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Jérôme Fornerot shows why Saint-Aubin has a lot more going for it than proximity to fabulous neighbors. Our boot treads were bristling with jagged white shards and calcareous clods as we followed Jérôme Fornerot to the high point of his holdings in the Côte de Beaune. Below and to the west, the hamlet of Gamay marked a tight curve in the skinny valley leading to the idyllic, tucked-away village of Saint-Aubin. But we still had farther to climb. It wasn’t until we’d ascended through 350 meters of elevation that a sign of relief appeared: the forest marking the boundary with Puligny-Montrachet. On the far side of that wild, wooded strip—and a bit lower down—lay the celebrated Grand Crus of “Les Montrachets” and “Les Bâtards.” But Saint-Aubin has been the Fornerot family’s home turf since 1618. And though Jérôme started his own winemaking career a few clicks down the road in Santenay and Maranges, Saint-Aubin has been his center of gravity since 2018, when 9 hectares of family plots passed into his hands, bringing his estate to 16.5 hectares in all (including some fermage agreements with relatives). When we first turned up at his doorstep, Jérôme was hobbling around after pulling a muscle in his back. We asked if we could return the next day or at a better time, but he insisted that we stay after having “come all this way” to Saint-Aubin. After all, Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet and Meursault have historically monopolized all the attention. Yet Saint-Aubin has been getting some richly deserved acclamation of late. Just under the Hautes Côtes but well above the middle hillside, more vineyards here are classified as Premier Cru than village-level. The Fornerot family has played a big part. Their nursery expertise, centered on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay plants “made in Saint-Aubin,” has literally won royal recognition; it enabled Queen Elizabeth II’s former chief of protocol to create a respected vineyard in South England. Just the same, the family vineyards in and around Saint-Aubin are the true heart of the enterprise. None is more evocative than the Murgers des Dents de Chien Premier Cru, where Jérôme finally brought us to a resting point next to the forest. Named after a limestone rock formation resembling dog teeth that bite into the steep, south-facing slope, its Chardonnay vines yield a contoured and tensile bottling whose coiled energy reverberates from the mineral-laced entry to the spicy finish. “Ici, on n’est jamais loin de la roche,” Jérôme mused, surveying the scene—Here, we’re never far from the rock. Just down the slope—and even closer to Batard-Montrachet—the En Remilly Premier Cru vineyard is even more of a jewel. Lying a little lower but angled at an even steeper pitch, this hard and rocky hillside produces deeper, weightier fruit that can handle a higher percentage of new oak. Jérôme melds its floral aromatics and stone fruit with a fine bead of acidity that seems to skitter over salt-flecked stone. Length, weight, persistence, and high-toned energy come together in intriguing variations across Fornerot’s lineup of whites, whose textural richness Jérôme amplifies with gentle bâtonnage before malolactic conversion. From the other Premier Cru vineyards—Sur Gamay’s nervy citrus, the mineral charge of La Chatenière’s old vines—to the Hautes-Côtes de Beaune Chardonnay, there’s a stark stylistic consistency here. The reds, 100 percent destemmed, are crunchy and sleek, but also convey the diversity of terroirs at Jérôme’s disposal. His Santenay Premier Cru Beauregard, from a 60-year-old plot of Pinot Noir rooted in thin soil over shattered limestone on the side of the appellation adjacent to Chassagne-Montrachet, is always the biggest and most textural cuvée—and one that rewards patience. The pebbly white marls of Saint-Aubin Premier Cru Perrières, by contrast, produce a floral, cherried, and lithe bottling that’s a more immediate pleasure—as is the Maranges Le Chamery. We were fortunate to meet Jérôme when we did—and luckier still that he powered through that bout of back pain to show us what he’s accomplishing here. Having spent his early years selling grapes to negociants, he’d slowly bottled more and more of each vintage under his own domaine label. It was a gradual process, adding barrel by barrel each season. By the time we came calling he happened to be building a new cellar just across the street, but he didn’t really need new customers at that particular moment. The 2021 vintage had been so short that there was barely any wine in the cellar, to the point that we were gingerly pouring our glasses back in each barrel after tasting. It only heightened our appreciation for what he’s making in this up-and-coming corner of the Côte de Beaune, where his knowledge runs so deep. And we couldn’t be prouder to be the first ones to bring his wine into the US. Hidden gems like this don’t stay under the radar for long in Burgundy.