Author: Thomas Wilcox

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Blackberries, Lavender, Earth: Perfectly-Balanced Biodynamic Syrah

Step into a breezy meadow or a shady forest, close your eyes, and breathe in — the smells and sensations are countless, complex, and awe-inspiring. Natural wines, when they’re made carefully, channel a little slice of nature’s limitless vitality like little else can. And nobody in our portfolio does this more skillfully than the Mas Foulaquier.

Located in Pic-St-Loup, considered among the best terroirs in the Languedoc, Foualquier crafts delicious red blends by employing careful biodynamic viticulture. Their wines channel the region’s wildness into exuberant, fruit-and-earth mixtures that are always complex and always polished.

Today we’re suggesting Calades, their 80/20 Syrah-Grenache blend. As with all of Foulaquier’s wines, it’s unfined, unfiltered, barely sulfited, and raised with no new-oak barrels. Their winemaking philosophy involves as little intervention as possible between vineyard and wineglass, and they do it as well as anyone we know.

The 2017 is excellent and among the best versions of the wine we can remember. The nose shows honey and violets, with fresh herbs and wild cherry fruit. The mouth is elegant and long, with perfectly ripe plum fruit dripping from the fine grained tannins. It’s dark and concentrated but lively and quite light on its feet — a perfect marriage of ruggedness and finesse.

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Foulaquier Calades 2017
bottle price: $36

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“Impeccable” Chianti Classico for Tomato Season

Tomatoes have always been one of our favorite parts of summer. Whether raw and chopped into a bruschetta, baked into a tart, or cooked down into a rich tomato sauce, an in-season tomato is an entirely different fruit from the out-of season variety. For tomato inspiration, check out this list.

And chez nous (or a casa), when tomatoes are on the table, Poggerino is never far away. The lone Italian source in our portfolio, the Fattoria Poggerino’s star has risen dramatically in recent years. Writer Rajat Parr calls them “some of the purest expressions of the grape in Italy.” When the Wine Spectator profiled the vineyard a few years ago, they called their wines “impeccably balanced,” “pure” and “honest.”

Poggerino’s 2018 Chianti Classico bursts with intensity and energy. It’s at once expansive and well defined — it shows strawberry jam, anise, and a pleasant dustiness on the nose. The ripe fruit carries seamlessly across the palate, which is pleasantly mouth filling — but neither hot nor flabby — and the tannins are fine-grained and attractive. Look for notes of cherries and dried roses.

This is beautifully made wine without pretense, and at $5/glass it is a remarkable value. It’s hard to rival the Garenne Sancerre or the Gautheron Chablis for our best value at the $25 mark — but Poggerino makes an awfully good case. Serve it with Marcella Hazan’s iconic tomato sauce over pasta, or elegant roast lamb with rosemary and tomatoes.

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Poggerino Chianti Classico 2018
bottle price: $25

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Crisp, Refreshing New Summertime White Burgundy. $22

White Burgundy is synonymous with Chardonnay. But in fact one of every ten white vines is Aligoté. This less prestigious varietal generally produces simple, refreshing wines meant for enjoyment rather than contemplation or cellaring.

Aligoté has traditionally met its low expectations, and little else. But with demand for white Burgundy increasing, and warm summers producing riper grapes, growers have been turning out really impressive cuvées from this humble grape.

Today we’re excited to suggest the 2019 Aligoté from Domaine Ravaut. Is it the most profound white Burgundy in our cellar? No. Does it live up to its $22 pricetag? Completely – and more.

The Ravaut’s Aligoté is from a particularly well placed plot, just north of the famous Hill of Corton. Winemaker Vincent Ravuat uses malolactic fermentation and a year of aging on lees to add complexity and depth. In 2019 in particular, the wine is just delicious.

Ravaut’s Aligoté closely resembles a Chardonnay in the nose — think green apple, lemon peel, honey, and grass. The mouth is bright and crisp – look for notes of grapefruit, lime, and chalk in the mouth. It’s a great candidate for the traditional pairing with Crème de Cassis (called a Kir), but the liqueur isn’t a must for this wine.

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Ravaut Aligoté 2019
bottle price: $22

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Exquisite Red Burgundy from the Finest Vineyard in Volnay

Volnay has always been among Burgundy’s most prized appellations. King Louis XI (1423-1483) liked the wine so much that in 1447 he bought every ounce the town produced. Thomas Jefferson collected Volnay, and today it’s considered, along with Chambolle-Musigny, the source for Burgundy’s most elegant and seductive red wines.

