Author: Thomas Wilcox

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Lunch with the Amiots: “Outstanding,” 91 points, 6 Years in the Bottle

Jean-Louis and Chantal Amiot are a charming couple. Together with Jean-Louis’s brother Didier, they make wine in the tiny town of Morey-St-Denis, in the heart of Burgundy. They’re kind, warm, and welcoming; and they happen to be exceptional winemakers.

Last year they graciously took us to lunch after our cellar tasting, and this year they let us repay the favor. After sampling their delicious 2017s (browse our stock), Chantal suggested we bring a bottle to lunch. We asked them what they thought was drinking well today — they chose the 2013 Morey-St-Denis 1er cru “Millandes.”

At first it seemed like a slightly odd choice — a tricky vintage, a cuvée that requires cellaring. But of course we followed their lead, and quickly saw their logic.

The Amiot’s 2013 “Millandes” is in a beautiful place. The acidity, which was relatively high after bottling, has mellowed and matured — it now serves as beautiful foil for the gently softened fruits. The cherries and currants present in its early life have melted gracefully into plum jam, and now share the stage with a gorgeous array of secondary aromas — earth. cocoa, black pepper, mushrooms, and woods.

Burghound awarded 91 points, calling it “oustanding,” “suave and very round,” and finding “excellent richness.” Millandes is a premier cru vineyard just a few feet from the famous Grand Cru Clos de la Roche. And the exceptional terroir from which this wine springs has carried it magnificently, even in an “off” year. In April with the Amiots it matched beautifully with magret de canard, and if you like duck we strongly recommend the pairing.

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Amiot Morey-St-Denis 1er “Millandes” 2013
bottle price: $75

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New 2015 Pomerol: Cassis, Cocoa and Velvet

Pomerol is Bordeaux on a Burgundy scale. The small right bank appellation covers less than three square miles, and is home to only 150 winemakers. But the wines of Pomerol are anything but small. In his landmark World Atlas of Wine, Hugh Johnson calls Pomerol “richest, most velvety and instantly appealing form of red Bordeaux.”

Planted in most other locales, Merlot produces soft, flat, undistinguished wines. But in Pomerol, the grape soars, producing some of the worlds most intense and expensive wines. Like Chardonnay and Chablis, Syrah and Côte Rôtie, it’s a persuasive argument for the power of terroir.

This spring we discovered an excellent new source in Pomerol, and one offering surprising value. The 2015 Feytit-Lagrave Pomerol impressed us with its depth and polish. At 80% Merlot (the rest is Cabernet Franc), the wine is very Pomerol: generous, rich, and round, with an attractive mouthfeel. The nose offers ripe dark fruit, cassis and blackberries.

Fans of Pomerol will know how well the wine ages, and in a top vintage (like 2015) this wine will certainly improve for a decade or more. But we found it opens steadily in the glass over an hour, offering earlier drinking than you might expect. Pair it with a roast — duck, beef tenderloin, grilled steaks — something to match the hearty, audacious spirit of Pomerol.

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Feytit-Lagrave Pomerol 2015
bottle price: $55

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Grilling Guide: 20 Wines under $30

We do lots of grilling in the summer. For nice cuts of meat we suggest fancier red Burgundies or Bordeaux — something complex to sit with and enjoy slowly. But for simpler fare — burgers, shish kabob, vegetables, chicken, steak tips, etc — we like reds that aren’t too complicated.

Below is a list of our favorite, grouped by pairing suggestion. We’ve also added a new grilling sampler with free East Coast shipping.

