Author: Thomas Wilcox

Wine of the Trip.  We’ve tasted a lot of wine over the past few weeks: 40 winemakers, three regions, and several hundred wines in all. Friday night, over Breton oysters and Muscadet in a Nantes brasserie, we made the “Best Of” list — “most memorable meal,” “most exciting new producer,” and “wine of the trip.”

The meal and producer awards required some thought, but the wine of the trip was easy: a 2006 Corton Bressandes Grand Cru from the Domaine Ravaut. At the end of our extensive tasting of newly bottled 2013s a few weeks ago, Mr. Ravaut suggested we try something from a little deeper the cellar. He disappeared for a few minutes and returned with an unmarked bottle.

From the moment it hit our glasses, this wine was extraordinary. The nose was beautiful and perfumed, with notes of flowers and graham crackers; the mouth was dense and velvety, showing raspberry confit, cinnamon, and hints of sous-bois. We marveled at how much of the core structure remained, though softened beautifully over nine years.  It seemed likely to weather the next nine with similar grace.

 

From the Cellar.  Maybe it was our reaction, or maybe Mr. Ravaut was just feeling generous, but we convinced him to set aside a few cases for our Futures group.  Ravaut’s 2013 reds and whites will appear in the July Futures Issue (to be released next weekend), but we’re starting the bidding early for this one.

It’s unusual to have the opportunity to buy Grand Cru red Burgundy with nine years under its belt. But it’s even rarer to find it with perfect provenance — this hasn’t left the vingeron’s cellar since the day it was bottled. Pick up a case for yourself, and the choice of whether to drink now or in a decade is entirely yours.

First come, first served; orders in lots of 6 bottles.

 

 

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RAVAUT Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru 2006
Ansonia Retail: $80
Futures Case Price: $650  ($54.16/bot)

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AVAILABLE IN 6-  AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS

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Email Tom to place an order.

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10:42PM  |  5th arr.  |  Paris

We spend the morning putting finishing touches on three weeks of tasting notes. Over coffee we discuss the final lineup for next week’s Futures Issue, and catch the noon TGV from Nantes to Paris. At Montparnasse we take a cab to the Latin Quarter, where our rental host is waiting.

In a well appointed walk up on the Rue Jussieu, we catch up on emails and begin drafts of the next Ansonia offers, as the avenue bustles four floors below. Our dinner is just steps from our front door in a hundred year old restaurant — rillettes de canard, mozzarella aubergine, and stewed veal. A splash of Armagnac to cap off our final meal. 

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The trip has been long and productive and taxing and fun. After 40 winemaker visits, over 200 wines, and somewhere north of 1800 miles of road, we’ve adopted the rhythm of the continent — an espresso after lunch, a new loaf of bread every day, a check only when you call for it.

The mind’s compass drifts towards the familiar after a month away from home. Travel tends set before us a bigger picture; we look at our country, our lives, our work, all from the perspective of a few thousand miles.  Tiny comforts — pour-over coffee, fast internet, a kitchen table — we take a little less for granted.

But our visits here provide an essential and inimitable connection to our vingerons. There is no way to replicate standing in a vineyard with a winemaker, surrounded by vines his grandfather planted, on land his great-grandfather bought — terroir is made of men and women as much as any earth or stone. They are stewards of the land, coaxing from the ground an exquisite culinary expression of the place that made them as well. 

We hope that through stories, pictures, and the fruits of this ancient beautiful craft, you too can feel a connection to the extraordinary people we find here.

À bientôt.

TW

 

11:42PM  |  Nantes  |  Loire Valley

A morning drive through the Vallée de la Loire — sprawling fields of wheat and corn dotted with grain elevators and crumbling churches. Our first tasting is with a familiar Muscadet producer — pure and expressive wines showing far more complexity than most expect from the grape.

Lunch in a nearby town — cucumber and carrot rapée with a balsamic dressing — then back for another Muscadet tasting at 2pm. These are richer with less minerality and more gras. Our final tasting of the day is with a tiny producer — a small-scale farmer as much as anything else. His Muscadet is crisp and lively, with good length and a pleasant finish.

We drive into Nantes, check into the hotel, and ditch the car. Dinner is fresh Breton oysters — strong flavored and brisk — from just up the Brettagne coast; and a confited hake, with spring peas and squid-ink pasta. We sit out on a square and watch the Friday evening crowd of students pass by, as we compile our “Best Of” list from the trip.

Paris tomorrow, then home.

