Author: Thomas Wilcox

The pursuit of freshness is a perennial struggle for white Burgundy vignerons these days. They’ve adapted to warmer, drier summers by delaying pruning, harvesting earlier, and tweaking their cellar work. But Chardonnay loves the sun, and inattentive growers can end up with overripe, high alcohol wines.

Aligoté has always been Chardonnay’s distant understudy. It’s been part of Burgundian winemaking for centuries, but has never been responsible for the region’s famous white wines. But warmer drier summers have meant that this naturally bright grape varietal has taken on added depth and complexity. Winemakers are now taking the grape more seriously, and the results are really exciting.

Our favorite so far is Vincent Boyer’s, a superstar winemaker crafting classic white Burgundies in Meursault and Puligny. His Aligoté transcends the grape’s humble reputation, offering real white Burgundy with a middle weight palate and excellent concentration. Boyer elected to use foudres (huge oak barrels) this year instead of eggs, and while you won’t find any wood notes in the wine, there’s a beautiful weight and length. The 2023 is more floral than usual, and exceptionally pretty.

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Boyer-Martenot Aligoté 2023
bottle price: $28

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Much of the world’s Merlot is undistinguished. Its default expression is a soft, rounded wine lacking tannin, acidity, and character. “Global” merlot is smooth and easy, but neither distinctive nor particularly interesting. But on Bordeaux’s right bank Merlot thrives as an essential component to the region’s most iconic wines. The exact combination of limestone and gravel soils produce a version of the grape with balance, definition, and depth.

We’ve long enjoyed the delicious and well-priced St-Emilion from Chateau Montlisse. Made from 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc, it’s a rich, velvety blend with a classic combination of dark fruit and spice, but well supported by a solid backbone and lively freshness. We’ve just restocked the terrific 2019, and it’s as good as ever.

From a magnificent vintage, the 2019 Château Montlisse is everything you want from a sub-$50 Bordeaux: smooth and elegant, with mellow fruit and gorgeous earthy notes, and a solid core of structure and concentration. Look for notes of plums and toast with cassis, dark chocolate and dried violets. Neal Martin in Vinous cited “fine grained tannins and well judged acidity,” concluding, “this is a classy offering from Montlisse.” Grilling season is back in swing – pour this with a high end steak from the grill.

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Montlisse St-Emilion Grand Cru 2019
bottle price: $42

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Stop us if you’ve heard this before: another year, another flat out delicious wine from Poggerino – and still a bargain. Italian wine represents a tiny corner of our portfolio, but Piero Lanza’s impeccably balanced wines are some of the most popular in our store. They drink well young, age beautifully, and provide exceptional value.

The 2023 growing season in northern Italy was hot and dry just like Burgundy. But Sangiovese, a native of sunny Tuscany, is equipped to handle drought; combine that with well timed late-summer rains, and the 2023 Chiantis are magnificent. Poggerino’s 2023 Chianti Classico Annata is as good as ever: deep and rich without ever losing its balance.

Antonio Galloni of Vinous calls it a “very pretty wine,” finding “dark red cherry, leather, lavender spice and dried herbs…an open-knit, midweight wine that has so much to offer.” He concludes: “pliant and inviting, with tons of nuance, the Chianti Classico is an absolute delight in 2023.” Tasting at the vineyard in October, we also found it delicious – a deep, beautiful wild cherry nose, perfectly ripe fruit and loads of dry extract, but a (welcome) beat less intense than last year. The tannins are silky and lovely, with vibrant freshness amid the gorgeous fruit.

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Poggerino Chianti Classico Annata 2023
bottle price:  $29

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Salomon Undhof is a centuries-old winery in Krems, Austria overlooking the Danube River. Today 7th and 8th generation winemakers Bert and Bert Salomon run the estate, and they’re among the best respected sources in the region. They’ve become favorites of many readers (as well as our own family) and we’re delighted to have them back in stock.

“Austrian wine” is nearly synonymous with Grüner-Veltliner, and indeed 75% of the world’s Grüner is Austrian. The grape’s typical expression is dry and savory, with excellent acidity and low alcohol. Today we’re introducing a new grüner cuvée from Salomon: the 2024 Hochterassen.

This comes from vines high up on the slopes, above the family’s historic plots – the vines are younger and wine they produce is lightweight and vibrant. This is fresh, clean, lightweight wine with a lovely profile – white flowers, stones and lime. The mouth is short, very dry, and refreshing (12% alcohol) – the phrase “wine that wants to be water,” comes to mind. Pour this all summer on the patio.

