Author: Thomas Wilcox

Old-School.  A properly aged bottle of wine is one of the great culinary pleasures. As the world moves at a frenetic pace and winemakers adapt to the demand for early-drinking wines, such bottles become increasingly rare. Patience and cellar space are in short supply.

Today we’re pleased to introduce a new producer to our portfolio. The Domaine Pierre Bourée in Gevrey-Chambertin has long made wines that call to mind the Burgundy of fifty years ago. Where most Burgundian winemakers destem their grapes for softer tannins and earlier maturity, Bourée uses only ambient yeasts, and ferments whole clusters for several days, allowing tannins from the skins to soak fully into the juice.

In recent years, the domaine’s style has moved a bit closer to the modern norm, but we’ve found a few gems in the older style, and are excited to introduce one of them today. We’ll be including several Bourée wines in next Sunday’s March Futures Issue, but we’re opening up the bidding early on one.

Patience.  The catch with the traditional style is the need for cellaring, but with this wine the domaine has done the work for us. The Santenay 1er cru “Gravieres” 2001 was harvested almost fifteen years ago, and has rested in the cool, dark Bourée cellar since it was bottled. Today it is a strikingly delicious bottle of wine: built for ageing, and just now emerging mature from more than a decade of quiet.

Bourée’s 2001 “Gravières” is elegant and beautiful, with an impressive amount of power for a wine its age. The tannins are entirely round after their decade plus in the bottle. The nose of the wine is exceptional, with notes only found in well-aged red Burgundy: elegant, softened fruits join mushrooms, forest floor, and toast. The mouth is full and vibrant, with wild red cherries, cinnamon, and cassis.

This is the style of the Burgundy that Julia Child or MFK Fisher would recognize — it’s a glimpse back to a slower, simpler time. Pick a Sunday afternoon, decant a bottle of this Santenay, put a roast in the oven, and remember some things are worth waiting for.

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BOURÉE Santenay 1er cru “Gravières” 2001
Ansonia Retail: $540/case
March Futures price: $395/case     ($32.92/bot)

AVAILABLE IN  6-  AND 12-  BOTTLE LOTS.

QUANTITIES LIMITED.

Email Tom to place an order.

or call Tom: (617) 249-3657

NOTE: THIS IS AN ADVANCE ORDER; WE EXPECT THIS WINE TO ARRIVE IN LATE APRIL OR MAY

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Millenia.  Meursault is a village stuck in time. Its narrow crooked streets and pointed steeple perch on a hill above fields of weathered vineyards first planted by monks in 1098. The golden product of these fields has been known for centuries, and today it is as sought-after as any wine in the world. Remove the trucks parked along criss crossing vineyard tracks, and it could just as easily be 1616 as 2016.

The wines of Meursault are known for their rich, honeyed aromatics, and for a near-perfect balance between mouth coating texture and acidity. Our source for Meursault is the Domaine Boyer-Martenot, a small producer in the heart of the town whose star is rapidly rising. Wine writer Allen Meadows (Burghound) called their 2013 whites “simply terrific.”

Almond and Honey.  Today we’re offering Boyer’s finest Meursault, a premier cru called “les Perrières.” Though the town of Meursault has no Grand Crus, for years there has been talk of elevating “Les Perrières.” The wine exemplifies the rich, opulent luxury of classic Meursault, and the 2013 vintage is no exception.

The 2013 Boyer Meursault 1er cru “Perrières” shows golden yellow fruit, with honey and almond in the nose. The mouth is full, concentrated, and impossibly long, with a mouthcoating lemon-peach richness balanced by bright minerality and white pepper. This is Meursault as it should be — rich and extravagant. It’s a wine for a Sunday afternoon meal — chicken in crème fraiche would be our choice. Decant for a half hour while you set the table, and you won’t care a bit whether it becomes a Grand Cru.

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BOYER-MARTENOT Meursault 1er cru “les Perrières” 2013
S. Tanzer Retail: $119
Ansonia Retail: $104
offer price: $89/bot

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AVAILABLE IN  3-   6-  AND 12-  BOTTLE LOTS

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Email Tom to place an order.

or call Tom: (617) 249-3657

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Bargain Bourgogne. Sommeliers often tell us of their search for a by-the-glass Chardonnay to please everyone. Chardonnay is both easy to like and ubiquitous, but the styles range widely from soft and buttery to crisp and mineral. “A glass of Chardonnay” can mean a dozen things to a dozen people.

