Author: Thomas Wilcox

Posted on by

The Perfect Summer Grilling Red. $12.5

Exceptional Value.  For the careful shopper, the Languedoc can be an abundant resource. Long a source for inexpensive wine, the region has only recently become a source for value. There’s still plenty of bad wine made in the vast region, but if you make good choices $13 will take you farther here than just about anywhere else.

The region’s best bargain may come from the Clos Bagatelle. This centuries old domaine hails from the ancient town of St. Chinian, set high in the jagged hills of the central Languedoc. Bagatelle grows syrah, carignan, and cinsault vines in a rocky schist soil that provides balance and minerality.

 

Everyday Backyard Red. Bagatelle’s Cuvée Tradition 2013 is full of cool, stony fruit – there’s a berry freshness and lack of heat that’s hard to come by in much of the Languedoc. The palate offers fruit compote, meatiness, and hints of tobacco, but without high alcohol or palate-tiring heaviness.

This is perfect grilling wine. Steaks, burgers, grilled vegetables and shish kabobs will all match nicely and bring out the smokiness in this wine. Make sure it’s served a touch cooler than room temperature. Invite some friends over for dinner, and don’t tell them how much you paid.

 

_
________________________

BAGATELLE Tradition 2013
Ansonia Retail: $180
case price: $150/case   ($12.5/bot)

_
AVAILABLE BY THE CASE

_

 

Email Tom to place an order.

_

_

_____________________________

Enjoy this article? Sign up to receive them in your inbox.

_

_

Posted on by

A Surprise from Alsace.

Unexpected.  We like finding wines that defy expectations. Lightweight Syrah, refreshing Chardonnay, floral Pinot Noir — we enjoy sharing wines that tasters have wrongly pigeonholed. Most grapes can present their flavors in a wide range of styles.

No wine provides more such surprises than our dry Riesling from Alsace. Many readers will recognize Francis Muré from the dry, refreshing rosé we wrote about last week. His Riesling is similarly dry and energetic, and has impressed us (and sommeliers, and the Guide Hachette) for years.

 

Bone dry.  With only a whiff of Muré’s 2013 Riesling, you might suspect it sweet. The nose bursts with pineapple, honeysuckle, and fresh spring flowers. But in the mouth this wine is lively and round, with bright zippy acidity. Despite a grape name that some find intimidating, this wine has been among our most consistently delicious and best selling wines for more than a decade.

This is a perfect food wine — Indian and Asian food are favorite pairings of ours, but anything from shellfish to chicken to goat cheese will benefit from a glass of this by its side. If you’re serving it to guests, pour it with your hand over the label; in our experience, they never guess, but they always love it.

 

_
________________________

MURÉ Riesling 2013
Ansonia Retail: $20
case price: $16/bot

_
AVAILABLE IN 6-  AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS

_

 

Email Tom to place an order.

_

_

_____________________________

Enjoy this article? Sign up to receive them in your inbox.

_

_

Posted on by

By-the-Glass Côtes-du-Rhône. $15

Easy.  Some wines hit a sweet spot between balance, versatility, and price. These are wines to reach for after a long day at work, or to drink while curled up with a book. They’re wines you don’t need to think hard about – uncomplicated, refreshing, and inexpensive.

Sablet from the Domaine les Goubert is a longtime favorite in this category. Back when we had a retail shop in Washington DC, we could barely keep the wine in stock. Customers from the other side of town would pick up a case on a Saturday afternoon, and customers from next door would rush over to pick up a bottle with dinner on the stove.

 

Côtes du Rhône Plus.  Now it is the house red wine of many readers and friends. Sablet is a Côtes-du-Rhône Villages, a notch up from Côtes-du-Rhône with a bit more stuffing and noticeably smoother. We find ripe dark fruits, hints of leather and spice, and a full but balanced mouthfeel.

Goubert’s Sablet is among our most versatile by the glass reds; we serve it with everything from grilled meats to summery pastas to hearty salads. But food isn’t necessary with the Sablet — all you really need is an air conditioner and a good book.

 

_
________________________

GOUBERT Sablet 2012
Ansonia Retail: $18
case price: $15/bot

_
AVAILABLE IN 6-  AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS

_

 

Email Tom to place an order.

_

_

_____________________________

Enjoy this article? Sign up to receive them in your inbox.

