Author: Thomas Wilcox

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Dark and Briary Burgundy: Terrific 2019 Côte de Nuits under $40

The Domaine Ravaut is the ultimate local wine source. For over a century the Ravaut family has cultivated a loyal clientele of friends, neighbors, and local workers — our tasting visits are frequently interrupted by neighbors stocking up their cellars. The domaine continues to sell nearly half its wine to folks who walk in their front door.

The Ravaut’s make everything from humble Bourgogne to Grand Cru Corton, and each cuvée shows polish and precision. William Kelly of the Wine Advocate finds “characterful wines with plenty of stuffing,” and “plenty to admire.”

Most of Ravaut’s wines are at the very northern end of the Côte de Beaune, but today’s is just over the border into the Côte de Nuits, and the subtle regional shift tells you everything you need to know.

Ravaut’s entry level wines are usually lightweight and pretty — but not in 2019. Abundant sunshine and warmth produced a crop of bold, juicy, delicious reds with lots of instenisty and character. It’s dark, sleek, and beautiful with notes of gingerbread, earth, wild cherries, and smoke — all wrapped up in Ravaut’s signature polish.

Over the last few months his has mellowed into a gorgeously complex weeknight red Burgundy. If you’re feeling adventurous, serve with seared tuna; for classicists, go with game or duck or just a simple mushroom toast.

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Ravaut Côte de Nuits-Villages 2019
bottle price: $38

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Delicious Everyday 2019 Red Burgundy from Michel Gros. $32

We like to judge a vigneron’s talent by his simplest wine. Great wines from great terroir of course involve a steady winemaker as guide, but the material undoubtedly provides a head start. With humble fruit from an unsung plot of regional-level vines, winemaking skill comes even more into play.

And nowhere is this more apparent than the Bourgogne rouge from Michel Gros. Gros makes delicious (and increasingly hard to get) red Burgundies from the most famous towns in the region – Vosne, Chambolle, Morey-St-Denis, etc. But his regional level wines are just as well made and polished as his Grand Cru, and so provide terrific value.

Many of the Gros cuvées sold out through Futures in this much-hyped and stellar 2019 vintage – but we were able to increase our allocation for the Bourgogne, and are thrilled to have some in stock.

Michel’s 2019 Bourgogne rouge is delicious. From an outstanding vintage that provided excellent ripeness laid over well-built tannin, the wine shows both utterly pleasant youthful fruit and masterfully crafted underlying structure. The tannins are smooth and unobtrusive, but provide a perfect armature on which to display the fruit. Look for notes of red berries, earth, and chalk in the nose, with a clean, refreshing finish.

Burghound called the 2019 “fresh and bright,” “vibrant and well-detailed.” As always this requires no patience and is delicious today. But there’s extra density in this wine this vintage, and we anticipate this will also cellar nicely over a year or two. As entry level Burgundies go, they don’t get much better than this.

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Michel Gros Bourgogne Côte d’Or 2019
bottle price: $32

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Spring Arrives: Delicious, Dry, Floral $19 Chenin Blanc

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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Inky, Delicious, Organic Gigondas: Plums and Earth

Châteauneuf-du-Pape is one of the most recognizable brands in wine. Made famous by French popes in the 14th century, and then again by Robert Parker in the 1980s, the appellation’s place on the winemaking map is well established. And well deserved — the wines can be extraordinary, though they often come at a “special occasion” price point for most wine enthusiasts.

Enter Gigondas. Wine from this appellation, about 20 minutes across the valley, shares many of the same rich, dark qualities that draw people to Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Gigondas isn’t quite as deep or as long lived as its more famous neighbor, but its price encourages more frequent enjoyment.

The Clos du Joncuas has been among our happiest recent discoveries in the Southern Rhône. Sisters Dany and Carol Chastan have run their family domaine for decades according to organic and biodynamic principles. The wines are all beautifully made, with minimal manipulation and no pretense. They practice old school winemaking — 100% whole clusters, ambient yeasts, no fining or filtering, no oaking.

Their 2018 Gigondas is, in a word, impressive. The nose mixes floral notes of violets with strawberry jam. In the mouth there is plenty of body, but the fine-grained tannins stay in the background while the wine coats the palate. There is very good length and an excellent finish.

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Joncuas Gigondas 2018
bottle price: $35

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“Brilliant,” Shimmering White Burgundy from Maconnais

When we lived near Cluny in Burgundy more than twenty years ago, we stumbled upon a nearby producer in Viré-Clessé. The young couple who owned it tended their vineyards and made their wine according to organic and biodynamic principles – not at all the norm back then – and their work opened our eyes to the quality possible in the Maconnais.

