Le Montrachet is, by near-universal agreement, the greatest white wine vineyard on earth — eight hectares straddling Puligny and Chassagne, on a gentle east-facing slope where the limestone comes close to the surface.

The Marquis de Laguiche family has owned the largest single holding in Montrachet since the eighteenth century, and since 1947 the wine has been made and sold by Joseph Drouhin — one of the longest partnerships in Burgundy. Drouhin farms it organically and biodynamically, ploughs by horse, and keeps the new oak deliberately low so the site is not obscured.

2016 was brutal in Burgundy: April frost destroyed much of the crop, and what survived was tiny in volume and unusually concentrated. The Côte de Beaune whites of that year are among the most sought-after of the decade precisely because there are so few.

Acacia honey and white peach over hazelnut, ginger and flint; immense on the palate yet somehow weightless, the texture seamless, the saline finish going on well past the point most wines stop. As much an experience as a bottle.