When we lived near Cluny in Burgundy more than twenty years ago, we stumbled upon a nearby producer in Viré-Clessé. The young couple who owned it tended their vineyards and made their wine according to organic and biodynamic principles – not at all the norm back then – and their work opened our eyes to the quality possible in the Maconnais.
We bought this wine enthusiastically for many years on behalf of friends and family, but the domaine already had a national US importer, and so we never sought to give their wine a wider distribution. We stopped importing the wine a decade ago, but have missed it ever since.
But we are delighted that we are now able to offer the results of this superb winemaking under a new label: “Forces Telluriques.”
In recent years the domaine has won praise from today’s top writers. The Wine Advocate’s William Kelley writes of the wine’s “remarkable concentration and energy.” Jasper Morris MW calls them “brilliant… refined, pure, complex, lush.” Raised exclusively en cuve (no oak), it’s an exquisite expression of pure chardonnay.
The 2020 Forces Tellurique Viré-Clessé has just arrived, and it may even be better than the wildly popular 2018. The nose is extraordinary, hitting high notes and low notes simultaneously in a symphony of fruit and earth. We find notes yellow orchard fruit and notes of tangerine and honey. The mouth is expansive and rich, but with pulsating energy and exquisite balance, with a finish that would outlast many a Meursault.
Reviewing the 2018 under its primary label, Kelley awarded 93 points, calling it “another terrific wine from this address,” and finding “white flowers, crisp melon and orchard fruit,” with “satiny and layered palate that’s racy and precise.” Jasper Morris MW was similarly impressed, predicting the 2020 might “join the very top vintages of the domaine.”
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Forces Telluriques Viré-Clessé 2020
bottle price: $42
FREE EAST COAST SHIPPING ON ANY 12 BOTTLES