Author: Thomas Wilcox

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Crisp, Dry, Refreshing Chenin Blanc from the Loire. $19

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 a perfect warm weather sipper, 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” 2019
bottle price: $19

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Refreshing New $22 Burgundian Sauvignon Blanc. (Yes, Burgundy!)

Most of Burgundy’s vineyards lie in a North-South line between Dijon and Lyon. Chablis is the exception – this satellite region sits an hour and a half northwest of the rest of Burgundy. Culturally, Chablis has been part of Burgundy for over 500 years, but geographically it’s a world apart.

In fact Chablis is closer, both physically and geologically, to Sancerre in the Loire Valley. Chablis of course is all Chardonnay, and Sancerre is pure Sauvignon — but in the nearby, little-known appellation of Saint-Bris, the lines blur even further: the region is still Burgundy, but the grape is Sauvignon Blanc.

We’re excited to introduce our very first Saint-Bris, a pure sauvignon blanc wine made by the terrifically talented Romain Collet of the Domaine Jean Collet in Chablis.

Collet has always been known as a reliable source in Chablis, but thirtysomething Romain has dramatically elevated the domaine’s status. Their delicious Chablis cuvées range from humble Chablis villages to Grand Cru, and the new Saint-Bris is as well made as everything else. Romain handles the unfamiliar grape with skill and precision.

Collet’s Saint-Bris is simply delightful. It spends a bit of elevage in old oak barrels – too old to add any toasty notes, but enough to round out the refreshing Sauvignon acidity. The result is a delicious, supple wine with great freshness and lovely notes of dried flowers and grapefruit. Burghound found “fine richness and intensity.” It’s a tasty combination of the angular precision of Chablis and the lush juiciness of Sauvignon blanc.

Open a chilled bottle on an warm August afternoon and you’ll be surprised how fast you reach the bottom.

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Collet Saint-Bris 2019
bottle price: $22

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Refreshing, Exuberant Loire Cabernet Franc under $20

The Loire Valley continues to be the epicenter of natural winemaking in France. We’ve found ourselves opening more and more Loire Valley wines recently, whatever the occasion. Organic viticulture, balanced wines, and affordable prices have all become the default in the Loire, a trend we celebrate enthusiastically.

Winemakers Celine and Didier Sanzay are fifth generation growers in Saumur-Champigny in the central Loire. Their reds are pure Cabernet Franc, and fit modern Loire style — small batch, organic, limited oak, concerned with balance and freshness rather than extraction and muscle. They use all wild yeasts, neither fine nor filter, and produce complex, natural expressions of the charming central Loire.

Their just-arrived 2019 Saumur rouge is the best we’ve had from them — with a post-tariff pricing under $20 it’s a no brainer for a crunchy house red.

This is exactly what you want Loire Cab Franc to be: pure, joyful, unoaked, and refreshing. Clean, juicy fruit bursts from the glass on the nose — think wild cherries and graphite. The mouth is fresh, fruit forward, inky, and intense, with a bold and vibrant attack and a quick clean finish. Think a juicy Beaujolais with more serious texture and darker fruit.

We think it far outperforms its modest pricetag, and offers a great alternative to your everyday, catch-all Rhône red. Pair with crackers and goat cheese, coq a vin, or a fresh pizza.

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Sanzay Saumur-Champigny 2019
bottle price: $19

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Precise, Exquisite New 2019 Chassagne-Montrachet

Thomas Morey is a master of subtlety. Even amid a regional trend towards more tension and less opulence, Morey’s wines stand out as studies in understatement. His family has lived in Chassagne-Montrachet since 1643, and his father Bernard’s wines were considered a reference point for the town. But Thomas’s brand is unmistakable and unique.

His style is one of precision and intensity, extending beyond his wines to the man himself — serious demeanor, closed-cropped hair, wire-rim glasses, Zalto stems in his immaculate tasting room, etc. His judicious use of oak and careful vinification mean that his wines are more sophisticated and less showy than much Chassagne. But their smoothness and ease of enjoyment reveal their true origin.

The 2019 Chassagne-Montrachet comes from 7 plots, all on the north side of the village — two of which (15% of the total) are in fact declassified premier crus. The 2019 is pitch perfect, without a hair out of place: a very expressive nose of ripe fruit and a beautifully round and balanced mouthfeel. Look for golden fruits and delicate citrus tension, ripe lemons with maybe a hint of orange. It pairs beautifully with subtle dishes like sole meuniere or butter-poached scallops.

