Author: Thomas Wilcox

We’re in Burgundy this week visiting and tasting with winemakers. On Monday we spent a delightful morning and lunch with Léon Amiot, the young twentysomething winemaker at Domaine Amiot et fils in Morey-St-Denis. Léon is a real talent with a sky high ceiling – the Guide Hachette last year named him Burgundy’s “Winemaker of the Year.” His wines get better every year – his carefully-crafted 2024s will be in next month’s April Futures.

Léon’s success is no stroke of luck – a cheerful guy with a quick smile and friendly demeanor, he’s a farmer through and through. He’s organic (soon biodynamic), planted cover crops, and last year began an agroforestry project in the name of vineyard biodiversity. He talks about his vines like the living organisms they are, treating them with care and respect.

Léon’s 2023s arrived last fall and are only getting better. The 2023 village level Morey-St-Denis is a blend of eight parcels across the town, showing the detail and elegance of classic Morey-St-Denis. The nose is very floral, with dried roses and violets; the mouth is clean and well built, with fine tannins all perfectly coated in attractive young fruit. Burghound was a fan as well, citing “various dark berries and earth” in the nose and “fine volume and richness along with an appealing sense of energy” in the mouth.”

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Amiot Morey-St-Denis 2023
bottle price: $85

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For years St-Aubin was a white Burgundy collector’s hidden gem. Today it’s no longer hidden – many writers put in on par with Chassagne, Puligny and Meursault – but it’s still a gem. Tucked away down a valley running west from the Côte d’Or, St-Aubin’s vineyards average higher elevation than many towns, a boon in warm climates.

For decades our source here has been the Domaine Gérard Thomas, a traditional, family run white Burgundy source with a small collection of excellent terroirs. We barrel tasted with winemaker Isabel Humbert yesterday, and their wines are as good as ever – their St-Aubins are wonderful, and extremely well-priced, but the best value is the humble Bourgogne blanc. And in 2023, a vintage with terrific ripeness and beautiful acidity, Thomas’s wines shine.

Thomas’s 2023 Bourgogne Côte d’Or is fresh and delightful – the nose shows meyer lemon and stones, and the mouth is a balance between ripe fruit and mouthwatering freshness. A muted note of wood joins the fruit, and the weight is perfect, with length that tastes more like a village-level wine.

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Thomas Bourgogne blanc 2023
bottle price: $35

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We enjoyed a lovely tasting yesterday with Justine Clerget, winemaker at Domaine Christian Clerget. Her father’s name is on the label, but Justine is now unmistakably in charge – she’s brought renewed energy, refined techniques, and a passion for organic viticulture. The Clerget wines were always classical, terroir-transparent, old school red Burgundy; Justine has maintained this spirit but added polish and class.

This tiny gem of a domaine has always been a favorite of ours – from their domaine in Vougeot (population 174) they farm 6 hectares (14 acres) of average 60 year-old vines across eight appellations. Today we’re suggesting their outstanding 2022 Chambolle premier cru from the famous “Charmes” vineyard.

This wine is always terrific, but the 2022 is something special. Neal Martin gave 92-94 points, calling it “very well-crafted Chambolle” with “fine tannins” and “silky-smooth texture.” Not to be outdone, Jasper Morris gave 92-95, finding “a joyous, almost rumbustious energy,” and “excellent length.” This has a long life ahead of it, but it’s already magnificent. Serve with a fine beef tenderloin, or a leisurely Sunday afternoon meal.

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Clerget Chambolle-Musigny 1er “Charmes” 2022
bottle price: $125

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We’re back in France this week, tasting with our producers across Burgundy. One of our favorite things about visiting France is (of course) eating; and one of our favorite aspects of a French meal is how common it is to begin with Champagne. Bubbles here aren’t limited to occasions or celebrations – they’re simply a delightful and delicious way to start a meal.

With that in mind, today we’re suggesting a terrific everyday Champagne from our newest producer: RH Coutier. The Coutiers are an old family in Ambonnay (there since 1619), and today produce small-batch Champagnes exclusively from their own organic Grand Cru vineyards. Antonio Galloni of Vinous calls the Coutier wines “gorgeous…all showing the natural richness of Ambonnay,” and writing they “have been favorites of mine for years, because of their quality, personality, and exceedingly fair prices.”

