Author: Thomas Wilcox

Chablis is traditionally the purest, most stripped down form of Chardonnay from Burgundy. In recent decades winemakers have begun to experiment with oaking, particularly at the premier and grand cru levels – and the line between Chablis and Côte d’Or White Burgundies has blurred a bit. But today’s cuvée is unmistakable – classic, unoaked, old school premier cru Chablis.

Romain Collet’s 2020 1er cru Montmains is beautifully balanced – the vintage provided abundant lush fruit, which winemaker Romain expertly channeled into a sleek, vibrant, fresh Chablis with impressive depth. Jasper Morris found the wine lacking for nothing – “certainly, the bouquet is round enough without [oak].” He found “fresh apples, a little citrus, and persistent;” we agree, and would add an elegant note of lime zest.

A Chablis-lover’s Chablis.

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Collet Chablis 1er “Montmains” 2020
bottle price: $38

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Most franco-oenofiles know Cabernet Franc for the supporting role it plays in the great wines of Bordeaux. And indeed, there are more Cabernet Franc vines in Bordeaux than anywhere else in France. But it’s in the central Loire Valley, in towns like Chinon, Borgeuil, and Saumur-Champigny, where the grape shines in a solo role.

In recent decades organic viticulture, balanced wines, and affordable prices have become the calling cards of the Loire Valley. Our producer here is the 6th generation Domaine des Sanzay, crafting subtle, organic, delicious wines that overperform their pricetags by a mile.  Their 2019 Vieilles Vignes cuvée has seen a few years in the bottle and is beginning to unwind into an exquisite, detailed red wine. Look for a nose of berries, faint toast, cassis, earth and stones; the mouth is lively and long, with excellent intensity.

Serve this with something you’d normally pair with a red Burgundy, and don’t tell your guests what you paid.

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Sanzay Saumur-Champigny VV 2019
bottle price: $36

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A tasty entry-level red Burgundy is among the most useful wines in the cellar. If the moment calls for quiet introspection, pour it into a large glass and watch it unwind over an hour – given time and space the best cuvées will rival village-level reds for their complexity. If the setting is a boisterous family dinner replete with flavors and noise, serve it just a bit cool and watch the freshness and energy hold their own against a wide array of dishes.

Whatever the mood, a simple red Burgundy is often a great answer. One of our favorites comes from Sofie Bohrmann, a talented Belgian winemaker in Meursault. Her 2020 Bourgogne rouge is simply delicious, and it’s everything an entry level Bourgogne is meant to be: low oak, lovely red fruit, excellent energy, and a perfect Burgundian blend of earth and berries.

Borhmann’s Bourgogne vines are across the RN-74 from Pommard. At 35 years old, they’re more mature than many Bourgogne-level vines, and their fruit produces a wine of real complexity. She uses 70% whole clusters, giving the wines excellent definition and exquisite tension.

The nose shows seductive, crushed ripe red fruits, overlaid with a soft floral character. The mouth is perfectly ripe, smooth, and delicious, with fine chalky tannin supporting the bursting fruit. The 2020 shows a remarkably density, but also excellent acidity — some 2020 cuvées are destined for future greatness, but this one requires no patience.

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Bohrmann Bourgogne rouge 2020
bottle price: $36

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In Burgundy, the concept of terroir is both essential and elusive. A host of other variables – winemaker, vintage, barrel type, bottle age, etc – often conspire to hide the power of terroir. The only way to experience this magical property fully in isolation, with all other variables held unchanged.

This is standard during our tastings in Burgundy, where we see an entire lineup of wines from a single vintage at a single domaine – but it’s far less common back home. So for readers with the Burgundy bug, we’ve collected a half-case of wines to showcase terroir. Everything about these six wines – vintage, grape, winemaker, oaking, bottling date, bottle age – is exactly the same… except the specific place from which they come.

Read a book and you can know about terror. Taste these, and you’ll know (think the French verb connaître) terroir.