Jasper Morris found both “significant volume of fruit” and “plenty of energy.” Burghound called it “outstanding,” citing “very rich, concentrated and enveloping flavors,” concluding “a very solid Chassagne villages.” This wine drinks well young and ages beautifully too — we’ve yet to cellar a bottle long enough to witness its demise. As usual, we can’t recommend this cuvée enough.

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Thomas Morey Chassagne-Montrachet 2019
bottle price: $65

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“Simply Excellent” New 2018 Red Burgundy from Michel Gros

Climate change has affected many aspects of winemaking in France. Most changes have proven challenging, such as spring frosts, hailstorms, and overripeness. But others have been beneficial. For instance, in Burgundy the malady-prone Pinot Noir vines have become healthier in warmer, drier weather. (See our Ansonia Journal article for more on climate change and winemaking.)

The most evident silver lining of climate change in Burgundy has come on the region’s margins. In areas like the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits and Côte Chalonnaise, where ripening Pinot Noir fully was once a perennial struggle, winemakers now often achieve ripeness with ease. Indeed the quality of wine from these “lesser” regions has improved dramatically in recent decades, but (in most places) prices have yet to catch up.

It was over 40 years ago that Michel Gros’s father Jean began buying up land in the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits. The terrain is 100 meters higher in elevation than the Côte d’Or, and the grapes typically ripen a week later. This prescient investment has begun to pay real dividends, and none more obvious than in 2018 — a vintage with record breaking levels of heat and sunlight.

Gros’s 2018s from the Hautes-Côtes are magnificent, often resembling village wines from the Côte d’Or in their depth and completeness. Our (tariff free) allocation of the 2018 Hautes-Côtes de Nuits has just arrived, and it’s a stunner. The nose opens immediately with plums, toast, violets, and briary dark cassis fruits. The mouth is smooth and full, with inky, palate-coating texture laid over a subtle foundation of velvety tannins.

Vinous’s Neal Martin praised the “floral bouquet of sensual red cherries,” calling it a “finely crafted Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes.” Bill Nanson found “a lovely open, energetic character,” concluding “simply excellent wine.” It’s a tremendous value under $35 — serve it to a pinotfile, and they’ll guess you paid quite a bit more.

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Gros Hautes-Côtes de Nuits rouge 2018
bottle price: $34

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Dry, Crisp, Delicious: New Organic Loire Rosé. $18

The Loire River is the longest in France, and the valley that surrounds it is home to the country’s most diverse winemaking region. The Loire Valley produces just about every type of wine there is — sweet, dry, sparkling, still, traditional, modern, and in every hue imaginable.

Nicolas Paget is a passionate young winemaker in the central Loire, crafting honest, delicious, organic cuvées of all colors. His white “Melodie” has become our favorite expression of Chenin blanc — lightweight, dry, crisp, and vibrant. We’ve previously imported several other whites and some reds, but this year we’re pleased to introduce his terrific rosé.

Paget’s rosé is just like everything else he makes — delicious, refreshing, and a bargain.

Paget makes his rosé from the unusual local Loire Valley grape grolleau (pronounced GROW-low). Though it’s the third most planted red varietal in the Loire, Grolleau flies a bit under radar, and is almost unheard of outside the region. It produces rustic, somewhat gritty reds that we’ve always found hard to love on their own. But as a rosé the edges are softened a bit, leaving a wine full of freshness and character.

The 2020 Paget Rosé is a perfect match for an August heatwave. The nose shows strawberries with a hint of earthiness and mint. The mouth is very dry, with red currant fruit, excellent freshness and pleasant echo of tannin. Nicolas has managed to keep both alcohol (12%) and price ($3.60/glass) impressively low. Don’t overthink this cuvée and it wont let you down.

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Paget Rosé 2020
bottle price: $18

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Brilliant New 93-point Premier Cru Chablis from a Rising Star

In the dozen years since he took over his family’s domaine, Romain Collet has elevated its reputation as fast as any new generation we’ve witnessed. We’ve noticed it ourselves, but we’re not alone — writers from Vinous, Burghound and Robert Parker have noted a “higher level of refinement” and a “significant upsurge in quality.” Jasper Morris MW writes that Romain Collet “is moving towards joining the pantheon” in Chablis.