Need more grilling inspiration? Here are links to some great lists:
Bon Appetit: 89 Grilling Recipes
NYTimes: “How to Grill”
Food52: Grilling Recipes

 

GRILLED BURGERS

Goubert Beaumes de Venise 2017: $22
Saint-Clair Crozes-Hermitage “Etincelle” 2016: $25
Bagatelle St-Chinian “Fil de Soi” 2016: $22
Paget Chinon 2016: $22

 

GRILLED CHICKEN

Desvignes Givry 2015: $25
Perrachon Juliénas “Clos des Chers” 2015: $25
Poggerino Labirinto 2017: $19.95
Souverain Seguret 2017: $19

 

GRILLED STEAK

Lafont-Menaut Pessac-Leognan rouge 2016: $24
Bouquey St-Emilion 2015: $25
Poggerino Chianti Classico 2015: $25
Goubert Gigondas 2015: $28

 

GRILLED LAMB

Bonnefond Syrah 2017: $25
Foulaquier Orphée 2017: $28
Saint-Clair Crozes-Hermitage “Fleur Enchantée” 2016: $28
Malmont Côtes du Rhône 2016: 24

 

GRILLED SHRIMP

Gross Riesling 2017: $19
Mersiol Auxerrois 2017: $18
Maillet Macon-Villages 2016: $24
Goubert Rosé de Flo 2018: $19

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MIXED CASE: GRILLING REDS $265

Grilling reds from Burgundy, Bordeaux, Loire, and Rhône

3x  Desvignes Givry 2015
3x  Bouquey St-Emilion Grand Cru 2015
3x  Paget Chinon 2016
3x  Souverain Séguret 2017
+ Free East Coast Shipping

 

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“Seductively Textured,” “Outstanding” 93-point Chassagne Montrachet Premier Cru

Thomas Morey makes some of the most delicate white Burgundies we know. Far from the rich, opulent style of the past decades, Morey’s Chassagnes are refined, subtle, and sophisticated. Burgundy expert Jasper Morris MW calls them “very pure, precise and elegant,” as well as “excellent.”

At the village level, Morey’s Chassagne-Montrachet draws from 14 plots across the appellation. Morey explained to us he feels it’s important to have a cuvée that represents his town (where his family has lived for five centuries) as a whole. His 2017 village level Chassagne is excellent and a great value.

But at the premier cru level, Morey bottles each plot separately — and after one taste of today’s Embrazées you’ll see why.

Embrazées is a premier cru in the Morgeot sector of Chassagne, a neighborhood known for its bold, round wines. This lush terroir combined with Morey’s precise style makes this cuvée extraordinary. The name Embrazées roughly translates to “aglow” or “aflame,” and the wine indeed glows with intensity and a smooth sophistication.

Jasper Morris awarded 93 points, finding it “lovely” and “fresh.” Burghound gave 92, calling it “outstanding,” and “seductively textured,” finding “voluminous flavors” and an “impressively long, clean, dry and focused finish.” We found notes of peach, hazelnut, and lemon — serve with lobster and butter.

This should improve for 3-5 years, but in a decanter today it’s not a wine you’ll soon forget.

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Morey Chassagne-Montrachet
1er cru “Embrazées” 2017
bottle price: $85

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Juicy New Cabernet Franc: “Some of the Best-Value Wines in France. $22

The Loire Valley is known as the Garden of France. Its lush rolling hillsides produce nearly every type of wine, from dry to sweet, light to dark, and white to red to sparkling to rosé. One of region’s most distinct styles is an unoaked, juicy Cabernet Franc from the central Loire Valley.

Our favorite source for this style is Chinon, a charming, ancient town in the central Loire. The best reds from Chinon are pure and crisp, drink beautifully in their youth, and provide exceptional value. The WSJ’s Lettie Teague writes that “Chinon… produces some of the best-valued wines in the Loire Valley—if not all of France.”

Our most recent addition from Chinon comes from Nicolas Paget, a passionate young winemaker crafting beautiful organic cuvées. Last year we stuck with his excellent whites made from organic Chenin blanc. But this year we were taken with his red as well. An extra year in the bottle has done wonders for the 2016 Paget Chinon, and it’s here just in time for late summer enjoyment.

