Author: Thomas Wilcox

Chambolle Musigny’s three most famous terroirs are the Grand Crus Musigny and Bonnes-Mares, and Premier Cru Amoureuses. All three fetch prices north of $500/bot (some well into four figures), and are among Burgundy’s most iconic and long lived wines.

If you had to pick a fourth best terroir, it’d be Les Fuées, a premier cru immediately next to Grand Cru Bonnes-Mares. And it’s here that today’s wine originates. The Domaine Boursot farms an exceptional collection of 75+ year old vines in Fuées, and the wine is extraordinary. We spent yesterday morning tasting with the Boursot brothers, and they’re an exciting domaine that gets better each year.

Vinous’s Neal Martin describes Boursot’s wines as “superb,” “excellent,” “very fine,” and “worth seeking out,” finding the 2020 Fuées “velvety smooth with impressive depth” and a “long, persistent finish.” Indeed Fuées marries power and gracefulness in a way only a Chambolle vineyard can. The nose is dark and brooding, with cassis, violets, and gingerbread. The mouth is huge and intense — today it’s bold and impressive; in a few years it will be refined, elegant, ethereal, and smooth.

JF Mugnier’s Chambolle Fuées goes for around $900/bot, we’re certainly not saying Boursot’s would win in a prizefight. But pound for pound, at 1/9 the cost, it more than holds its own.

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Boursot Chambolle-Musigny 1er “Fuées” 2020
bottle price:  $135  $99

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Yesterday we visited Pierre Vessigaud in Pouilly-Fuissé. He’s relatively new to our portfolio, but the tasting confirmed what we already knew — this is a tremendous find. The Vessigaud domaine is Demeter certified biodynamic vigneron (the highest organic classification), and their wines are simply extraordinary in their complexity and sophistication. The 2023s we’ll be offering later this year are outstanding, but the 2022s remaining in Newton are already delicious.

Vessigaud’s commitment to organic viticulture translates to chardonnay of superb purity and clarity, with vibrant texture and perfect balance. His winemaking style is understated and regal – he uses no new oak in any of his cuvées, opting instead to give the wines long, careful elevages in steel tank and older barrels. As William Kelley puts it, “succulent but serious, any bottle bearing Vessigaud’s label is worth seeking out.”

His Pouilly-Fuissé Vieilles Vignes cuvée is a combination of twenty plots around the appellation with an average age of 60 years. The wine sees 18 months of elevage (20% in tank, 80% in oak between 7 and 15 years old), and shows terrific balance of fruit, stones, and wood. The nose is expressive and pure, with a hint of exotic fruit joining the classical Chardonnay notes. It’s a remarkable amount of flavor and style packed into a sub-$40 bottle.

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Vessigaud Pouilly-Fuissé VV 2022
bottle price: $39

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We’ve spent the last few days tasting across the Southern Rhône Valley. In this era of hot, dry summers and abundant ripeness, a winemaker’s primary task is divining freshness. Across the dozens of Rhône reds we’ve tasted this week, it’s clear that some are more successful than others.

One winemaker with a clear knack for this is Eric Chauvin of the Domaine le Souverain. His red Séguret is always vibrant and full of energy, a blend of grenache and syrah with no oak. Chauvin’s Chauvin’s tiny Domaine le Souverain has no website, and (until this year!) no road signs — his cellar is a converted garage. But his wines have more complexity and depth than nearly anything else we taste at their level, and manage to remain a bargain.

We’ve already imported Souverain’s 2023 Séguret, but Eric poured it for us again yesterday, and it’s as good as ever. Dark, inky berry fruit explodes from the glass, and on the palate the wine pulsates with life and energy. Eric credits careful organic viticulture with his success and we don’t doubt him. The nose both fresh and intense,  with notes of crushed berries, lavender, and a cool earthiness. The mouth is smooth, friendly, and refreshing – clean dark fruit, just the right amount of tannin, and a smooth, easy finish.

This was outstanding yesterday, and thanks to a good sized crop there are a few cases left already available in Newton – and we plan to add more shortly. Pour this to welcome the arrival of spring.