Gros Hautes-Côtes de Nuits 2020
Gros Hautes-Côtes de Nuits “Au Vallon” 2020
Gros Nuits-St-Georges 2020
Gros Gevrey-Chambertin 2020
Gros Chambolle-Musigny 2020
Gros Vosne-Romanée 2020

Quantities limited
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Michel Gros Terroir Six-Pack
retail price: $428
six-pack: $385

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In a world of warmer summers and riper grapes, Chablis has become a bastion of freshness and balance. The satellite region of Burgundy lies 90 minutes north of the Côte d’Or, about half way to Paris — the climate is cooler and the terroir is stonier. The resulting wines are less ripe and more mineral than a typical Bourgogne blanc.

Many of the wines coming out of Chablis are better than they’ve ever been. Today’s wine is from the regional-level “Petit Chablis” appellation, which in recent years has put on a bit of muscle and depth with the changing climate. Gautheron’s 2022 Petit Chablis is a delight — the nose is floral and very dry with notes of lemon pith and grapeskin. The mouth is sturdy and delicious, with chalky backbone and beautiful white apple fruit.

Serve this during the next heatwave, with ice-cold oysters on the half-shell.

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Gautheron Petit Chablis 2022
bottle price: $28

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If there’s one wine in our portfolio that rivals white Burgundy for complexity and depth, it’s Riesling. The perennially underrated grape is capable of remarkably layered subtlety, and often comes with a surprisingly friendly pricetag. This week we opened a terrific bottle of biodynamic Grand Cru Riesling from Alsace, and we’re excited to suggest it today.

Vincent Gross makes tiny quantities of exquisite wine in his picturesque town in Alsace. His 2018 Riesling Goldert Grand Cru is elegant and delicious – the nose bursts with classic slate and petrol, alongside roses and lime zest. The mouth is dry and very long, with excellent focus amid the concentrated fruit.

Serve this when it’s too hot to drink Chassagne.

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Gross Riesling Grand Cru “Goldert” 2018
bottle price: $38

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The Languedoc region of southern France produces oceans of cheap, uninteresting wine. (A few years ago the government even paid vignerons to pull up vines to limit overproduction.) But if you know where to look, the region is also the source for some excellent wines and terrific values.

Today’s syrah-based wine is from St-Chinian, a small area of wonderful terroir high in a pocket of schist- and limestone-covered hills. Clos Bagatelle’s 2019 “Fil de Soi” got an extra year of élévage (not in oak) because of a pandemic bottle-shortage, and delay was a blessing in disguise. The texture is silky smooth and delicious, fleshy and rich. The nose bursts with dark fruit and spice, and the mouth shows plums mingled with a pleasant earthiness.

Pour at your next barbecue.

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Bagatelle St-Chinian “Fil de Soi” 2019
bottle price: $25

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A well-made entry-level Burgundy is the mark of a talented winemaker. Fancier cuvées will show off the power of terroir, and many wines from famous sites are deserving of their reputation and praise. But a Bourgogne-level wine is more a reflection of house-style and vintage.

Gérard Thomas’s house style is old-school and classic. Their careful use of barrel aging adds notes of toast and hazelnuts rather than buttery popcorn, and these blend perfectly into the traditional lemon cream core of Chardonnay. The 2021 vintage was a return to the cooler weather patterns of decades ago, and a departure from the warm-weather richness of recent years.

The resulting wine is simple and classic – traditional, unadorned Bourgogne blanc. And a bargain under $30.

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Thomas Bourgogne blanc 2021
bottle price: $29

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Muscadet is a dry, lightweight, well-priced Loire Valley white. It’s grown near where the Loire River meets the Atlantic, and the wine matches the essence of the windswept coast and the shellfish of its shores. The juice of the Melon de Bourgogne grape is so pure and light that winemakers age the wine on its lees for several years to add flavor.

