Finest Viré Clessé 2014

Finest Viré Clessé 2014, France, 12%

(£11, Tesco) 

‘You’ve hit the nail on the head with this – I could sit and drink this…really quite easily! It’s delicious – because it’s subtle.’

So said Galton Blackiston of this delicious, unassuming white Burgundy that Susie paired with his yummy halibut with barbecued new potatoes and samphire on BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen.

Galton knows and likes his wines (he even cooked the halibut in champagne) so this was praise indeed.

The dish itself is classic but with some lovely twists, including caviar and that champagne. If budget were no option then you could go for an even more intense, classy, nutty white Burgundy like Puligny-Montrachet or Meursault. But if you’re after a similar style at the cheaper end of the spectrum, the Macon region, just to the south of these more vaunted names in the Côte d’Or, delivers some great value wines.

This one is fresh but also lovely and rounded and matches up to those gorgeous flavours of beurre noisette, champagne, samphire as well as picking up on the smoky notes from the potatoes. It complements the firm-textured halibut without going over the top – as Galton said, it’s quite a subtle style.

Cheers!

(Susie, 7/10, August 2017)