Saint-Véran La Côte Dorée 2020, Domaine Guerrin

This week a delicious Chardonnay from Burgundy available exclusively from Whelehan’s Wines. This has a lovely richness, with peaches and dried apricots alongside some subtle toasty oak; there is plenty of citrus acidity to keep it fresh and it finishes well. Good value for money.

€28 from Whelehan’s, Loughlinstown whelehanswines.ie.

We enjoyed ours with salmon baked in foil with butter, lemon and dill, but this would go nicely with most salmon, turbot and black sole dishes as well as creamy fish pie. Vegetarians should try it with cauliflower cheese, sprinkled with toasted almonds to complement the oak.

Saint-Véran is a part of the Mâconnais region in the south of Burgundy, a source of reliable inexpensive white wine; we in Ireland are very familiar with Mâcon-Lugny and at a higher level, Pouilly-Fuissé. Generally, the wines here offer great value for Chardonnay-lovers. The region is now starting to reach its full potential with some high-quality wines. I have generally found the various Pouillys (Fuissé, Vinzelles, and Loché) to be superior to Saint-Véran but this is one of the exceptions.