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Salomon-Undhof Grüner Veltliner Hochterassen 2024
bottle price:  $22

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The red wines of the Loire Valley always play second fiddle to the region’s whites. But it’s a mistake to ignore them – they’re well balanced, low-alcohol, usually organic, and often exceptional values. Our favorites these days are the unblended, unoaked Cabernet Francs from the central Loire.

Celine and Didier Sanzay are fifth generation growers in Saumur-Champigny in the central Loire Valley. They craft fresh, pure Cabernet Franc in the modern Loire style — small batch, organic, wild yeasts, no fining or filtering. Their wines are delicious, affordable, and excellent for food pairing.

Their 2024 Saumur-Champigny is exactly what you want Loire Cab Franc to be: pure, joyful, unoaked, and fresh. Clean, juicy fruit bursts from the glass on the nose — think wild cherries and graphite. The mouth is fresh, fruit forward, inky, and intense, with a bold and vibrant attack and a quick clean finish. Drink this outside with summer fare: shish kabobs, salads, or just a summer afternoon.

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Sanzay Saumur-Champigny 2024
bottle price:  $22

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More than anywhere else in Burgundy, winemakers in Chablis have felt the impact of recent warm vintages. Earlier harvests and more sun exposure have meant riper grapes and wines with fleshier, richer textures. This style of Chablis can support more oaking, and some winemakers have begun to increase the exposure to oak barrels.

Not Cyril Gautheron. His commitment to original Chablisien style is unwavering, and even today’s premier cru, bursting with an extra dose of citrus fruit and energy, is 100% stainless steel. Jasper Morris MW applauded Cyril’s commitment recently, writing “Cyril Gautheron is a superb producer making wines in a crisp cool classically Chablis style, which is now really quite hard to achieve in these warmer seasons.”

Gautheron’s 2023 Chablis 1er Vaucoupin is pure, shimmering, and unadorned — a modern Chablis in a perfectly classic style. Gautheron’s vines here are 50 years old, and produce intense concentrated juice from the bare, rocky soil. Cyril has managed to reign in a warm vintage into a neat, precise package. It shows a balanced blend of fruit, freshness, savory herbs and minerality, with a hint of saline on the finish.

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Gautheron Chablis 1er “Vaucoupin” 2023
bottle price: $48

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The test of great winemakers is how they perform in the face of adversity. In sunny, dry vintages like 2023, just about everyone made tasty wine. But success in a challenging year speaks far more; and there’s rarely been a more difficult vintage than 2024. Some winemakers struggled, but others excelled; and Gautier Desvignes proved himself an exceptional talent.

We’ve long been fans of the Desvignes wines, but it was nice to see Vinous’s Neal Martin (a notoriously exacting critic) heap praises on Gautier’s wines – and particularly impressive when his first visit there was to review the 2024s. “Commendable purity, fine tannins, and clear evidence of thoughtful winemaking,” was Martin’s conclusion – well deserved accolades for an impressive young vigneron.

Gautier’s terrific lineup of 2024s will be in next Sunday’s “May Futures” release, but today we’re focusing on his best value: the village-level Givry “Champ la Dame.” Gautier has managed the balance of tannin, acidity, fruit and weight with impeccable precision in this wine – it’s elegant, fresh and vibrant in the nose, with notes of violets and cassis. He dialed back pigéage (punching down the cap during fermentation) and the resulting low alcohol (13%) wine has an irresistible texture: silky, fine-grained, with an almost mouthwatering tension and finesse.

Neal Martin found “lift and delineation on the nose” with a “cold stone element tucked under the raspberry and cranberry fruit.” In the mouth he found “pliant tannins, a keen line of acidity, quite elegant in style with a cohesive finish.” With a $32 Futures pricetag, it’s hard to imagine a better value red Burgundy.

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Desvignes Givry “Champ la Dame” 2024
case price: $504
May Futures: $395 ($32.92/bot)

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There are winners and losers from the warming trend in France. Weather hazards aside, the Loire Valley and much of Burgundy have come out more or less ahead. In the south, the extremes have been less friendly. It’s no longer uncommon to find wines at nearly 16% alcohol – Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre soak up whatever sun they’re given, and there’s only so much winemakers can do to counter temperatures over 100F.