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Souverain Séguret 2023
bottle price: $22

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Except for Burgundy, most wine regions in France are better known for one wine color or another. But a region’s “non-dominant” wine color is often fascinating and delicious. One of our favorites is white wines from the Rhône Valley.

Southern Rhône whites can be lovely, but in hot vintages often struggle to achieve balance. But we’re quite fond of northern Rhône whites, in particular Denis Basset’s Crozes-Hermitage blanc. Basset’s white is a Roussanne-Marsanne blend (70/30), and the only wine of its kind in our portfolio: rounder and more tropical than white Burgundy; more tension than Condrieu; more softness than our Loire whites.

The 2023 has just arrived and it’s outstanding – the nose is soft and enveloping, with tropical notes of mango, pineapple, and green tea. The mouth is rich and round, but well balanced, showing nectarine and honey notes. There’s so much exotic fruit in the nose you almost expect this to be sweet, but the mouth finishes cool and soft and dry with terrific tension.

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St-Clair Crozes-Hermitage blanc “Un Matin” 2023
bottle price: $25

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Vincent Boyer now works with his sister Sylvie, and together they share the viticulture (mostly her) and winemaking (mostly him). They’ve nearly completed their conversion to organic farming, and their always excellent wines have become even better in recent years. They raised prices after their catastrophic 2021 vintage where they lost 90% in some plots from frost, but actually lowered them this year given the healthier crop.

The Boyers use an extended two-year elevage in oak barrels and then concrete eggs, and the resulting wines are sleek and full, steering well clear of the traps of overoaking and heaviness. Boyer’s Bourgogne Côte d’Or comes from vines near his hometown of Meursault, and even this humble cuvée shows a glimmer of that golden Meursault character.

The resulting wine is the best value Bourgogne blanc in our cellar – and with this year’s pricing it might be the best value too. Burghound found the nose “elegant” and “exuberantly fresh,” with “delicious and equally vibrant flavors” in the mouth. The nose opens with citrus and white flowers, and the mouth is full of concentrated fruit and tension. An exceptionally successful white Burgundy, and at the price, an excellent value.

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Boyer-Martenot Bourgogne Côte d’Or 2022
bottle price: $38

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Cornas is a tiny gem of an appellation. It covers 350 acres and is home to just 50 vignerons. The name comes from the Celtic word for “burnt earth,” and it’s an appropriate moniker: Cornas is pure Syrah like the rest of the Northern Rhône, but the feel is of something sunnier from further South.

Today fifth generation winemaker Nicolas Serrette farms a miniscule 1.8 hectares (4 acres) in Cornas. Simon Field MW of Berry Brothers writes of the Dumien-Serrette wines’ “granitic splendor” and “beguiling floral elegance which sets them apart.” Their old vines produce intense, teeth-staining Syrah, with extraordinary depth but remarkable freshness.

Their primary cuvée is called “Patou,” made from 80+ year old syrah vines – and that’s their “young vine” bottling. The 2022 is terrific, a symphony of spice and deep black fruit. At 13% alcohol it’s sunny and ripe without an ounce of heaviness, the calling card of top Northern Rhône reds. The nose is deep and perfumed with notes of dark cherry, spices, cocoa and cured meats. The mouth is dark and rich but with sturdy tannin and a pleasant savory element. Serve with spring lamb, or cellar for up to a decade.

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Dumien-Serrette Cornas “Patou” 2022
bottle price: $58

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Having just added two iconic Grand Crus to their holdings (Echezeaux and Richebourg), the Domaine Michel Gros has what Neal Martin of Vinous calls “a portfolio to be reckoned with.” Indeed their vines stretch from Bourgogne to Grand Cru and from Nuits-St-Georges all the way to Gevrey-Chambertin. Michel’s son Pierre has taken over winemaking, bringing new energy and a lower-intervention farming style.

Pierre’s 2022s are a triumph – universally successful wines in vintage that provided abundant concentrated fruit but with low alcohol and beautiful freshness. Among our favorites (and one of the best values) this year is his Nuits-St-Georges “Les Chaliots”, a plot from the heart of the appellation, just south of the village.

