2023 Bénédicte & Stéphane Tissot 'Les Graviers' Arbois Chardonnay

Lemon curd, bruised apple, and toasted hazelnuts lead the entry, accompanied by distinct notes of white button mushrooms and crushed chalk. The medium-to-full-bodied palate reveals layers of green pear, salted butter, and a faint hint of beeswax. A piercing, driving acidity cuts straight through the texture, carrying the wine into a intensely savory, stony finish with a long, saline aftertaste.

Biodynamically farmed fruit is harvested by hand and gently pressed in whole clusters. Fermentation triggers naturally with indigenous yeasts in oak barrels, where the juice ages for up to two years. Unlike the traditional regional style of oxidative aging, these barrels are topped off regularly to prevent oxygen contact, a method known as ouillée. The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered with just a minimal addition of sulfur.

Vines are planted in the Arbois AOC, the historic heart of the Jura region in eastern France. The specific 'Les Graviers' parcel is defined by a thin topsoil of limestone scree over deep, heavy beds of Triassic marl. This cold, clay-heavy subsoil imparts a deep structural density and intense mineral focus to the grapes, which ripen slowly under the region's continental climate.