Raised entirely in stainless steel (no oak), this is pure, juicy Cabernet Franc at its best. Look for notes of wild cherries, burnt earth, minerals, and licorice. The Guide Hachette awarded 2 stars, explaining that in blind tasting it “immediately seduced the jury,” with “charm” and “generosity.” The tannins are pliant and pleasant; the fruit is cool and smooth.

Serve this cool, with fresh goat cheese on crackers.

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Paget Chinon 2016
bottle price: $22

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The Rosé Primer

Rosé has exploded in popularity over the last few years. Open a well chilled bottle on a muggy August afternoon, and its appeal isn’t hard to find. With the market continuing to grow at 30-40% year over year, consumers around the world have imposed higher standards, and the quality of rosé has risen.

But what is rosé anyway, and how is it made? Here’s a brief look at the wine world’s newest (oldest) trend:

HISTORY

Once upon a time, most wine wine was rosé. The reds of ancient Greece were pale in color (most weren’t given much time on skins) and were most often served diluted with water. They may not have tasted much like the rosé of today, but they probably looked like it.

Phoenecians arrived with grape vines in Southern France in the 6th century BC. The field blends made from these white and red grapes were most likely pink in color. Even as darker reds became popular in the rest of the Roman empire, rosé was the drink of choice of the Provincia Romana (Provence), a trend that continues to this day.

Beginning in the 12th century, Bordeaux became known for its “clairet,” a purple-hued rosé wine popular in England. After the Dutch drained the peninsula north of Bordeaux, the wine made there turned darker and more serious. Eventually “Clairet” (from the Latin claritas, meaning “clarity”) became “Claret,” and British enthusiasm for the drink has only increased. There isn’t much rosé made in Bordeaux any more, but for centuries it was an epicenter.

In the 20th Century, sweet rosés from Portugal (Mateus) and California (White Zin) became popular. As sales of these wines grew, rosé’s status as respectable wine fell, and through the late 1990s serious rosé was essentially an oxymoron.

Today rosé is recognized as honest expression of terroir. Winemakers now take as much care with their rosés as their red and white wines. And as more domaines begin to produce serious rosé, the quality everywhere has risen.

WHAT IS ROSÉ?

Rosé is a blend of red and white winemaking techniques, and not (usually) a blend of red and white wines. To make white wine, winemakers press grape juice off of the grapeskins and ferment just the juice. To make red wine, winemakers soak the grape juice with the grape skins to extract color, and then press off the colored juice and ferment it.

There are two techniques for making rosé: saignée and skin contact. In saignée (French for “bled”), winemakers harvest the red grapes, and collect the lightly-colored “free run” juice that naturally flows from the grapes. This style produces clearer and more vibrant, floral rosé.

For skin contact rosé, red grapes are allowed to soak on their skins briefly (usually 5-20 hours) and then pressed. The resulting wine is usually more intense, deeply perfumed, and textural. This technique yields more juice per bunch, and is used more widely.

Our three rosés in stock cover the spectrum of technique:

The Goubert Rosé de Flo 2018 ($19) is 100% saignée, made from grenache, syrah, mourvèdre and cinsault. The nose shows spring flowers and red fruits like strawberry and raspberry. The mouth is refreshing with good intensity and a brisk mouthfeel — look for notes of grapefruit zest and citrus.

The Malmont Séguret Rosé 2018 ($22) is 85% skin contact and 15% saignée, made from grenache and syrah. The nose shows light strawberries, lemon rind, tangerine, and minerals. The mouth is perfectly balanced, totally dry with excellent freshness and pleasant notes of herbs, lavender, and honey.

The Sanzay Saumur Rosé 2018 ($19) is 100% skin contact, using pure Loire Valley Cabernet Franc. Made from 50 year old vines and wild yeasts, this is clean, floral, and simply delightful. The nose is chalky and brisk, with raspberries and strawberries. The mouth is clean and refreshing, with dried fruits and flowers.