Our producer here is Martin Luneau, a traditional vigneron making classic Muscadet that a patron of a Parisian cafe in 1923 would easily recognize. Their 2018 “Deux Roches” cuvée is a blend of grapes from two terroirs, and is everything you expect – light, crisp, dry, refreshing, and cheap. (At under $5/glass it might even beat that craft beer in your fridge.) Serve with oysters, of course, but also with goat cheese on crackers, grilled fish, or a summery pasta.

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Martin-Luneau Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine
Sur Lie “Deux Roches” 2018
bottle price: $19

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The soils of Burgundy vary widely based on location, but in general are some blend of argile (clay) and calcaire (limestone). The proportion of these two elements goes a long way in determining the character of wine made in each town. And in Chambolle-Musigny, it’s all about the calcaire.

This higher mineral content gives the wines of Chambolle their signature silkiness, featuring elegance and lift more than muscle and power. Our source here is the Domaine Boursot, a winery dating back to the 1550s, but one that’s unmistakably on the upswing today. Jasper Morris MW writes that “the winemaking has been sharpened up by the current generation;” Neal Martin of Vinous sees “good potential” and “a promising future.”

Boursot’s outstanding crop of 2020s arrived last fall, and they’ve only gotten better – yields were down 25-50%, and the resulting wines are almost syrah-like in their intensity. Boursot’s village-level Chambolle is particularly impressive this year – inky and rich with a tremendous amount of flavor packed into every sip. Neal Martin of Vinous called it “bold and assertive,” an enticing foil to the silky Chambolle terroir.

Dark notes of violets and cassis pour from the nose on this wine. The mouth is concentrated and nearly opaque but also very precise, with cinnamon, wild cherries, and cassis all channeled into a sleek form. Enjoy this as a young wine from a decanter over the next year or two, or save it for another five and drink it as a mature masterpiece.

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Boursot Chambolle-Musigny 2020
bottle price: $82

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We can’t tell you the real name of the Forces Telluriques — it’s an iconic Mâconnais source with an exclusive importer for the primary label. But it’s the same juice in the bottle, and extraordinary juice it is. The family who creates this wine are true believers in the theory of biodynamics — minimal vineyard intervention in the vines, meticulous and hands-off winemaking.

The resulting cuvée is a living, breathing wine, bursting from the bottle, ready to commune with the natural world. It’s pure Chardonnay, entirely unoaked – the nose explodes from the glass with tangerine, honey and lemon peel. The mouth is cool, long and luxurious with tremendous energy wrapped into a fleshy core.

We often convert red drinkers to white with this wine.

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Forces Telluriques Viré-Clessé 2020
bottle price: $42

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Michel Gros makes some of the fanciest reds in our cellar, from appellations like Vosne-Romanée and Chambolle-Musigny. Like many other Burgundian winemakers, he also makes a series of “petits vins” – wines from less exalted zip codes, with earlier drinking windows and friendlier price tags.

Gros’s 2017 Hautes-Côtes de Nuits has drunk well from its arrival a few years ago – a low tannin, accessible vintage that has always been a crowd pleaser. We opened a bottle this week to check and it’s terrific – smooth and approachable but with plenty of precision and vibrant freshness. Look for notes of violets, toast, black cherry, and cassis.

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Gros Hautes-Côtes de Nuits 2017
bottle price: $35

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The Jura region has an untamed feel to it. Lying only an hour east of Burgundy, it’s a wilder, craggier landscape, producing unusual wines to match. We love its most famous product — the sherry-like oxidized Vin Jaune — but concede it’s not to everyone’s taste.

The red wines of the Jura are certainly less esoteric than its whites, but still embody a funkier, more rugged style than the Côte d’Or. If red Burgundy is a polished, Harvard-educated lawyer from the Back Bay, red Jura is her younger brother who went to art school and lives in Porter Square .

Today’s cuvée is Ligier’s Arbois Trousseau 2019, a lightweight, pleasantly funky red full of freshness and character.