Courtier’s base “Cuvée Tradition” is simply exquisite grower Champagne at a remarkable price – every time we open it at the Depot it steals the show. It’s super expressive exploding from the glass with notes of spring flowers, pear, raspberries, herbs and brioche. At 6g dosage and a blend of 70% pinot noir and 30% chardonnay it’s dry but full of fruit, and the texture is at once lush and crisp.

Start your next meal with some bubbles.

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Coutier Champagne “Tradition” NV
bottle price: $54

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You don’t have to be a vigneron to notice Guillaume Goujon and Sebastien Dupré are farming organically. Their vineyards appear almost abandoned – vines share the ground with herbs, flowers, grasses, and wildlife, all in the name of fostering biodiversity and soil health. In the cellar Dupré and Goujon have a similarly light touch – their cuvées are made with whole clusters, ambient yeasts, limited oak, very low sulfites, and a long, slow elevage.

The resulting wines are remarkably complex, and yet immaculately crafted. The wine press agrees – William Kelley calls the wines “supple and charming” and labels them “an estate to watch.” WA reviewer Kenna Wells writes, “The domaine encapsulates the Beaujolais spirit, showcasing a blend of humility, intentional farming and a cellar brimming with character.”

One of our favorites this year is their “631” Côte de Brouilly, a blend of three plots that’s readily drinkable but deceptively sophisticated. The 2022 is terrific, with an expressive nose of dark, ripe fruit – violets and cassis with a croquant (crackling) texture. The profile is almost somewhere between a Pinot and a Syrah. James Suckling praised its “striking elegance” and “fine tannins.” It’s the perfect bottle to grace your patio as the earth wakes up this spring.

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Dupré-Goujon Côte de Brouilly “631” 2022
bottle price: $35

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Frederic Michot is a friendly, energetic winemaker who crafts refreshing, user-friendly, flat out delicious Sauvignon Blanc in Pouilly-Fumé. Forever in the shadow of its more famous neighbor Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé is often a source of excellent value.

Michot’s style is straightforward – no oak, old vines producing fresh, dry, low-alcohol wine. It’s rarely the fanciest wine on a table, but it’s often the first bottle empty. Its brisk texture and lovely dry fruit make it pairable with a long list of foods, from cheese (goat is best), to oysters, to chicken, to paté, to nothing at all.

Michot’s 2024 is everything you want in an everyday Loire white – dry, refreshing, low alcohol (12.5%), smooth, and inexpensive. Made from 40-70 year old vines in a cool growing season, there’s excellent dry concentration and great length. The nose shows lime, stones and grapefruit; the mouth is clear and crisp, with an easygoing, dry finish. This pairs with everything and nothing.

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Michot Pouilly-Fumé Vieilles Vignes 2023
bottle price: $25

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Romain Collet is a mad scientist in the cellar. He’s matched each of his Chablis terroirs with a specific recipe of elevage vessels – a combination of stainless steel tank, concrete egg, clay amphora, and wooden barrels of various ages. Each is designed to bring out the unique character of every plot of vines.

The most clay-rich of Collet’s terroirs is “Butteaux,” a south-east facing sector of the Montmains vineyard on Chablis’s left bank. For this cuvée, Romain ages the wine in a combination of old oak barrels (5 to 10 years). The resulting wine has a concentration and layered complexity somewhere between premier cru and grand cru.

The 2023 Butteaux is terrific, with a serious stony intensity that’s somehow both rich and bone dry. The nose shows faint pears and salt air; the mouth is vibrant and shot through with minerals and dried flower petals. The oak is essentially imperceptible. It’s long and polished, but never verges into opulence or lushness. Think of it as a particularly stony Puligny-Montrachet, at a roughly 50% discount…

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Collet Chablis 1er cru “Butteaux” 2023
bottle price: $45

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Gautier Desvignes is beloved among our readers for his well-priced, excellent red Burgundies from Givry. In a world where Bourgogne rouge cuvées from the Côte de Nuits are pushing $60/bot, and more than a few are into three digits, Desvignes Givrys are beautifully crafted, sophisticated, and highly affordable. Gautier continues to get better each year, and it’s been a delight to watch his star rise so dramatically over the last decade.

He’s also turned into a serious white Burgundy producer as well. William Kelley describes his chardonnays as “chiseled,” “crisp,” and “vibrant,” and we’ve begun to enjoy them more frequently in recent years. His just-arrived 2023s are accessible, delicious, and under $8/glass. Consider this a more floral Chablis, or a racier Pouilly-Fuissé.

