Author: Thomas Wilcox

No winemaker we work with has captured more readers’ attention in the last few years than Pierre Vessigaud. We get emails with comments like “the wines are so alive,” and “as good as Meursault but half the price.” We’re not surprised – we find ourselves reaching for Vessigaud’s wines more often every month.

Pierre and his wife and son are committed biodynamic vignerons whose wines are Demeter certified, the highest organic classification. In the bottle this translates to superb purity and clarity, with careful elevage and excellent balance. This extends all the way from top – their superb Premier Cru Pouilly-Fuissé – to bottom – today’s humble Macon-Solutre-Pouilly.

The Macon Solutre-Pouilly 2023 comes from a plot in Pouilly, along the line between the hamlets of Pouilly and Fuissé. The Vessigauds vinify and raise it in large oak foudres for eleven months, where micro-oxygenation develops density and flavor rather than any apparent oak. It’s classic unoaked Maconnais white, imbued with the sunny character of south of Burgundy and a pulsing, vibrant energy that’s impossible to resist.

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Vessigaud Macon-Solutré-Pouilly 2023
bottle price: $28

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Our criteria for a good rosé are simple: fresh, low alcohol, and inexpensive. Sure, there’s plenty of serious rosé out there that’s tasty – but for the summer we like to keep it straightforward. On a muggy summer afternoon, there’s little more welcome than a cold splash of rosé in a gently fogged glass.

Our most popular rosé is from the Domaine Sanzay, a fifth generation organic winemaker in the central Loire Valley. Their pure Cabernet Franc rosé is delightful year in and year out – perfect on its one, but a great match for goat cheese on crackers.

The 2025 has (finally) arrived, and is ready to settle in next to your pool, patio, or picnic. The nose shows fresh strawberry, lime zest and quiet minerals. The mouth is dry and crisp, with a quick, clean finish. It’s everything you want, and nothing you don’t. Cool off with this all summer long – the kids get sprinklers and bubbles; we’ve got rosé.

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Sanzay Saumur Rosé 2025
bottle price: $22

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By Burgundy standards, Nuits-St-Georges is an enormous appellation, stretching nearly four miles end to end. The soil makeup varies widely across the town, and Nuits can best be thought of as three distinct districts: north, middle and south. The northern part that borders Vosne is the most elegant, the middle the boldest and most powerful, and the southern the most mineral.

Today’s cuvée comes from the middle, not far from the famous “Les St-Georges” vineyard from which the town borrows its name. Pierre Gros’s “les Chaliots” vineyard produces a classic expression of Nuits: deep intensity, muscular texture, deep dark fruit. The trick in Nuits-St-Georges (particularly the middle sector) is to balance the readily available tannin with enough fruit and finesse.

Gros’s 2023 NSG Chaliots walks this balance to perfection, with an irresistible combination of rugged density and vibrant lift. The nose is deep and lovely, with plums, blackberries, toast and spice. The mouth is rich and concentrated, with deep color and even deeper flavor. This bold, dynamic wine has a bright future, but as with most 2023s is already a tasty glass. Serve with sirloin tips from the grill.

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Michel Gros Nuits-St-Georges “Chaliots” 2023
bottle price: $88

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Domaine Guillemot-Michel is an iconic Maconnais source for white Burgundy. Based in Quintaine in the Viré-Clessé appellation, they’ve been biodynamic since  the 1980’s. Founded by Pierette and Marc Guillemot-Michel forty years ago, they’ve recently been joined in the last decade by their daughter Sophie and their son-in-law Gautier Roussille. For years we’ve sold them as “Forces Telluriques” label, but going forward we’re using their official label.

We can also now quote directly from the extensive critical praise for this domaine: Jasper Morris writes “amazing how such a luxurious style of chardonnay can retain elegance.” Neal Martin (Vinous) writes “these wines are well worth seeking out.” William Kelley (Wine Advocate) writes “these are honeyed, concentrated wines that are imbued with remarkable concentration and energy, and they develop beautifully in the cellar….One of the best producers in the Maconnais.”

