Agree with Jerry. First producer I thought of that many people don’t usually have in mind when thinking about whites is Pernot. His BBM is awesome. Never had his Batard though, but I’m sure it’s good. Pricing is still very fair.
First and second tier for WB are difficult to define thanks to premox. You can either ignore it, and classify Leflaive, Ramonet and Lafon as tier 1; or you can take it fully into account and include only relatively “safe” producers in either tier. Taking the former approach, I would probably go:
Tier 1: Coche Dury, d’Auvenay, Ramonet, Leflaive
Tier 2: Raveneau, Dauvissat, Sauzet, Carillon, Boillot, Lafon, Roulot (I have not tried Ente IIRC)
That then still leaves plenty of room for very good producers in tier 3
Also, the idea of maybe coming up with 3 tiers is interesting (especially as my pocket is probably more comfortable in the 3rd tier!). But why exclude producers who produce mainly red, if their whites qualify in the relevant tier?
I agree with Jerry Hay on Paul Pernot. Excellent wines!
Lesser known, but fine quality wines at reasonable prices: Domain Rapet Pere et Fils. Excellent whites from Pernand Vergelesses [village and premier cru] to grand cru [Corton Charlemagne]. Fine reds too…
Cheers,
Paul
Some thoughts - using Bordeaux type classifications. Note that I am leaving out producers like Ente with whom I have little experience.
First Growth - Coche Dury, Leflaive, Roulot, Ramonet, PYCM
Second Growth - Sauzet, Bernard Moreau, Raveneau, Dauvissat, Carillon, Ampeau, Drouhin, Bouchard
Third Growth - Niellon, A Jobard, Bonneau du Martray, Pernot, Lafon (rate them this high because they are good when young, but premox), Pierre Morey, Faiveley, Domaine de Lambrays, Buisson-Charles, Marc Colin
I am interested in the reactions of others to it - adding producers I have left out, suggesting changes in placement of producers. I was hoping by the list to better frame this discussion and help it become even more of a good learning exercise for all of us (it has already been quite interesting). Meant to be a start, not an end point.
PYCM and his wife’s wines are distinct domaines, they were never the same domaine. They were not one domaine that have now become two. He makes the wines for her, but they are her vineyards. She just created her own domaine from the vineyards she’s inherited and will continue inheriting.
Ramonet is still the same domaine it was, they just changed the name from Domaine Ramonet to Jean Claude Ramonet. There’s no second domaine where noel is making wine and jean claude is making wine. Other than for maybe tax purposes, it’s the same exact domaine.
Louis carillon no longer exists, it was split into two domaines between Francois and Jacques . It’s been almost 6 vintages since then. Before they worked together at Louis Carillon, now they work separately at their own domaines.
Howard, I would probably make a bunch of changes to that list.
Tier 1: d’Auvenay in, PYCM and Roulot shifted to T2. I know PYCM gets a lot of love, but I just don’t see it as even up there. Some of those T2s consistently make as good or better wines. Roulot demoted because it’s just not first grade terroir, good as the wines are. Rather have a Boillot or Sauzet Montrachet than Roulot Perrieres.
Tier 2: Lafon probably ought to be in there. Hard to see Bernard Moreau at the Raveneau / Dauvissat level, so he’s demoted to T3. Jacques Carillon and Henri Boillot for specificity, Roulot and PYCM dropping in from above. I can live with Bouchard in T2, but Drouhin should be a solid 3.
Tier 3: Seeing as we have Chablis mixed in there’s a whole bunch: Fevre, Piuze and probably more.