Volnay has no Grand Crus, but the premier cru Caillerets vineyard is the finest in the appellation; in fact the local saying goes “he who has no vines in Caillerets knows not the worth of Volnay.” We’ve had delicious bottles from all over Volnay, but one taste of Caillerets and the reasons for its reputation become clear.

Michel and Estelle Prunier are a father-and-daugther team making terrific, traditional red Burgundies in the nearby town of Auxey Duresses. Their finest vines are in Volnay’s famous “Caillerets” vineyard. With such impressive terroir, much of Prunier’s job is to get out of the way – and their understated style is a perfect match. Wine writer Matt Kramer celebrates Prunier’s “signature-free winemaking” in Caillerets, explaining they “do an outstanding job with it,” concluding, “a great Caillerets.”

The 2018 Prunier Caillerets is a delight — the nose is rich and enticing, showing violets, dark chocolate and raspberries. The mouth is balanced, silky, and very long, with terrific density. Alongside a smooth, chalky minerality, look for notes of cassis and forest floor. Jasper Morris awarded 92 points, finding balance between “weight, charm, class, structure,” and concluding “a wine to be proud of.”

Most of the high end red Burgundy we suggest comes from the Côte de Nuits – but for those with the Burgundy bug, Prunier’s Volnay Caillerets is not one to miss.

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Prunier Volnay 1er “Caillerets” 2018
bottle price: $89

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Velvety New 93-pt Cornas: Syrah at its Most Intense

Cornas is a tiny appellation of only 50 growers. By rules and heritage, it’s the Northern Rhône: its wines are pure, unblended Syrah. But in spirit and character, it’s not far from the South. 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.

Vinous writer Josh Raynolds calls the Domaine du Tunnel “among the top producers of Cornas.” Star winemaker Stephane Robert farms an envious collection of old syrah vines around the tiny appellation, and his wines very much live up to the hype. Robert is humble and quiet in person, but his wines are bold, assertive, and utterly charming.

Once a forgotten appellation, Cornas has become the darling of the sommelier Instagram crowd in recent years, as collectors chase aged bottles with names like Clape and Voge. Tunnel’s wines drink better a little earlier, and don’t require the same investment as the famous names. But they’re every bit Cornas, full of extraordinary depth and power.

Tunnel’s 2018 Cornas is terrific — the warm year produced lots of ripeness, making it juicy and approachable today. But there’s plenty of Cornas’s traditional sturdy foundation. Vinous awarded 93 points, finding it “really quite elegant,” with “fine grained tannins” and an “impressively long, sappy finish.” Jancis Robinson’s reviewer found “intensity and clarity of fruit,” with a “velvety texture.”

This won’t reach its peak for several years, but by this fall a properly decanted bottle is sure to turn heads.

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Tunnel Cornas 2018
bottle price: $58

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Thrilling White Burgundy from a Hidden Valley

Last week we wrote about Michel and Estelle Prunier, a father-daughter winemaking team in the heart of Burgundy. Tucked away in a valley off to the west of the Côte d’Or, their hometown Auxey-Duresses is often passed over for famous nearby names such as Meursault and Volnay. But hot summers have turned these towns on the margins of ripeness into sources for real value.

Prunier’s Auxey rouge we wrote about last week is delightful and traditional — a midweight, refreshing Pinot Noir with real character. Today we’re featuring their Auxey-Duresses blanc, an overperforming, classy white Burgundy that’s floral, accessible, and delicious.

Hide the label, and you’d guess a village-level Meursault.

Prunier’s Auxey blanc is unusually vibrant in 2018, a particularly impressive feat given the hot summer. The nose shows the classic white flowers and lychee of nearby Meursault, with just a hint of wood (only 10% new oak) and a hint of chalky minerality.

In the mouth this wine bursts with richness and tension. There’s excellent sucrocité (the flavor and texture of sugar, but without the sweetness), followed by a blast of freshness. It shows excellent length, particularly for its level.

It’s just about impossible to find Meursault under $50 these days. While this doesn’t carry quite the same complexity and balance as its famous neighbor, we think it’s an excellent value at $45. Serve with a creamy mushroom risotto.

