At 557 Chemin des Gerards in Charnay-les-Macon, Jean Manciat tends a compact family estate in southern Burgundy that has become a benchmark for honest, terroir-driven Maconnais white.
Backstory
When Manciat took over the family holdings he immediately left the Charnay cooperative to vinify under his own name. He replanted extensively while preserving as many old vines as possible, building an estate that prizes quality over volume.
The Region
The domaine lies in the Macon, with additional parcels in the prestigious Saint-Veran and Pouilly-Fuisse appellations of the southern Maconnais, a zone of limestone-rich slopes ideally suited to Chardonnay.
Vineyards and Farming
Manciat's vineyards span about 5.5 hectares, small enough to walk in minutes. Grapes are hand-picked and yields kept low, averaging under 50 hectoliters per hectare. He prunes his Chardonnay in the Cote d'Or fashion using a shorter, less productive Guyot cane, finding the resulting quality far higher than the traditional Maconnais style.
Winemaking
Whole clusters are pressed directly and fermented with native yeasts. The wines age on fine lees, with stainless steel tank used for the fresher cuvees and oak barrels, including some new wood, reserved for the Vieilles Vignes and Saint-Veran bottlings. Bottling is done with a light, non-sterile filtration.
The Wines
The range is built around Chardonnay across Macon-Charnay, including the Franclieu and Les Crays cuvees, plus Saint-Veran and Pouilly-Fuisse, with a single red made from Gamay rounding out the portfolio.
