Michel Briday and his son, Stephane, run the Briday family domaine in Rully. Their cellars are located in the heart of the medieval village of Rully. The appellation of Rully is the first wine district of the Cote Chalonnaise and is the southward extension of Santenay and Chassagne, punctuated by the valley town of Chagny. The Chardonnay vines are planted on the best hillside sites on clay-limestone soils, at varying altitudes. The Bridays harvest by hand and ferment their whites in stainless steel tanks. The wines are assembled and bottled the next fall, after the harvest. The Bridays produce some of the most stylish and rich wines of the Cote Chalonnaise.

The Briday Rully Blanc comes from four, south-east facing parcels of vines. The Rully AC vineyard lies near the bottom of the slope where the clay content in the soil is higher, and this makes the wine exceptionally ripe and plump. The vines average 30 years of age. The Rully AC is a rich, concentrated Chardonnay with flavors of ripe pears, citrus and hints of clove. It is vinified in one-third barrel and two-thirds tanks. The two parts are blended before bottling in September. The wine is ready to be enjoyed upon release with full-flavored fish dishes, as well fowl and veal. Briday’s Rully represents remarkable value in white Burgundy, being less than half the cost of comparable wines from the Cote de Beaune. Briday’s top Rully bottlings are his two Premier Crus from clay-limestone slopes. The Rully Premier Cru Gresigny vineyard, planted on the top of slope on white marl soil, is Briday’s most structured Rully. It merits a few years of bottle aging. The Rully Premier Cru La Pucelle vineyard gives a wine of remarkable complexity and depth. Both are aged and vinified 50% in tank and 50% in oak casks, and can be compared favorably to a village Chassagne or Puligny.

New to the USA market is the Mercurey 1er Cru Rouge Clos Marcilly. This exceptional south-east facing Clos has 35-year-old vines which are treated organically. The grapes are harvested manually and given a 3-day cold maceration before fermentation. Fermentation begins with the native yeasts and there is daily pigeage and remontage for maximum extraction during the vinfication period, which lasts between 15 and 20 days. The wine is matured in oak casks for one year before bottling without fining or filtering. The wine is brimming with ripe, sweet wild-raspberry and black cherry fruit and represents a remarkable value.