Author: Thomas Wilcox

Most coverage of the wines of Burgundy focuses on premier crus and grand crus, the region’s top two classification levels. But for the savvy Burgundy enthusiast, there’s no shortage of interesting wines at the village level. Often pulling from several plots inside a single town, these wines provide excellent opportunities to appreciate the character of a single village.

We’ve put together a mixed case of six village-level wines from the Côte d’Or — two white, four red. Each wine deftly expresses the characteristics of its village, and they display the region-wide terroir shifts that make Burgundy both complicated and fascinating.

Boyer Meursault 13
Meursault is known for rich white wines that are both round and energetic. Vincent Boyer is a rising star in the village, and his Meursault “Tillets” shows white flowers, pear, and hazelnut. Serve this with lobster in butter.

Prunier Auxey-Duresses 14
Auxey-Duresses usually produces wines with less richness than its neighbor Meursault. But Prunier’s old-vine Auxey Duresses is a concentrated, dense white Burgundy one could easily mistake for high-elevation Meursault. Look for elderflower and lemon rind; serve with swordfish.

Ravaut Ladoix 09
Ladoix is an often forgotten town on the border between the Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune. Ravaut’s 2009 Ladoix is ripe and delicious, showing cinnamon and currants in the nose, with round, punchy tannins in the mouth. Serve with a roast chicken.

Gros Chambolle-Musigny 11
Michel Gros’s Chambolle-Musigny is a classic, showing the silkiness and elegance for which the appellation is famous. Allen Meadows called Gros’s 2011 Chambolle “utterly delicious;” look for notes of wild cherries, earth, and smoke. Serve with pan-seared duck breasts.

Amiot Morey-St-Denis 07
The Amiot domaine is right on the main street of Morey-St-Denis, and their village level red is classic. It shows very fine minerality, raspberries and blackberries, and a delicate woodsiness. Serve this with a steak salad or some hard cow’s milk cheese.

Quivy Gevrey-Chambertin 12
Gérard Quivy’s 18th century house in the middle of Gevrey-Chambertin is as meticulous and ornate as his wines. His 2012 Gevrey-Chambertin shows graham cracker and dense raspberry, with a cool, energetic mouthfeel. Serve with skirt steaks given plenty of browning.

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MIXED CASE:

VILLAGE LEVEL BURGUNDIES

2x   Boyer-Martenot Meursault 13:   $50
2x   Prunier Auxey-Duresses 14:   $45
2x   Ravaut Ladoix 09:   $36
2x   Gros Chambolle-Musigny 11:   $72
2x   Amiot Morey-St-Denis 07:   $52
2x   Quivy Gevrey-Chambertin 12:   $52

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Ansonia Retail: $614
mixed case price: $495/case

(free East Coast shipping)   |   save $116

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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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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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