2022 Domaine Cottenceau Les Vignes Du Soleil Montagny 1er Cru

White Burgundy has gotten famously expensive, which is exactly why the smart money is looking south, to the Côte Chalonnaise, and to names like Maxime Cottenceau. He's a young grower, born in 1996, who learned his craft alongside Vincent Dureuil, one of the most respected vignerons in the region. His family had always sold their grapes to the local co-op; Maxime took the vines independent and started making the kind of precise, ambitious Burgundy that gets critics excited. The Wine Advocate is already paying attention. Volumes are tiny, and the domaine is only going one direction.

Vignes du Soleil, "the vines of the sun," is a south-facing Premier Cru parcel, and in Maxime's hands it's one of his richest, most textural wines. Farmed organically and made with a deft touch, the 2022 is everything great white Burgundy should be: fresh citrus, green apple, white flowers, and ripe peach, with a flicker of toast and flint, a fleshy, enveloping mid-palate, and a long, saline, mineral finish. And 2022 was a gorgeous, generous Burgundy vintage.

This is real Premier Cru Burgundy from a grower on the rise, at a price the famous villages stopped offering years ago. Get in before everyone else does.