Author: Thomas Wilcox

There are wines from Bordeaux full of subtlety and finesse — but Chateau Destieux is not one of them. Destieux is the marriage of superb, ancient terroir with sleek, modern winemaking: old-school flavor in a bold, unsubtle package.

Named for an 8th century Breton hermit monk, the medieval town of St-Emilion has long been a center for winemaking. Viticulture there dates to at least 275 AD, when Roman soldiers cleared the local forest and replaced it with vines. Our source here is Christian Dauriac.

His Montlisse, a Grand Cru, is a delicious wine at an approachable price. But for special occasions, the Grand Cru Classé Destieux is a noticeable and impressive step up. And in 2016, it’s something special.

Antonio Galloni of Vinous was blown away by the 2016, calling it “gorgeous, modern St-Emilion,” offering “tremendous depth,… dark, jammy fruit, chocolate, spice, and new leather.” He awarded 94 points, and called it “a terrific showing.” His Vinous colleague Neal Martin, often a harder grader than Galloni, called it “among the best wines I have tasted from this estate.”

This is a wine of boldness, glamour, texture and intensity. Open it today and enjoy it over several evenings — there’s impressive stuffing and backbone. But put a few bottles in the back of your cellar, and pull them out over the next 5-10 years — the wine ages magnificently, and by your last bottle we guarantee you’ll wish you had more.

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Destieux St-Emilion Grand Cru Classé 2016
bottle price: $85

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Sauvignon blanc is among the world’s most widely planted grapes, but its origin is the Loire Valley. In the Loire, Sauvignon takes on a floral, mineral style, juicy grapefruit notes with a lively minerality, often notes of flint, and pleasant herbal finish.

Wine writer Lettie Teauge once described Sancerre as a wine that delivers “pleasure not profundity.” Located at the eastern end of the Loire, Sancerre produces consistently delicious wines — approachable, affordable, and uncomplicated.

Our source here is the Domaine de la Garenne, a family operation making classic, unoaked, vibrant Sancerre. It’s not showy or ageworthy, just pure, clean, and simply delicious.

Garenne’s new 2021 Sancerre is crisp and delightful. It’s bone dry with pure sauvignon grapefruit in the nose. In the mouth it’s lively but with no astringency or grassiness — a cooler vintage has added an extra dose of dry tension. Look for minerals and lime in the mouth, with dry extract, lovely tension, and surprising length.

Sancerre is a perfect transition wine for Fall – it pairs with anything and nothing, appropriate for a hot, humid afternoon, or a warm autumn meal. Our favorite match is a classic moules frites — a simple broth of shallots, wine, parsley, garlic and tarragon. It’s just like Sancerre: humble, uncomplicated, and delicious.

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Garenne Sancerre 2021
bottle price: $25

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Amid Champagne’s glitz and glamour, winemaker Pascal Bardoux stands out. His cuvées are quietly exceptional — his tasting room is his small untidy office, where we taste slowly and thoughtfully from an old beat-up leather sofa. “Le marketing” is nowhere to be seen.

And Bardoux’s wines, humble and delicious, are comparative bargains. Much mass-market Champagne that gets to the US fetches between $75 and $100 a bottle; Bardoux’s small-batch Brut Traditionnel doesn’t even crack $50 — twice the wine at half the price.

The Guide Hachette calls Bardoux’s non-vintage brut cuvée, “a champagne for all occasions.”

Bardoux’s Brut Traditionnel is an excellent entree to the collection. A blend of 60% Pinot Meunier, 30% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Noir, this wine has the complexity and depth to match the finest bottles from Burgundy or Bordeaux. The nose shows plum, chalk, lime zest, and buttered biscuits; the mouth is dry, elegant, and smooth, with notes of apple and toast.

We can’t recommend this wine highly enough. There’s plenty of opportunity to enjoy Champagne as we close out the decade this month. But it’d be a shame to limit yourself to just the celebratory moments. Try pairing with sushi, creamy cheese (Delice de Bourgogne or Brillat-Savarin for example), or gougères.

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Bardoux Champagne Brut Traditionnel NV
bottle price: $49

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New winemakers in Burgundy are hard to come by. It’s a tiny region, and between small harvests, ever increasing demand, and well-established importers, it can seem there’s nothing new to discover. Which makes us even gladder of our most recent Burgundian find: the Domaine Boursot in Chambolle-Musigny.

Neal Martin of Vinous writes of a “foundation for a promising future,” and describes Boursot’s wines as “superb,” “excellent,” “very fine,” and “worth seeking out.” Having received our third vintage from Boursot, we’re pleased to report our (and Neal’s) initial enthusiasm was well founded.