A sommelier once described Gérard Thomas’s Bourgogne blanc as “a wine that the nearly all of my customers will love, but that I’ll also be proud to have on my list.” Several restaurants we work with (including James Beard Award winners) have this wine as their “house chardonnay.” It’s substantial enough to drink on its own at the bar, but retains enough freshness and minerality to serve with dinner.

Savory lemon. In fact, this wine is the “house chardonnay” at many friends’ houses as well. Its versatility is nearly unmatched among our white wines — there’s a touch of oak to round out the palate, but sturdy acidity to keep it lively. It’s easy to spend quite a lot on classic White Burgundy, but it’s not always required.

The Thomas Bourgogne 2013 is lively and delicious, with a bright, almost savory mouth and a beautiful toasty lemon nose. We pair this with everything from roast chicken to goat cheese to broiled fish to lobster. It will enliven any dish it lands next to, and drink beautifully on its own. At $20/bot, it’s the perfect by-the-glass chardonnay.

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THOMAS Bourgogne 2013
Ansonia Retail: $24
case, half-case : $19.95/bot

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AVAILABLE IN  6-  AND 12-  BOTTLE LOTS

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Email Tom to place an order.

or call Tom: (617) 249-3657

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Invention.  Sparkling wine is one of the world’s great culinary innovations. Who deserves credit remains unsettled. Is it the monks of Limoux, who mark 1531 as the genesis? Or the Champenois, who in turning a “fault” into a feature certainly won the publicity war? Or perhaps the Brits, who invented glass bottles thick enough to contain the pressure, and who by the numbers enjoy it more than anyone else?

Whomever you credit with taming the “vin du diable,” we can agree they deserve many thanks. We’ve written enthusiastically about our new producer, Pascal Bardoux, whose small batch grower Champagnes are elegant and delicious. But sparkling wines are made throughout France, and thought they may not match Champagne for complexity, they’ve certainly got it beat on price. (And they’re no less fun to open.)

Fresh.  Our favorite everyday sparkling wine is from the Maison Picamelot in Burgundy. Founded back in 1926 by the son of a cooper and winegrower, Picamelot is one of the oldest sparkling wine producers in the area. They use the same in-bottle fermentation method pioneered in Champagne, and their wines are elegant and fresh.

Picamelot’s Crémant “les Terroirs” is a white blend of three grapes (Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Aligoté) from three different regions around Burgundy. This wine is aged on its lees for a year to gain complexity and texture, and the result is a delicious glass full of energy and very fine bubbles. The nose is floral with notes of apricot, and the mouth shows toast and lemon.

This is a perfect accompaniment to a plate of shellfish or a large salad. Pair it with a homemade caesar salad, and the wine will cut beautifully through the rich dressing.

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PICAMELOT Crémant de Bourgogne
Ansonia Retail: $24
half-case : $18/bot

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AVAILABLE IN  6-  AND 12-  BOTTLE LOTS

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Email Tom to place an order.

or call Tom: (617) 249-3657

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Muscly.  Gevrey-Chambertin is the largest appellation of Burgundy’s Côte d’Or. And because of its clay rich soils, its wines are of a similarly grand scale. Known for power and longevity, Gevrey-Chambertin often shows dark, intense fruit and a sturdy tannic structure.

Last summer we “discovered” a fourth generation producer in Gevrey-Chambertin — Gérard Quivy’s longtime US importer had just retired, and we landed on his doorstep with perfect timing. Quivy tends his family’s old vines — many planted in the 1940s — with care and skill, and his wines are beautiful expressions of his hometown terroir.

Old-Vines.  Quivy’s style is one of silkiness and elegance, which harmonizes well with Gevrey’s typical muscular fruit. His village level Gevrey-Chambertin “En Champ” comes from a small two acre plot at the north end of the appellation. The 70 year old vines turn out a deep, concentrated red burgundy that nonetheless offers an air of elegance and old-world class.

