Author: Thomas Wilcox

The Domaine Pierre Amiot is an old school Burgundy estate based in Morey-St-Denis. They’ve just welcomed the 6th generation into the business, and year after year turn out humbly delicious red Burgundies. They’re never the loudest or boldest wine in a lineup, but they can often be the most subtly beautiful.

Today we’re suggesting our last few cases of the 2014 Morey-St-Denis 1er cru from the “aux Charmes” vineyard, a plot that shares a border with the famous Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru. The 2014 vintage was overshadowed by the legendary (and deserving) 2015, but we’ve found it to be more than impressive in its own right.

Now seven years on from harvest, this is pitch perfect red Burgundy for tonight.

The 2014 Amiot Morey-St-Denis 1er cru “Aux Charmes” is indeed charming. Large volume wine this is not — Amiot’s plot is just one acre, and their vines planted in 1967 produce only 200 cases per year. The bottle we tasted recently was smooth and earthy, with dried fruits and subtle mushroom and leather. The mouth is cool and smooth with a hint of Morey’s classic “savuage” character, alongside dry blackberry jam and herbs..

At release, Burghound called the wine “wonderfully textured, even seductive,” and “really quite pretty.” He found “floral-inflected red and dark berry fruit scents that are trimmed in a hints of earth and humus,” and predicted an optimal drinking window beginning in 2021.

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Amiot Morey-St-Denis 1er “Charmes” 2014
bottle price: $65

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Today’s wine comes from one of the most famous names in Chassagne-Montrachet. We’ve imported their wines for our Futures group for decades, but their national importer kicked up a fuss about us a few years ago. So to avoid conflict we’ve taken them out of our main sales channels.

But we still have some stock from an earlier vintage in our warehouse, so (inspired by a west-coast wineseller who does this from time to time) we’re offering the wine without releasing its name. Here’s what we can tell you:

An iconic source. This producer is among the most famous names in Burgundy. The current winemaker, at the helm for the last 32 years, has recently completed conversion to organic viticulture. In the last decade she has modernized the house style, converting her opulent, palate-coating Chassagnes into something sleeker and more modern. Clive Coates MW considers her wines “not merely very good but fine;” Jasper Morris MW calls her top cuvées “spectacular” and “impressive.”

An exceptional vintage: The 2017 white Burgundies are considered the best since 2014, and among the best in the last decade. They combine loads of fruit with intense energy and tension, build for mid-term aging and providing excellent early drinking too.

A great value: This cuvée comes from the hills to the west of Chassagne-Montrachet, and so carries a friendlier pricetag. After a somewhat awkward youth, the bottle we opened of this recently was just terrific. Look for pretty lemon and white flowers in the nose, very low oak, and attractive chalky notes. The mouth is round and lovely, with plenty of depth and excellent freshness.

Jasper Morris found it “Fresh and attractively reductive…. Fresh energy, lime acidity at the back, good tension, delicious in its style. Good length too.” We don’t have much of this around, but are excited to share what we do.

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Mystery 2017 White Burgundy
bottle price: $36

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St-Aubin may not be the secret source for white Burgundy it once was, but it’s not because of the quality. Soaring prices for Burgundy from its famous neighboring towns of Puligny, Chassagne, and Meursault mean that the spillover demand have nudged prices for St-Aubin well. But the quality has more than kept pace, and despite the demise of its anonymity, it’s still a source for exceptional value.

Most of the vineyards in St-Aubin are rockier and at a higher elevation than those in Meursault, Chassagne and Puligny. In an ever-warming climate this gives its winemakers an advantage in the perennial race to find freshness. Our source here, the Domaine Gérard Thomas, has performed magnificently over the past few sunny vintages — their wines are always fresh, clean, and full of energy.

We’ve already written about Thomas’s terrific 2019 Bourgogne blanc, an excellent everyday value in white Burgundy. Today we’re featuring their 2019 village-level St-Aubin, a considerable upgrade from the Bourgogne and a real bargain under $40. Jancis Robinson’s reviewer found a “lovely dusty layer over ripe citrus,” and called it “generous and creamy.”

Today the wine is just gorgeous, bursting with lush concentration normally only found in a premier cru. The nose shows hazelnut, sweet lemon fruit, and smooth toasty wood. The mouth is fleshy and full, with smooth fruit and excellent balancing tension. Serve with roast chicken stuffed with lemon, garlic, and thyme.

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Thomas St-Aubin 2019
bottle price: $38

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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 excited to release a new 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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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 sat down to taste through samples of Collet’s 2019s, and once again the quality impressed us mightily. Romain has steered his domaine through a series of tough years, and despite hail, frost, heat, and blight, has yet to produce a bad vintage.

We’re excited to offer all the Collet 2019s with the release of next Sunday’s May Futures, but we’ve selected three premier crus to explore in a bit more detail today.

A big part of Romain’s success is his willingness to let each cuvée speak for itself, and no series better illustrates this than his premier crus. We’ve selected three of our favorite cuvées — all 2019s, all delicious, and all classic expressions of Chablis — but each honest and unique.

First Montmains, a cuvée raised entirely in stainless steel. The terroir for this wine is extremely low in clay, which contributes to Collet’s decision to eschew oak entirely. We found the 2019 fresh and delightful — plenty of dry lemon fruit, with hints of stones and shells on the finish. Jasper Morris gave 89-92, finding it “attractive and quite persistent.” Dry, unoaked fruit dominates here, with terrific tension.

Next Vaillons, located one valley west of Montmains. The Collets farm a very large plot here – 10 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. 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 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.

Finally, for those who like their Chablis steely and bone-dry, there’s Forêts. From a subsection of the Montmains hillside, this plot is extremely steep and stony. This cuvée is vinified in cement eggs, which allow a long, slow, cool fermentation. We found the 2019 Forêts electric and vibrant, with muted fruit and a gorgeous fresh salinity. Morris gave it 89-92, finding “white fruit and saline.” Forêts is classically Chablisien, the most delicate and crystalline of the three, with terrific focus and chiseled texture.

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Collet Chablis 1er “Montmains” 2019:   $350/case

Collet Chablis 1er “Vaillons” 2019:   $350/case

Collet Chablis 1er “Forêts” 2019:   $375/case

 

Email Tom to reserve any of the three cuvées.