We bought this wine enthusiastically for many years on behalf of friends and family, but the domaine already had a national US importer, and so we never sought to give their wine a wider distribution. We stopped importing the wine a decade ago, but have missed it ever since.

But we are delighted that we are now able to offer the results of this superb winemaking under a new label: “Forces Telluriques.”

In recent years the domaine has won praise from today’s top writers. The Wine Advocate’s William Kelley writes of the wine’s “remarkable concentration and energy.” Jasper Morris MW calls them “brilliant… refined, pure, complex, lush.”

The 2018 Forces Tellurique Viré-Clessé features clean, pure, lemony fruit, along with remarkable freshness and energy from such a sunny vintage. On the palate it’s unctuous and smooth with a long finish that would outlast many a Meursault. The nose bursts with yellow orchard fruit and notes of tangerine and honey. Reviewing the 2018 under its primary label, Kelley awarded 93 points, finding notes of “honeycomb, orange oil, and elderflowers,” calling it “layered and succulent… with a charming core of fruit and a saline finish.”

Having this wine back in our cellar is like welcoming a long lost friend back home – from a new vintage and in new clothes, but the same charming spirit.

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Forces Telluriques Viré-Clessé 2018
bottle price: $42

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Crisp, Refreshing, Floral $22 Syrah-Blend

The South of France has always been hot, but like everywhere else in Europe, it’s getting hotter. Even with varietals adapted to warm climates, winemakers often struggle to achieve freshness in their wines. Winemaker Nicolas Haeni of Séguret is a master of balance.

Haeni’s vines lie on a terraced slope in the hills above Séguret, perfectly positioned to offset the blazing hot Provencal sun. Domaine Malmont’s vines benefit from high (cooler) elevation and plentiful airflow, enabling the grapes to reach maturity without becoming baked or dried out.

Nicolas’s 2019 Séguret “Petit Rouge” is pure, unoaked, juicy enjoyment. It’s 70/30 syrah/grenache and just delightful, dark and complex with classic syrah notes of violets and blackberry — by nose you might mistake it for a Northern Rhône pure syrah. In the mouth the grenache shines through a bit more, with beautiful depth a splash of red fruit and cinnamon.

At 13.5% alcohol it retains a careful freshness alongside the dark, meaty fruit. Think of it as a real upgrade on a bistro syrah — crisp, lively, dark and cool. Think of it as spring cleaning for your pallet.

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Malmont Séguret “Petit Rouge” 2019
bottle price: $22

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Lush, Refreshing, Unoaked $25 White Burgundy

The white Burgundies of the Maconnais are some of our favorite expressions of Chardonnay. Grown in a region known as “la France Profonde” (“deep France”), the best cuvées are unoaked, mouthfilling, vibrant, and crisp.

Our source here is Nicolas Maillet, a passionate, animated winemaker whose passion for his work shows through in every glass. His wines are pure chardonnay; he owns no oak barrels, and farms his vineyards organically. His Pouilly-Fuissé is magnificent; his Macon-Verzé is terrific. Today’s cuvée, his simplest, is humble and charming — a perfect aperitif white Burgundy.

We’ve just restocked on Maillet’s excellent 2019 Macon-Villages, bursting with classic Maconnais notes. Look for honey, chalk, herbs, and lime zest in the nose. The mouth is smooth and round — it has more richness than in vintages past, but draws its weight from concentration and purity of fruit rather than oak.

In a warm year, Nicolas has balanced the wine perfectly, with fruit, acid, minerals and texture all working in perfect harmony. Serve this before a meal with goat cheese on crackers. Or a weeknight chicken dish with lemon and mushrooms.

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Maillet Macon-Villages 2019
bottle price: $25

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Bold, “Powerful” 2018 Premier Cru Gevrey-Chambertin

Red Burgundy is classically a study in finesse and understatement. Pinot Noir’s thin skin and clear juice enable remarkable subtlety, and at their best, Red Burgundies can be hauntingly beautiful. They’re rarely the loudest voice in the room, but often the most impressive. But as with most rules, there are exceptions.

Town that produces the boldest, most intense expressions of red Burgundy is Gevrey-Chambertin. And even among wines from Gevrey, the Domaine des Varoilles style is concentrated and rich. The winemakers harvest relatively late, and use a long cold soak to extract loads of flavor and texture from their grapes. The resulting wines are distilled, dark, and delicious.

