Author: Thomas Wilcox

Much of the world’s Merlot is undistinguished. Its default expression is a soft, rounded wine lacking tannin, acidity, and character. “Global” merlot is smooth and easy, but neither distinctive nor particularly interesting. But on Bordeaux’s right bank Merlot thrives as an essential component to the region’s most iconic wines. The exact combination of limestone and gravel soils produce a version of the grape with balance, definition, and depth.

We’ve long enjoyed the delicious and well-priced St-Emilion from Chateau Montlisse. Made from 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc, it’s a rich, velvety blend with a classic combination of dark fruit and spice, but well supported by a solid backbone and lively freshness. We’ve just received the terrific 2019, and it’s as good as ever.

From a magnificent vintage, the 2019 Château Montlisse is everything you want from a sub-$50 Bordeaux: smooth and elegant, with mellow fruit and gorgeous earthy notes, and a solid core of structure and concentration. Look for notes of plums and toast with cassis, dark chocolate and dried violets. Neal Martin in Vinous cited “fine grained tannins and well judged acidity,” concluding, “this is a classy offering from Montlisse.” Pour this with a steak salad or this hearty Mushroom Farro.

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Montlisse St-Emilion Grand Cru 2019
bottle price: $42

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If every vintage of white Burgundy were like 2022, you wouldn’t hear much complaining. Perfectly-timed rain showers in June and August punctuated an otherwise record-breaking summer of drought and heat. The resulting wines are magnificent – friendly and open but with tremendous concentration and real complexity. “Bountiful and beautiful,” writes Jasper Morris.

Nobody was more successful in 2022 than Sofie Bohrmann, a quietly brilliant producer based in Meursault. Sofie farms an impressive collection of vineyards around St-Aubin, Meursault, St-Romain and Puligny – her wines offer terrific value, particularly in a stellar vintage. Her style is limited oak, overtly floral, low-alcohol, and impeccable balance.

Sofie’s village level St-Aubin from “Champ Tirant” is a tremendous success. The nose is exquisite, bursting with white flowers and notes of lemon curd, apple crisp, nectarine and beeswax. The mouth is sleek and delicious with delicate acidity balancing a smooth and polished texture. Serve with fish and chips.

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Bohrmann St-Aubin “Champ Tirant” 2022
bottle price: $55

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The Beaujolais has become a hotbed of innovative winemaking in recent years. Land prices and startup costs have chased new winemakers from the Côte d’Or, and many have landed further south in the Maconnais, Chalonnaise, and Beaujolais. These young vignerons are pushing the limits of what’s possible from the gamay grape, and we’ve found several remarkable and revolutionary cuvées.

But old school Beaujolais still has a certain charm, and when the weather turns crisp and the leaves start to fall, sometimes we’re in the mood for a simple, unoaked, refreshing gamay. And that’s just what Frederic Berne has made with his 2023 Beaujolais-Lantigné “Pierre Bleu.” It’s few bucks more than a Beaujolais Nouveaux, but easily ten times the wine.

Berne is a thoughtful organic winemaker working near the Côte de Brouilly. The 2023 Pierre Bleu is grown on the appellation’s signature blue granite soil – it’s lively and floral with low tannins and an easy, refreshing finish. A friendly Beaujolais for a backyard barbeque or tailgate.

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Berne Beaujolais-Lantigné “Pierre Bleu” 2023
bottle price: $25

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Transition to organics/biodynamics may be trendy in winemaking today, but it’s nothing new at the Domaine Pierre André in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Jacqueline André’s grandfather stopped using chemicals in his vines in 1963, and the domaine has been certified organic since 1980 – the first in the appellation.

As it turns out, he was onto something — some plots of the André family wines are now over 140 years old, and still producing gorgeous fruit. Pierre’s daughter Jacqueline now tends these ancient vines (she calls them her “grand dammes” or “old ladies”) with the love and attention usually reserved for family members. In his excellent “The New French Wine” published last year, Jon Bonné writes, “Jacqueline André has quietly been upholding the extraordinary quality of her family’s domaine in a manner that legitimately earns the word “artisan.”

The 2021 vintage was anything but smooth across France, and the Rhône Valley was no exception. But truly great winemakers show their greatness mostly clearly in difficult vintages, and Jacqueline André’s 2021 results put her in that class. Her 2021 Châteauneuf-du-Pape rouge is elegant and absolutely delicious wine. Grenache always dominates the fruit in her wine, but in 2021 the distinct aromas of dried rose petals join the usual sweet wild strawberries to produce a refined and elegant glass of wine that is strikingly good.

This is a middleweight Châteuneuf, for enjoyment in all seasons, not just beside a roaring fire. Low tannin, subtle layers, and Burgundian finesse highlight this stellar, timeless southern Rhône red.

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André Châteauneuf-du-Pape rouge 2021
bottle price: $65

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Wine lovers who follow the great white Burgundies of the Côte de Beaune have long looked to the side valleys – one coming in between Chassagne and Puligny, and another between Meursault and Volnay – for top quality at good prices. Sofie Borhmann has several plots up both valleys, and they’re responsible for some of her best value wines.

The word is out about the first valley (St-Aubin), and while the wines here have never been better (and indeed Sofie’s are exceptional), the pricing discount has softened a bit. But the other valley (St-Romain) still holds some hidden potential, and we’re delighted to introduce Bohrmann’s 2022 St-Romain today.