Guillemot-Michel’s flagship Quintaine cuvée is terrific in 2023 – it’s unoaked, pure Chardonnay full of tension and energy. Despite a stormy summer, the grapes reached optimal maturity while maintaining an excellent level of acidity — a perfect equilibrium that makes for a wine with ripe fruit, minerals and structure at the same time. Look for notes of honeysuckle, tangerine, green tea, and lime zest. It shows the richness of a Meursault without relying on any oak for added weight – not to mention at a serious discount. A showstopping white Burgundy.

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Guillemot-Michel Viré-Clessé Quintaine 2023
bottle price: $45

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Salomon Undhof is a centuries-old winery in Krems, Austria overlooking the Danube River. Today 7th and 8th generation winemakers Bert and Bert Salomon run the estate, and they’re among the best respected sources in the region. They’ve become favorites of many readers (as well as our own family) and we’re delighted to bring them back by popular demand.

“Austrian wine” is nearly synonymous with Grüner-Veltliner, and indeed 75% of the world’s Grüner is Austrian. Much of it is dry, crisp, unserious wine that matches will with hot weather and light fare – the Salomons’ “Hochterrassen” is just such a wine. But they also produce a more serious cuvée, that’s more interesting and flat out delicious.

Salmon’s more serious cuvée of Grüner Veltliner comes from the 1ÖTW Wachtberg vineyard, and the domaine has held some of the 2017 for a delayed release. Now with nine years under its belt, this is fully mature but remarkably youthful. There’s no hint of oxidation – the nose shows dried pears and with woodsy notes you might confuse with white Burgundy. The mouth is mellow and very long, with notes of chalk, citrus peel, white pepper, and just a whisper of salinity at the end. A dry, delicate, delightful cuvée that calls for sushi.

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Salomon-Undhof Grüner Veltliner “Wachtberg” 2017
bottle price: $28

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You don’t have to be a vigneron to notice Guillaume Goujon and Sebastien Dupré are farming organically. Their vineyards appear almost abandoned – vines share the ground with herbs, flowers, grasses, and wildlife, all in the name of fostering biodiversity and soil health. In the cellar Dupré and Goujon have a similarly light touch – their cuvées are made with whole clusters, ambient yeasts, limited oak, very low sulfites, and a long, slow elevage.

The resulting wines are remarkably complex, and yet immaculately crafted. The wine press agrees – William Kelley calls the wines “supple and charming” and labels them “an estate to watch.” WA reviewer Kenna Wells writes, “The domaine encapsulates the Beaujolais spirit, showcasing a blend of humility, intentional farming and a cellar brimming with character.”

One of our favorites this year is their “631” Côte de Brouilly, a blend of three plots that’s readily drinkable but deceptively sophisticated. The 2022 is terrific, with an expressive nose of dark, ripe fruit – violets and cassis with a croquant (crackling) texture. The profile is almost somewhere between a Pinot and a Syrah. James Suckling praised its “striking elegance” and “fine tannins.” It’s the perfect bottle to grace your patio on a warm summer afternoon.

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Dupré-Goujon Côte de Brouilly “631” 2022
bottle price: $35

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For centuries the Ravaut family has made traditional red and white Burgundies from their small domaine just north of Beaune. Their little-known hamlet of Ladoix sits at the junction between the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits. It’s one of the corners of Burgundy where winemakers will somewhat sheepishly admit that, aside from frosts and hailstorms (a big aside), climate change has improved their wines in recent years.

Vincent Ravaut and his sons have taken this opportunity and run with it – they’re now certified EU organic, and have softened the extraction in their reds. Their wines used to require extended maceration to draw color and flavor from grapes, but now the crop arrives at harvest with enough concentration to ferment more gently. The resulting wines are smoother, beautifully balanced, and simply delicious young. William Kelly of the Wine Advocate calls them “hearty, characterful wines,” with “plenty to admire.”

The Ravaut humble Bourgogne Côte d’Or Rouge is gorgeous this year, a useful entry-level wine that provides excellent value. The nose is dark and sappy with notes of plum and wild cherries. The mouth is inky and smooth, and the tannins are perfectly integrated. This requires no patience, and you won’t be able to keep your hands off it anyway. A perfect, easygoing weeknight red Burgundy.