Boursot is best known for their excellent Chambolle-Musignys, which are excellent and come highly recommended. But their hidden gem is their Côte de Nuits-Villages. Made from vines immediately on the other side of the wall from Chambolle royalty Frédy Mugnier’s famous Nuits-St-Georges 1er cru “Clos de la Maréchale,” this greatly overperforms its class.

The 2019 is as good as you’d expect from an outstanding vintage and supremely well-located terroir. It’s classic Boursot style: the nose is dark and briary, with Côte de Nuits cassis and hints of black pepper and toast. The mouth is punchy and juicy, with a woodsy mouthfeel laid over lots of beefy extraction. The tannins are approachable and youthful, full of energy and texture without an ounce of harshness.

Neal Martin found “plenty of energy and charm,” with a “fleshy” palate and “quite a sensual finish.” Bill Nanson wrote simply “a great CDNV! Bravo!” Is it as good as the $175 Premier Cru Nuit-St-Georges next door? Nope. But at a quarter of the price it’s easily a better buy — loaded with character, presence, and depth.

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Boursot Côte de Nuits-Villages 2019
bottle price: $42

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The Salomon-Undhof estate dates to 1792, and is currently on its 7th and 8th generation winemakers, father and son Bert and Bert Salomon. Their terraced vines overlooking the Danube have long been an excellent source, with the country’s preeminent wine guide calling them a “figurehead of Austrian wine history.”

Austria is best known for its Grüner-Veltliner, but Salomon also produces some terrific Riesling. This is bone dry, made from 30-50 year old vines — concentrated and intense, and with extraordinary complexity. It may cause you to rethink what’s possible from this much-maligned grape.

The just-arrived 2019 Ried Kögl Riesling is simply magnificent. It offers gorgeous dry fruit rippling with tension and minerals. The mouth is long and tense with concentrated fruit and loads of beautifully textured dry extract. The finish is dry, compact, and pulsing with energy.

Jancis Robinson found it “really well chiseled” and “particularly precise,” concluding: “classic dry Riesling with real vibrancy.” Robert Parker’s reviewer was similarly enthusiastic, awarding 93 points and finding it “clear, precise, and elegant.” He writes “this is a rich, salty-refined and very stimulating Riesling with perfectly ripe fruit and lingering salinity,” before concluding simply, “Excellent.”

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Salomon-Undhof Riesling Kögl 2019
bottle price: $28

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White Burgundy is an easy wine to pair with food. At the high end, an ageworthy bottle Meursault or Puligny can exceed the subtlety and depth of a red Burgundy. Paired with a lobster risotto or veal in cream, it’s a marriage of opulence and charm.

But white Burgundy also answers the call for something uncomplicated and reliable — a Monday night pasta dish, or a hearty bowl of mussels. Gerard Thomas’s Bourgogne blanc has been our go-to white burgundy for over a decade. It has become a “house white” for many of our readers, and we’re honestly not sure what we’d do without it.

Thomas’s 2020 white Burgundies are unusually good – a hot year with low yields concentrated both the fruit and the acidity, producing wines jam-packed with flavor and freshness. All of Thomas’s 2020s deliver far above their classification, and the Bourgogne particularly so. Classy yellow fruit palate pulses with energy and golden fleshy roundness – this is entry-level only in name and price.

The nose is soft and elegant, with hazelnut and toasty oak notes melting into lemon and baked apple fruit. The mouth is round and mouthcoating, with delicate freshness acidity balancing a shimmering core. It’s delightful on its own – if you open a bottle while you’re still making dinner, better have a second bottle at the ready.

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Thomas Bourgogne 2020
bottle price: $29

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Sofie Borhmann is a bit of an anomaly in Burgundy. She’s not French (she’s from Belgium), not well known, and exports very little to the US. In a tiny region with exploding demand and skyrocketing prices, her wines are quiet, well priced, and relatively unknown. We found them on a restaurant list in Beaune, and after some persistence managed to track her down.

It was worth the effort – her wines have become favorites among many of our readers for their clarity, meticulous oaking, and excellent pricing. Most of her wines in our portfolio are whites, but her reds – particularly today’s Bourgogne rouge – are terrific as well.

This is everything Bourgogne rouge is supposed 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 2019s possess an extraordinary balance of fruit, tension, and texture — some cuvées are destined for future greatness, but this one requires no patience.

This is everything you want from an everyday Bourgogne rouge. Nobody you serve it to will know the domaine, but after a sip or two they won’t care.

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Bohrmann Bourgogne rouge 2019
bottle price: $34

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