Bâtonnage

Bâtonnage stirs the lees back into suspension while a wine ages in barrel, building the creamy texture readers taste in Chardonnay. Here is the chemistry behind the technique, the oxidation paradox it creates, and why a generation of white Burgundy producers has been quietly putting the stick down.

In the autumn of 2001, Michel Chapoutier walked into a concrete workshop on the eastern edge of Burgundy and asked…

Somewhere around 2011, a generation of American Chardonnay drinkers stopped ordering Chardonnay. The phenomenon had a name, ABC (Anything But…