Last week we wrote about Collet’s beautiful old-vine village level Chablis, and the bottle we had open at the warehouse on Saturday was a real hit with our tasters. Today we’re suggesting a slight upgrade: the 2019 Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons, showing everything we loved about the old-vine Chablis, but more of it.

The Collets farm a very large plot here – almost 9 hectares – and the soils are particularly heavy in limestone. Romain raises this cuvée in a combination of stainless, old barrels, foudres, which add complexity rather than any notes of oak. In 2019 he’s balanced a warm vintage and sunny vineyard plot with excellent tension and classic Chablisienne freshness.

The nose offers a hint of dry spice with the fruit, and in the mouth a touch of salinity focuses the wine’s minerality. The result is a wine that’s drier than Collet’s Montmains, and one in which the stones dominate the fruit. Morris gave this Vaillons 91-93 points, noting “impressive intensity” and finding it “very persistent.” The 2019 is among the best vintages we can remember for this wine, a perfect balance of fruit and minerals.

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Collet Chablis 1er “Vaillons” 2019
bottle price: $35

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“Highly Impressive” New 2019 Old-Vine Chablis under $30

In just over a decade, winemaker Romain Collet has turned his family’s reliable if unremarkable domaine into one of the very best sources in Chablis. With a focus on lower sulfur, a transition to organics, and modernized cellar practices, the domaine has begun to realize its full potential. The wine press has taken notice too; William Kelley finds “a lot to admire here,” and Jasper Morris recently opined that Romain Collet “is moving towards joining the pantheon in Chablis.”

Collet’s terrific crop of 2019 Chablis cuvées arrives in our warehouse today, and we’re thrilled about the four premier crus and ageworthy Grand Cru Valmur, all terrific in 2019. But today we’re beginning with Collet’s simplest wine — a humble, village-level Chablis made from nearly 90-year-old vines.

The 2019 Chablis Vieilles Vignes far outperforms its billing, and at under $30 provides tremendous value.

As vines age their production decreases as the quality of their fruit increases. (See our Journal post on vine age for a more extensive discussion.) Romain’s vines for today’s cuvée were planted in 1932, and produce very concentrated juice full of minerality and tension. It’s so pure and vibrant that Romain ferments and raises the wine 100% in stainless steel.

Jasper Morris called the 2019 Chablis VV “a highly impressive old vine Chablis.” Drawn from soils with very little clay, this is classic, old-school Chablis, full of dry extract and brilliant freshness. Look for dry citrus notes in the nose with oysters shells, salt spray, and melon. The mouth is long, stony and dry, with chiseled texture and not a shred of oak.

Pair this with something from the sea – scallops, lobster, oysters, halibut, or whatever’s fresh at your local source.

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Collet Chablis VV 2019
bottle price: $29

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Delightful, Spiced $25 Northern Rhône Syrah

Praise continues to pour in for the Domaine Patrick & Christophe Bonnefond. Their Northern Rhône reds are pure syrah, and display an exquisite balance of texture, fruit, subtlety and depth. The wines continue to improve each year — Josh Raynolds of Vinous declared his tasting this year “the single most impressive set of bottlings I have had here.”

Bonnefond’s Côte Rôties and Condrieus are magnificent — they’re not cheap, but we think they’re worth every penny. But luckily for us the Bonnefonds also make a humble VDP Syrah as well — a way to sample their excellent winemaking at an affordable price.

The 2019 Bonnefond Syrah is beautiful these days, we only wish we had more of it around.

Syrah grown in most of the world is bold, rich, mouthfilling and voluminous. In the Northern Rhône the grape takes on a different style: lower alcohol, less mouthfilling, more spice, more energy. The dark berry complexion remains the same, but with more definition and intricacy.

Bonnefond’s Syrah is classic Northern Rhône. Raynolds awarded 91 points, finding “blueberry, dark chocolate and a hint of black pepper” in the wine, and praising its “good depth and touch of olive.” With over a year in the bottle this has blossomed into an exceptional wine — look for cool berry intensity with notes of smoke, earth, licorice, and plums. It’s as complex and well-balanced a $25 wine as any in our cellar.