 

11:45PM  |  Chinon  |  Loire Valley

Coffee, toast, and a collection of homemade jams for breakfast this morning — back for a third time at the utterly pleasant Hotel Diderot in Chinon. Our first appointment is out in the fields east of Chinon; a young producer we discovered a few years ago when he had just started to bottle his own wines. This year’s crop is dense and lovely — pure, unoaked cabernet franc showing dark cherries and graphite.

We stroll through the market in Chinon, full of vegetables, oysters, baskets, and crêpes. After lunch we head west to St. Nicolas de Bourgeuil, for a tasting at a biodynamic producer whose wines are juicy and full of life. Back in Chinon we finish up some work and head to dinner.

Dinner is exceptional — house made foie gras, crusted and roasted mignon de porc, and baba au rhum for dessert. One more jam-filled breakfast tomorrow, then west to Nantes.

 

11:17PM  |  Chinon  |  Loire Valley

We take our coffee in Amboise, near a bridge over the river Loire. Our first appointment is at 9am — a young energetic vigneron with only 3 hectares of vines, which he tends on the weekends. His wines are clear and crisp, all Chenin Blanc, both sec and demi-sec; we sample his pétillant-naturale (single fermentation sparkling wine).

Our second appointment is down the road in Vouvray, a marathon tasting of Chenin blanc that displays its remarkable diversity of styles — very dry to dessert-wine sweet. We taste 15 wines, as far back as 1990, and wonder at the vintage variation displayed among the cuvées.

After lunch we drive past Chinon to the Coteaux du Layon to meet a new vigneron who releases each vintage only 10 years after the harvest. Below their domaine is an extraordinary maze of small caverns, each full of a different vintage of wine, reaching back into the 1960s. Our tasting of six wines begins with 2005 (just released) and ends with 1968 — each wine is distinct and unusual, ranging from very sweet to mid-sweet. They show burnt pineapple, spice, and surprising freshness for their age.

Dinner back in Chinon, oysters and a dry Vouvray. Back to reds tomorrow.

 

 

10:39PM  |  Mosnes  |  Loire Valley

Our 9am appointment this morning is in a sleepy town west of Pouilly-sur-Loire, still in the appellation of Pouilly-Fumé. The vingeron is absent, and his quiet, charming mother shows us his two wines. Both are excellent — round and rich and full of life. The first shows excellent weight and length; the second, an old vine cuvée made from vines planted “juste aprés la guerre,” is exceptional.

Our second appointment is back by the river Loire — more Pouilly-Fumé, more success. These are smokier, more mineral, and very tense. We then cross the Loire and head into the hills in search of a Sancerre producer we discovered earlier this morning in the Guide Hachette. As luck would have it, these too are excellent. An embarrassment of Sauvignon riches.

We drive through a tiny town in search of a place for lunch, and happen upon a boucherie at 11:57am. With three minutes to forage our lunch, we split up — one to a bakery for a baguette and éclair, and the other to the boucherie for house-made paté de campagne, cornichons, and moutard de Dijon. As the clock strikes noon we regroup, find a place to pull over, and feast on our sandwiches.

Our afternoon tasting as a biodynamic producer in Cheverny, a small Loire appellation know for the historic and unusual grape Romorantin. Their entire lineup is extremely fresh, showing all the beautiful complexity and earthiness Biodynamics fosters. Dinner further west in Mosnes, sweetbreads and venison. Vouvray demain.

 

10:55PM  |  Pouilly-Sur-Loire  |  Loire Valley

We spend our day off with a bit of sightseeing, and some catching up on email. A short trip north to the Reims Cathedral is well worth the drive. The massive gothic masterpiece, built in stages over thousands of years and carefully restored (with, of all things, Rockefeller funding) post WWI, is magnificent; as the French say, impressionant. The stained glass not destroyed during the world wars has been replaced by 20th century artists including Marc Chagal, but the old stuff impresses the most.

This morning (Monday) we taste at two Champagne houses working in the Vallée de la Marne, one in downtown Épernay (now 5th generation), and one just outside. Both make fine, pretty wines in quantities to make Burgundy look like drops in a bucket. After lunch, we drive north into the Montagne de Reims region of Champagne, for a third tasting. This producer, more a philosopher-vigneron, opines at length on the types of berries and small hints of other fruit found in his cuvées. His thoughts are fascinating and his palate incredibly precise.

