Author: Thomas Wilcox

The Maconnais is a charming, impossibly picturesque subregion of Burgundy at its southern end. Quaint stone farmhouses and Charolais cattle dot a rolling countryside that lazily switches between lush green pastures and fields of vines. The wines coming from this region have never been better, and we’re thrilled to have expanded our portfolio here substantially in the last few years.

One shining star form this region is a family in Viré-Clessé firmly to organic and biodynamic principles since before it was trendy. We discovered these folks decades ago when we lived in the area, bought this wine enthusiastically for many years on behalf of friends and family. Today we’re delighted that we are now able to offer the results of this superb winemaking under a private 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 2021 Forces Telluriques is a triumph. The domaine harvested slowly, over about 15 days, achieving 13.2% naturally – a real feat in a cool vintage. The resulting wine is superb, showing ripeness without weight, a wine that is lively and alive. The Wine Advocate’s William Kelley gave 93 points, finding “Aromas of clear honey, white flowers, beeswax and sweet spices” calling it “a suave and vibrant wine that’s satiny, bright and fine-boned, concluding with a bright, gently exotic finish.”

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Forces Telluriques Viré-Clessé 2021
bottle price: $45

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St. Estephe is home to storied left bank chateaux that were ranked in the Classification of 1855, so new domaines are rare. Henry Negrier spent the first half of his career working at other local chateaux; but thirty years ago he stumbled upon an unusual opportunity to buy his own St-Estephe vines, and decided to bet on himself. The new creation, Fleuron de Liot, has won acclaim from blind-tasting panels and Ansonia readers alike.

When we visited last spring, Negrier told us that 2022 was unequivocally the best vintage in the domaine’s 30 year history. He attributes this partly to the very dry growing season, which also featured damaging hail early, at the cost of 40% of the crop. The result: tiny grapes and highly concentrated must.

Indeed, the Fleuron de Liot 2022 – a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon – is utterly delicious and should age very well. Right now this well-balanced wine is inky and dark, showing black cherry and cassis fruit. There is excellent density: the fine tannins coat the mouth and persist on the palate.

We usually counsel patience with the Fleuron de Liot, but to our surprise this was a hit at a December warehouse tasting, and more than a dozen customers walked out with some in their boxes. (If you open it now, decant for 1-2 hours.) Don’t let the bargain pricing fool you; this is serious, impressive left-bank Bordeaux.

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Fleuron de Liot St-Estephe 2022
bottle price: $28

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Despite a year of extreme heat and dryness, most 2022 red Burgundies avoided the over-ripeness high-alcohol trap of 2018 and 2020 – they’re intense and bold but with low-alcohol (some in the 12%s!) and exquisite balance. Jancis Robinson writes of their “surprising freshness and elegance” with “thrilling energy;” Jasper Morris cites their “fine tannins and fresh acidity” with “excellent aging potential.”

From their historic domaine in the center of Chambolle-Musigny, the Boursot brothers continue to produce delicious red Burgundies full of character and richness. As they hone their cellar techniques the wines have gained precision and finesse, but they retain the rugged, charming spirit that first brought us to this domaine. Romaric told us their 2022 growing season was just about perfect, with the wines exhibiting classical charm of old-school Burgundy but the intense concentration of modern sunny vintages.

Boursot’s Bourgogne Côte d’Or is from vines near Chambolle-Musigny and Vosne-Romanée, and raised entirely in stainless steel. As you’d expect, it’s pure delightful fruit in the nose, with hints of chalk and spice, but not a whisper of oak. The Boursots have extracted this perfectly, and the tannins are fresh and friendly. It’s not refined or cellar-worthy, but at $32 it doesn’t need to be – a startlingly good deal.

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Boursot Bourgogne rouge 2022
bottle price: $28

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Wine writer Lettie Teauge once described Sancerre as a wine that delivers “pleasure not profundity.” We think this is an excellent description – sometimes a moment calls for a grand, majestic wine, but other times all you need is something crisp, refreshing, and reliable.

