Author: Thomas Wilcox

Biodynamic and organic agriculture is everywhere in France these days. Nearly every one of our producers is certified or in conversion, and even few those who aren’t use the lunar calendar to schedule dates for racking and bottling. It’s an encouraging trend: better soils, better environment, and better wines.

But some winemakers have been on the train for decades. The Maconnais domaine that produces Forces Telluriques has been certified biodynamic for over 30 years, and they’re true believers: minimal vineyard intervention in the vines, meticulous and hands-off winemaking. William Kelley calls them “one of the best producers in the Mâconnais “ producing “ honeyed, concentrated wines that are imbued with remarkable concentration and energy.”

The Forces Telluriques vines are between 30 and 100 years old, producing gorgeous, concentrated juice. The wine is raised in enameled vats without any oak. The 2022 vintage is superb, round and full in the mouth yet offering memorable lemony freshness (the alcohol level is just 13%). There is plenty of complexity, as mineral notes join the fruit; and the wine persists on the palate beautifully. Jasper Morris writes: “deliciously floral…amazing how such a luxurious style of chardonnay can retain elegance.”

NOTE: For Boston area readers, Forces Telluriques winemaker Gautier Roussille will be pouring at the Depot on Saturday 4/26.

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Forces Telluriques Viré-Clessé 2022
bottle price:  $42

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The red wines of the Loire Valley always play second fiddle to the region’s whites. But it’s a mistake to ignore them – they’re well balanced, low-alcohol, usually organic, and often exceptional values. Our favorites these days are the unblended, unoaked Cabernet Francs from the central Loire.

We visited winemakers Celine and Didier Sanzay last week at their domaine in the central Loire Valley. They’re fifth generation growers in Saumur-Champigny producing fresh, pure Cabernet Franc in the modern Loire style — small batch, organic, wild yeasts, no fining or filtering. Their 2023s in particular are “Loire classique” Didier told us last week – a return to the refreshing, low-alcohol.

Their 2023 Saumur-Champigny is exactly what you want Loire Cab Franc to be: pure, joyful, unoaked, and fresh. Clean, juicy fruit bursts from the glass on the nose — think wild cherries and graphite. The mouth is fresh, fruit forward, inky, and intense, with a bold and vibrant attack and a quick clean finish. Picture a juicy Beaujolais with more serious texture and darker fruit.

Consider it an alternative to your everyday, catch-all Côtes-du-Rhône red. As spring weather arrives, this is the perfect patio red.

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Sanzay Saumur-Champigny 2023
bottle price:  $22

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On Wednesday we visited Gautier Desvignes, the humble, friendly, thirtysomething winemaker who has transformed his modest family domaine into a top name in the region. William Kelley writes that Desvignes is “one of the leading lights in the Côte Chalonnaise,” and we wholeheartedly agree. His care and precision in the vineyards and the cellar was on display this week, and the results speak for themselves.

Gautier’s 2022s show a talented winemaker firing on all cylinders. He has refined his cellar technique considerably, using gentler extractions, and focused his barrel work through exhaustive experimentation and tasting. The resulting wines easily rival reds from the Côte d’Or in detail and complexity, and simply blow them away on price.

Givry 1er cru “Clos Charlé” is detailed and sophisticated – higher toned and with more chiseled detail than his other premier crus. It’s particularly good in 2022, a vintage that provided a bit of extra fruit to cover the fine mineral backbone. The nose shows peony, wild cherries, and a delicate stoniness. The mouth is darker but retains a vibrant minerality alongside the inky fruit. Serve with a roast chicken on a spring Sunday afternoon.

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Desvignes Givry 1er “Clos Charlé” 2022
bottle price:  $42

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We tasted yesterday at the Domaine Gautheron in Chablis. A winemaker’s first task these days – in Burgundy, but particularly in Chablis – is to achieve freshness, and there’s nobody we know better than Cyril. Jasper Morris agrees, writing “Cyril Gautheron is a superb producer making wines in a crisp cool classically Chablis style, which is now really quite hard to achieve in these warmer seasons.”

Gautheron’s 2023s are magnificent, and we can’t wait to bring them back to the states, but the 2022s are gorgeous and already in stock. Montée de Tonnerre is the best Premier Cru in Chablis – some consider it a would-be Grand Cru, and indeed it abuts the hill of Grand Crus directly. Gautheron’s 2022 is a triumph, a regal wine bursting with fruit and stones and remarkable length. He ages this cuvée half in concrete and half in old 500L barrels, which give a whisper of spice amid the dry golden fruit and bursting minerals.