Neal Martin loved this wine almost as much as we did, finding “crushed strawberry and cranberry fruit, dried violets and touches of incense” calling the mouthfeel “fresh and tensile with fine tannins, a keen line of acidity, and a nuanced, persistent finish that reminds me of Mugneret-Gibourg.” He awarded 91-93 points, concludes, “this is a lovely Nuits Saint-Georges, elegant without shortchanging you on fruit.”

Sub-$100 village Burgundy of this caliber is hard to find these days, and we think this provides real value: a beautiful and classical red Burgundy in a terrific vintage from a rising star.

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Gros Nuits-St-Georges “Chaliots” 2022
bottle price: $85

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Gautier Desvignes has become well known among our readers (and in the wine press) for his gorgeous, affordable, beautifully crafted Burgundies from Givry. William Kelley of the Wine Advocate calls him “one of the leading lights in the Côte Chalonnaise.” Gautier has raised the bar of his family domaine perhaps more than any other winemaker we work with.

But alongside a stellar lineup of reds that grab most of the attention, Desvignes is also a skilled crafter of whites Burgundies. His minimal use of oak and careful fermentation achieves white Givrys with terrific balance of fruit, freshness, and minerals.

Gautier’s 2022 village level “En Cheneves” is crisp and precise with a lovely mix of stones and yellow fruit. It’s 90% Chardonnay with 10% Pinot Blanc, a combination that gives beautiful aromatics with classy and concentrated texture. (Picture a particularly accessible St-Aubin, but at a discount.) It’s light on oak, and mostly about ripe springtime fruit – easy and friendly, it should help you and your cellar emerge from winter.

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Desvignes Givry blanc “En Chenèves” 2022
bottle price: $39

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The Northern Rhône is a tiny region. With just ten thousand acres of vines, it’s one sixteenth the size of the Southern Rhône Valley. And yet it’s home to the world’s finest expressions of Syrah. Iconic and ageworthy wines from Hermitage, Côte Rôtie and Cornas get much of the attention, but the lesser-known appellation of Crozes-Hermitage provides tremendous value.

Our source there for many years has been Denis Basset’s Domaine Saint Clair. Basset’s family has grown grapes (and flowers) in the town of Beaumont-Monteux for generations; but more than a decade ago, after a near-death experience with a high voltage line, he resolved to take over the family’s vines and to create his own domaine.

The 2022 vintage was kind not only to Burgundy: growing conditions were also exemplary in the Northern Rhône. When we tasted the Etincelle 2022 from the barrel, Denis remarked that he thought 2022 his best vintage ever of the wine. (“Etincelle” means “spark” in French, and the name for the cuvée is in homage to his near-electrocution.) “Etincelle” 2022 is outstanding. With 13% alcohol it retains its freshness, amid an abundance of lush, dark, ripe fruit. It’s perfectly balanced, with good weight, a pleasant mouthfeel, and a longer than usual finish.

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Saint-Clair Crozes-Hermitage “Etincelle” 2022
bottle price: $25

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Arnaud Baillot is an exciting new producer 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.

Baillot’s wines sing from the glass with clarity and elegance – he uses just 15% new oak in his wines, and low sulfites. Each cuvée shows its origin with honesty and precision, and today’s Volnay is one of our favorites. From a superb vintage that’s tailor made for Baillot’s style, this is low on intervention, alcohol, and artifice.

Baillot’s 2022 Volnay is deep and floral with red fruits bursting from the glass alongside violets and cassis. It’s beautifully concentrated and perfectly defined, with a sleek, low-oak profile on the palate. Volnay is known for elegance, and this has it in spades, but there’s more concentration than we expected at the village level – strawberry, raspberry, and blue fruits. This should age terrifically, but has already been hard for us to keep our hands off since it arrived last year.

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Baillot Volnay 2022
bottle price: $85

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Chenin blanc has an enormous range of expression. It can be anywhere from very dry to very sweet depending on vintage, terroir, and winemaker. Our favorite expression is bone chenin blanc – at its best the grape delivers exquisite balance of orchard and stone fruit, fine minerality, and carefully channeled energy.

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, dry package.

Paget’s 2023 Melodie is quietly beautiful, with 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 a steely 12% 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 rejoice in simplicity.