Domaine de la Garenne’s Sancerre is the most popular white wine in our store, and with good reason – it perfectly balances fruit, freshness, minerals and energy, all in a startlingly affordable package. It’s Sauvignon Blanc in its purest form. Grown on a combination of flint, clay, and limestone soils, it’s prototypical Sancerre – no oak, crisp minerality, lovely dry fruit.

The 2023 summer was warm and humid, but meticulous growers like Garenne produced a classic vintage – low alcohol, crisp minerality, nicely integrated acidity. The nose has grapefruit and stones, alongside hints of white flowers and chalk. The mouth is easy, crisp, and delicious with dry fruit and a vibrant finish – everything you want in a weeknight Sancerre.

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Garenne Sancerre “Alliance” 2023
bottle price: $28

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Côtes du Rhônes are a dime a dozen. They’re cheap, reliable, and abundant — you’ll find them everywhere from a fine restaurant to your local supermarket. Most are mass produced, with low tannin and lots of fruit — they may lack flaws, but they’re short on character too.

Eric Chauvin’s wines share a region and grape varietal with these Côtes du Rhônes, but little else. Chauvin’s tiny Domaine le Souverain has no website, no road sign, and barely a phone number — 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.

Souverain’s 2023 Séguret pulsates with life and energy, a result of his low-intervention style and careful organic viticulture — it’s the best vintage he’s made to date. The nose is dark and inky with notes of crushed berries, lavender, and a cool earthiness. The mouth is smooth, fresh and perfectly balanced – clean dark fruit, just the right amount of tannin, and a smooth, easy finish. Pour with takeout pizza or playoff football (gobirds).

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Souverain Séguret 2023
bottle price: $22

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In recent years the profile of Chablis has changed a bit. Most cuvées still show the terroir’s classic stony, mineral intensity; but warm summers have added a bit of extra flesh to the wines. Our favorites still taste like Chablis, but the serious ones are now are often a bit easier to approach young or on their own.

Winemaker Romain Collet has deftly steered his family’s domaine through this new climate, and we’re not alone in this conclusion. Wine Critics Allen Meadows (Burghound) and William Kelley (Wine Advocate) have noted a “higher level of refinement” and a “significant upsurge in quality.” Jasper Morris MW writes that Romain Collet “is moving towards joining the pantheon” in Chablis.

Collet’s 2022 Chablis 1er cru “Forets” is a delicious, classy Chablis. It’s raised mostly in cement eggs, which add depth and texture to the crisp minerals and fruit. This is delightful, complete white Burgundy on its own, but also a terrific match with food. Burghound cites “minerality on the moderately austere and quite dry finale.” He concludes, “I like both the balance and the delivery and this is one to consider.”

A dry, mouthfilling texture cut by a lime zest and saline – this is a triumph of modern Chablis.

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Collet Chablis 1er cru “Forêts” 2022
bottle price: $42

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Regular readers will know 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.

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 (some might say obsessive) 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. “Flat out delicious,” one taster remarked at our warehouse last month.

Gautier’s Givry 1er cru “Grand Berge” is the friendliest of the Desvignes premier crus. The 2022 is lovely and welcoming – dark and floral with a dose of toast and a rich, jammy complexion. The vintage provides ample concentration but no heat. Look for raspberry and violets, and a clean medium weight finish. Serve this with a mushroom risotto.

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Desvignes Givry 1er “Grand Berge” 2022
bottle price: $42

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Chassagne-Montrachet is a town synonymous with opulence and richness. Its wines combine weight without heaviness – everything you want in a top class white Burgundy – but usually comes with a hefty pricetag. Roger Belland’s Santenay 1er cru “Beauregard” blanc is not quite as complex or long-lived as a Chassagne premier cru, but for half the price it does an admirable impression, and we think it’s a steal.

Belland’s Beauregard blanc vines are a few hundred yards from the Chassagne-Montrachet border, and the wine drinks like it’s from much fancier terroir. The 2022 Beauregard blanc is magnificent – real freshness to support the lush fruit, a mix of orchard and citrus. There’s a hint of wood rounding out the concentrated, supple fruit flavors.