WHAT TO DO WITH ROSÉ

First of all, drink it. It’s inexpensive, refreshing, well-made, and light on the palate. More broadly, pair it with summery food. Vinaigrette salads are tricky to pair with wine, but we find rosé (particularly from the South) is often a good match. Young cheeses, particularly fresh chèvre, can be a beautiful match, both texturally and flavor-wise. Grilled chicken is a favorite chez nous, and a staple of summertime flavor. Sushi and raw oysters also pair well, as do grilled fish.

Finally, drink it cold, but not too cold — well-made rosé has real complexity, available only at non-freezing temperatures.

 

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Oyster Pairing

Oysters are a common sight at French markets. Huitres are a natural pairing for wine, in both the gustatory and philosophical senses. Just like wine, they’re an expression of terroir (or merrior, if you like) whose character changes with their origin. And in matters gustatory, well, it’s a match made in heaven.

Oysters pair well with dry wines full of life and mineral character. Many of the best matches are wines that originate in calcium-rich soils that were once the bottom of a prehistoric ocean. (The below photo shows a rock of fossilized oysters we found in the Loire Valley.)


Below are some of our favorite pairings; and for those looking to dive in, we’ve created a new sampler. All 12+ bottle purchases (including the samplers) will include an Ansonia Wines oyster knife.

MUSCADET

Perhaps the simplest and most natural pairing. Made from the Melon de Bourgogne grape, Muscadet is grown just miles from France’s Atlantic coast, home to many great varieties of oyster. Muscadet is dry, round, easy, and beautifully stony.

CHABLIS

Grown in fossil rich soils, Chablis is pure, dry Chardonnay. The most classic examples use little or no oak, and pair masterfully with the vibrancy of oysters. This is Chardonnay at its most stripped down and honest.

CHAMPAGNE / CRÉMANT

Sparkling wines, particularly from the chalky soils of Champagne, pair beautifully with oysters. The bubbles deliver a bright freshness, which contrasts beautifully with the oysters smooth, thick texture.

SANCERRE

Located at the other end of the Loire Valley from Muscadet, Sancerre is pure Sauvignon blanc. The soils of Sancerre contain limestone, clay, and flint, which combine to give the wines a unique blend of minerality, smokiness, and fruit.

ODDS & ENDS

We also enjoy pairing oysters with less obvious ideas. Here are a few favorites:

OYSTER PAIRING SAMPLERS

Can’t pick just one? Here’s are two mixed case for oyster pairing. (Includes 1 Ansonia oyster knife.)

Both ship for free on the East Coast.

 

 

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“Delicate” Grower Champagne under $50

Champagne is a complicated place. Since its early days the region has been inseparably linked to a sense of glamour and marketing. It can be easy to lose track of quality and distinctiveness amid Champagne’s glossy promotional haze.

But Pascal Bardoux, our tiny grower Champagne producer, cuts through the fluff. His Champagnes are quietly exceptional — his tasting room is his small untidy office, where we taste slowly and thoughtfully from an old beat-up leather sofa.

And his wines, humble and delicious, are comparative bargains. Much mass-market Champagne that gets to the US fetches between $75 and $100 a bottle; Bardoux’s small-batch Brut Traditionnel doesn’t even crack $50 — twice the wine at half the price.

Bardoux’s Brut Traditionnel is his non-vintage cuvée, and an excellent entree to the collection. A blend of 60% Pinot Meunier, 30% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Noir, this wine has the complexity and depth to match the finest bottles from Burgundy or Bordeaux. The nose shows plum, chalk, lime zest, and buttered biscuits; the mouth is dry, elegant, and smooth, with notes of apple and toast. The Guide Hachette called it “delicate & complex,” concluding, “a champagne for all occasions.”

We can’t recommend this wine highly enough. Don’t limit yourself to Champagne only on special occasions — it’s refined, complex wine in its own right. Some of our favorite pairings include: sushi, creamy cheese (Delice de Bourgogne or Brillat-Savarin for example), or gougères.