This has the length and complexity of a Côte d’Or premier cru white Burgundy, but the zip of stony, chiseled minerals that could only be Chablis. Jasper Morris found it “typical…Montée de Tonnerre,” with a “succulence” and a “long generous finish.” This is serious wine from a remarkably successful producer – and at a third what it’d cost you in Puligny.

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Gautheron Chablis 1er “Montée de Tonnerre” 2022
bottle price:  $48

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On Monday we tasted with Pierre Gros, winemaker at the domaine Michel Gros in Vosne-Romanée. The baton has passed gradually and smoothly at this domaine, and while his father Michel and his 45 years of experience are always available, Pierre has unmistakably taken the reins. Neal Martin writes “I detect a change in tack rather than charting a totally different course,” and we tend to agree. If his first few vintages at the helm are any indication, the future at Gros may be even brighter than the past.

Gros’s 2023s – still in barrel through the spring and summer – are magnificent: lush and ripe but with exceptional tension and fresh, crackling mouthfeels. (As usual they’ll be on offer in November.) But the 2022s have just begun to drink beautifully – it’s a similar vintage to 2023 in style, but with a dose more intensity, and a softer patina from the year in the bottle.

Gros’s Hautes Côtes de Nuits “Au Vallon” comes from south-facing vines and with extra sun always achieves a bit more ripeness – it’s regional level burgundy but with unusually fine character. Burghound awarded his “ outstanding” designation to this wine, finding “sleek, vibrant and utterly delicious flavors.” Neal Martin of Vinous found “a lovely nose with rose-petal-tinged red cherry and crushed strawberry fruit.” Anyone searching for everyday Burgundy value of the highest caliber should take note.

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Gros Hautes-Côtes de Nuits “Au Vallon” 2022
bottle price:  $42

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Chambolle Musigny’s three most famous terroirs are the Grand Crus Musigny and Bonnes-Mares, and Premier Cru Amoureuses. All three fetch prices north of $500/bot (some well into four figures), and are among Burgundy’s most iconic and long lived wines.

If you had to pick a fourth best terroir, it’d be Les Fuées, a premier cru immediately next to Grand Cru Bonnes-Mares. And it’s here that today’s wine originates. The Domaine Boursot farms an exceptional collection of 75+ year old vines in Fuées, and the wine is extraordinary. We spent yesterday morning tasting with the Boursot brothers, and they’re an exciting domaine that gets better each year.

Vinous’s Neal Martin describes Boursot’s wines as “superb,” “excellent,” “very fine,” and “worth seeking out,” finding the 2020 Fuées “velvety smooth with impressive depth” and a “long, persistent finish.” Indeed Fuées marries power and gracefulness in a way only a Chambolle vineyard can. The nose is dark and brooding, with cassis, violets, and gingerbread. The mouth is huge and intense — today it’s bold and impressive; in a few years it will be refined, elegant, ethereal, and smooth.

JF Mugnier’s Chambolle Fuées goes for around $900/bot, we’re certainly not saying Boursot’s would win in a prizefight. But pound for pound, at 1/9 the cost, it more than holds its own.

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Boursot Chambolle-Musigny 1er “Fuées” 2020
bottle price:  $135  $99

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Yesterday we visited Pierre Vessigaud in Pouilly-Fuissé. He’s relatively new to our portfolio, but the tasting confirmed what we already knew — this is a tremendous find. The Vessigaud domaine is Demeter certified biodynamic vigneron (the highest organic classification), and their wines are simply extraordinary in their complexity and sophistication. The 2023s we’ll be offering later this year are outstanding, but the 2022s remaining in Newton are already delicious.

Vessigaud’s commitment to organic viticulture translates to chardonnay of superb purity and clarity, with vibrant texture and perfect balance. His winemaking style is understated and regal – he uses no new oak in any of his cuvées, opting instead to give the wines long, careful elevages in steel tank and older barrels. As William Kelley puts it, “succulent but serious, any bottle bearing Vessigaud’s label is worth seeking out.”

His Pouilly-Fuissé Vieilles Vignes cuvée is a combination of twenty plots around the appellation with an average age of 60 years. The wine sees 18 months of elevage (20% in tank, 80% in oak between 7 and 15 years old), and shows terrific balance of fruit, stones, and wood. The nose is expressive and pure, with a hint of exotic fruit joining the classical Chardonnay notes. It’s a remarkable amount of flavor and style packed into a sub-$40 bottle.

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Vessigaud Pouilly-Fuissé VV 2022
bottle price: $39

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We’ve spent the last few days tasting across the Southern Rhône Valley. In this era of hot, dry summers and abundant ripeness, a winemaker’s primary task is divining freshness. Across the dozens of Rhône reds we’ve tasted this week, it’s clear that some are more successful than others.