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Prunier Auxey-Duresses blanc 2018
bottle price: $45

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“Succulent” and “Seductive” – Outstanding 2017 White Burgundy

Michel Gros is best known for his brilliant red Burgundies from towns like Vosne-Romanée, Chambolle Musigny, and Nuits-St-Georges. But he also holds quite a bit of land in the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits, a patchwork of rolling hills to the west of the Côte d’Or.

His Hautes-Côtes reds here are excellent, but it’s also the source for Gros’s only white, a little-known and terrific white Burgundy called “Fontaine-St-Martin.” We held off bringing in our allocation of many 2017s in the hopes of avoiding import tariffs. The gamble paid off, and the delay has given the wine an extra year to find its footing — today it’s readier to drink, and friendlier on the wallet.

The Fontaine-Saint-Martin vineyard is a particularly well-located plot in the Hautes-Côtes. The soil is the same mix of marl, clay, and limestone found not far away on the Hill of Corton, and its smooth floral quality readily calls to mind the famous Grand Cru. Indeed Vinous’s Neal Martin cited the “gras-like texture found in Corton-Charlemagne” describing the 2017, finding it “delightful,” “well balanced,” and “nicely controlled.”

The 2017 Fontaine-St-Martin blanc is smooth and ripe but with a lovely freshness. The nose is floral, showing gardenia, white pepper, pears, toasted lemon. The mouth is intense and smooth, at once mouthfilling and fresh. Burghound called it “round, succulent and lightly stony” with “unusually good volume.”

We certainly don’t miss the tariffs, but this wine’s maturity and price was a happy side effect. Good things come to those who wait.

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Gros Fontaine-St-Martin blanc 2017
bottle price: $38

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Crisp, Mineral, Old-School Red Burgundy under $50

Michel and Estelle Prunier are a father-daughter winemaking team whose wines are humble and classic. Master of Wine Clive Coates calls the Pruniers “certainly the best grower” in the town, and their wines perfectly fit the charming, small-town Burgundian feel of the region.

Their reds inhabit old school style, with lots of whole clusters and limited extraction. In some vintages they tend to be a bit lightweight for the US palate; but in years like 2018 with record breaking heat and super ripe grapes, we think they’re far more popular.

If you lament the arrival of juicy, New-World style Pinot Noir in Burgundy, today’s wine should make you feel back home.

Prunier’s 2018 Auxey-Duresses rouge is delicious, and far easier to enjoy young than is often the case. With 50% whole clusters and 10% new oak, the wine shows gorgeous raspberry fruit layered over crystalline structure. Look for notes of roses, red cherry pie, and stones.

Jasper Morris MW found it “dancing raspberry notes,” with “bright cherry” and “good length.” In a world of Burgundies soaring past 14% alcohol and lacking acidity and definition, Prunier’s traditional reds are precise, refreshing, and lovely.

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Prunier Auxey-Duresses rouge 2018
bottle price: $49

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Magnificent Meursault: Smooth, Golden, Old-Vine White Burgundy

Burgundians have made wine in Meursault since 1098. Over the last nine centuries the village has proudly earned its glowing reputation, and today produces among the most sought after wines in the world. Though it has no Grand Cru vineyards, Meursault’s wines are among the world’s most exquisite expressions of Chardonnay.

We began buying from Vincent Boyer more than a decade ago, and since then the international wine press has widely acclaimed him as a rising star. One of our favorites each year is his Meursault “Narvaux,” a village level white considered among Meursault’s finest. Particularly in (increasingly common) warm years, Narvaux’s upslope location gives it an advantage in the perennial hunt for balance.

Boyer’s vines in Narvaux are 70 years old, and channel the exceptional terroir with power and precision. Burghound named the 2018 Narvaux “Outstanding,” finding both “focused power and evident minerality.” He found notes of “hazelnut, brown butter… white orchard fruit.”

Narvaux is considered among Meursault’s best village-level plots — a splash of this on your palate will quickly explain why. The nose shows baked lemons, pineapple, flowers and stones. The mouth is typical Meursault, a perfect balance of generous, rich golden fruit and stony tension — weight and richness without heaviness.

Serve this just a bit below room temperature, with veal or chicken in a cream sauce, and you’ll see why they’re still making wine here nearly a thousand years later.

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Boyer-Martenot Meursault “Narvaux” 2018
bottle price: $72

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Brisk, Refreshing, Bone-Dry Chablis. $5/glass

We’ve imported Chablis from the Domaine Gautheron for nearly a decade. Cyril Gautheron’s precise, elegant, well-priced white Burgundies have become a staple at our warehouse tastings, our kitchen table, and the cellars of many of our readers.

