Jane Eyre Santenay Blanc 2022
£53.95
The wine
Pale lemon and very expressive, with ripe lemon married to a subtle toastiness. Rich and textured on the palate, kept in balance by a fresh acidity.
Santenay sits at the southern end of the Côte de Beaune, below Chassagne-Montrachet, and its whites are considerably better value than the famous neighbour. The Chardonnay was gently whole-bunch pressed at Jane winery at Cissey and left to settle before racking to barrel. Being one commune further out is worth a great deal in price and very little in the glass.
The producer
Jane Eyre
View all Jane Eyre winesJane Eyre is originally from Melbourne, and came to wine by an unlikely route. In 1998 she was working as a hairdresser when she asked a client, who happened to be the wife of the wine writer Jeremy Oliver, whether she knew of any winery that might take her for work experience. The Olivers suggested Burgundy. It has been an inextricable part of her life ever since.
Before settling there she built an enviable apprenticeship: Cullen in Margaret River, Felton Road and Ata Rangi in New Zealand, and Ernie Loosen in the Mosel. Four of the most exacting addresses in the New World and one of the great Riesling estates of the Old. She has been based in Burgundy since 2004, buying fruit rather than owning vineyards, which in the Côte d'Or is less a compromise than a discipline: without land of her own, everything depends on the relationships she has built with growers and on the judgement she brings to the cellar.
The wines are made in small quantities across a wide spread of appellations, and the style is consistent whatever the village: whole-bunch fermentation where the fruit merits it, restrained use of new oak, and bottling without heavy handling. The intention is transparency to site rather than a house signature imposed on top of it.