One winemaker with a clear knack for this is Eric Chauvin of the Domaine le Souverain. His red Séguret is always vibrant and full of energy, a blend of grenache and syrah with no oak. Chauvin’s Chauvin’s tiny Domaine le Souverain has no website, and (until this year!) no road signs — his cellar is a converted garage. But his wines have more complexity and depth than nearly anything else we taste at their level, and manage to remain a bargain.

We’ve already imported Souverain’s 2023 Séguret, but Eric poured it for us again yesterday, and it’s as good as ever. Dark, inky berry fruit explodes from the glass, and on the palate the wine pulsates with life and energy. Eric credits careful organic viticulture with his success and we don’t doubt him. The nose both fresh and intense,  with notes of crushed berries, lavender, and a cool earthiness. The mouth is smooth, friendly, and refreshing – clean dark fruit, just the right amount of tannin, and a smooth, easy finish.

This was outstanding yesterday, and thanks to a good sized crop there are a few cases left already available in Newton – and we plan to add more shortly. Pour this to welcome the arrival of spring.

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Souverain Séguret 2023
bottle price: $22

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Except for Burgundy, most wine regions in France are better known for one wine color or another. But a region’s “non-dominant” wine color is often fascinating and delicious. One of our favorites is white wines from the Rhône Valley.

Southern Rhône whites can be lovely, but in hot vintages often struggle to achieve balance. But we’re quite fond of northern Rhône whites, in particular Denis Basset’s Crozes-Hermitage blanc. Basset’s white is a Roussanne-Marsanne blend (70/30), and the only wine of its kind in our portfolio: rounder and more tropical than white Burgundy; more tension than Condrieu; more softness than our Loire whites.

The 2023 has just arrived and it’s outstanding – the nose is soft and enveloping, with tropical notes of mango, pineapple, and green tea. The mouth is rich and round, but well balanced, showing nectarine and honey notes. There’s so much exotic fruit in the nose you almost expect this to be sweet, but the mouth finishes cool and soft and dry with terrific tension.

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St-Clair Crozes-Hermitage blanc “Un Matin” 2023
bottle price: $25

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Vincent Boyer now works with his sister Sylvie, and together they share the viticulture (mostly her) and winemaking (mostly him). They’ve nearly completed their conversion to organic farming, and their always excellent wines have become even better in recent years. They raised prices after their catastrophic 2021 vintage where they lost 90% in some plots from frost, but actually lowered them this year given the healthier crop.

The Boyers use an extended two-year elevage in oak barrels and then concrete eggs, and the resulting wines are sleek and full, steering well clear of the traps of overoaking and heaviness. Boyer’s Bourgogne Côte d’Or comes from vines near his hometown of Meursault, and even this humble cuvée shows a glimmer of that golden Meursault character.

The resulting wine is the best value Bourgogne blanc in our cellar – and with this year’s pricing it might be the best value too. Burghound found the nose “elegant” and “exuberantly fresh,” with “delicious and equally vibrant flavors” in the mouth. The nose opens with citrus and white flowers, and the mouth is full of concentrated fruit and tension. An exceptionally successful white Burgundy, and at the price, an excellent value.

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Boyer-Martenot Bourgogne Côte d’Or 2022
bottle price: $38

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Cornas is a tiny gem of an appellation. It covers 350 acres and is home to just 50 vignerons. The name comes from the Celtic word for “burnt earth,” and it’s an appropriate moniker: Cornas is pure Syrah like the rest of the Northern Rhône, but the feel is of something sunnier from further South.

Today fifth generation winemaker Nicolas Serrette farms a miniscule 1.8 hectares (4 acres) in Cornas. Simon Field MW of Berry Brothers writes of the Dumien-Serrette wines’ “granitic splendor” and “beguiling floral elegance which sets them apart.” Their old vines produce intense, teeth-staining Syrah, with extraordinary depth but remarkable freshness.

Their primary cuvée is called “Patou,” made from 80+ year old syrah vines – and that’s their “young vine” bottling. The 2022 is terrific, a symphony of spice and deep black fruit. At 13% alcohol it’s sunny and ripe without an ounce of heaviness, the calling card of top Northern Rhône reds. The nose is deep and perfumed with notes of dark cherry, spices, cocoa and cured meats. The mouth is dark and rich but with sturdy tannin and a pleasant savory element. Serve with spring lamb, or cellar for up to a decade.

