small holdings of Chardonnay to meet rapidly escalating demand, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate writes of Domaine Dupeuble: “Year by year they seem to be attracting more customers and I understand why. There is a brightness to these wines, a sense of joie de vivre.”

Domaine Dupeuble has been operating continuously since 1512, leveraging property and mastery of terroir into some of the region’s best deals. The family’s dedication to the sustainable principles of lutte raisonnée is rigorous—these ancient vines are never sprayed with chemicals, and the only fertilizer that ever touches their roots is crumbly, black compost.

This is a great wine. It’s hard to imagine one more versatile at the table, and more crowd pleasing for a wide variety of palates.