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Bonnefond Syrah 2019
bottle price: $25

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Back in Stock: Refreshing, Crisp, Bone-Dry Muscadet. $22

Not far from the mouth of the Loire, where France’s longest river meets the windswept Atlantic coast, sits the appellation of Muscadet. For centuries its signature product – a classic, bone-dry white wine – has appeared by the carafe in the oyster bars of Paris, London, and New York. It’s refreshing, abundant, and inexpensive — a perfect glass to wash down a plate of crustaceans.

In the last few decades Muscadet has undergone a reinvention of sorts with the elevation of three of the region’s best towns to a new “Cru Communal” status. Today’s wine comes from one of this new wave of Muscadet. Combining excellent terroir with extended years on the lees, this is an unusually complex take on a classic.

Martin-Luneau is a fourth generation family domaine farming old vines on the plains south of Nantes. We’ve been sold out of their terrific 2016 Muscadet “Clisson” for months, and are excited to restock (enfin!) this week — and this time with tariff-free pricing.

The 2016 Clisson is a marriage of the brisk, refreshing essence of the sea, with the delicate herbal and fruit flavors of western France. The nose is clean and pure, showing dried flowers, melons, and lemon. The mouth is smooth and very dry, with notes of stones, salt air, and apple skins.

Oysters are the longstanding pairing of choice with Muscadet, and the thick savoriness in this wine is an exceptional foil for the fresh brineyness of an oyster. But the winemakers themselves recommend serving this with a simple moules marinières, made with shallots, parsley, thyme, butter and, of course, Muscadet.

As wine writer Lettie Teague once wrote, “an $8 glass of Muscadet will always be better than an $8 glass of something else.” (And this one comes in under $5.)

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Martin-Luneau Muscadet Clisson 2016
bottle price: $22

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Perfect Grilling Summer Syrah Blend. $22

As hot, dry summers become the norm across much of France, winemakers in the south in particular are constantly in search of freshness for their wines. Some have adjusted viticulture techniques, others have altered their blends to re-balance freshness.

At the Clos Bagatelle in Saint-Chinian, they’re certainly adapting too — but Mother Nature has given them a head start. Their terroirs are located high in the hills of the northern Languedoc, and their vines grow from unusually schist- and mineral-laden soils. As a result, their cuvées are rich and full, but never out of balance.

They also provide tremendous value — today’s St-Chinian is as impressive a sub-$25 red as we know.

Bagatelle’s “Au Fil de Soi” 2018 is a blend of 50% syrah, 30% grenache, and 10% each of mourvèdre and carignan. They’ve reduced the percentage of Grenache (a naturally high alcohol grape) in recent years to maintain balance. We continue to be amazed at Bagatelle’s ability to combine rich, mouthfilling, ripe fruit with delicate floral aromas and mineral tension.

This Syrah-heavy cuvée is simply delicious — far more wine than $22 usually buys you. The nose shows violets and anise, with blackberry fruit and thyme. The mouth bursts with blueberry pie and earth, cut by a crisp mineral line and supple tannins.

Upgrade your weeknight grilling game: open a Bagatelle and fire up these quick grilled pork chops, which take about as much time as a 3000m steeplechase.

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Bagatelle St-Chinian “Fil de Soi” 2018
bottle price: $22

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Sophisticated, Delicious Loire Valley Pinot Noir, $28

“Oak is good… but wine is better.” That’s how one of our vignerons answered a question a few years ago about how he uses oak. We know what he means, and we still see too many winemakers fall into the trap of overoaking.

Today’s cuvée is a red Sancerre that spends a year in oak barrels (none new), called “Esprit de la Garenne.” We were skeptical — the Pinot Noir fruit in Garenne’s unoaked Sancerre rouge is so pure and refreshing that we assumed oak would ruin it. But they’ve managed to weave spice into the fruit beautifully, and we couldn’t pass it up.

It’s not red Burgundy; it’s not even traditional red Sancerre. But one thing’s for sure: it’s simply delicious.

Garenne’s Sancerre “Esprit” is smooth, earthy, and really tasty. The nose shows cinnamon, cloves, rose petals, and intense cherry liqueur. The oak comes across as spice and smoothness. The mouth is punchy and silky with well built tannins that have weathered their time in barrel beautifully.