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Ravaut Bourgogne Côte d’Or rouge 2023
bottle price: $35

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The pursuit of freshness is a perennial struggle for white Burgundy vignerons these days. They’ve adapted to warmer, drier summers by delaying pruning, harvesting earlier, and tweaking their cellar work. But Chardonnay loves the sun, and inattentive growers can end up with overripe, high alcohol wines.

Aligoté has always been Chardonnay’s distant understudy. It’s been part of Burgundian winemaking for centuries, but has never been responsible for the region’s famous white wines. But warmer drier summers have meant that this naturally bright grape varietal has taken on added depth and complexity. Winemakers are now taking the grape more seriously, and the results are really exciting.

Our favorite so far is Vincent Boyer’s, a superstar winemaker crafting classic white Burgundies in Meursault and Puligny. His Aligoté transcends the grape’s humble reputation, offering real white Burgundy with a middle weight palate and excellent concentration. Boyer elected to use foudres (huge oak barrels) this year instead of eggs, and while you won’t find any wood notes in the wine, there’s a beautiful weight and length. The 2023 is more floral than usual, and exceptionally pretty.

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Boyer-Martenot Aligoté 2023
bottle price: $28

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Salomon Undhof is a centuries-old winery in Krems, Austria overlooking the Danube River. Today 7th and 8th generation winemakers Bert and Bert Salomon run the estate, and they’re among the best respected sources in the region. They’ve become favorites of many readers (as well as our own family) and we’re delighted to have them back in stock.

“Austrian wine” is nearly synonymous with Grüner-Veltliner, and indeed 75% of the world’s Grüner is Austrian. The grape’s typical expression is dry and savory, with excellent acidity and low alcohol. Today we’re introducing a new grüner cuvée from Salomon: the 2024 Hochterassen.

This comes from vines high up on the slopes, above the family’s historic plots – the vines are younger and wine they produce is lightweight and vibrant. This is fresh, clean, lightweight wine with a lovely profile – white flowers, stones and lime. The mouth is short, very dry, and refreshing (12% alcohol) – the phrase “wine that wants to be water,” comes to mind. Pour this all summer on the patio.

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Salomon-Undhof Grüner Veltliner Hochterassen 2024
bottle price:  $22

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The red wines of the Loire Valley always play second fiddle to the region’s whites. But it’s a mistake to ignore them – they’re well balanced, low-alcohol, usually organic, and often exceptional values. Our favorites these days are the unblended, unoaked Cabernet Francs from the central Loire.

Celine and Didier Sanzay are fifth generation growers in Saumur-Champigny in the central Loire Valley. They craft fresh, pure Cabernet Franc in the modern Loire style — small batch, organic, wild yeasts, no fining or filtering. Their wines are delicious, affordable, and excellent for food pairing.

Their 2024 Saumur-Champigny is exactly what you want Loire Cab Franc to be: pure, joyful, unoaked, and fresh. 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. Drink this outside with summer fare: shish kabobs, salads, or just a summer afternoon.

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Sanzay Saumur-Champigny 2024
bottle price:  $22

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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 2023 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 from the bare, rocky soil. Cyril has managed to reign in a warm vintage 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” 2023
bottle price: $48

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The test of great winemakers is how they perform in the face of adversity. In sunny, dry vintages like 2023, just about everyone made tasty wine. But success in a challenging year speaks far more; and there’s rarely been a more difficult vintage than 2024. Some winemakers struggled, but others excelled; and Gautier Desvignes proved himself an exceptional talent.

We’ve long been fans of the Desvignes wines, but it was nice to see Vinous’s Neal Martin (a notoriously exacting critic) heap praises on Gautier’s wines – and particularly impressive when his first visit there was to review the 2024s. “Commendable purity, fine tannins, and clear evidence of thoughtful winemaking,” was Martin’s conclusion – well deserved accolades for an impressive young vigneron.

