Author: Thomas Wilcox

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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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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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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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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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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Some wines are esoteric: subtly funky Burgundies, oxidative Jura whites, skin-contact orange wines, etc. Like a Rothko canvas or a Philip Glass composition, these wines are best understood with some context, and they’re not for everyone.

Other wines offer more straightforward enjoyment: uncomplicated hedonistic pleasure. And today’s wine is firmly in the second camp. The Domaine les Goubert is among our most popular producers, and the special Gigondas “Cuvée Florence” is their finest wine. It’s not subtle or traditional, but it’s pure, cozy delight — and sometimes, after a long day, that’s just what we need.

The 2018 growing season was hotter and drier than anything in recent memory, and making wine under the scorching provencal sun was even toastier than usual. But Gigondas has some advantages amid ever warming seasons: it’s on the slope of a hill with excellent drainage, and the tall mountains (Dentelles de Montmirail) behind it foster continuous airflow. Harvest is often a week or two later than Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

Goubert has just released the 2018 Gigondas “Florence,” after its two year elevage before bottling. It’s rich and bold and smooth, offering easy enjoyment and a perfect match for wintery weather. Jeb Dunnuck awarded 92-94 points, calling it “beautiful” and finding “focused texture.. and a great finish.”

This wine perfectly embodies the term “layers.” It changes the moment the bottle is opened — we suggest a half hour in a carafe to help it along. When it’s open and firing on all cylinders, it’s a symphony of taste: lavender, boysenberry, black pepper, chocolate, raspberry jam, earth, and toast.

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Goubert Gigondas “Florence” 2018
bottle price: $54

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Red Burgundies aren’t known for their heartiness. Pinot Noir is a delicate, thin-skinned varietal — and typically tends towards subtlety over strength. But what red Burgundies may lack in weight they more than make up in elegance. The finest examples are unmatched in their ability to convey complexity, subtlety, and grace. In the Côte de Nuits it’s hard to pick a favorite town, but in the Côte de Beaune one name stands above the rest.

Volnay embodies the velvety silkiness of red Burgundy as well as any town in the region. Our producer here is the Domaine Roger Belland, who marries Volnay’s elegance with the domaine’s approachable style. The result is exceptionally fine red Burgundy, that’s also drinkable young.

Volnay has no Grand Cru vineyards, so Santenots Premier Cru is among the appellation’s finest plots. Its location on the southern border with Meursault signals the elegance and charming aromatics often found in the wine.

Belland’s 2019 Volnay 1er cru is a deft balance act of channeling subtle terroir in a very ripe year. Belland used 80% whole clusters in this cuvée, giving a backbone to the abundant fruit. Resulting wine is gorgeous, easily their most elegant red, with lively aromatics and plenty of substance. Its structure is hidden in the beautiful fruit and its very fine-grained tannins support a wine that will be perfumed, silky, and lacy when it matures.

Burghound awarded 92 points, calling it “Outstanding,” and finding it both “exceptionally rich” and “velvet-textured,” with a “built-to-age finish.” Belland’s wines always drink young, but there’s no rush on this one, and it’s a terrific candidate for the back of the cellar.

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Belland Volnay 1er “Santenots” 2019
bottle price: $75

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For years we used to visit the Domaine Desvignes in Givry for humble, straightforward red Burgundies with excellent pricing. But in the years since Gautier Desvignes has taken over, the domaine has transformed into one of the leading lights in the Côte Chalonnaise. In a remarkably short time, Gautier has upgraded the winemaking facilities, bottling practices, and viticulture, with truly exciting results.

We’re not the only ones to notice – both Vinous’s Neal Martin and the Wine Advocate’s William Kelley MW have identified Gautier as a rising star, and the results of his work are more impressive every year. Last fall Kelley reported: “The young Gautier Desvignes continues his rapid ascent at the 11-hectare estate, and I was delighted by these new releases. … Elegant, sumptuous reds and bright, chiseled whites are the order of the day, and everything reviewed here comes warmly recommended.”

The only thing wrong with wines’ rise in popularity is their sudden scarcity. Nearly all of our allocation for the Desvignes reds sold out through Futures last year, and the only red cuvée left in stock is his excellent 2019 Givry. But in recent years Gautier has also turned his considerable skill to his whites wines, and we’re pleased to release one today: the Givry blanc “En Cheneves.”

This is terrific white Burgundy, which actually features 10% of pinot blanc alongside the 90% chardonnay. The wine is crisp and focused: pure Chardonnay fruit with a chalky intensity. The pinot blanc offers a splash of floral notes, and Gautier has oaked it minimally and masterfully. It offers a completeness and complexity that recalls the famous whites of the Côte d’Or to the north, far overperforming its humble origin.

Kelley found “crisp yellow orchard fruit, white flowers and hazelnuts” calling it “bright and precise.” If you missed out on Gautier’s 2019 reds, keep your eye out for September Futures later this year. But in the meantime, we can’t recommend this delicious white enough.

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Desvignes Givry blanc “En Cheneves” 2019
bottle price: $32

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