Today we’re suggesting a 2018 premier cru Gevrey-Chambertin from Varoilles, and one that you won’t soon forget.

Varoilles’s Gevrey Premier Cru Champonnet is a stunner in 2018. We usually bypass this wine for the domaine’s more famous monopoles of La Romanée and Varoilles — but this year it was impossible to pass up. The nose is sleek and muscly, with sweet oak notes mixing with blackcurrant fruit and chocolate. The mouth is long and gorgeous with notes of cassis and gingerbread, and a rippling current of seductive tannins.

Burghound was similarly impressed, finding “very good volume,” and a “powerful” pallet, “rich and caressing” with a “suave texture.” This wine has many happy years ahead of it, but the ripe fruit from a warm year make it enjoyable even today. Carafe it for a half hour while your roast lamb finishes in the oven.

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Varoilles Gevrey-Chambertin
1er cru “Champonnet” 2018
bottle price: $88

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Beautiful, Floral, Meursault-Like 2019 Bourgogne. $34

Well-priced white Burgundy is getting harder to find. Demand is up, supply is (way) down, and the wines themselves just keep getting better. As prices at the high end reach to stratospheric levels and more consumers focus on entry level cuvées, it’s become trickier to find that weeknight Bourgogne blanc.

But there are still bargains to be found. A few years ago we stumbled across the Domaine Bohrmann on a wine list in a Beaune restaurant. Formed in 2002 with just 1.5 hectares of vines, they have no other importers, zero critical reviews, and a (very) hard-to-reach winemaker.

Sofie Borhmann is a Belgian winemaker, splitting her time between Belgium and Burgundy. We’re not sure where she’s been hiding, or why no other American importers have found her, but her wines continue to over-deliver their billing. We’ve sold through several cuvées of her excellent 2019 whites, but the Bourgogne blanc is still in stock.

Bohrmann is a master of careful oaking. Her terrific cuvées from Meursault, Puligny, and St-Aubin channel each town’s terroir with honesty and precision – just enough wood to support the wine, but not enough to get in the way.

Borhmann’s Bourgogne blanc comes from 40 year old vines, giving the wine an intense, distilled mouthfeel and excellent length. The 2019 is an extraordinarily complex wine for its level. The nose is smooth, elegant, floral, and concentrated, with more than a passing resemblance to Meursault. The mouth is cool, impressively long, and vibrant — ripe and ready to drink immediately.

Like the wildly popular 2018 (sold out in months last year), this is among the most impressive regional-level Bourgogne blancs we’ve tasted in years, and we’re excited to have it in stock. We bought as much as we could, but after one taste you’ll understand why this won’t be around for long.

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Bohrmann Bourgogne blanc 2019
bottle price: $34

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Delicious 10-Year-Old Left-Bank Bordeaux. $25

Last week we brought up the remaining stock from our offsite warehouse, a location whose inventory control hasn’t exactly been Amazon level. (We know – pot, kettle, etc.) But when the stock arrived we were excited to find a small lot of ten year old Bordeaux which was listed as white was in fact red – a happy surprise.

With guarded expectations we opened a bottle a few days ago, and found it not at all tired, and simply delicious. As a $25 wine that was drinkable by 2015, it certainly wasn’t something we intended to age for a decade, but it makes a convincing case to consider doing to so more often.

And so today we suggest a perfectly aged wine for which we can claim almost no credit: the Château Léhoul Graves rouge 2012.

Chateau Léhoul is a small family domaine in Graves, just south of the city of Bordeaux on the region’s Left Bank. Their humble wines are well made and well priced, and, as it turns out, age beautifully. This isn’t 2012 Haut Brion, but it’s a fraction of the price and was delicious with our burgers – don’t overthink it and it won’t let you down.

The 2012 shows lovely dark fruits, with notes of dried violets, tobacco, and plum jam. The mouth is velvety and smooth but not at all dry, with its inky tannins and softened fruit laid over a beautiful patina of texture. Give this 20 minutes in a carafe to wake up from its decade of slumber, and admire the power of patience. (Or lack of planning, your pick.)

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Léhoul Graves 2012
bottle price: $25

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Perfect Everyday White Burgundy. $28

Vincent Ravaut’s Bourgogne blanc has become a favorite among readers in recent years. He makes excellent village-level Ladoix blanc and magnificent (and rare) Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru. But his humble Bourgogne blanc punches way above its weight, particularly this year.

