Until 2005, the Perraud family was one of many making their living from growing grapes for the local cooperative. Encouraged by his parents, Jean-Christophe Perraud, then 24, began to make and bottle wine from the family's 35 hectares of Bourgogne, Mâcon and Saint-Véran vineyards and sold them on the local market until 2009. Produced from what the Perrauds describe as 'young vines' (both the Chardonnay and the Aligoté are between 20-25 years old), the wines show remarkable elegance, purity and complexity at modest price tags. Domaine Perraud is a fine example of a young vigneron striking out on his own with the family's vineyards to create what will soon be one of the Mâconnais' most respected domaines.

Fruit for the Mâcon-Villages comes from the Perraud's own vineyards in the communes or Villages of La Roche Vineuse, Verzé, Hurigny and Salornay sur Guy. The distinctive clay and chalk soils give extra power and richness to the otherwise elegant, aromatic palate. The white-chalk pebbles absorb sun during the day, and reflect it during the night to extend ripening. The grapes were machine harvested in the cool temperatures of early morning to retain the fresh fruit flavours.

With crisp clean peachy stone fruit aromas, this is elegant, fresh and well balanced with a hint of minerality. Its clean fresh acidity would make it great with a creamy chicken dish, or maybe a grilled fillet of seabass.