Tasting Trip Video Blog | Update 8: Visiteurs!
Author: Thomas Wilcox
Tasting Trip Video Blog | Day 7: Samples, Ladoix, Vosne
Springtime Supply Cases: $250/case, Free Shipping
Spring is in full swing in Burgundy, even though here that means a range from below freezing at night to nearly 70 during the day. But wherever you are, and whatever the weather, it’s bound to warm up soon.
So we’ve collected three supply cases: white, red, and white-red-rosé mix. All are $250/case, and all ship for free (anywhere in the US). These won’t be the fanciest wines in your cellar, but they’re crisp, refreshing, and just what you’ll need for the coming months.
Springtime Whites: $250/case
Gautheron Petit Chablis 2017
classic, refreshing, unoaked chardonnay; notes of lemon rind and stones
Gross Riesling 2017
new bone-dry riesling from Alsace; notes of flowers, granite, and melon
Michot Pouilly-Fumé VV 2017
dry, refreshing, tension-filled sauvignon blanc from Loire; notes of grapefruit and gunflint
$250/case + FREE US SHIPPING
Springtime Reds: $250/case
Souverain Séguret 2017
juicy, organic blend from the southern Rhône; notes of lavender, berries, and cool earth
Bonnefond Syrah 2016
lightweight syrah from the northern Rhône; notes of black pepper, blackberries, and cloves
Monnet Chiroubles 2017
juicy, refreshing Gamay with a crackling mouthfeel; notes of graphite, currants, and cherry
$250/case + FREE US SHIPPING
Springtime Mix: $250/case
Goubert Rosé de Flo 2017
dry, smooth, refreshing Provençal rosé: notes of strawberries, stones, and lavender
Gross Riesling 2017
new bone-dry riesling from Alsace; notes of flowers, granite, and melon
Bonnefond Syrah 2016
lightweight syrah from the northern Rhône; notes of black pepper, blackberries, and cloves
$250/case + FREE US SHIPPING
Blackberry, Lavender, and a Vibrant Connection to the Natural World
Last week winemaker Eric Chauvin took us out into his vines for our tasting. He believes fervently in organic winemaking, and wanted us to taste his wine en plein air, amid the rich earth from which they spring.
The combination was magic — Chauvin’s wines pulsate with life and energy, a result of his low-intervention style and careful organic viticulture. Tasting them outside brought out their vibrancy, connecting us to the millenia of wines made from the very same earth.
These aren’t the fanciest or the most ageworthy wines in our portfolio. But it’s hard to think of any that are more alive.
We discovered Eric Chauvin’s wine three years ago in a bistro in Séguret. It took a few days to track him down — his Domaine le Souverain has no website, no road sign, and he didn’t answer our first few calls. But after finally connecting we realized quickly what a find he was.
Chauvin’s wines are intense and beautifully balanced Rhône blends that drink more like a Gigondas or Vacqueyras than the Côtes-du-Rhône pricing suggests. His 2017 Séguret is just lovely — it shows a bright nose of blackberry and lavender, with a cool earthiness that fans of the Mas Foulaquier will immediately recognize. The mouth is beautifully balanced, with softened but present tannins, clean dark fruit, and a faint smokiness in the nose.
Whether you enjoy this wine on a patio, in a garden, or simply in a seat by an open window, it will connect you profoundly with the world around you.
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Souverain Séguret 2017
bottle price: $19
FREE EAST COAST SHIPPING ON ANY 12 BOTTLES
Tasting Trip Video Blog | Day 6: Côte de Nuits
Gorgeous, Intense, “Velvety” Gevrey-Chambertin
We spent yesterday afternoon tasting the 2017s at the Domaine des Varoilles. Winemaker Gilbert Hammel is a softspoken man making red Burgundies that are anything but. Gevrey-Chambertin is typically a bold, masculine wine, and the Varoilles cuvées are even moreso.
His “Clos du Meix des Ouches” is a village level cuvée that drinks more like a premier cru. It’s surrounded by an old wall, which blocks the wind and traps warmth, making its wines particularly round and ripe.
The 2017s need six months; the 2015s need six years. But the 2016s are in a lovely spot.
This is about as bold and intense as red Burgundy gets. 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 it “velvety and sweet-fruited,” “generous and rounded.” Burghound awarded 90 points, calling it “exceptionally rich” and finding “plum, cassis, and black cherry.” If your idea of Burgundy is light and ethereal, this will expand your view.
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Varoilles Gevrey-Chambertin
“Meix des Ouches” 2016
bottle price: $75
FREE EAST COAST SHIPPING ON ANY 12 BOTTLES
Tasting Trip Video Blog | Day 5: Frost
Nectar of the Northern Rhône: Extraordinary 94-point Condrieu
We spent yesterday tasting in the Northern Rhône Valley. From 9am through 5:30pm, we tasted dozens of meaty, intense, sinewy Syrahs, from appellations like Cornas, St-Joseph, Côte Rôtie, and Crozes Hermitage. They were chewy, delicious, and exhausting.
After a day of teeth-staining reds, our final appointment finished with a golden, shimmering white wine: Condrieu from the Domaine Bonnefond. This wine is always terrific and often extraordinary — yesterday’s 2018 was like a breath of fresh, golden air.
The 2018 Condrieu will be in the 2019 July Futures along with the rest of Bonnefond’s excellent lineup of reds. But a few cases of their 2016 remain in the depot in Boston.