Burghound found it “Outstanding,” calling it “opulent yet punchy,” concluding “This is really quite lovely and worth checking out.” Village White Burgundies under $100 have become harder and harder to find of late, (see our recent expansions in the Maconnais). But this $62 white Burgundy is the real deal – particularly in 2022, we think most blind tasters would place it over the border in Chassagne.

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Belland Santenay 1er blanc “Beauregard” 2022
bottle price: $62

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In his book “The New French Wine” Jon Bonné writes that Jacqueline André’s wines “are about old-fashioned subtlety,” crediting her with “quietly upholding the extraordinary quality of her family’s domaine.” André is fully worthy of this praise, and it’s never been clearer than today.

Truly great winemakers show their greatness most clearly in difficult vintages, and Jacqueline André’s 2021 results put her in that class. The 2021 growing season brought challenges of biblical proportions, with damaging frost and hail in April, followed by serial heat waves, followed by late season rains. All of this dramatically reduced yields and threw off harvest schedules.

But despite the challenges of 2021, Jacqueline André has made an elegant and absolutely delicious wine. Consonant with the dictates of the year, her Chateauneuf du Pape rouge 2021 is a wine of medium weight and mild tannins rather than huge density. Grenache always dominates the fruit in her wine, but in 2021 the distinct aromas of dried rose petals join the usual sweet wild strawberries to produce a refined and elegant glass of wine that is strikingly good.

At the warehouse tasting over the weekend this wine stopped people in their tracks with its subtlety, elegance and poise.

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André Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2021
bottle price:$65

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Most wine today is opened before peak maturity. It’s not necessarily a bad thing – in general you’d rather drink a wine too young than too old. But as fewer wine drinkers cellar their wines and as winemakers increasingly craft cuvées for early drinking, it’s rarer to find a bottle that deserves patience and receives it.

Today’s wine is proof that just a few extra years transform even a humble village-level wine. Michel Gros’s Nuits-St-Georges from the terrific 2016 vintage is just about at peak. From vines near the border with Vosne-Romanée, this is floral, subtle and beautiful, combining the elegance of Vosne with the meaty character of Nuits.

This 2016 is a missive from Burgundy past – perhaps the last of an old style of vintage before the new hot-dry normal set in. The weight is ethereal and gorgeous; with just a half-hour in a decanter this will be singing from the glass. Serve it in a context with space for subtlety and understatement.

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Michel Gros Nuits-St-Georges 2016
bottle price:$102
15% off 2+ bottles with code: NSG16

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The 2022s from Burgundy continue to delight. It’s a terrific vintage in both colors – the reds are characterful and intense with tremendous freshness and lovely fruit; the whites are vibrant and delicious, clear and compelling representations of their terroir.

The world has by now discovered St-Aubin, the once secret town tucked away up a valley between Chassagne-Montrachet and Puligny-Montrachet. But if it’s less hidden than it once was, its wines are better than ever. At the western edge of the appellation lies a plot named “Murgers des Dents de Chiens.” Perched just up the hill from Montrachet itself, this St. Aubin premier cru is a remarkable value.

Gerard Thomas’s 2022 St-Aubin from this special vineyard has shed its youthful edge and today is vibrant and beautiful. It shows terrific concentration, with ripe lemon fruit blending perfectly into a chiseled mineral core. On the palate it’s crackling and savory, with a long and tense finish that’s vibrant and lithe. Jancis Robinson’s reviewer found it “rich, and inviting…lots of spice on the palate,” concluding “fresh, flavorful and full of fruit.”

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Thomas St-Aubin 1er “Murgers” 2022
bottle price: $55

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Some wines in our portfolio hit a perfect balance between fruit, freshness, texture and price – Goubert’s Gigondas, Desvignes’s Givry, and Bohrmann’s Bourgogne blanc come to mind. But this category wouldn’t be complete without Poggerino’s Chianti Classico. It’s one of only a handful of non-French wines we import, and yet it’s among the most popular wines in the shop.