The 2023 Desvignes Givry “En Cheneves” is carefree and delicious, with low oak and a vibrant, fresh mouthfeel. From a north facing vineyard that’s well positioned to weather today’s hot, dry summers, this is an overperforming spot in a town on the rise. It’s more polished than most wine of this level, but doesn’t take itself too seriously. Look for notes of white flowers and apple skins, and serve with a simple creamy pasta.

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Desvignes Givry blanc “En Cheneves” 2023
bottle price: $39

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Some wines are an intellectual exercise. To enjoy them is to contemplate their meaning, the philosophy behind their creation, and the nuances of their character. Other wines are just tasty and fun – they’re about drinking rather than tasting. Today’s wine is in the latter category.

Florence Cartier continues to steer her family’s Southern Rhône domaine with a calm, thoughtful hand, producing traditional southern Rhône cuvées in the best sense of the term. They’re distinct in style from many of our low-intervention Southern Rhône sources – Joncuas, André, Malmont, to name a few. Goubert’s wines are clean and consistent, comfortingly old-school in character and taste.

Goubert’s 2023 Côtes du Rhône is delightful. It’s unoaked, low-alcohol, middleweight, and very refreshing, with the spirit of a Cru Beaujolais or a Loire Valley cab franc. It’s a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Carignan, and an unusual local grape called Brun Argenté or Vaccarèse. In some vintages it’s of a rugged character – this year it’s summerweight, with less extraction and gentler tannin. Look for notes of strawberry and garrigue, and serve outdoors with pizza as the spring weather returns – a useful, tasty vin de soif.

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Goubert Côtes-du-Rhône 2023
bottle price: $22

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There’s no more exciting corner of Burgundy today than the Beaujolais. Long looked down upon by winemakers further north, the wines made here today are as dynamic and delicious as anything in the Côte d’Or – and at a fraction of the price. Wine writer Stuart Piggott calls Beaujolais “the best value reds in the world,” and it’s easy to see why.

A new wave of exciting winemakers priced out of the land market in the north of Burgundy has landed in the Beaujolais, bringing energy and enthusiasm for the region’s diverse terroirs. Frederic Berne is a leader in this new Beaujolais. He’s passionate about agroforestry, planting trees among the vines to enrich the organic material of the soil and enhancing biodiversity in the vineyard. And his wines are more than proof of concept.

Berne’s Morgon “Corcellette” 2023 is a serious, impressive wine. The fruit is dark and lush with depth and intensity worthy of something from a fancier zip code. The nose explodes with roses and wild cherries; the mouth is fresh and long. Suckling’s reviewer writes “Ripe and powerful but also elegant, this has excellent mineral freshness and a graceful personality that’s hard not to like.” Pour this with something from the grill.

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Berne Morgon “Corcelette” 2023
bottle price: $32

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If the Côte Chalonnaise has become a bastion of red Burgundy value, then the Maconnais is its counterpart in white. At their best the whites of the Maconnais are sunny and fresh, with vibrant acidity woven into ample fleshy fruit – not to mention exceptional pricing. Organic and biodynamic viticulture go a long way towards keeping these wines fresh, and indeed all of our sources here are one or both.

Sebastien Giroux is a quiet and meticulous winemaker making superb wines of understatement and precision. If some Maconnais whites can verge into overripeness in warm years, Sebastien’s are entirely devoid of heaviness. His careful winemaking – low sulfur, minimal oak, extremely long elevage – results in minimalist wines of precision and grace. Think Thomas Morey Puligny an hour south.

The Pouilly-Fuissé Vieilles Vignes 2022 is outstanding. It’s entirely barrel raised, from vines planted mostly in the 1940s. They’re at 250m altitude, so offer intensity from their age but fineness from their elevation. South facing and just next to the premier cru “Vers Cras,” this is a special plot of vines, and so is the wine it produces. The nose is gorgeous and deep, with floral intensity and savory spice. The mouth continues the theme with and adds a dollop of ripe yellow fruit and a burst of acidity. This is a delicious mouthful, and if it said premier cru on the label, nobody would raise an eyebrow.

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Giroux Pouilly-Fuissé VV 2022
bottle price: $39

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The “Michel” of Gros fame is now fully retired – or, at least, as fully retired as a winemaker can be with 45 vintages under his belt, a house nearby, and his name on the label. His son Pierre has taken the reins, representing, in Neal Martin’s words, “a change in tack rather than charting a totally different course.” Like many of his peer group Pierre has moved the domaine toward organics, and if his first few vintages at the helm are any indication, the future at Gros may be even brighter than the past.

