Roast Chicken Deserves Meursault

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Roast chicken is the dish cooks use to judge one another, and the dish wine lovers use to justify a serious white Burgundy. The logic is simple. A well-roasted bird is mostly salt, fat and browned skin, with a pan of juices that tastes of butter even when none went in. It needs a wine with the weight to stand beside it and the acidity to cut through it. Meursault has both.

Why Meursault

Meursault sits in the Côte de Beaune, between Volnay and Puligny-Montrachet. It has no grand cru vineyard, yet its finest premier crus, Perrières, Charmes and Genevrières, are bought and cellared as seriously as many wines that do.

The village’s Chardonnay is usually fermented and aged in barrel, and the best producers use oak to build texture rather than to flavour the wine. The result is broad and savoury, with a nutty, toasted character that deepens with age, held together by a line of acidity. That combination is the whole case for the pairing. The toast in the glass meets the browned skin on the plate, the texture of the wine matches the texture of the meat, and the acidity resets the palate after every forkful dragged through the pan juices.

The pairing fails at both extremes. A lean, steely white tastes thin next to the skin. A heavily oaked Chardonnay with no acidity turns the meal into butter on butter. Meursault sits in between, which is why it has become the default answer.

Cook for the Bottle

Keep the seasoning classic: salt the bird well ahead, roast it hot, and put thyme and half a lemon in the cavity. Tarragon, mushrooms and a spoonful of cream in the pan sauce pull the dish closer to the wine. A sticky glaze, chilli or a heavy hand with raw garlic pull it away.

Serve the wine cool rather than cold. Take it out of the refrigerator twenty minutes before the chicken comes out of the oven; straight from the fridge, Meursault closes up and loses exactly the richness you are paying for. A young premier cru benefits from half an hour in a decanter.

The Bottles

Bouchard Père & Fils Meursault Les Clous 2022

The bottle for the bird itself. Les Clous is a village-level vineyard, and this is Meursault in its brighter register: citrus and orchard fruit up front, with enough texture to take on the skin. Open it on a Sunday without a second thought. Shop it at Wine.com.

Domaine Roux Père & Fils Meursault Les Charmes Premier Cru 2022

For the night the chicken is the excuse. Charmes is known as one of the village’s more open, generous premier crus, and it gives the pairing more of everything: weight, breadth and that savoury, nutty depth. Serve it with the tarragon cream sauce and set the table properly. Shop it at Wine.com.

The Next Day

Save a glass. Cold chicken, a little mayonnaise and the last of a Meursault that has had a night to open in the refrigerator make one of the great unglamorous lunches.

The Pairing is Santé’s daily column on one dish and the wine that makes it better. A new pairing every evening.