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Bardoux Champagne Brut NV
bottle price: $49

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Extraordinary Value: “Declassified” 5-Year-Old Premier Cru Red Burgundy

Sometimes it pays to do business face to face. This April, during a tasting at Domaine des Varoilles with owner Gilbert Hammel, he left the room suddenly, saying “I think I have something you might be interested in.”

He returned with a bottle of 2014 Gevrey-Chambertin, but a cuvée we didn’t recognize from his price list or vineyard map. He explained it was a special cuvée made from slightly younger vines in one of his famous premier crus.

This mystery cuvée was dynamite in the glass — floral, open, serious but accessible. (One line in our notes from April says simply, “why is this so drinkable?”) And when Monsieur Hammel finally quoted the price, we knew we had a find.

The Gevrey Chambertin 1er cru “Les Moniales” comes from vines in “Clos des Varoilles,” a large premier cru vineyard that dates to the 12th century. The name “Moniales” (“nuns”) refers to the domaine’s main building, originally a convent centuries ago. Hammel separated the slightly younger (still 40+ year old) vines from his vineyard in 2014, and dialed back the extraction.

The result is a cuvée with less tannin, perhaps less future, and a 40% discount from the regular Clos des Varoilles. At $65, we think it’s a bargain, and one you can enjoy today. The nose shows deep cherry spice, licorice, and earth, with perfectly integrated oak and cherry fruit leather. The mouth presents dark, fine tannins, and juicy, mouth-staining, inky fruit. It finishes with cinnamon, black pepper, and spice: rugged and refined, masculine and concentrated.

There aren’t any scores or reviews to quote you for this wine — there wasn’t much made, and but for Mr. Hammel’s whim we wouldn’t know it existed. But the bottle we opened last night proved our initial impressions right: it’s a real Gevrey-Chambertin that far outperforms its label and pricetag.

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Varoilles Gevrey-Chambertin 1er “Moniales” 2014
bottle price: $65

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At last, a New Source in Chambolle-Musigny: Superb $35 New Red Burgundy

New winemakers in Burgundy are hard to come by. It’s a tiny region, and between small harvests, ever increasing demand, and well-established importers, it can seem there’s nothing new to discover.

But with a bit of research and a dash of persistence, we’ve still managed to find hidden gems. This Spring we discovered the Domaine Boursot, based in part on a recommendation from Vinous’s Burgundy reviewer Neal Martin. Martin writes of a “foundation for a promising future,” and describes Boursot’s wines as “superb,” “excellent,” “very fine,” and “worth seeking out.”

Our tasting in April confirmed Martin’s impressions: a domaine with excellent terroir and a passionate new generation taking over. It’s just the recipe for a real find.

The Boursots began making wine in Chambolle-Musigny in 1550; for centuries, like many Burgundy domaines, they sold their entire production each year to the negociants of Beaune. In 1974 Remy Boursot began bottling on his own, and today it’s his sons making the wines as the 15th generation.

Their three Chambolle-Musignys in stock are all excellent, but we were seriously impressed with their Côte de Nuits-Villages: a humbler wine from an extremely well-located plot. And we mean well-located: their vines are immediately on the other side of the wall from Chambolle royalty Frédy Mugnier’s famous Nuits-St-Georges 1er cru “Clos de la Maréchale,” (see photo).

Boursot’s 2017 CDNV is an excellent entree to their gamme: the nose is dark and spicy, with classic Côte de Nuits cassis and hints of black pepper and toast. The mouth is punchy and juicy, with a crackling mouthfeel laid over lots of beefy extraction. And at $35 it will run you far less than the $100 stuff from the other side of the wall. Decant for 30-45 min.

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Boursot Côte de Nuits-Villages 2017
bottle price: $35

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12 Classic French Food-Wine Pairings

A perfect food-wine pairing elevates both elements. Here are 12 favorite French recipes pairings, including Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhône, Sauternes, and more.

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Oysters and wine in a French bistro.