Gautheron’s wines burst with juicy, stony fruit and lipsmacking flavor. Cyril uses oak barrels sparingly, and only to offer a whisper of support for the intense, concentrated fruit. Today we’re suggesting his excellent old-vine Chablis, laser focused and showing remarkable amount of density and complexity packed into a $25 bottle.

Drawn from vines planted in the 1950s, the Chablis VV shows excellent dry material. The wine shows a soft savory spice that suggests grape skins, herbs, and dried flowers. Think Chablis that wants to be Muscadet: dry, intense, stony, and full of life.

In recent warm years Cyril has become a master of channeling ripeness into a tidy package — his wines (like all of Chablis) have become a bit more fleshy, but no less Chablisien. Where some modern Chablis falls flat, missing character and tension, Gautheron’s cuvées remain vibrant and alive. It’s hard to come up with a better $25 bottle in our cellar.

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Gautheron Chablis VV 2019
bottle price: $25

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[ADVANCE ORDER] Silky, Outstanding 2019 ​Premier Cru, 30% off

The 2019 vintage comes with no shortage of hype – “superb,” writes Burghound; “a thrilling year for Pinot Noir,” writes William Kelley – but from our tastings over the past few months we’ve found the buzz well deserved. It’s a terrific red Burgundy vintage, producing wines with extraordinary balance between ripe fruit, acidity, and tannin. As Neal Martin put it, “they unexpectedly offer freshness and richness that were once thought to be mutually exclusive.”

We’ve spent the last few days tasting exciting 2019 reds from across Burgundy, and we have many exciting ideas to share in next Sunday’s July Futures. But one in particular caught our attention, and so we’re focusing on it today.

Roger and Julie Belland are 5th and 6th generation growers in Santenay – their wines are perennial favorites among our readers, offering early drinking and friendly pricetags. Belland’s 2019s are magnificent, as classy and supple as anything they’ve produced — look for all five cuvées next Sunday, but here’s a closer look at one today.

Located near the southern limit of the Côte d’Or, Santenay is one of our favorite sources of value. Its finest vineyard, the premier cru Gravières, features gravelly soil (hence the name) and produces wines with beautiful mineral complexity. Pair this with the bursting fruit and rippling tension of the 2019 vintage, and this is not a wine to miss.

We simply couldn’t put Belland’s 2019 Gravières down, and returned to it several days in a row. The nose shows violets, gingerbread, toast, and wild cherries. The texture is extraordinary — fine-grained tannins coated perfectly with smooth Pinot fruit and a fresh line of minerality. Burghound called it “outstanding,” awarding 92 points and finding “silky minerality” and a “complex, balanced and impressively long finish.”

We’ll be tucking some of this into our personal cellar, and we invite you to join us. Reply to this email to reserve some.

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Belland Santenay 1er cru “Gravières” 2019

Ansonia Retail: $576/case ($48/bot)
July Futures: $395/case ($32.19/bot)

 

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Bold, Rustic, Old-School 2018 Gevrey-Chambertin

The 2018 vintage in Burgundy produced atypical wines. Record breaking heat and sun resulted in a crop of wines with loads of ripe fruit and sunny characters. Some writers speculate it may herald a “new normal” style in Burgundy.

From our tastings, it’s clear that some winemakers performed better than others in 2018 — those who (understandably) harvested too early to retain freshness ended up with underripe berries and unattractive notes. But for the Domaine des Varoilles, always a relatively late harvester, the year fell right into their wheelhouse.

The Varoilles reds are never the quietest wines in a lineup of Burgundies. And while they’re seldom the most subtle and complex, they’re often the most fun.

Perhaps our favorite Varoilles of the 2018 vintage was the monopole “Clos du Meix des Ouches,” a village level wine we thought had the depth and complexity of a premier cru. The nose is beautiful and enticing, showing dark cassis fruits, pansies, browned butter cookies and dry spice. The palate is very intense and mouthfilling, with explosively rich cherry fruits bolstered by punchy and delightfully chewable tannins.

Jancis Robinson found “real intensity,” and concluded “precocious but satisfying.” Burghound found it “rich and relatively full bodied” with notes of plum, red currant, and raspberry. This has the intensity to age quite a while, and at $75 we think will seriously reward a few years of patience. But as with most 2018s, their juicy bursting fruit make them delightful even today.