All of this makes Nicolas Hanei’s wines from his tiny Domaine Malmont that much more exciting. Grown high in the hills above Séguret in the Southern Rhône, the Malmont grenache and syrah vines struggle though rock-laden nutrient-poor soils, slowing their maturation. The west-facing hillside at 1200 feet of elevation enjoys plentiful breezes throughout the growing season, keeping the grapes cool and healthy.

The resulting wines are almost an anomaly in the modern Rhône Valley: organic, delicious southern red blends with modest alcohol and fresh textures. Phey show the dark, dense rich fruit for which the region is known, but always with vibrant tension and lift. The 2022 is perfect – smooth blackberry-plum fruit with a mineral backbone and beautiful aromatic lift. If you miss the days when you could enjoy a southern Rhône red blend without having to take a nap afterwards, Malmont is the producer for you.

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Malmont Séguret 2022
bottle price: $32

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Several years ago, based on a tip from a Boston area Master of Wine, we contacted La Briccolina, a tiny family-run source in the heart of Barolo. As devotees of Burgundian Pinot Noir we’ve always been intrigued by Nebbiolo from Piedmont – an analogous thin-skinned varietal grown at its northern limit and capable of tremendous complexity and elegance.

La Briccolina is the product of the Grasso family who have grown grapes here for a century, but only recently started bottling their own wine. They produce a single cuvée, all from the Serralunga d’Alba terroir on the eastern side of the Barolo appellation. The soils are compact marls and sandstone with very high iron content, resulting in firm, mineral-driven wines of real character.

We’re delighted to introduce the 2020 Barolo from Briccolina. The nose is exquisite – cherries and spices explode from the glass with notes of licorice, plum, lavender, cedar and mocha. The mouth is refined and very fine grained – with an hour in a carafe it opens beautifully into a middleweight, delightful wine with notes of black cherry, iron, saline and dried roses.

Antonio Galloni of Vinous calls Briccolina’s Barolos “very fine,” and writes that “a bright future lies ahead” for the estate. He loved the 2020, awarding 93 points and finding it “soft, fruity and charming, all of which make it a fine choice for drinking now and over the next decade.” We had sworn off adding new sources for a while, but this opportunity (and this wine) was just too good to pass up.

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Briccolina Barolo 2020
bottle price: $85

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Last year we introduced Arnaud Baillot, an exciting new source in Burgundy. He started just 10 years ago as a micro-negociant, purchasing grapes and making tiny batches from small plots. In the last decade he has acquired 10 hectares of vines around the Côte d’Or, farming organically and crafting beautiful, understated modern Burgundy.

We were quite taken with Arnaud’s wines, and when Vinous’s Neal Martin visited last year he was similarly impressed. He describes Baillot’s wines as “excellent,” “impressive,” and “lovely and energetic,” even going as far as comparing him to Marquis d’Angerville, a legendary and iconic source in Volnay.

Baillot’s village level 2023 Volnay is terrific – made with 50% whole cluster fermentation, adding a beautiful textural backbone to the fruit. The nose is dark and spiced with gorgeous plum fruit. The mouth is extremely elegant and fine-grained, with great density and a finely channeled mineral finish – classic Volnay in fruit profile and texture. Martin found “an attractive, finely delineated bouquet…quite floral,” and in the mouth “nicely structured and quite persistent.” In short – modern, gorgeous, understated red Burgundy.

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Baillot Volnay 2023
bottle price: $85

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We’re always on the hunt for small, family-run operations in Bordeaux. They’re harder to find than in Burgundy, but with some research and a bit of shoe leather we’ve managed to discover a few. One of our recent favorite finds is Chateau Roquegrave.

Roquegrave is located in Valeyrac, fully an hour and a half north of Bordeaux, near the top of the Médoc peninsula and along the banks of the Gironde estuary. They produce humble, unfussy, extremely well-priced red Bordeaux, more at home in a Parisian bistro than a Michelin restaurant.

We’re delighted to offer their 2022 Médoc – it’s been a Cru Bourgeois since its founding in 1932. It’s a bargain and a great candidate for an everyday house Bordeaux. The nose is dark and pretty, with beautiful deep plum notes alongside cocoa and violets. The mouth is juicier and fuller, with younger fruit and younger tannin. Give this a half hour open in a carafe and pair it with lamb chops or shish kabobs or steak frites.

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Roquegrave Médoc Cru Bourgeois 2022
bottle price: $25

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Credit for the discovery of sparkling wine is a matter of dispute. The monks of Limoux in the South of France claim 1531 as the date of genesis; the Champenois, with their stories of widows and Benedictine monks, have certainly won the publicity war; and even the Brits, who invented glass thick enough to contain the pressure, stake a claim.