Vincent’s excellent 2020 white Burgundies are in our March Futures issue, just out yesterday – but his 2019s are in stock and drinking beautifully. The 2019 vintage provided Burgundy winemakers with limit supply, but excellent quality. A difficult spring led to low yields and higher concentration at all levels. Ravaut’s entry-level Bourgogne blanc is proof that excellent wines aren’t limited to pricey zip codes — this is as good as a $6 glass of white Burgundy gets.

Ravaut is a master of careful oaking, and this Bourgogne is perfectly supported. The nose shows white flowers, silk, ripe lemon and just a whisper of toast. The mouth is rich and vibrant, with excellent sucrocité and lovely freshness.

Particularly in 2019 this is far more concentrated than most Bourgogne-level whites, a result of careful winemaking in an excellent vintage. This wine has the intensity to drink well for 2-3 years, and indeed it’s only improved since its arrival last summer. Pair with breaded flounder, chicken thighs, or a simple weeknight pasta.

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Ravaut Bourgogne blanc 2019
bottle price: $28

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“Hard to Resist:” Delicious New $32 Red Burgundy

We’re often apprehensive when a new generation takes over a domaine. Young winemakers often implement needed modernization, but sometimes get caught chasing trendiness. No winemaker in our portfolio has more expertly balanced these impulses than Gautier Desvignes.

The transformation chez Desvignes has not gone unnoticed. Vinous’s Neal Martin recently found Gautier’s wines “really quite superb.” And the Wine Advocate’s William Kelley named Gautier one of the region’s “five rising stars,” advising “importers looking for a potential future star should beat a path to his door.”

Most of Gautier’s 2019s sold out through futures, but his excellent village-level Givry is still available in small quantities.

The 2019 Givry from Desvignes shows bright red fruit with precision and focus worthy of a Côte d’Or red Burgundy. There’s berries in the nose with subtle hints of toast chalk. The mouth is clean and pure with beautiful tension slicing through the bursting ripe fruit.

William Kelly awarded 90 points calling it “already hard to resist,” “lively and charming,” concluding “it has turned out beautifully.” In short, this is among the best red Burgundy values in our cellar. We only wish there was more of it to go around.

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Desvignes Givry 2019
bottle price: $32

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Magnificent Cornas from 100-Year-Old Vines: 2 Barrels Made

Cornas is a tiny appellation, covering 145 hectares (compared with Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s 3,000+), and home to fewer than 50 vignerons. Located at the southern end of the Northern Rhône Valley, Cornas (which means “scorched earth” in Celtic) harvests a week earlier than Hermitage (just 20 minutes north), and the vertiginous slopes produce wines with a southern, sunbaked character.

The Domaine Dumien-Serrette is relatively new to the Ansonia portfolio, but hardly new to Cornas — records show Dumiens living there in 1515. Their excellent regular cuvée Cornas “Patou” is inky and delicious and… totally sold out. (Watch July Futures for the 2020s.)

So we’re offering our last two cases of their rare “Cuvée Henri,” made from 100 year old vines and only 600 bottles produced. We have a case each of two vintages: 2018 and 2019.

Since 2013, Nicolas has made a few hundred bottles of the cuvée Cornas “Henri,” an homage to his grandfather Henri in the year he would have turned 100. The wine spends 20 months in barrel, and pulls from the oldest vines in the “Patou” vineyard in Cornas.

This is enormous wine, with an explosive nose of cassis, licorice, raspberries, black pepper, bittersweet chocolate, and plums. The mouth is intense, long and beautiful — the tannins are extraordinarily dense and fine. The 2019 will be slightly riper and more aromatic than the 2018, which will be slightly deeper and more serious. Both will impress.

100 year old vines. Whole-cluster Syrah. Wild yeasts. If you’re in the market for profound, age-worthy Syrah, these won’t disappoint. (But if you delay, they just might.)

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Dumien-Serrette Cornas “Henri” 2018
bottle price: $75

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Dumien-Serrette Cornas “Henri” 2019
bottle price: $82

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Two Terrific Condrieus: the Nectar of the Northern Rhône

French winemakers have spent centuries perfecting the ideal marriages of grape and land. Each region has its own match: Pinot Noir in Burgundy, Sauvignon blanc in Sancerre, Merlot in Bordeaux, Grenache in the Rhône, etc.