Vinous’s Josh Raynolds put it best when he wrote, “Bonnefond has made plenty of excellent Condrieus over the years but this one [the 2016] is at another level.” He awarded 94 points, calling it “Sexy… juicy, densely packed and seamless… showing superb delineation and powerful thrust.”
We agree — the 2016 is simply superb. The nose is extraordinarily complex and perfumed, with notes ranging from gardenia, herb honey, apricot, green tea, and dried mango. The mouth is smooth and rich with notes of peach and pear, and a beautiful grape-skin briskness that balances the mouthcoating texture.
Bonnefond’s wines are always excellent, and they somehow keep getting better. But the 2016 Condrieu is, as they say here, spéciale.
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Bonnefond Condrieu 2016
bottle price: $56
FREE EAST COAST SHIPPING ON ANY 12 BOTTLES
Tasting Trip Video Blog | Day 4: Beaujolais, Macon, Givry
Tasting Trip Video Blog | Day 3: Syrah, Syrah, Syrah, Syrah
Tasting Trip Video Blog | Day 2: Southern Rhône
Fleshy and Vibrant: New, Overperforming Everyday White Burgundy
White Burgundy is among the food-friendliest wines around. It works at the high end – think a perfectly aged Meursault, open for an hour, with veal medallions in just the right amount cream, a hint of lemon, carefully sauteed mushrooms, a sprig of parsley… you get the idea.
But it 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 has been for a number of well known restaurants in Boston and Philadelphia as well.
It doesn’t make Meursault promises — but it way over delivers for $6/glass.
The 2017 Bourgogne from Gérard Thomas has just arrived back in the states. All of Thomas’s 2017s are unusually good — a magical combination of fleshy texture and shimmering energy. At each classficiation level the wines drink above their weight.
The Bourgogne is always good with food, and the 2017 is no exception; but this year’s is particularly good on its own. The nose is soft and elegant, with hazelnut and wood notes melting into lemon and baked apple fruit. There’s plenty of acidity and plenty of body, and it’s more mouthfilling than most wine of its class.
We strongly recommend setting aside a night for a high-end white Burgundy — Thomas’s other 2017s are a good example. 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 2017
bottle price: $28
FREE EAST COAST SHIPPING ON ANY 12 BOTTLES
2015 Gigondas from Goubert: Smooth, Rich, Classy
We’re making our way up the Rhône River this week — tonight we’re in Tain l’Hermitage, the southern gateway to the Northern Rhône Valley. (Follow our video blog: FB, IG, YT.) Today we visited one of the original members of the Ansonia portfolio, the Domaine les Goubert in Gigondas.
Goubert has been a staple of our lineup for decades, and in recent years longtime readers have noticed the same thing we have: the wines have unmistakably increased in precision and polish. They’ve always been good, but since Florence took over winemaking they’ve joined a new class of sophistication.
Florence’s recent vintages continue her trend of winemaking excellence. But her delicious 2015 Gigondas is in stock in our warehouse already.
2015 was a magnificent year in Gigondas. Josh Raynolds of Vinous writes that the vintage “produced one of the most consistently excellent sets of Gigondas that I’ve ever had the chance to taste,” noting the wines’ “distinct power and depth.”
Goubert’s 2015 Gigondas is packed with dense red fruits, spice, violets, and warm earth. The mouth is bold and intense, showing a richness reminiscent of nearby Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Notes of plum, wild cherries, and chocolate dominate the palate, which finishes long and sophisticated and with what Raynolds calls “very good, spicy tenacity.”
When wine is this rich, this tasty, and this affordable, it can be hard to open anything else. (Also available in magnums.)
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Goubert Gigondas 2015
bottle price: $28
FREE EAST COAST SHIPPING ON ANY 12 BOTTLES
Tasting Trip Video Blog: Day 1, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Juicy, Refreshing, Springtime Côtes-du-Rhône. $16
Greetings from the continent! We landed in Paris this morning and caught the TGV south to Avignon. We’re here for the next few weeks, tasting in the Southern Rhône, Northern Rhône, and Burgundy — follow our tasting trip video blog (starting tomorrow) on Facebook, Instagram, and our blog.
Spring is in full swing here in the South, where it’s 70 degrees and sunny. Meals en plein air are the norm here, and it’s true that everything tastes better under a clear blue Provençal sky . It may not quite be patio season everywhere on the East Coast yet, but it won’t be long now.
So today we’re suggesting a simple, quaffable, by-the-glass Côtes du Rhône. Whenever springtime arrives to your hometown, you’ll want a bottle or two of this around to welcome it.
Winemaker Christelle Coulange returned to her family property after oenology school and began to make and bottle her own wine. In only a decade she has made quite a name for herself. Her wines win medals nearly every year, and she still getting better.
Her 2017 Coulange Mistral is young, juicy, and delightful. An unoaked blend of 80% grenache and 20% syrah. It’s more substantial than the 2016, with juicier fruit and a darker palate. The nose shows violets, wild cherry jam, and garrigue, with woodsy and briary notes as it opens up. The mouth is dense and full, with a rich, vibrant mouthfeel, and smooth tannins.
Serve this a bit cool with burgers or steaks or vegetables from your grill.
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Coulange Mistral 2017
bottle price: $16
FREE EAST COAST SHIPPING ON ANY 12 BOTTLES