White burgundies range in style from the tight flintiness of Chablis through the broad butteriness of Mâcon to the sheer exotic power of a great Puligny-Montrachet or Meursault.

What unites them of course is that all these wines are made from Chardonnay, that ubiquitous, and for some, infamous grape that fills a slot in almost all New World producers’ ranges. White burgundy however has a balance and complexity that is only found in the very, very best of its pretenders.

Buying burgundy is both a minefield and a time-consuming operation with regular visits required. However interesting and pleasurable this may be for us (and we don’t shy away from the job!), there is often more satisfaction in finding for you really good, less expensive wines from lesser-known villages such as Saint-Aubin, Saint-Romain and Auxey-Duresses or the Côte Chalonnaise and sprawling Mâconnais areas. There are hidden gems here which can provide you with brilliant drinking. Do try the ‘less knowns’ if you can.

The small town of Chablis sits in a bowl in rolling countryside half way between Beaune and Paris. The surrounding area produces green-tinged, elegant Chardonnays whose style and poise has yet to be matched anywhere in the world. The best come from the steeper premier and grand cru slopes around the town and they can age surprisingly well. Jean Durup at Domaine des Valery assembled a large 140 hectare domaine which is now ably run by his son Jean-Paul and manager Michel Poitout. Daniel Defaix at Domaine Daniel-Etienne Defaix in Milly makes very flavoursome Chablis, keeping the young wines on their lees for extended periods and releasing them when mature.

Stéphane Moreau of Moreau-Naudet was a Tanners discovery and we love his flinty, citrussy wines which, in contrast to Durup and Defaix, are fermented in barrel. Over many years we have built up a wonderful following for the exquisite wines of Vincent Dauvissat (and his father René before him). He is recognised as one of the very top addresses in Chablis.

Jumping to the far South of Burgundy, the wines of the Mâconnais tend to be deeper in colour and broader in stature than burgundies from Chablis and the Côte de Beaune. Typical is the great value Mâcon-Chardonnay from father and daughter, Paul and Mallory Talmard. The Guillemot-Michels at Quintaine near Clessé work a small vineyard by organic methods to great effect. Recently we spent a fascinating day with Dominique Lafon touring his various vineyards in the area. His wines are bottled under the name Les Héritiers du Comte Lafon, but now sell out almost as quickly as his Meursaults. Château de Fuissé is a grand old property and a good source of Pouilly-Fuissé and Saint-Véran. Here Jean-Jacques Vincent is increasingly handing over to his children and son-in-law. Nearby in Davayé, go-ahead brothers-in-law, Christian Collovray and Jean-Luc Terrier produce very flavoursome wines by stirring up the lees into their wines. Up the hill Maurice and Nadine Guerrin make very elegant, almost Chablis style wines in the spectacular high country surrounding the village of Vergisson.

Travelling north, before reaching the Côte d’Or, you pass through the Côte Chalonnaise, an area of rolling hills, mixed farming and sleepy villages. The white wines have much of the finesse of the nearby Côte de Beaune and are often extremely good value. Montagny is a white wine appellation dominated by the standard-bearing Caves de Buxy, producers of the elegant Montagny 1er cru Les Loges. Paul Jacqueson at Rully makes wines which compare well with many a well-bred Meursault, their intensity matched by an adept use of oak.

Good growers in the outlying, lesser-known Côte de Beaune villages can produce wines with many of the characteristics of Puligny-Montrachet or Meursault, especially in warmer years. At Rémigny just across the canal from Santenay, there is Domaine Borgeot, run by whirlwind Laurent Borgeot and up in Saint-Aubin, we buy from the village’s long-time mayor, Gérard Prudhon of Henri Prudhon et Fils who is now aided by his two sons. Highly recommended is the Saint-Romain from keen sportsman Alain Gras, as a classic, elegant white burgundy. Down the valley, infectiously enthusiastic Michel Prunier makes white Auxey-Duresses which has a decidedly more exotic apricot character.

Staying in the Côte de Beaune but moving to its northern end, the famous grand cru of Corton-Charlemagne occupies a curving, stony hillside and, in good hands, produces wines of great concentration which have a bewitching combination of flinty backbone and exotic richness. We normally keep examples from Rollin et Fils,Domaine Chandon de Briailles, and occasionally Corton specialist, Bonneau du Martray. Rémi and Simon Rollin also make superb white Pernand-Vergelesses as do François de Nicolay and his sister, Claude, at Chandon de Briailles.

Tanners has several suppliers in the large village of Meursault. For about 25 years we have bought the delicious, age worthy wines of Henri Germain, whose son Jean-François now makes the wines. His younger brother Eric is chef de cave for Vincent Girardin who fashions a big range of showy white burgundies in a large winery in Meursault ‘Bas’. Round the corner, Domaine Buisson-Charles, a small, father and daughter enterprise is making lovely Meursaults to drink or keep.

Pierre Morey was manager of Domaine Leflaive, a job he combined with producing his own complex wines from deep cool cellars both under his and the Morey-Blanc name. The mineral, aristocratic wines of Puligny and Chassagne-Montrachet provide superb medium to long term drinking. In Chassagne-Montrachet the wines of Paul Pillot have impressed us and make a worthy addition to the range. Paul’s children, Thierry and Chrystelle, have both done work experience in the New World. Etienne Sauzet is one the very best white burgundy addresses and here Gérard Boudot has supplied Tanners with an array of fine Puligny-Montrachets and grand crus since the 1980 vintage. We have bought wines from Domaine Leflaive for almost as long, initially from Vincent Leflaive and now from Anne-Claude Leflaive who is a standard bearer for the bio-dynamic movement.

The fortunes of some of the large merchant houses of Beaune have waxed and waned over the years but one who has built upon a fine reputation for reliable whites is Louis Latour whose show case cellars are in Aloxe-Corton. We also pick out Moret-Nominée where David Moret’s brilliant wines are made from grapes taken from some of the very best growers, and Nicolas Potel of Nuits-Saint Georges whose whites just get better and better.

James Tanner