In the case of Domaine Paul Pernot, the vigneron tradition runs back about 200 years. Although Paul Pernot founded the domaine in 1959, the family had been growing and making wine long before that—mostly for the Drouhin family. Now the third generation of Pauls is learning the classic, careful farming and winemaking that makes this domaine such a success. Based in Puligny-Montrachet, the Pernots touch some of the best Chardonnay vines on earth. But the care used on their high end wines extends all the way down through to their Bourgogne Blanc (still largely Puligny). As a general rule, the Pernots employ a very transparent winemaking style, designed to highlight the purity of fruit, and its natural expression. The Pernots use well-made French oak barrels, a small percentage of which are new, a little batonnage, and light filtration and fining, bottling just prior to the next year’s harvest—all the methods that have come to come to be traditional in Burgundy, but all in moderation, with a good sense of what the fruit requires.