_

_

Posted on by

Crisp, No-Oak Chardonnay. $16.95

Spectrum.  “Oaked” or “unoaked” sounds like a yes-no question, but it really is a range. Most of the wines we import spend some time in oak, but the strength of its influence depends on the age and size of the barrel, the chauffe (how heavily the inside is charred), and time in the barrel.

With this wine, it’s simple: no oak at all. This classic, stony, energetic chablis is all freshness, minerality, and pure fruit. The Domaine Gautheron is a small, family-owned property, and we love their precise style. You could eat off the floor there, and the insistence on cleanliness extends to their wines as well.

 

Crisp, fresh.  The latest vintage of Petit Chablis, from 2014, has just arrived from France. This is our best value from Chablis, and we always struggle to keep it in stock. On price, this wine competes with your local supermarket’s Napa Valley Chardonnay. On complexity, finesse, and freshness, there’s no contest.

Gautheron’s Petit Chablis is also one of our easiest wines to pair with food. This wine bursts with cool lemon fruit and a stony, brisk mouthfeel. With no oak at all, sushi (or any raw fish) is a fantastic choice. Shellfish (especially oysters) and roast fish also work well, as will a simple roast chicken. Whatever the choice, this wine will brighten your meal.

 

_
________________________

GAUTHERON Petit Chablis 2014
Ansonia Retail: $20
offer price: $16.95/bot

_
AVAILABLE IN 6-  AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS

_

 

Email Tom to place an order.

_

_

_____________________________

Posted on by

Weekend Reads: 7.17.15

A few of the articles on wine and food we enjoyed this week:

ON FOOD

Alice Waters’s Perfect Aioli  |  NYT :
Mark Bittman recounts an afternoon meal with Alice Waters.

Weird Farmers Market Vegetables  |  NPR Salt :
Chef April Bloomfield discusses what to do with those odd market veggies.

ON DRINK

Collecting Rare Bourbon  |  Punch :
Charleston chef Sean Brock on collecting and rare bourbon.

Burgundy and the other 1855  |  Decanter :
After last month’s UNESCO vote, Jane Anson looks at the history of classification in Burgundy. 

Can Pink Wine Be Fine?  |  Jancis Robinson :
Jancis Robinson tastes and discusses rosé.

 

Posted on by

Wild Lavender and Blackberry Jam.

Balance.  France is in the midst of an intense heat wave these days. Though the south of France is no stranger to summer heat, the country’s continental climate is important in helping its wines achieve balance. Grapes that are overripe contain too much sugar, which boosts alcohol levels and flattens the palate.

With temperatures in the South of France pushing 100 F these days, we’re awfully glad to have the Clos Bagatelle in our portfolio. Located in the bright, sunny Languedoc, Bagatelle’s wines nevertheless achieve a consistent balance, year after year. Today we’re releasing the 2011 Veillée d’Automne, a delicious, vibrant wine with notes lavender and roasted blackberry jam.

 

Blackberry.  Clos Bagatelle is a centuries-old domaine in St. Chinian, a mountainous section of the northwestern Languedoc.  The secrets to achieving balance are schist-laden soils and high elevation, which protect the wines from over-ripeness and high alcohol. The result is a concentrated wine with rich, dark tannins, but one that isn’t overly mouth coating or heavy.

Veillée d’Automne is majority Syrah, with Grenache, Mouvèdre, and Carignan blended in.  There’s a faint woodsy smokiness in this wine that makes it a harmonious pairing for food from the grill. We’re looking forward to trying this unusual steak-right-on-charcoal recipe from the New York Times, and anticipate this will be a lovely match.

 

_
________________________

BAGATELLE Veillée d’Automne 2011
Ansonia Retail: $22
offer price: $18/bot

_
AVAILABLE IN 6-  AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS

_

 

Email Tom to place an order.

_

_

_____________________________

Posted on by

New Alsatian Pinot Noir Rosé

A l’Ancienne.  Francis Muré lives in a charming Alsatian hill town. His small farmhouse nestles on vine-covered slopes near stone streets lined with colorful flower boxes. It’s quaint and picturesque, like something from a children’s storybook.

Muré’s wines are a perfect representation of their pastoral origin. Today’s Rosé, is a summery, refreshing, uncomplicated glass of wine. The nose is of spring flowers, and the mouth is pure and ripe and clean. We can’t all live in such a beautiful place as Alsace, but a glass of this rosé will transport you there, at least for a moment.

 mure3_66d3a483-edd2-4046-a5f5-c9e516d9e60a_1024x1024

Summer relief.  Muré splits the fruit from his Pinot Noir harvest into two wines: the bright, summer-weight red we wrote about last week, and this rosé. Where the notes in the red are mostly wild cherries, the rosé is more floral, and the fruit is closer to raspberry.

