2019 Olivier Morin Pere & Fils Olympe Chitry Bourgogne Blanc 750 ml

Every white-wine lover in the world knows Chablis—yet Chitry, just 13 minutes to the southwest, deserves a share of the spotlight. Olivier Morin’s 2019 Olympe proves it. 

While many of their neighbors historically focused on cherries, which ripened to perfection in the village’s west-facing amphitheater, the Morins have always been devoted to the vine. They knew Chardonnay could ripen just as beautifully here, and they’ve long crafted wines that the Wine Advocate said demonstrate “the distinctive quality possible in Chitry.”

Olympe comes from their best hillside parcels, where vines up to 60 years of age sit on Kimmeridgian and clay-limestone soils, similar to those in top Chablis sites. Laced with apple, apricot, chamomile, cardamom, and smoke aromas, the wine is simultaneously broad, dense, and defined, with a creamy texture that carries notes of green apple, toast, and smoked almonds to a crisp finish. In the words of Sean McGinness, Director of Service at three-MICHELIN-star Addison in San Diego, it’s “remarkably balanced and characterful.”

For part of the 20th century, Chitry’s wines were sold as village Chablis, but when Chablis earned its appellation status in the 1930s, Chitry opted out. By that time, the Morin family had already been farming the region’s hillsides for centuries.

They’ve owned their eleven hectares since at least 1650. Olivier Morin’s grandfather was among the first vignerons in Chitry to domaine-bottle wine, and Olivier has maintained the family’s reputation as a standard-bearer for the appellation. He farms his vineyards meticulously while honoring the land, with organic certification forthcoming.

From a stellar vintage, his 2019 OIympe is Chitry at the height of its complexity and sophistication.