We taste a lot of wine, particularly Pinot Noir — but even we can be surprised from time to time. This is a surprisingly attractive Pinot Noir with nice depth and a summer/fall weight. Serve it alongside Garenne’s white Sancerre with cheese, crackers, and a bit of charcuterie.

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Garenne Sancerre rouge “Esprit” 2018
bottle price: $28

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“Suave” Northern Rhône Syrah: 93-point Côte Rôtie

Patrick and Christophe Bonnefond’s wines somehow keep getting better. They’ve enjoyed a string of excellent recent vintages in the vines, but they also seem to be hitting their stride in the cellar. Once firmly in the ripe, oaky, “extroverted” camp that made them a darling of Robert Parker, the domaine has shifted towards subtler expression in recent years: less time in oak, larger barrels, and earlier harvests.

The Bonnefonds now achieve an extraordinary subtlety in their wines — it’s still bold, brooding, inky-dark Northern Rhône Syrah, but somehow also with subtlety, grace, and lift. Vinous’s Josh Raynolds called the 2018s “the single most impressive set of bottlings since I started here back in 2005.”

We were similarly blown away by the 2018s from Bonnnefond, and enthusiastically recommend their fancier cuvées (Rochins and Rozier) for the back of your cellar. Today we’re suggesting Bonnefond’s entry-level Côte Rôtie “Colline de Couzou,” a wine we think will continue to improve for a decade, but one that’s flat out delicious today.

Raynolds called it “awfully impressive” and “distinctly suave,” awarding it 93 points. We found the dark, ripe fruit just lovely, with added notes of pepper, minerals, and maybe a touch of iodine. If it doesn’t have quite the depth and teeth-staining concentration of its older brothers, it offers a remarkable amount of polish and sophistication sub $60.

This is certainly the best vintage of this wine in recent memory; we’d compare it to the Rochins cuvée in a less favorable year. Pair it with slow-roasted lamb on a springtime Sunday afternoon.

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Bonnefond Côte Rôtie 2018
bottle price: $58

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Delicious Sparkling Burgundy under $30

Most Americans limit their sparkling wine consumption to holidays and celebrations. But doing so means missing out on a world of good wine, particularly for food pairing. And, if you know where to look, increasing your diet of bubbles doesn’t even require Champagne-level investment.

Our favorite source for affordable fizz is the Maison Louis Picamelot in Rully. The Wine Advocate’s William Kelley writes that Picamelot “produces some of the best sparkling wines in Burgundy,” and “makes a persuasive case for taking the genre more seriously.”

Today’s suggestion: the Crémant de Bourgogne “Chazot,” a terrific value at under $30.

Philippe Chautard, the grandson of the founder, has taken the enterprise to a new level, transforming an old quarry on the edge of the town to a large underground cellar. With the additional space Chautard is able to give his wines the time in the bottle he feels they need to develop their full complexity.

Chazot is a blanc de noirs — 100% pinot noir, but with no time on the skins, so is a clear blanc de noirs. It rests for over 3 years on the lees, which would qualify it as vintage Champagne if grown there. In the mouth it’s chewy and full, with excellent complexity and texture. It comes from a single plot near Saint-Aubin — look for an expert blend of earth and fruit, with notes of baking spice and fresh citrus.

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Picamelot Crémant Chazot NV
bottle price: $29

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Fleshy, Delicious 2019 White Burgundy under $30

White Burgundy is an easy wine to pair with food. At the high end, an ageworthy bottle Meursault or Puligny can be as subtle and magnificent as a red. 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 nearly a decade now. It has become a “house white” for many of our readers, and was a popular by-the-glass white at several restaurants we used to work with. It doesn’t make Meursault promises — but it way overdelivers for under $6/glass.

The 2019 Bourgogne from Gérard Thomas is terrific, as are Thomas’s cuvées from Saint-Aubin and Puligny-Montrachet. All of their 2019s show classy yellow fruit rippling with energy and golden fleshy roundness. At each classification level the wines drink above their weight.

Thomas’s Bourgogne is always good with food, but we think the 2019 drinks particularly well on its own as well. 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 hard to find Bourgogne blanc under $30 these days. We like to set aside a night for high-end white Burgundy, and for that Thomas’s other 2019s are great options. But for a busy weeknight when all you need is something balanced and crisp and refreshing, this is as good as Bourgogne blanc gets.

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Thomas Bourgogne 2019
bottle price: $29

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