The two main things we look for in a rosé are low alcohol, and enough acidity. Muré’s Rosé clocks in at 12.5%, and has a lovely, elegant balance. The cool, ripe fruits round out beautifully in the mouth, but the gentle acidity keeps it lively and fresh.

During a week like this, with oppressive humidity and unrelenting heat, Mure’s Rosé is as useful as an umbrella in April. Bring it outside to your backyard or patio, and you might even get some gardening done.

_
________________________

MURÉ Rosé 2014
Ansonia Retail: $17
offer price: $14/bot

_
AVAILABLE IN 6-  AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS

_

 

Email Tom to place an order.

_

_

_____________________________

Posted on by

Weekend Reads: 7.10.15

A few of the articles on wine and food we enjoyed this week:

ON FOOD

The Science of Dry Aging  |  Lucky Peach :
Harold McGee discusses the enzymatic process behind dry-aging meat.

The Pinnacle of Cheesemongering  |  WSJ :
A cheesemongering competition in New York.

ON DRINK

Consider the Apple  |  World of Fine Wine :
A primer on cider; background on the tradition in Normandy and Brittany, and a look at the state of cider today.

A History of Whiskey Labels  |  NPR The Salt :
A look at the packaging and labeling of whiskeys over the years.

A New Era for Beaujolais  |  Punch :
A look at the post-carbonic era of Beaujolais, complete with a heated comment section.

 

Posted on by

Crisp, Refreshing Breton Cider. $11.95

melenig_pinCornouaille.  Cider has seen an explosion in popularity recently. Everyone from large beer companies to small scale New England farms has jumped into the game, and “craft cider” is no longer hard to find.

As with wine, cheese, and other culinary arts, most serious American cider makers have made the pilgrimage to France to study the origins of their craft. What they find is what we’re offering today: traditional, earthy, sparkling cider made on the rugged Breton peninsula.

.

 melenig2

.

Cidre.  Bretagne (Brittany) is a starkly beautiful coastal region, blanketed by rolling green hills and ancient stone walls. The land resembles England or Ireland more than France, and the region’s hardy, independent spirit is evident. For centuries the Bretons have cultivated an extensive network of orchards, pressing a wide variety of apples into their local sparkling drink.

We’ve yet to taste a domestic cider quite like this one from Melenig. The flavors are of earth, apple skins, black tea, and dried fruits; the mouthfeel is woodsy and rustic — a perfect representation of the rugged windblown coast. There’s a hint of ripe apple sweetness when first in the mouth, but the finish is dry and textured.

At 4% alcohol, this is a refreshing, complex, and delightful drink, as affordable as it is delicious. Serve it cold, with goat cheese salad or, if you really want to be authentic, crêpes. We tried it last night with grilled swordfish and roasted cauliflower — a lovely match on a warm summer evening.

_
________________________

MELENIG Cidre de Cornouaille
Ansonia Retail: $15
offer price: $11.95/bot

_
AVAILABLE IN 6-  AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS

_

 

Email Tom to place an order.

_

_

_____________________________

email_fut

Posted on by

Refreshing Alsace Pinot Noir.

Vin de Plaisir.  Francis Muré’s wines were made for the summer. Muré and his wife Josiane run a tiny winemaking operation in the beautiful rolling hills of Alsace. Their wines are uncomplicated and refreshing, the perfect antidote for a warm muggy evening.

Francis is a true artisan — when not in the cellar he is making his own duck confit or smoking the rainbow trout his brother catches in nearby mountain streams. His range of wines offers something for nearly every summertime occasion. We’ll release his rosé, white, and sparkling over the next few weeks, but we’re beginning today with the red.

 

Vin de Soif.  Muré’s Pinot Noir is the perfect summer weight red wine. It’s light and fresh, full of notes of wild cherries, and fresh springtime flowers. We like to serve it slightly chilled — pull it from the fridge 20 minutes or so before serving. It has the freshness of a white, the nose of a rosé, and the light, fruity body of a summery Pinot Noir.