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Dumien-Serrette Cornas “Patou” 2022
bottle price: $58

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Having just added two iconic Grand Crus to their holdings (Echezeaux and Richebourg), the Domaine Michel Gros has what Neal Martin of Vinous calls “a portfolio to be reckoned with.” Indeed their vines stretch from Bourgogne to Grand Cru and from Nuits-St-Georges all the way to Gevrey-Chambertin. Michel’s son Pierre has taken over winemaking, bringing new energy and a lower-intervention farming style.

Pierre’s 2022s are a triumph – universally successful wines in vintage that provided abundant concentrated fruit but with low alcohol and beautiful freshness. Among our favorites (and one of the best values) this year is his Nuits-St-Georges “Les Chaliots”, a plot from the heart of the appellation, just south of the village.

Neal Martin loved this wine almost as much as we did, finding “crushed strawberry and cranberry fruit, dried violets and touches of incense” calling the mouthfeel “fresh and tensile with fine tannins, a keen line of acidity, and a nuanced, persistent finish that reminds me of Mugneret-Gibourg.” He awarded 91-93 points, concludes, “this is a lovely Nuits Saint-Georges, elegant without shortchanging you on fruit.”

Sub-$100 village Burgundy of this caliber is hard to find these days, and we think this provides real value: a beautiful and classical red Burgundy in a terrific vintage from a rising star.

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Gros Nuits-St-Georges “Chaliots” 2022
bottle price: $85

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Gautier Desvignes has become well known among our readers (and in the wine press) for his gorgeous, affordable, beautifully crafted Burgundies from Givry. William Kelley of the Wine Advocate calls him “one of the leading lights in the Côte Chalonnaise.” Gautier has raised the bar of his family domaine perhaps more than any other winemaker we work with.

But alongside a stellar lineup of reds that grab most of the attention, Desvignes is also a skilled crafter of whites Burgundies. His minimal use of oak and careful fermentation achieves white Givrys with terrific balance of fruit, freshness, and minerals.

Gautier’s 2022 village level “En Cheneves” is crisp and precise with a lovely mix of stones and yellow fruit. It’s 90% Chardonnay with 10% Pinot Blanc, a combination that gives beautiful aromatics with classy and concentrated texture. (Picture a particularly accessible St-Aubin, but at a discount.) It’s light on oak, and mostly about ripe springtime fruit – easy and friendly, it should help you and your cellar emerge from winter.

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Desvignes Givry blanc “En Chenèves” 2022
bottle price: $39

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The Northern Rhône is a tiny region. With just ten thousand acres of vines, it’s one sixteenth the size of the Southern Rhône Valley. And yet it’s home to the world’s finest expressions of Syrah. Iconic and ageworthy wines from Hermitage, Côte Rôtie and Cornas get much of the attention, but the lesser-known appellation of Crozes-Hermitage provides tremendous value.

Our source there for many years has been Denis Basset’s Domaine Saint Clair. Basset’s family has grown grapes (and flowers) in the town of Beaumont-Monteux for generations; but more than a decade ago, after a near-death experience with a high voltage line, he resolved to take over the family’s vines and to create his own domaine.

The 2022 vintage was kind not only to Burgundy: growing conditions were also exemplary in the Northern Rhône. When we tasted the Etincelle 2022 from the barrel, Denis remarked that he thought 2022 his best vintage ever of the wine. (“Etincelle” means “spark” in French, and the name for the cuvée is in homage to his near-electrocution.) “Etincelle” 2022 is outstanding. With 13% alcohol it retains its freshness, amid an abundance of lush, dark, ripe fruit. It’s perfectly balanced, with good weight, a pleasant mouthfeel, and a longer than usual finish.

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Saint-Clair Crozes-Hermitage “Etincelle” 2022
bottle price: $25

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Arnaud Baillot is an exciting new producer in Burgundy. He started just 10 years ago as a micro-negociant, purchasing grapes and making tiny batches from small plots. In the last decade he has acquired 10 hectares of vines around the Côte d’Or, farming organically and crafting beautiful, understated modern Burgundy.

Baillot’s wines sing from the glass with clarity and elegance – he uses just 15% new oak in his wines, and low sulfites. Each cuvée shows its origin with honesty and precision, and today’s Volnay is one of our favorites. From a superb vintage that’s tailor made for Baillot’s style, this is low on intervention, alcohol, and artifice.

Baillot’s 2022 Volnay is deep and floral with red fruits bursting from the glass alongside violets and cassis. It’s beautifully concentrated and perfectly defined, with a sleek, low-oak profile on the palate. Volnay is known for elegance, and this has it in spades, but there’s more concentration than we expected at the village level – strawberry, raspberry, and blue fruits. This should age terrifically, but has already been hard for us to keep our hands off since it arrived last year.

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Baillot Volnay 2022
bottle price: $85

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