2011 white Burgundy has a lot to recommend it. There’s freshness, life and zest here, and typicity too. Olivier Lamy, at the helm at St Aubin’s consistent over-achiever Hubert Lamy, was happy with the vintage. Despite the early harvest, the whites retained their acidity because of the cool July. Olivier sees lots of freshness and life in the wines and these are great value bets as ever. His St Aubin Les Frionnes has a roundness and delicacy common to Chassagne-Montrachet and the Clos de la Chantenière is a dead ringer for serious Puligny in the appellation next door.

I’ve been a fan of Jean-Marc Brocard’s Chablis for some time. It’s usually good value and delivers appetizing, moreish Chablis in a pretty classical style. What’s more increasingly production here is being converted to bio-dynamic methods and long term they are looking for all their vineyards to be tended along those lines. For those with a keen eye, Brocard’s bio-dynamic wines are identified by miniature ladybirds and half-moons on the label as in the bottle of Vaulorent above. I recently had the chance to taste wines from the 2009 vintage which has lovely forward and ripe qualities, probably slightly atypical for Chablis, but nevertheless there is still good balancing acid and wonderful minerality as you would expect. Two 2010’s were also tasted under the less expensive Domaine St Claire label and looked pretty good too.

The chance to taste fourteen separate Chablis from a single grower across the same vintage was an opportunity too interesting to pass up on the final day of the London Wine Fair. Also thrown in were a couple of 2009 wines. Jean-Marc Brocard is one of the larger Chablis producers, a business he started from scratch in 1974. Some of the vineyards have been put on a biodynamic footing.