“En Champ” 2012 is beautifully expressive in the nose: notes of charcoal, toast, and graham cracker join dense jammy red fruit. The mouth is typically Gevrey: plenty of sturdy tannin alongside pleasant young briary fruit. As with Quivy’s other village level Gevrey “Journaux,” patience will be rewarded, but today this is handsome, crisp young Burgundy in unusually elegant dress.

Decant this for an hour or so, serve near room temperature, and pair with skirt steaks.

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QUIVY Gevrey-Chambertin “En Champ” 2012
Ansonia Retail: $54
quarter-case : $45/bot

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AVAILABLE IN  3-   6-  AND 12-  BOTTLE LOTS

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Email Tom to place an order.

or call Tom: (617) 249-3657

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Wet stones.  “Minerality” is a hard word to define. It appears throughout the wine world, but nobody can quite say exactly what it is. Last year wine writer Lettie Teague called it “a helpful word to describe wines that aren’t fruity, spicy, or herbal.” That’s still a bit vague, but it’s a good start.

We often use the word to describe wines from Chablis, Pouilly-Fumé, and Muscadet, but we too struggle for an exact meaning. Our best suggestion for defining minerality? Today’s wine: Gautheron’s Chablis Vieilles Vignes. Whatever your lexical definition of the term, one sip of this wine will tell you what we mean.

Value.  Chablis draws its minerality from its calcium-rich soil. The Chablis region was once the bed of an ocean, and the vineyards are peppered with chalky white fossils. Made from old vines and aged for what seems like a split second in oak, this wine has length and breadth, but also a vibrant backbone of freshness.

Chablis has always been a source for remarkable value, from last week’s Grand Cru under $50, to today’s weeknight-priced Vieilles Vignes. The market for Chablis still hasn’t quite recovered from the undrinkable “California Chablis” of decades ago, but the misconception only furthers the extraordinary value of these wines.

Raw oysters are the classic pairing for Chablis, and sitting as we are in the midst of “R months,” there’s no reason to abandon this tradition. If bivalves aren’t your cup of tea, fresh fish, pasta with lemon, or even sautéed greens will match with ease.

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GAUTHERON Chablis Vieilles Vignes 2013
Ansonia Retail: $25
case, half-case : $19.95/bot

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AVAILABLE IN  6-  AND 12-  BOTTLE LOTS

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Email Tom to place an order.

or call Tom: (617) 249-3657

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At the top.  In Burgundy, Grand Cru is as good as it gets. Making up just the top 1.3% of wines produced, these are the finest wines Burgundy has to offer. Their correspondingly high prices mean that most wine drinkers enjoy them only occasionally, if at all. Many bottles fetch prices in the hundreds, and some even in the thousands.

But Chablis provides a seeming contradiction in terms: well-priced Grand Cru. Located an hour and a half northwest of Burgundy proper, Chablis is a terroir unto itself, where stony and fossil-laden soils produce pure, exquisite expressions of Chardonnay. At its best, Grand Cru Chablis rivals the greatest whites from the rest of Burgundy, and we think today’s wine deserves such a label.

Lemon and Gardenia. Today we suggest the Grand Cru 2013 Valmur from Jean Collet. As with much Grand Cru Chablis, Collet’s Valmur is raised in oak; but the wine handles it beautifully. The wood melts effortlessly into the lemony perfume, adding a rich background for the classic burst of acidity and minerals. The mouthfeel is remarkably long and dense, a real testament to the power found in top class white wine.

This is a special wine, and deserves a special dish to accompany it. Chablis and oysters are the easy pairing, but you’d have to find some pretty exceptional oysters for this wine. Scallops might be a better match, seared carefully in oil and butter. Or a triple-cream cheese – Brillat-Savarin, or Delice de Bourgogne – left on the table for a few hours to come to room temperature.

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COLLET Chablis Grand Cru “Valmur” 2013
Ansonia Retail: $60
quarter-case: $48/bot

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AVAILABLE IN 3-   6-  AND 12-  BOTTLE LOTS

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Email Tom to place an order.

or call Tom: (617) 249-3657

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