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Paget Chenin Blanc “Melodie” 2023
bottle price: $22

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It’s hard to call any place in Burgundy’s Côte de Nuits “overlooked,” but Morey-Saint-Denis has always been a bit of an underdog. It’s a tiny place — about a mile from end to end, and home to fewer than 700 people — and sits between two larger and more famous neighbors. But it’s an impressive town in its own right, worthy of attention and respect.

And nowhere in our portfolio is this clearer than the wines of Domaine Amiot et Fils. The Amiots have tended vines in Morey-St-Denis since 1702, and recently welcomed the 10th generation Léon Amiot back to the domaine. We’ve always loved the wines from the Amiot family, but we’re even more excited about where they’re going.

The Millandes vineyard lies just several yards across the road from the famous Clos de la Roche Grand Cru, and its proximity to greatness is obvious. The 2022 Millandes shows the vintage’s signature balance of ripe fruit and low alcohol. This wine grabbed our attention at the domaine for its delicious mix of concentration, energy, and detail.

Burghound awarded 90-92 points, finding it “sleek, delicious and tension filled,” with “muscular flavors” and the “hallmark power of a classic Millandes.” It’s inky, polished, powerful wine, with dark, woodsy notes of briary blackberry and cassis. The mouth is intense and balanced, with fine, sturdy tannins coated in ripe, concentrated fruit. Drink now from a decanter with sturdy flavors, or cellar for up to a decade.

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Amiot Morey-St-Denis 1er “Millandes” 2022
bottle price: $115

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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 2022 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. The clay-rich, south-facing soils produce a wine that Cyril somehow manages to reign 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” 2022
bottle price: $42

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Champagne has a reputation as refined, elegant, and delicate. While this reputation fits much of the wine from the heart of the Champagne region, today’s wine is another story. Domaine Jacques Robin is a small grower producer in the Côtes des Bar, a satellite sub-region of Champagne an hour to the south.

The Côtes des Bar is less fussy and more friendly, and the wines match this shift. Robin’s cozy family domaine is a far cry from the glossy brochures and glitzy tasting rooms of the Côtes des Blancs. Their 100% Pinot Noir cuvées sport a broader, richer palate than many Champagnes from further north – gourmand rather than gourmet — rich, welcoming, and mouthfilling.

They’re also a comparative bargain. At under $50 we think their Secret de Sorbée cuvée is among the best values of any wine in our portfolio, with a complexity that easily outpaces $100 bottles from the big name houses. It’s fermented partially in barrel and left on the lees for over two years. The resulting wine is toasty and fresh with lovely apple fruit and floral notes.

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Robin Secret de Sorbée NV
bottle price: $49

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The “Michel” of Gros fame is now fully retired – or, at least, as fully retired as a winemaker can be with 45 vintages under his belt, a house nearby, and his name on the label. His son Pierre has taken the reins, representing, in Neal Martin’s words, “a change in tack rather than charting a totally different course.” Like many of his peer group Pierre has moved the domaine toward organics, and if his first few vintages at the helm are any indication, the future at Gros may be even brighter than the past.

Pierre represents the seventh generation of Gros winemakers to run the domaine, and the Gros family has lived in the same house in the center of Vosne-Romanée since 1830. Plenty has changed since then – phylloxera, war, occupation, market swings – but for centuries the Gros vignerons have tended their vines and each year produced excellent wine. Pierre now commands what Neal Martin describes as “a portfolio to be reckoned with.” A full lineup of his terrific 2022s are in stock now.

Gros’s humble Bourgogne Côte d’Or may cost a fraction of their famous Richebourg cuvée, but it’s a terrific value and a great representation of the domaine’s style. Fully destemmed and in barrel for 18 months, the vines come from just outside Vosne-Romanée. It’s middleweight and pretty, with red currants and violets in the nose; the mouth has mild tannins and a pleasant earthy and floral finish. This year Burghound found “good vibrancy and detail,” and Neal Martin called it “quite fleshy and dense.”

It drinks effortlessly from the start, and however much we set aside for ourselves, we always wish it were more.

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Michel Gros Bourgogne Côte d’Or 2022
bottle price: $36

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