I first visited Burgundy in the spring of 1980, and the highlight of the trip was a dinner in Meursault, at the home of the late Guy Roulot. I adored Guy’s wines and had long regarded him as one of Burgundy’s best vintners. We tasted a number of extraordinary wines at that meal, but the one that stood out was his 1964 Meursault ‘Perrières’, a Chardonnay as close to perfection as I could ever expect. We had just begun Neyers Vineyards and my hope was someday to produce a Chardonnay that stirred my blood the way this one did. The Perrières vineyard in Meursault rises to 250 meters or so in elevation, and faces southeast to form a natural amphitheater. It takes its name from the deposit of small pebbles in the soil there, a geological peculiarity found no where else in Meursault. These pebbles add a natural minerality to the wines, a characteristic we also find in our El Novillero Chardonnay. There’s a similar rocky deposit in the highest portion of the El Novillero vineyard, which is also 250 meters in elevation and faces southeast. If there’s a vineyard likely to produce wine similar to Perrières it’s this one.