Monthelie 1er Cru Les Champs Fulliots AOC 2023

Wine description for Monthelie 1er Cru Les Champs Fulliots AOC 2023 by Rémi Jobard

Colour & appearance

Pale straw yellow with green reflections – clear and cool in appearance, much like the wine itself.

Nose

Initially restrained, almost austere, then the wine opens up layer by layer: green apple skin, lime zest, behind which lie Nashi pear, aniseed and wild fennel, framed by a saline, almost maritime freshness. An aromatic profile that rewards patience.

Palate

Juicy, ripe fruit with a creamy texture meets a stark salinity and a sharply defined line of acidity. Fine, almost dusty phenolics lend grip, beneath which lies a rich core of yellow fruit with a hint of icing sugar. Powerful, vibrant, with a firm foundation and precise contours – a wine of tension and depth.

Finish

Long, taut and saline, with lingering minerality and a finely bitter edge that keeps the palate alert.

Terroir & origin

Les Champs Fulliots is situated in Monthelie, the quiet neighbouring village to Meursault and Volnay. The plots lie comparatively high at around 250 to 300 metres with a south-easterly aspect – a vineyard site that unites cool freshness and ripe fruit in one wine. Rooted in Meursault, Rémi Jobard has farmed organically since the 1990s; the estate is now Ecocert-certified, and the vines are tended manually without herbicides or synthetic fertilisers.

Grape variety & vinification

Pure Chardonnay, hand-harvested and gently pressed over many hours – Jobard’s hallmark, yielding only the finest, bitterness-free must. Fermentation takes place spontaneously with indigenous yeasts. The wine matures in wood for around twelve months – half in used barriques (only twelve per cent new) and large, older foudres – followed by six months’ rest in stainless steel. It is bottled unfiltered.

Food recommendations

The combination of creamy texture and racy acidity calls for dishes with substance and freshness: sole in beurre blanc, pan-fried turbot with fennel, chicken in lemon-thyme jus or young Comté. Risotto with green asparagus also finds an equal partner here.

Special characteristics

A Monthelie that thinks like a Meursault: Jobard brings his signature – unhurriedness, restraint with oak, uncompromising clarity – to a vineyard site that rarely stands in the spotlight. The result is a Premier Cru that moves between mineral austerity and sublime complexity, demonstrating why Sarah Marsh MW describes this estate as “top quality under the radar”. Those who give it time will be rewarded with a wine that has more to say than its village suggests.