“The 2021 Chianti Classico is exceptional.” Thus begins Antonio Galloni’s review of Poggerino’s flagship wine. This vintage shows the same gorgeous floral, dusty nose as always, with perhaps a deeper plum fruit profile than usual. The mouth carries an extra dose of richness and length. Galloni awarded 93 points, finding “lavender, spice, menthol, licorice, and tobacco,” and calling it “racy and layered.”

Jancis Robinson’s reviewer found it “fantastic,” calling it “long, intense and concentrated, with bags of polished tannins that never dominate the fruit.” It’s hard to find much wrong with this wine, and it’s somehow still only $25. We don’t have much left, and won’t get more until March – if it’s on your list, we counsel haste.

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Poggerino Chianti Classico 2021
bottle price: $25

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Most Burgundy drinkers are familiar with the Clos Vougeot, a 12th century castle surrounded by an enormous Grand Cru vineyard. It’s a cultural and viticultural landmark of Burgundy – impeccably preserved, and worth a stop on your next visit to the region. But even seasoned collectors are usually less familiar with the rest of the appellation of Vougeot.

Indeed about 80% of the vines in the town of Vougeot are part of the enormous Clos Vougeot Grand Cru, but the other 20% covers some exceptional premier crus, including “Petits Vougeots,” which borders both Clos Vougeot and Le Musigny over the border. Justine Clerget’s plot here produces impressive wines, bolder than her tasty village Chambolles and approaching the concentration of the nearby Grand Crus. Broad, sturdy and delicious, this is not a wine you’ll soon forget.

This wine has many years of cellar potential ahead of it – we’ve got some tucked away with a 10-year timeframe. But even today it’s concentrated and delicious, and with an impressive holiday meal – beef wellington or rack of lamb or the like – it will wow your guests. Give it an hour in a decanter and you’ll too feel surrounded by Grand Cru energy.

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Clerget Vougeot 1er “Petits Vougeots” 2022
bottle price:$125

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There’s a cliche among wine critics that a “vintage of the century” tends to occur on average every decade or so. It’s true that the floor for vintage quality has risen dramatically in the last 25 years – sorting tables, better technical control of fermentation, and increasing demand for quality have meant that truly poor vintages are now few and far between.

Nobody will ever call 2017 a “great vintage” in Burgundy – it has neither the structure nor the concentration for longterm cellaring. But as anyone who has had one recently will tell you, on finesse, drinkability and sheer pleasure, the vintage is off the charts. They’ve been delightful since they arrived, and the few that are about as pleasant as Burgundy gets.

Today we’re suggesting the last few bottles of our 2017 Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru from Domaine Ravaut. Tasting this five years ago, Jancis Robinson’s reviewer found it “fleshy, ripe, sweetly spiced nad wonderfully fruit forward.” Ravaut’s Bressandes is always their best wine, and this has aged perfectly over the last seven years. The nose is dark and pretty with cassis and violets; the mouth has softened and gives way to an exquisite burst of earthy black cherry fruit.

If you haven’t picked out a bottle for your holiday table, consider this.

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Ravaut Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru 2017
bottle price:$125
2+ bottle price: $109    (use code CORTON) 

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As summers in France become warmer and drier, the line between Chablis and the rest of white Burgundy has blurred. Chablis was once known for its piercing wines full of tension, minerality, and zip, in contrast to the rich, mouthfilling whites of the Côte d’Or. Today there’s less stylistic room between them, as very ripe grapes have turned Chablis a bit plumper – the wines are tasty, but often less distinct.

But some winemakers have found a way to preserve the old style. Jasper Morris writes “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 2022s are a tour de force, and perfectly balanced marriage of fleshy fruit with brisk, vibrant mouthfeel.

We think Gautheron’s best premier cru is his old-vine Fourneaux “Vieilles Vignes” 2022 – it sees 15% oak, contributing layers and complexity without toast. Its most impressive feature, however, is its showy length on the palate, a result of the old vine concentration. The balance of depth, energy, fruit and stones here is just terrific. We expect lovely evolution and a long, happy life for this wine, but it’s magnificent already today.

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Gautheron Chablis 1er cru
“Fourneaux” Vieilles Vignes 2022
bottle price: $45

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