Mure’s Pinot Noir 2014 may be his best yet. With just a hint of oak during elevage to help round it out, this wine is mostly about pure, fresh cherry fruit. Cool it down and serve it with salads, sushi, or grilled chicken — it’s hard to imagine a better match for the summer.

_
________________________

MURÉ Pinot Noir 2014
Ansonia Retail: $22
offer price: $16.95/bot

_
AVAILABLE IN 6-  AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS

_

 

Email Tom to place an order.

_

_

_____________________________

email_fut

Posted on by

New Provencal Rosé. $15

Fresh and dry.  Rosé just keeps getting better. With demand on the rise, vignerons are experimenting with new cuvées and interesting blends. The Domaine les Goubert, long our favorite source for Gigondas, joined the game last year with the excellent dry “Rosé de Flo,” a project of the family’s daughter Florence.

For this year’s rosé, Florence altered the blend of grapes.  We were a bit nervous when we first heard this, as the 2013 was so popular, but we needn’t have worried. The 2014 is even better — a blend of grenache, mourvèdre, and an unusual local grape called brun argenté — and we’re certain it will find as many friends as last year’s.

 Screen Shot 2015-07-05 at 11.33.38 AM

New and improved.  The change between vintages is apparent even by sight. Where the 2013 was a salmon orange-pink, the 2014 is a darker pink-purple. The flavor profiles echo this shift as well: the nose is wild strawberry jam, with secondary notes of honey and faint lavender.

Because it’s grown further south, there’s more material in the mouth — it’s just a tad fuller than a rosé from Alsace or the Loire. But the mouth is dry and beautifully balanced, showing raspberries and lemon rind. It’s a better food rosé than last year’s version — during our visit last month Florence suggested roasted mullet or tapenade.

Bone dry, with 13% alcohol and a beautiful delicate acidity, this wine is dangerously easy to drink — the bottled we opened yesterday disappeared with remarkable haste. Open one with a salad or tapenade and you’ll be transported to Provence. Open one on a sweltering afternoon later this summer, and you’ll think it a gift from the winemaking gods.

_
________________________

GOUBERT Rosé de Flo 2014
Ansonia Retail: $18
offer price: $15/bot

_
AVAILABLE IN 6-  AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS

_

 

Email Tom to place an order.

_

_

_____________________________

email_fut

Posted on by

Morey-St-Denis: Blackberries and Velvet

Micro-vignerons.  The town of Morey-St-Denis exemplifies the small scale of Burgundian winemaking. Wedged between two more famous neighbors, this village of 680 people has a vineyard surface of under 4 tenths of a square mile. It’s dark, delicious, classic red Burgundy — there just isn’t much of it to go around.

Michel Gros has a tiny parcel in Morey-St-Denis, from which he makes fewer than 1000 bottles annually. The vines are perched on the hill above the town, and the vineyard directly borders three Grand Crus: Clos de Tart, Clos des Lambrays, and Bonnes-Mares. The parcel, “En la Rue de Vergy,” is named for the ancient path to the historic Saint-Vivant Abbey in Vergy.

 Screen Shot 2015-07-02 at 9.10.37 AM

Concentration.  Clive Coates describes the wines of Morey as a cross between the silkiness of Chambolle-Musigny and the sturdiness of Gevrey-Chambertin. Gros’s Morey-St-Denis is closer to the Chambolle side, and shows an elegant mouthfeel that’s typical of his style. We found beautiful, dark blackberry fruit in this wine, with cool, ripe tannins.

In 2012 the yields in Gros’s Morey plot were 25% lower than usual, and the result is a year with extra concentration and excellent depth. Allen Meadows (Burghound) was impressed with the 2012, calling it “delicious and attractively textured,” and with “very fine minerality,” and a “velvety, lingering finish.”

We found a beautiful tension in this wine, at once rich and energetic. This should help it age well, and make it an easy match with foods — game birds are the best pairing we’ve found.

_
________________________

MICHEL GROS Morey-St-Denis 2012
Ansonia Retail: $68
offer price: $59/bot

_
AVAILABLE IN 6-  AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS

_

 

Email Tom to place an order.

_

_

_____________________________

email_fut

Posted on by

Minerality, Lemon, and Old-Vine Chablis. $22

Wet Stones. “Minerality” is a hard word to define. It appears throughout the wine world, but nobody can quite say 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 pretty vague, but it’s a good start.

We often use the word to describe wines from Chablis, Sancerre, 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, open a bottle of this and you’ll know what we mean.