One particularly happy union is that Viognier and Condrieu, perched on the steep slopes of the Northern Rhône valley. Grown elsewhere, Viognier can be heavy and flat — in Condrieu, it reaches magnificence. Condrieu is a tiny appellation — just over half a square mile of vines. But it produces one of the world’s great white wines, as complex aromatically as it is elegant and mouthfilling on the palate.

We’ve now source two Condrieus (look in Sunday’s March Futures for a third), and while they’ll never be among our top selling wines, we’re always glad to have them around.

Patrick and Christophe Bonnefond’s 2020 Condrieu is a masterpiece, achieving soaring balance between minerals, fruit, freshness, aromas and texture. Look for a vibrant mouthfeel with plush notes of nectarine, pear, and orange blossom. This finishes dry but is bursting with delicious ripe fruit. This is explosively expressive, you’ll smell it from a glass that’s 10 feet away.

Domaine de Boisseyt’s 2018 Condrieu is less exuberant, but no less charming. With two extra years in the bottle this shows a drier, more savory side of the grape, with more intensity and a refined, serious mouthfeel. Look for restrained oak alongside notes of peaches and white flowers. This is delicious and tightly wound, middle-weight rather than huge, and with excellent concentration and focus.

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Bonnefond Condrieu 2020
bottle price: $62

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De Boisseyt Condrieu 2018
bottle price: $58

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[Advance Oder] Twin 2019 Morey-St-Denis Premier Crus from Pierre Amiot

Our allocations of the 2020 Burgundies all follow the same trend: prices up, quantities down. A tiny crop (and even smaller 2021 vintage next in the pipeline) has forced winemakers to raise their prices, and truthfully we can hardly blame them – the wine has never been better, demand has never been stronger, and it costs about the same to farm a hectare of land whether it yields 41 hectoliters or 14.

At the Domaine Amiot, the new 2020 prices reflect the upper echelon of craft at which we think they’ve performed for several years now. And while they may no longer be considered undervalued, if the critics are to be believed the wines are worth every penny. We’re headed back to France next month to confirm the notes in person, and plan to offer our 2020 allocation in this year’s May Futures.

But in the meantime, Chantal Amiot generously offered us the chance to purchase a few of their remaining 2019s. It’s a stellar vintage, and the last one to come with their old pricing. We reserved all they offered, and will be pleased to include them in our March 2021 Futures offering, out next Sunday. Today we are starting with two wines from Morey St. Denis. Quantities (you’ll be hearing this a lot) are very limited – if there are any left they’ll also appear in next Sunday’s March Futures issue.

Even amid a remarkable string us excellent red Burgundy vintages – some hard won, others blessedly simple – the 2019 vintage stands out. William Kelley calls it “thrilling… simultaneously serious and immensely charming.” Neal Martin writes, “It is remarkable, almost irrational, how the finest 2019s maintain detail, clarity and tension and sapid finishes.” Today we’re pleased to offer two 2019 premier crus from Morey-St-Denis: aux Charmes, and les Millandes.

Located just a few yards from the great Grand Cru “Charmes-Chambertin,” Morey-St-Denis 1er cru “Aux Charmes” is typically the softest and most precocious of Amiot’s premier crus, but in 2019 it’s more serious than usual. Today ripe fruit aromas dominate the nose, with dark black currants and cinnamon spice. The mouth is dark, sappy, and woodsy, with toasted red cherries on a long, densely packed finish. Burghound awarded 90 points, finding it “caressing and appealingly textured.” This should drink beautifully over the next 5-8 years.

Second, Amiot’s Morey-St-Denis 1er cru “Les Millandes” from 2019, the family’s tiny plot of 50 year old vines in stony soils scattered with round rocks called “têtes de loups” (wolf heads). Millandes is always one of Amiot’s most precise, sophisticated cuvées, and though the 2019 is riper and more muscular than usual, it retains its buttoned up, polished character.

The nose is multi-layered, a blend of oak and fruit. Burghound awarded 90-92 points and praised its “brooding liqueur-like aromas of plum, dark currant, earth and a whiff of Asian-style tea.” The wine also won a “Tastevinage” from the Chevaliers du Tastevin, the Burgundy trade group that blind tastes through the vintage each year and singles out particularly noteworthy wines.

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Amiot Morey-St-Denis 1er “Charmes” 2019
Ansonia Retail: $1,020
March Futures: $795/case

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Amiot Morey-St-Denis 1er “Millandes” 2019
Ansonia Retail: $1,020
March Futures: $795/case