“Burgundy is the benchmark.”

This was the confident assertion by Michael Stephens, Burgundy consultant and his daughter Cara as they led a tasting this month, of new release Burgundy, at Peter Maude Fine Wines (PMFW).

I agree - and urge you to act fast as PMFW have desperately small allocations on sale. Here are two of my favourites with very tasty potential.

Fontaigne Gagnard Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru-Les Chenevottes $156

Burgundy has centuries of history growing Chardonnay, this producer founded in 1985, is similar to many New Zealand growers. The wine though, is classically of its place.

Fontaigne Gagnard are celebrated as Chassagne specialists and the Stephens rank them “at the very top of contemporary producers. Wines, showing distinctive attributes, every vintage”.

These attributes took time to open up and show. Textural and lively in the mouth, it took 20 minutes or so for its perfume to properly release and match the energy in the glass.

In this vintage just two barrels of this wine were made. If you are fortunate enough to secure some, it will cellar, for a few years, but its freshness and breadth show enough already to be the benchmark in your palate for comparing fine Chardonnay.

Darviot-Perrin Mersault 1er Cru Charmes’ $240

Advice on cellaring Burgundy was surprising from these specialists.

“Perhaps ten years," said Cara, “but not for so long anymore.”

Dad, as fathers everywhere often are, was more bluntly forthright.

“Five years and rarely ten.”

Climate change is the main reason he sees for these, the wine’s of world’s most collectible region, reaching maturity and best drinking earlier than ever before.

Which is surely great news for everyone who has attended a friend’s wake, and felt the sadness of opening bottles of brilliance that outlived their owner. Not quite instant gratification, but certainly pleasure less delayed.

This wine is an undoubted pleasure. My tasting notes were succinct: "Love! Balance and joy."

It is always thus with the greatest wines. They are not suited to analysis, being stripped down to singular elements.

You can analyse them, but this risks killing the joy they bring. Like your child, full of complexity and whole, complete and perfectly themselves.

Peter Maude Fine Wines