Henri Germain 2008 Meursault and Chassagne

Pristine Meursault and Chassagne from this Reluctant Star

“I have been saying it for years but I will say it again: if you don’t know these wines, you should because the quality is just too good to ignore. The style is intensely classic…” Allen Meadows, Burghound, July 2009
“…[Domaine Henri Germain] have made brilliant progress in recent years.” The Greatest Wines of France, 2008

Quiet, unassuming and media shy, Jean-François Germain crafts some of the most delicious and under-exposed white Burgundies on the Cote. We have been earnestly beating a drum for the quality of this fine Domaine for many years, as we believe Henri Germain to be a benchmark white Burgundy producer of the highest order; up there with the very, very best. Recent years have seen Germain’s star rise in the export markets, due in part to American critics waking up to their senses. But what is perhaps most telling for us, is the admiration that Germain receives on the Cote itself. One of our favourite stories about this producer came from the legendary Bruno Clair, who told us that his brother buys Jean-Francois Germain’s whites each year now and without fail calls Bruno to inform him how much better the Germain whites are to those released under the Bruno Clair label! Clair went on to praise the high standard of viticulture practised by Jean-François Germain. Burgundians like Bruno Clair do not offer such praise lightly.

The Germain methods are traditional and considerable effort is put in to reducing yields and maintaining concentration. They favour nature over nurture and keep interference to a minimum. Their cold, deep cellars in Meursault ensure that late malolactic fermentations lead to complex, flavoursome wines and set them up for a long, slow evolution. Clive Coates observes that Germain is always happy to let nature take its course, which explains much about the purity of... learn more