Pierre represents the seventh generation of Gros winemakers to run the domaine, and the Gros family has lived in the same house in the center of Vosne-Romanée since 1830. Plenty has changed since then – phylloxera, war, occupation, market swings – but for centuries the Gros vignerons have tended their vines and each year produced excellent wine. Pierre now commands what Neal Martin describes as “a portfolio to be reckoned with.”

Gros’s 2023s are terrific, and like many wines from the vintage, astonishingly accessible young. Gros’s Bourgogne Côte d’Or comes from vines outside Vosne-Romanée and dramatically outperforms its humble appellation. It’s middleweight and veyr pretty, with red currants and violets in the nose; the mouth has mild tannins and a pleasant earthy and floral finish. Burghound found it “quite aromatically pretty,” with a mouthfeel that’s “supple, succulent, and round.” It drinks effortlessly from the start, and however much we set aside for ourselves, we always wish it were more.

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Michel Gros Bourgogne Côte d’Or 2023
bottle price: $39

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Alsace is a gorgeous winegrowing region – bucolic hillsides of vines surround fairytale villages on a sunny, east-facing ridge near the French-German border. Its wines can be similarly charming: expressive and delicate with beautiful fruit and vibrant textures. Our source here, the Domaine Charles Frey, is a family of committed biodynamic vingerons, producing wines of freshness and balance.

Lots of people are scared of Riesling, burned by too-sweet or unbalanced versions of the grape. But fermented fully dry, Riesling can be a revelation – no grape more deftly communicates its stony terroir, and most sommeliers or wine professionals put it at the top of their list of favorite varietals.

Frey’s Riesling “Granite” 2023 is everything you want in a Riesling. It is brisk and stony, with just hints of petrol over a core of lean yellow fruit. It’s lightweight, crisp, and full of life. The food pairings are endless – aim for anything that particularly matches unoaked wine, from sushi or sashimi to oysters on the half shell to fresh goat cheese.

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Frey Riesling 2023
bottle price: $22

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Sandwiched between the city of Beaune and Hill of Corton wrapped in a patchwork blanket of Grand Cru lies the somewhat forgotten town of Savigny-les-Beaune. Its gravel- and sand-laden soils produce bright wines with excellent definition and delicate structure. In lean years they can be a bit angular for many tastes – but lean years may be a thing of the past.

The 2023 vintage produced wines of tremendous concentration, and the Domaine Boursot’s reds are beautiful, fresh, and packed with flavor. Their 2023 Savigny-les-Beaune perfectly combines the crisp delicacy of the terroir with the rich intensity of the vintage. The nose shows wild cherries, cassis, and toast. The mouth is a punch blend of dark modern fruit with chalky precision.

Boursot’s Chambolles will always be their stars, but this cuvée is proof that their winemaking prowess isn’t limited to their hometown appellation. This is punchy, delicious red Burgundy that needs no cellaring – it’s also half the price of most village wines nearby. Serve with a Sunday afternoon roasted chicken.

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Boursot Savigny-les-Beaune 2023
bottle price: $58

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Sofie Bohrmann is a cheerful, dynamic winemaker in Meursault. Her Burgundies are refined and terrific – she harvests early and uses barrels made from very old Austrian oak, a very fine-grained wood that allows for a slow, luxurious elevage. The resulting wines are floral and classy, showing generous textures framed with careful poise.

And her 2023s are simply irresistible. A hot, dry vintage with perfectly timed rain produced exceptional white Burgundies and plenty of them. Her everyday Bourgogne blanc is rich and easygoing; her St-Romain is an overperforming gem. Her St-Aubin 1er En Remilly is compact, sophisticated and powerful. But (as usual) her Puligny-Montrachet “Grands Champs” is our favorite white.

Most Burgundy aficionados consider Puligny the pinnacle of white Burgundy – a perfect blend of fruit and stone and wood. Sofie’s “Les Grands Champs” is unmistakable Puligny, and is certainly her most elegant wine. Like all good Puligny it will continue to improve for years; but the 2023 is precocious for the appellation, and already a masterpiece. Look for white flowers, lime zest, and stones on a very long, classy finish.

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Bohrmann Puligny-Montrachet “Grands Champs” 2023
bottle price: $99

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