In the late afternoon we drive west from Reims towards Paris, through rolling fields marked with foreign cemeteries. The flags of England and Italy dot the countryside, a reminder of the terrible events that took place a century ago in this now peaceful landscape.

We reach the Loire Valley by dusk, and drive to Sancerre for an excellent meal with foie gras and a dish of beautifully sauced fish and lobster claws. Between courses we browse a 1952 Michelin Guide, which suggests we ask about the 1929 vintage in Burgundy — maybe next visit.

 

 

10:42PM  |  Épernay  |  Champagne

We leave Beaune this morning under cloudy skies. As the fog lifts and the drizzle clears, we drive northwest to Chablis, Burgundy’s satellite region. Our first appointment is en centre ville — a family producer of classic, mineral Chablis. The 2013s are perhaps the best they’ve made in recent memory, full of life and energy, and in perfect balance.

Our second visit is just outside town, where we taste from bottle and cuve; a softer, riper style that nonetheless retains the classic chablisienne minerality. Both domaines feature Chablis’s extraordinarily good pricing, and we look forward to stocking up from both. After a quick lunch in Chablis, we drive further north towards the Côte de Bar, Champagne’s southern region.

Our 2pm is one of four new Champagne producers we’re visiting on this trip, an effort to expand our lineup to include this most famous source for bubbles. The feeling of the business here — scale, dress, culture — is entirely different from Burgundy, and takes some adjusting. We tour amphitheaters of vines, full of chalky white soil and steep slopes, and cool dark warehouses of wines on their lees — the visit is an extensive and helpful crash course in the region, and the wines are delicious as well.

Dinner in Épernay; a day off and visit to Reims tomorrow.

 

10:42PM  |  Beaune  |  Burgundy

Last day in Burgundy. We head south on the highway towards Macon, back to the region where we once spent a year living. The softly rolling hills are covered in wheat, forests, and vines, and our car dips gently as we rise and fall with the rhythm of the countryside.

Our first tasting is in Verzé, for pure Chardonnay whites of exceptional clarity: bright lemon fruit, honey, almonds — all from a young organic winemaker who shows a remarkable passion for his craft. He takes us into his vines to show us the slope and quality of the soil. “Why make wine in Puligny Montrachet, where it’s flat?” he asks, giving us a quick smile. “Much better to make it here…” We taste his 2014s en cuve which are full and rich and bursting with life — a third exciting vintage in a row from our latest producer in the Maconnais.

In the late morning we drive north to Givry, to revisit a producer we knew during our time here in the 90s. The son has taken the reigns and shows a real knack for winemaking — rustic, hearty pinot noir with tons of character and impressive concentration.

After lunch we visit our producer for Crémant de Bourgogne, and taste through an exceptionally fine vintage 2012. Sparkling wines made of pinot noir, chardonnay, aligoté, and gamay — all well-made wines in their own right, with or without the bubbles. In the afternoon we pick up our final Burgundian provisions, and prepare to depart demain.

Dinner is at the Petit Paradis, a local favorite — fresh tuna tartare, local Charolais beef with époisses sauce, and salted caramel cream. Chablis et puis Champagne tomorrow.

 

10:55PM  |  Beaune  |  Burgundy

With a morning off from tastings, I take the car for a stretch up the Côte d’Or for photo collection. The soft morning sun quickly rises past the haze and clouds to paint a picture perfect blue sky above the shimmering green rows of vines. Many vignerons are in the fields this week — treating with insect deterrents, pruning the top canopies of the vines, and checking on the floraison.

In Chambolle, I walk out into the Musigny vineyard, quiet save for a gentle wind rustling the leaves. Standing among the gnarled vines emerging from rich brown dirt, I am struck by the elements — air, earth, sun, life — that conspire perfectly to form an impossibly complex and treasured drink. At my feet are vines planted before World War II, whose fruit will be consumed thirty years from now — time stretches dizzyingly forward and back from the point on the ground where I stand.

Lunch back in the Place Carnot, then a jet up to Vosne Romanée for a tasting with a new producer — delicate, fine-grained wines with excellent precision. We work our way through the fields to Marsannay for our second tasting, where we’re treated to an impressive range of wines: red, white, rosé and sparkling, all from the town and all well made.

Back at the apartment, we sit outside as the sun bakes the late evening air, calculating we’re nearly at the same latitude as Fort Kent at the northern tip of Maine. Dinner is a few blocks away — chorizo and peas, roasted veal, and strawberries with balsamic-anise ice cream to finish. Tomorrow the Côte Chalonnaise.