Author: Thomas Wilcox

Chenin blanc has an enormous range of expression. It can be anywhere from bone dry to very sweet depending on vintage, terroir, and winemaker. Vouvray is the original source for Chenin Blanc, but the surrounding towns in the central Loire Valley produce excellent examples as well.

Several years ago we spent a few days in the Loire searching for a new source for Chenin Blanc. We enjoy the sweet stuff from time to time, but our main goal was to find a dry, refreshing, unoaked, affordable Chenin. Today’s wine is the result of that search, and it’s become one of our most popular bottles of white from anywhere.

Nicolas Paget is an energetic and impassioned young winemaker in Touraine-Azay le Rideau (a neighbor to Vouvray). Like much Loire wine today, Paget’s wines are organic and low-intervention in style. They’re aromatically expressive and beautifully balanced — lush exotic fruit presented in a clean, fresh package.

Paget’s 2019 Melodie sports an almost Chablisien array of grapeskin and minerals — clean, pure and delightful. The nose is floral and dry, with faint pear notes and a hint of apple. Even in a warm year Paget has managed to craft a refreshing cuvée — at 13% alcohol it’s beautifully balanced, and a refreshing break from the palate-coating wines that dominate the market these days. Serve with fresh goat cheese on crusty bread and welcome the arrival of spring.

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Paget Chenin Blanc “Melodie” 2019
bottle price: $19

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Chassagne-Montrachet is a town synonymous with opulence and richness. Its wines combine weight without heaviness – everything you want in a top class white Burgundy. When we want to really impress someone with a Chardonnay, we often reach for a bottle of Chassagne from Roger Belland.

Belland’s Santenay 1er cru “Beauregard” blanc is not as complex or long-lived as the Chassagne premier cru — but for half the price it does an admirable impression, and we think it’s a bargain. White Burgundy prices continue to rise around the region, but this wine is proof that there’s still value to be found.

Belland’s Beauregard blanc vines are a few hundred yards from the Chassagne-Montrachet border, and the wine drinks like it’s from much fancier terroir. The 2019 Beauregard blanc has good freshness to support its ripe fruit, a mix of orchard and citrus. There’s a hint of wood rounding out the concentrated, supple fruit flavors.

Jasper Morris found “a chiseled backbone,” and “the right degree of flesh.” It’s something we’ve found in the most successful 2019 whites — tremendous intensity and richness and length, but with a laser focus and elegant shape. This is remarkably complete white Burgundy for its level, and one that’s already drinking beautifully.

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Belland Santenay 1er “Beauregard” blanc 2019
bottle price: $45

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With the first heatwave of the summer upon us, we’re in the mood for something simple and crisp. The usual hot-weather answers from our cellar are Chablis, Sancerre, or dry Riesling, but recently we’ve been reaching for Grüner-Veltliner from our lone Austrian source

“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. It’s a lovely glass on its own, but we think it particularly shines with food.

Salomon-Undhof’s Grüner “Wieden” is an unusually refined wine for its price and level. The nose shows juniper, herbs and lime. The mouth is dry and mid-weight, with notes of cucumber, lime zest, and grape skins. At 12.5% alcohol and with excellent freshness, this is a Swiss army knife when it comes to matching food.

Robert Parker’s reviewer gave 90 points, finding “a very fine and subtly flinty bouquet of perfectly ripe seed fruits. Medium-bodied, round and fresh, with salty-piquant acidity, this is a medium-bodied and juicy Veltliner with good balance and length.”

It’s important to stay hydrated with water amid the heat; but after you’ve done so, a cold glass of this is just the ticket.

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Salomon-Undhof Grüner “Wieden” 2020
bottle price: $19

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Each town in Burgundy produces wines of a distinct character. Some are dark and brooding, others are lightweight and ethereal – but the boldest and most intense is Gevrey-Chambertin. One of our sources here, the Domaine des Varoilles, owns vineyards first planted in the 12th century – their vines today aren’t quite 800 years old, but they’re well over 70, and produce magnificently dense and concentrated juice.

Varoilles has just been sold mostly to Philippe Cheron, proprietor at the new Domaine du Couvent. Varoilles’ signature plot, an enormous 6 hectare monopole “Clos des Varoilles,” was sold to another domaine, and so 2019 marks the final vintage under the Domaine des Varoilles name.

This is classic, old school Gevrey-Chambertin full of bold fruit, muscle, concentration, and complexity.

The Varoilles style is fairly ripe and extracted, but this wine is already silky and seductive. Writer Bill Nanson found it “silky,” with “a certain elegance” and “faintly floral accents;” he found the palate “mouthfilling,” with “plenty of energy,” concluding “delicious and complex wine with a nervosité… excellent again.”

Look for notes of briary black fruits, toast, smoke, earth and plum. As with anything in 2019, this is a delight already, but should age effortlessly. Pair this with duck breasts and crispy potatoes.

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Varoilles Gevrey-Chambertin 1er cru
“Clos des Varoilles” 2019
bottle price: $115

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