Hautes Côtes de Nuits blanc 2024 Domaine Olivier Jouan

The Hautes Côtes de Nuits Blanc 2024 from Domaine Olivier Jouan is one of the rare and genuine pleasures the Côte de Nuits reserves for lovers of fine Burgundian Chardonnay. In an appellation dominated over 95% by Pinot Noir, this white from organically farmed vines deep in the back slopes of the Nuits hills is a precious rarity, proof that fruit quality and textural finesse can reach, in the hands of a demanding vigneron, a level that far exceeds its rank and price.

The terroir and the domaine

Olivier Jouan settled in Arcenant, a small village in the heart of the Hautes Côtes de Nuits, in a seventeenth-century house whose cellar, carved into rock, forms the heart of his operation. A sixth-generation vigneron from Morey-Saint-Denis, whose greatest trading houses once competed for his family's grapes, he was the first to vinify and bottle his own wines, beginning with the 1999 vintage. Trained at Beaune's wine school, he runs his 8.5 hectare vineyard alone with absolute rigour and demand: hand-worked vines, green harvesting to control yields, stern selection at picking, and a naturally organic approach without official certification, by deep conviction rather than administrative need. His Hautes Côtes de Nuits Blanc, made entirely from Chardonnay, receives the same meticulous care as his Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru, Chambolle-Musigny and Morey-Saint-Denis cuvées. The altitude of the Hautes Côtes, its chalky soils and the natural cool of the back slopes give it an aromatic precision and tension that make it an ideal introduction to the domaine's refined and direct style.

Tasting profile

The colour is pale yellow with green glints, bright and clear. The nose strikes with remarkable frankness and purity: aromas of fresh white fruits, apple, pear and white peach, open onto delicate floral notes of acacia and hawthorn, with a light hazelnut touch and a chalky, taut minerality that marks the limestone imprint of the Hautes Côtes terroir. On the palate, the fruit quality and textural finesse are immediately apparent: the attack is lively and clean, driven by fresh acidity, well integrated and structuring a substance that is both light and generous. The texture is silky and precise, the balance remarkable, and the finish long, fruity and mineral, pleasantly extending that sense of purity and authenticity. A Chardonnay that is powerful and fresh at once, direct and sincere, to be enjoyed in its youth or aged three to five years.

Food pairings

This Hautes Côtes de Nuits Blanc will pair beautifully with pan-seared scallops in brown butter, gravlax salmon with fresh herbs, trout with almonds, fresh pasta with cream and wild mushrooms, roast Bresse chicken or asparagus and parmesan risotto. It will also harmonise well with soft cheeses such as Chaource or fresh goat cheese from the Hautes Côtes. Served between 10 and 12°C, it will show all the freshness and precision of a rare and engaging Chardonnay from the Nuits back slopes.