But whomever you credit with its creation or taming, the world has become quite fond of bubbles over the past few centuries. We stock Champagnes from four Grower producers, but our best value bubbles are the crémants from Maison Picamelot. William Kelley, Wine Advocate editor in chief and former Champagne reviewer, writes that “Picamelot produces some of the best sparkling wines in Burgundy,” calling them “elegant,” “excellent,” and “superb.”

Picamelot’s best value cuvée is their “Les Terroirs” Brut NV. This cuvée combines three grapes from three corners of Burgundy — Pinot Noir from the Côte de Nuits, Chardonnay from the Côte de Beaune, and Aligoté from the Côte Chalonnaise. After its first fermentation, the wine ages on its lees for over a year, gaining complexity and richness. The result is a delicious wine that’s as honest a representation of Burgundy as any still wine.

In the glass (skip the flute), “les Terroirs” is bright and lively, with nice dryness and pleasant, delicate mouthfeel — an extraordinarily versatile food-pairing win, and a bargain.

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Picamelot Crémant “Terroirs” NV
bottle price: $29

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The town of Maragnes is an underrated source for red Burgundy. Located at the very southern end of the Côte d’Or, it’s often left off regional maps, and its reputation is for rusticity over refinement. But chosen carefully, Maranges can offer unparalleled value for red Burgundy drinkers.

Our source in Maragnes is Roger Belland, a family domaine farming organically and producing tasty, user-friendly Burgundies that drink well from the start. Their 2024s are lighter weight and more elegant than usual, but the 2024 Maranges is the juiciest of their lineup. Lush, deep and pretty, this is a perfect springtime pinot noir.

The nose shows blueberries, blackcurrants and cocoa powder; the mouth is juicy without being rich. The tannins are middleweight and attractive. Think of itas somewhere between a Burgundy and a Beaujolais — the refinement of a Pinot Noir, matched with jolliness and joie de vivre of a Gamay.

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Belland Maranges 1er “Fussiere” 2024
bottle price: $39

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Gérard Thomas’s 2024 white Burgundies have arrived and they’re an excellent first look at the vintage. They’re decidedly old-school in texture, ranging from 11.5% to 12% (!) in alcohol, and sporting a refined daintiness that’s impossible to resist. Imagine a bold, buttery, mouthfilling, oaky Pouilly-Fuissé from the 1990s – these are exactly the inverse.

Winemaker Isabelle Humbert (Thomas’s daughter) crafts humble, clean, delicious white Burgundies with remarkable price-to-value ratios. They’re rarely the showiest or most impressive wines in a lineup, but they’re consistently delicious, and blow everyone away on cost. As spring arrives and the weather warms, these are pitch perfect, understated everyday whites to fit the season perfectly.

The Thomas Bourgogne Côte d’Or has been our go-to everyday white Burgundy for nearly two decades, and it continues to shine in its category. The 2024 is pretty and vibrant, with white flowers in the nose, and barely a whisper of oak. The mouth is light and fresh – not lean or harsh, but featherweight and clean. Jancis Robinson’s reviewer found “precision and a linear finish,” concluding “super-clean showing lots of finesse.”

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Thomas Bourgogne Côte d’Or 2024
bottle price: $36

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Patrick and Christophe Bonnefond’s wines somehow keep getting better. They’ve enjoyed a string of excellent recent vintages in the vines, but they also seem to be hitting their stride in the cellar. Once firmly in the ripe, oaky, “extroverted” camp that made them a darling of Robert Parker, the domaine has shifted towards subtler expression in recent years: less time in oak, larger barrels, and earlier harvests.

Much credit belongs to Léa Bonnefond, Christophe’s twentysomething daughter who has returned to the domaine – she’s brought a penchant for whole cluster fermentation, and gentler extractions, and the results are terrific. The Bonnefonds now achieve an extraordinary subtlety in their wines — it’s still bold, brooding, inky-dark Northern Rhône Syrah, but somehow also with subtlety, grace, and lift.

Their 2021, after 5 years in the barrel, is tremendous success – a perfect balance of grace and power. The dark, ripe fruit in the nose is just lovely, with added notes of pepper, minerals, and maybe a touch of iodine. Instead of the depth and teeth-staining concentration of a Cornas, it shows the elegant, sophisticated side of Syrah.

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Bonnefond Côte Rôtie “Colline de Couzou” 2021
bottle price: $65

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