1. Chablis & Oysters

Chablis is a satellite region of Burgundy, known for its pure chardonnay wines made with little or no oak. Classic Chablis is full of tension, minerality, and zest. The soils of Chablis are rich in calcium and fossils from an ancient sea, making the pairing with oysters natural and perfect. Most oyster dishes pair well with Chablis, but the simplest and finest match is raw.

Ansonia Ideas: Gautheron, Collet
Oyster Ideas: Island Creek, Norumbega

A hill in Vosne-Romanée, Burgundy, in France.

2. White Burgundy & Veal

White Burgundy is the highest expression of Chardonnay. Famous sources include Meursault, Chassagne-Montrachet, Puligny-Montrachet, St. Aubin, and Corton-Charlemagne. As long as the wine retains some acidity, it should match beautifully with the subtle, delicate flavors of the veal. We’ve linked our favorite stew below.

Ansonia Ideas: Boyer-Martenot, Morey, Ravaut, Thomas, Belland
Veal Recipe: Marcella Hazan’s Veal Stew with Sage, White Wine, and Cream

Christophe Martin, a winemaker in a vineyard in Gorges, Muscadet, Loire Valley, France.

3. Muscadet & Mussels

Muscadet is the refreshing, uncomplicated white wine made along the Loire River near the Atlantic Coast. With the ocean nearby, it’s a perfect match for shellfish, particularly oysters or mussels.

Ansonia Ideas: Martin-Luneau
Mussles Recipe: David Liebovitz Moules Marinières

Vineyards in Sancerre, Loire Valley, France.

4. Sancerre & Sole/Flounder

Sancerre is pure Sauvignon Blanc, and our favorites (including those from neighboring Pouilly-Fumé) are tank raised with no oak. Their combination of juicy grapefruit and mineral freshness matches beautifully with a fine fish in butter. Julia Child cites the combination as one of her favorites.

Ansonia Ideas: Garenne, Michot
Sole Recipe: Bon Appetit’s Sole Meunière

Vineyards in Condrieu and Côte Rôtie, Northern Rhône Valley, France.

5. Condrieu & Asparagus with Hollandaise

Condrieu is the highest form of Viognier, a grape known for its viscous texture and explosive aromatics. Asparagus is famously difficult to pair with wine, but this combination elevates both into a perfect food-wine pairing. Make sure to use enough lemon in your hollandaise, and don’t overcook your asparagus.

Ansonia Ideas: Bonnefond
Recipe: Bon Appetit’s Hollandaise

 

drawing of ducks

6. Red Burgundy & Duck

Red Burgundy is the most complex and subtle expression of Pinot Noir. At its finest it combines delicate berry fruits with cool earthiness; as it ages red Burgundy picks up notes of underbrush, mushrooms and leather. Our favorite pairing is a carefully roasted duck breast, marrying the delicacy of red meat with a hint of gaminess.

Ansonia Ideas: Gros, Amiot, Varoilles, Quivy, Belland, Ravaut
Duck Recipe: Thomas Keller’s Pan Roasted Duck Breasts

A vineyard in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Rhône Valley, Provence, France.

7. Southern Rhône Red & Stew

Southern Rhone reds usually blend Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, and other grapes. The resulting wines are bold and rich, with mouthfilling textures and dark, jammy notes. Most beef stews work well with these sturdy, cozy wines; one of our favorites comes from Patricia Wells, an expert in Provençal cooking.

Ansonia Ideas: Goubert, Souverain, André, Malmont, Joncuas, Mestre
Stew Recipe: Patricia Wells’s Daube au Vin Rouge

A vineyard in Juliénas, Beaujolais, France.

8. Beaujolais & Coq au Vin

Beaujolais is the often-underestimated red from southern Burgundy. Made from pure Gamay, the wines are jubilant and easy to appreciate. The freshness in Beaujolais gives it plenty of tension to cut through the richness of stew, but the berry notes match better with chicken than beef or pork.