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Varoilles Gevrey-Chambertin
“Clos du Meix des Ouches” 2018
bottle price: $75

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Vibrant and Refreshing: New $24 White Burgundy from Meursault

Vigneron: Vincent Boyer is one of Meursault’s young superstar winemakers. His golden white Burgundies from Meursault and Puligny are among the finest in our cellar. Vinous calls his wines “superb” and “very impressive;” Jasper Morris MW writes “Boyer seems to make better wines year after year.”

Appellation: Chardonnay is responsible for all of Burgundy’s finest white wines. But 10% of white wine vineyards in Burgundy are Aligoté, a less celebrated grape that produces simple, refreshing wines. Aligoté is seldom magnificent, but in the hands of the right winemaker it can be truly delicious.

Wine: Boyer-Martenot’s Aligoté is unlike any other we’ve had, with a rich mouthfeel and unusually complex bouquet. Through 45+ year old vines and barrel fermentation, Boyer turns this ordinary grape into a smooth, delightful white with notes of wild honey, herbs, flowers, and classic green apple. Burghound found “very good volume” and “concentration and verve,” with notes of “white and yellow orchard fruit.”

Pairing: Boyer’s Chardonnay Bourgogne blanc is a steal at its level, and drinks like a far fancier wine. At $8 cheaper, this is more like entry level Bourgogne, just one with unusual smoothness and depth. Pair with lobster rolls, steamers, grilled chicken thighs, or an Eventide fish sandwich.

 

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Boyer-Martenot Aligoté 2018
bottle price: $24

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Gorgeous, Refreshing New Loire Valley Pinot Noir. $25

In recent years the Domaine de la Garenne’s terrific Sancerre cuvées have become among the best selling wines in our portfolio. Crisp, refreshing, and well priced, their pure, unoaked Sauvignon Blancs are a perfect accompaniment to a wide range of dishes.

But as it turns out Garenne makes excellent wines of other colors as well. Their new Sancerre rosé is terrific, and our stock for the year is already running low. But today we’re suggesting yet another color: Sancerre rouge.

Sancerre is of course best known for their whites, but nearly a quarter of the appellation is planted to Pinot Noir. We’ve got no shortage of Pinot Noir in our portfolio, but the red Sancerre offers a different take on the grape, one perfectly suited to summer weather.

Sancerre rouge has a lot in common with Sancerre blanc: it’s refreshing, fruit forward, with floral notes alongside brisk minerals. Garenne’s 2019 Sancerre rouge is unoaked and delicious, with impressive concentration. It’s pleasant rather than profound, but with more complexity than many reds from the appellation.

The nose shows notes of wild strawberries and mint, with graphite and stones in the mouth. It’s middle-weight rather than light-weight, with plenty of concentration to stand up to food from the grill or a busy salad. Chill this down to well below room temp, and you may not even need to open a white.

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Garenne Sancerre red 2019
bottle price: $25

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Floral, Intense, Exquisite 2019 White Burgundy

If there’s any place left hidden in Burgundy, it might be the appellation Ladoix. In recent decades the demand for Burgundy has skyrocketed, and it sometimes seems like there isn’t much left to discover.

But even a serious Burgundy collector might have trouble finding Ladoix [lah-DWAH] on a map. Located just north of the famous Hill of Corton, the vineyards of Ladoix are downslope from some of Burgundy’s finest Grand Crus. Our longtime source here is the Domaine Ravaut, a traditional domaine making excellent wines of both colors.

Ravaut’s make several delicious reds from Ladoix, but it’s their white Ladoix we’ve always found really exceptional. From vines planted down slope from Corton-Charlemagne, Ravaut’s Ladoix blanc does an admirable impression of the great Grand Cru, and at a fraction of the price. It was writer Bill Nanson’s description of this wine as a “baby Corton-Charlemagne” that first drew us here, and it rings true today.

The 2019 in Ladoix particular bursts with concentration and length. The density of this wine might have tempted a less careful winemaker to dial up the oak, but winemaker Vincent Ravaut has kept the wood to a minimum, leaving room for the gorgeous floral depth to shine through. Look for pear fruit with beeswax, vanilla, gardenia and chalk.

We’re hard pressed to think of a better sub-$50 white Burgundy in our cellar.

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Ravaut Ladoix blanc 2019
bottle price: $49

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