Jean Manciat

When Jean Manciat took over and expanded his family’s estate in the Mâconnais, he wasn’t afraid to shake things up. His first order of business was to drop out of the co-op in Charnay, which, like all too many in the region, was focused on volume and not quality. Next, while retaining many of the old Chardonnay vines throughout the 13 acre vineyards, Manciat ripped up all of his estate’s old Gamay and Pinot Noir, replanting extensively and exclusively to Chardonnay using clones from old Pouilly-Fuisse vines. These efforts have yielded precise, understated, food-friendly Macon-Charnays. 

Manciat has a passion for wines fermented and aged in oak barrels, and uses a fair amount of new wood for his Vieilles Vignes cuvée and his miniscule production of Saint-Véran. But the Mâcon-Charnay Franclieu featured here is made in stainless-steel vats, to express the fruity, floral aromas and flinty minerality that characterize the best Chardonnay in the region.