Trousseau is an unusual and increasingly rare grape — it’s grown almost exclusively in the Jura, and even there covers only 172 hectares (a bit larger than the town of Vosne-Romanée). Trousseau may be light in color, but it’s got plenty of character, and can stand up to a wide array of flavors — think prosciutto, duck, salmon, pâté, mushrooms, of the local specialty, Comté.

The nose is bright and fruit forward with strawberries and a hint of earthiness. The mouth has lightweight tannins, nice density, and a pleasant dry juiciness — look for notes of mushrooms, thyme, dried meats, and wild strawberries.

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Ligier Trousseau 2019
bottle price: $19

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In a warming world perennially in search of freshness, Chablis is often the answer. Even amid recent scorching dry summers, many winemakers were able to channel the stony precision of Chablis into beautifully balanced wines.

The 2021 vintage was cooler and wetter than recent years, and a welcome return to classical style after several years of unusual ripeness and heat. The best of these Chablis are simply magnificent, the only problem is their scarcity. We’re thrilled to have two terrific Chablis producers (Collet and Gautheron), and are excited to release another knockout premier cru today.

The Vaillons premier cru lies on a slope parallel to Montmains on Chablis’s left bank, known as a source of chiseled, vibrant wines. Gautheron’s Vaillons 2021 is round and full on the palate despite the vintage’s relative freshness. Morris gave it 90-93 points, writing: “Very pale colour, with impressive tension on the nose. The stones are there and a bit of flesh, too, pure and typical with the usual dry finish. Old vines here. Really very long.”

This is everything you want from Chablis – savory intensity, perfectly ripe fruit, brisk stony backbone and laser focused finish. This needs no accompaniment – a delicious, elegant, complete glass of white Burgundy on its own. But should hunger force your hand, this will match anything in need of zip – scallops, creamy oysters, swordfish, lobster, chicken sausages, etc.

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Gautheron Chablis 1er “Vaillons” 2021
bottle price: $42

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When Burgundy’s leading critic singles you out as one of a “leading light” in the region, you could argue that you’d made it. But Gautier Desvignes – who in just eight short years has taken his humble family domaine from ordinary to outperforming – is not one to rest on his laurels. Each year we visit he has a new series of vineyard and cellar improvements to share and explain. In the words of Aaron Burr, “the man is non-stop.”

And it shows. The 2021 Red Burgundies have a reputation as inconsistent and tricky, but someone forgot to tell Gautier. His lineup of 2021 Givrys is outstanding top to bottom, with each cuvée perfectly balanced and crafted – ripe plummy fruit, gorgeous floral aromatics, and sleek, polished textures. They’re among the most successful wines we tasted from the vintage, including those from much fancier towns.

 

William Kelley credits the improvements in Gautier’s wines to the use of manure for fertilizer, a more careful oak regime, lighter filtration, and longer elevage. Wherever combination of variables is the one making the difference, the advances in quality are obvious. Gautier’s prices have yet to catch up, making his wines some of the best value red Burgundies we know.

We’re thrilled to see the success of this emerging superstar, even if it means his yearly cellar dispatch to us has changed from “our price list” to “your allocation.” All of Gautier’s 2021s will be featured in next Sunday’s July Futures release, but we’re singling out one today.

Desvignes premier cru “Grand Berge” vines lie just in back of the domaine, and the wine is particularly expressive this year. The nose shows raspberries and pepper with forest floor and violets. The mouth is sleek and medium weight, with layers of fruit neatly packed over a long, precise profile. We think it will drink well for 5+ years, but will be hard to put down by Christmas.

All of the Desvignes premier crus sold out in Futures last year, and this year’s allocation is even smaller – so we counsel haste to interested parties. You won’t regret it.

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Desvignes Givry 1er “Grand Berge” 2021
Ansonia Retail: $468
July Futures: $350/case

TO ORDER THIS WINE, EMAIL TOM