Gautier’s terrific lineup of 2024s will be in next Sunday’s “May Futures” release, but today we’re focusing on his best value: the village-level Givry “Champ la Dame.” Gautier has managed the balance of tannin, acidity, fruit and weight with impeccable precision in this wine – it’s elegant, fresh and vibrant in the nose, with notes of violets and cassis. He dialed back pigéage (punching down the cap during fermentation) and the resulting low alcohol (13%) wine has an irresistible texture: silky, fine-grained, with an almost mouthwatering tension and finesse.

Neal Martin found “lift and delineation on the nose” with a “cold stone element tucked under the raspberry and cranberry fruit.” In the mouth he found “pliant tannins, a keen line of acidity, quite elegant in style with a cohesive finish.” With a $32 Futures pricetag, it’s hard to imagine a better value red Burgundy.

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Desvignes Givry “Champ la Dame” 2024
case price: $504
May Futures: $395 ($32.92/bot)

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Several years ago, based on a tip from a Boston area Master of Wine, we contacted La Briccolina, a tiny family-run source in the heart of Barolo. As devotees of Burgundian Pinot Noir we’ve always been intrigued by Nebbiolo from Piedmont – an analogous thin-skinned varietal grown at its northern limit and capable of tremendous complexity and elegance.

La Briccolina is the product of the Grasso family who have grown grapes here for a century, but only recently started bottling their own wine. They produce a single cuvée, all from the Serralunga d’Alba terroir on the eastern side of the Barolo appellation. The soils are compact marls and sandstone with very high iron content, resulting in firm, mineral-driven wines of real character.

We’re delighted to introduce the 2020 Barolo from Briccolina. The nose is exquisite – cherries and spices explode from the glass with notes of licorice, plum, lavender, cedar and mocha. The mouth is refined and very fine grained – with an hour in a carafe it opens beautifully into a middleweight, delightful wine with notes of black cherry, iron, saline and dried roses.

Antonio Galloni of Vinous calls Briccolina’s Barolos “very fine,” and writes that “a bright future lies ahead” for the estate. He loved the 2020, awarding 93 points and finding it “soft, fruity and charming, all of which make it a fine choice for drinking now and over the next decade.” We had sworn off adding new sources for a while, but this opportunity (and this wine) was just too good to pass up.

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Briccolina Barolo 2020
bottle price: $85

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Last year we introduced Arnaud Baillot, an exciting new source 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.

We were quite taken with Arnaud’s wines, and when Vinous’s Neal Martin visited last year he was similarly impressed. He describes Baillot’s wines as “excellent,” “impressive,” and “lovely and energetic,” even going as far as comparing him to Marquis d’Angerville, a legendary and iconic source in Volnay.

Baillot’s village level 2023 Volnay is terrific – made with 50% whole cluster fermentation, adding a beautiful textural backbone to the fruit. The nose is dark and spiced with gorgeous plum fruit. The mouth is extremely elegant and fine-grained, with great density and a finely channeled mineral finish – classic Volnay in fruit profile and texture. Martin found “an attractive, finely delineated bouquet…quite floral,” and in the mouth “nicely structured and quite persistent.” In short – modern, gorgeous, understated red Burgundy.

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Baillot Volnay 2023
bottle price: $85

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We’re always on the hunt for small, family-run operations in Bordeaux. They’re harder to find than in Burgundy, but with some research and a bit of shoe leather we’ve managed to discover a few. One of our recent favorite finds is Chateau Roquegrave.

Roquegrave is located in Valeyrac, fully an hour and a half north of Bordeaux, near the top of the Médoc peninsula and along the banks of the Gironde estuary. They produce humble, unfussy, extremely well-priced red Bordeaux, more at home in a Parisian bistro than a Michelin restaurant.

We’re delighted to offer their 2022 Médoc – it’s been a Cru Bourgeois since its founding in 1932. It’s a bargain and a great candidate for an everyday house Bordeaux. The nose is dark and pretty, with beautiful deep plum notes alongside cocoa and violets. The mouth is juicier and fuller, with younger fruit and younger tannin. Give this a half hour open in a carafe and pair it with lamb chops or shish kabobs or steak frites.

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Roquegrave Médoc Cru Bourgeois 2022
bottle price: $25

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