Ansonia Ideas: Perrachon, Monnet
Coq au Vin Recipe: Julia Child’s Coq au Vin

A hill in Cornas, Northern Rhône Valley, France.

9. Northern Rhône Syrah & Lamb

Northern Rhône Syrah is as subtle and elegant as the varietal gets, combining dark berry complexion with soaring, lightweight aromatics. Tasters often find notes of smoked meats, bacon, licorice, and cloves, and our favorite food-wine pairing for these is the subtle gaminess of lamb.

Ansonia Ideas: Bonnefond, Saint-Clair, Dumien-Serrette, Tunnel
Lamb Recipe: Daniel Boulud’s Leg of Lamb

The town of Saint-Emilion, Bordeaux, France.

10. Bordeaux & Steak

Steak pairs well with many reds from France, but our favorite match is Bordeaux. In particular, merlot-dominant Bordeaux from the right bank (Pomerol, St-Emilion) provides a juicy foil for the savory richness of fine steak. We recommend splurging on meat quality, and using crunchy flake salt for texture.

Ansonia Ideas: Dauriac, Fleuron de Liot, Lafont-Menaut
Steak Recipe: Bon Appetit’s Perfect Steak

Winemaker Hervé Ligier, winemaker in Arbois, Jura, France.

11. Vin Jaune & Comté

Vin Jaune is the oxidized, sherry-like wine made in France’s Jura region. It’s intense, unusual, and delicious: think notes of walnuts, dried fruit, anise, curry, pine, etc. It can be a bit abrupt on its own, but with cheese – specifically Comté from the same region – it is magical. A legendary food-wine pairing.

Ansonia Ideas: Ligier
Cheese Suggestion: 24-36 month Comté

Winemaker M. Bon of Chateau Voigny, in Sauternes, Bordeaux, France

12. Sauternes & Roquefort

Sauternes is another idiosyncratic wine, but one with a long and famous history. A favorite wine of Thomas Jefferson, Sauternes is made from mold-covered shriveled up grapes just south of Bordeaux – it’s sweet, complex, and remarkable. Look for notes of apricot, pineapple, magon, ginger, caramel and honey. We suggest combining this moldy sweetness with some moldy saltiness: any blue cheese will do, but Roquefort will do best.

Ansonia Ideas: Voigny
Cheese Suggestion: Roquefort (room temperature)

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Cool, Crisp, Dry Alsatian White

Hot weather requires cold wines. Most wines lose complexity when you chill them, so we tend to reach for simpler bottles in the summer. And at our house, it’s not summer without a glass of Auxerrois.

From the granite covered hillsides of Alsace, winemaker Christophe Mersiol crafts a gorgeous blend of fruit, flowers, and freshness. The grape is a variation of Pinot Blanc, and Mersiol’s displays a perfect balance between round, mouthfilling fruit, and stony, crystalline freshness.

With over a month left in summer, this is a great wine to have around. A cool glass on its own after work, an aperitif to welcome your dinner party guests, or a match for a summery pasta.

Mersiol Auxerrois 2016
Bottle Price: $18
12+ bot price: $15.3/bot

 

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Crisp, Dry, Organic Loire Valley Chenin Blanc. $18

All of our winemakers care deeply about their craft, but Nicolas Paget is unusually impassioned. He believes fervently in his vines, his wines, his technique and his terroir.

His excitement is well founded. Paget crafts delicious white wines from Chenin Blanc, a grape responsible for the great wines of the central Loire Valley, particularly Vouvray.

Paget’s Chenins are much like our favorite Vouvrays — they range from very dry to very sweet, with much in between. Today’s cuvée, the 2018 Chenin “Melodie,” is bone dry and the perfect antidote to summer heat.

Paget’s Melodie is a symphony of springtime in a glass. It’s exactly the wine we went searching for in the Loire: dry, expressive, organic Chenin Blanc with good balance and all of Chenin’s signature aromatic complexity. The 2018 has just arrived, with a splash more freshness than the 2017, but no less exuberance and fruit.