 

Freedom Freshness.  We’re not sure what the founding fathers were drinking as they drafted the Declaration of Independence in sweltering Philadelphia 239 years ago, but we doubt they’d have been able to turn down a glass of this Chablis. The Gautheron Chablis Vieilles Vignes 2013 has minerality and freshness in spades, and is a perfect match for the coming summer heat.

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 piercing backbone of freshness.

This is balanced enough to serve on its own, perhaps at a backyard barbeque this summer. Raw oysters are the classic pairing, and if you have access to and taste for them there’s no reason to look any further. Otherwise fish, pasta with lemon, or even sautéed greens will match with ease.

 

_
________________________

GAUTHERON Chablis Vieilles Vignes 2013
Ansonia Retail: $25
offer price: $22/bot

_
AVAILABLE IN 6-  AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS

_

 

Email Tom to place an order.

_

_

_____________________________

email_fut

Posted on by

Crozes-Hermitage: Spice and Syrah

Fruit and Spice. The first thing we consider when describing a wine is its fruit. We decide whether the fruits are light or dark, cooked or fresh, sweet or dry, and so on. An astounding range of scents can emerge from a glass of wine despite their common source, Vitis vinifera.

But it’s often the second note emerging from a wine that distinguishes it from the crowd. In Burgundy it may be earthy and woodsy, in Sancerre, smoky, and in Alsace, floral. And in Crozes-Hermitage, where today’s wine is made, it’s unmistakably spice. This note is among the most distinct of any wine we import, and it’s one of our favorites.

 

Pure Syrah.  The Syrah grape finds its greatest expression in France’s Northern Rhône Valley, and it’s here that Denis Basset crafts his Crozes-Hermitage. The wine is pure Syrah — at 13% alcohol it’s dark and chewy but beautifully balanced. It’s the antithesis of a warm-weather new world Syrah (or Shiraz).

Basset is a young organic winemaker who is passionate and very talented — the latest issue of the Guide Hachette featured two of his four wines in 2012 (including this one), an impressive feat for a winemaker who started only five years ago. We’ve just been restocked with his delicious 2012 Crozes, and are thrilled to start drinking it again.

The fruit profile is dark blackberries, followed by an extraordinary range of other spices: cloves, anise, tobacco, and black pepper to name a few. There’s a hint of savory, smoky bacon as well, and the finish is long and fine and delicate. We like this wine best with lamb or beef — this grilled lamb shish kabobs recipe should make a lovely match.

 

_
________________________

SAINT-CLAIR Crozes-Hermitage 2012
Ansonia Retail: $26
offer price: $22/bot

_
AVAILABLE IN 6-  AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS

_

 

Email Tom to place an order.

_

_

_____________________________

Posted on by

Languedoc Syrah Blend: Rich and Fresh

Altitude. On Saturday night, for our final meal in Paris, we sat outdoors at a charming restaurant in the Latin Quarter. We didn’t recognize any producers on the their small but thoughtful wine list, and ordered a bottle of red from Pic-St-Loup in the Languedoc. It was fresh, very well-balanced, and delicious.

The secret about Pic-St-Loup is that it’s the furthest north of any sector in the Languedoc, and also boasts the region’s highest altitude vineyards. This geography keeps the wines fresh and lively in a region known for hot sun and high alcohol. Our source for Pic-St-Loup is the Mas Foualquier, a biodynamic domaine that takes full advantage of the appellation’s capacity for balance.

 caladeslabel

Dark and fresh.  Foulaquier manages to craft wines that are rich but not heavy. Using mostly Syrah and Grenache, winemakers Pièrre Jéquier and Blandine Chauchat create dark, dense, meaty wines that remain balanced and refreshing on the palate. Today’s wine, “Les Calades,” is a majority syrah cuvée that shows blackberry and baked raspberry, with sweet spices, licorice, and menthol.

At only 13.5% alcohol, this wine shows an energy usually reserved for wines from further north. In the mouth are cool, elegant tannins that are careful wrapped and perfectly ripe — there’s also a silky texture that comes from Foulaquier’s choice neither to fine nor filter their wines, leaving the natural fullness of the blend.

We like serving this just a touch cool, paired with something smoked or grilled.

 

_
________________________

FOULAQUIER Calades 2011
Ansonia Retail: $34
offer price: $28/bot

_
AVAILABLE IN 6-  AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS

_

 

Email Tom to place an order.

_

_

_____________________________