There’s pear and melon in the nose, with a dose of citrus and white flowers. The mouth is exceptional — lively and complex, with delicate freshness, bright minerality, and notes of dried orchard fruits.

It’s quintessential aperitif white wine: lively and dry, but with gorgeous fruit and beautiful texture. Serve it on a summer patio, a roofdeck soirée, or a backyard cocktail party.

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Paget Chenin “Melodie” 2018
bottle price: $18

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Inky, Exquisitely-Balanced Left-Bank Bordeaux: Our New Margaux Arrives

If you know anything about Margaux, it’s probably about the iconic Chateau Margaux. But there’s lots to the appellation besides the famous First-Growth chateau. Margaux’s sandy, gravel-filled soils produce some of the Left Bank’s most elegant red wines; Jancis Robinson cites their “haunting perfume,” and “silky texture.”

This spring we discovered a delightful new wine from Margaux, the Chateau Larrieu-Terrefort. We’re not claiming it competes with its famous neighbor, but with Chateau Margaux running $750 per bottle, this sub-$50 cuvée is a comparative bargain.

Margaux has exceptional terroir – don’t limit yourself to experiencing it only as a splurge.

We opened the 2016 Larrieu Terrefort at our Newton Warehouse tasting yesterday, and it was delicious: a sophisticated, classy blend with real subtlety and elegance. It’s dark and powerful, but with silky, seductive texture; and at 13.5% alcohol it’s a welcome break from domestic Cabs with sledgehammer power.

The nose offers floral notes of violet, almost syrah-like, that blend nicely with the oak in which the wine was raised. Joining the violets are dark chocolate, black raspberry, and a hint of earth. It’s still a young wine, but its tannins are rich and perfectly balanced.

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Larrieu-Terrefort Margaux 2016
bottle price: $42

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Inky New Organic Rhône Reds: 93 points, “Succulent,” “Velvety”

Organic viticulture is the future of winemaking — the majority of our winemakers are organic or in conversion. But at some domaines, it’s also the past. The Domaine du Joncuas in Gigondas turns 100 years old next year, and they’ve practiced organic winemaking, as they put it, “depuis toujours” (“since forever”).

Joncuas wines prove at least one thing about organic winemaking: it works. We stumbled across Joncuas this spring, and they’re one of the most exciting additions to our portfolio we can remember.

We’re thrilled to introduce their wines today: 2017 Vacqueyras and 2016 Gigondas.

Sisters Dany and Carole Chastan are third generation vigneronnes practicing old-school winemaking — whole clusters, limited sulfur, all wild yeasts. They use no new oak, and neither fine nor filter. Their wines are juicy and deep and very expressive, with gorgeous fruit. For readers familiar with our portfolio, combine the ethos of Foulaquier or André with the terroir of Goubert.

Their 2017 Vacqueyras is bold and meaty. It’s 80% grenache, and the rest Syrah and Mourvèdre. The nose bursts with distilled red fruits and spice, lavender, and earth. The mouth is rugged and smooth with excellent length and notes of tapenade, bay leaf, plums and licorice. It’s twice the intensity that $25 normally buys.

Jancis Robinson found “succulent black fruit with good definition and purity,” and “lovely juicy fruit lingering on the finish.” Serve this with grilled meats this summer, and stews this fall.

The Joncuas Gigondas 2016 is a magnificent. It’s 80% grenache (some from centenarian vines), with the rest Mourvèdre and Cinsault. The fruit is clean and very pure, with a gorgeous silky texture and notes of violets, raspberry, garrigue, and spice. Think of it as Grenache that wants to be Syrah.

The Wine Advocate awarded 93 points, finding it “big and balanced,” “plush,” and “velvety and long.” Close your eyes and this is easily a Châteauneuf-du-Pape; open them and it’s an astonishing amount of wine for under $35.

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Joncuas Vacqueyras 2017
bottle price: $25

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Joncuas Gigondas 2016
bottle price: $34

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