St-Romain sits about 400-500 feet higher in elevation than Borhmann’s hometown of Meursault, a real advantage in Burgundy’s new hot dry summer climate. Sofie acquired the Clos Sous le Chateau, a small monopole below the ruins, a decade ago, and it was a very smart choice. Her 2022 St-Romain is an exquisite combination of ripeness and zip – less creamy and soft than St-Aubin, but with Sofie’s signature golden polish. With just a splash of oak and a delicate bouquet of white flowers, acacia and almonds, this has to be among the best sub-$50 Burgundies around.

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Bohrmann St-Romain “Clos Sous le Chateau” 2022
bottle price: $49

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Sebastien Giroux is exactly the type of winemaker we love to work with. He farms a tiny 6-hectare estate in southern Burgundy’s Maconnais region essentially by himself. Some of his wines come in allocations with single-digit case quantities; his rooms for vinification, bottle stockage, labeling, and tasting, are all… the same room.

Yet his disciplined organic winemaking results in extraordinary wines – William Kelley describes them as “supple, pure and charming.” We sold off every last bottle in the store last month, and are delighted (and relieved) to have them back in stock. And one of our favorites this year is humble Macon-Fuissé “Vers Chanes” vineyard.

Sebastien took us to his vines here last spring – he explained that when the original lines of the Pouilly-Fuissé appellation were drawn last century, the Vers Chanes plot had been forest. The since-cleared land, many think, would rank today as Pouilly-Fuissé if the lines were redrawn. Lucky for us – today it remains a Macon-Fuissé, an overperforming terroir with a less famous name.

The wine itself is exquisite – unoaked Chardonnay with precise, linear focus. The nose calls to mind the golden lushness of Pouilly-Fuissé, but without the oak to obscure the gorgeous fruit. The mouth is lithe and precise, with chiseled minerality beneath the apple blossom and apricot notes. Sub-$30 white Burgundy is on its way to becoming a thing of the past. Giroux’s Macon-Fuissé is proof the genre remains.

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Giroux Macon-Fuissé “Vers Chanes” 2022
bottle price: $28

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Winemaker Frederic Michot is as brisk and energetic as his wines: pure Sauvignon blanc, no oak, clean and crisp. Michot’s side of the river may be less famous than his neighbor Sancerre, but he isn’t willing to concede it any advantage. His wines are terrific Sauvignon blancs, full of energy, focus, clean dry fruit, and beautiful tension.

Michot’s Pouilly-Fumé Vieilles Vignes 2023 has just arrived and it’s refreshing, unoaked, mouthfilling and utterly delicious. His old vine cuvée combines a ripe, sunny vintage with bursting tension underneath the gorgeous fruit. There’s lots of inexpensive Sauvignon Blanc around — most of it isn’t half this good.

The nose shows mango, grapefruit rind, and straw; the mouth shows ripe grapefruit, lime rind, and honey. The wine is at once mouthfilling and electric, with the persistence of richness and freshness found in finest Sancerre, but with a serious discount.

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Michot Pouilly-Fumé VV 2022
bottle price: $22

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The 2022 red Burgundies are quickly becoming one our favorite vintages. From the warmest, driest year in recent memory, winemakers managed to craft vibrant and beautifully balanced wines, sporting low alcohol and classic Burgundian finesse. They’re modern in their sunny polish, but traditional in their middleweight, elegant textures. If this is the future of Burgundy, sign us up.

Philippe Cheron’s entire lineup of 2022s are wonderful, but today we’re focused on his regional cuvée, a Bourgogne Côte d’Or from vines near Gevrey-Chambertin. This wine transcends the genre in a way few other Bourgognes do – if you told us it was a village Gevrey we’d believe you – humble in appellation, but striking in taste. Cheron used 100% whole clusters, adding definition to the dark fruit.

This is the most complex and elegant red Bourgogne in our portfolio. The nose is deep and beautiful with intense dark fruit but excellent lift – there’s a stony earthiness behind the plums that’s balanced and enticing. The mouth is clear, long, and nimble, bouncing from wild cherries to anise to black pepper and back to cassis. Burghound praised its “racy, delicious, well detailed flavors.” It offers immediate enjoyment, but should cellar a year or two with ease.

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Couvent Bourgogne Côte d’Or 2022
bottle price: $45

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The Domaine Dupré-Goujon is quietly becoming a leading domaine in the Beaujolais. Winemaker Sebastien Dupré and Guillaume Goujon are crafting outstanding wines that elevate the potential of the gamay grape. We’ve gotten emails from customers with comments like “had no idea Beaujolais could be that good,” and “best Gamay I’ve ever had, by a lot.” We agree, and often find ourselves reaching for these vibrant organic wines.

Part of the Dupré-Goujon recipe is an extended elevage (for their reds) of over two years, first in barrels, and then in tanks. This is nearly unheard-of patience in the Beaujolais, but the results speak for themselves. Their 2021 Côte de Brouilly “Heronde” is the best wine we’ve had from them, all this in a vintage that produced more misses than hits.

The 2021 is magnificent – deep and perfumed but remarkably light on its feet. Writing for James Suckling’s review, Spigott gave 96 points, calling it “a truly astonishing wine…stunning concentration…explosive stony minerality.” The tannins are exceptionally fine, supporting deep floral notes of peony and roses. We think the complexity here rivals many wines at twice the price from the Côte d’Or, and indeed the subtlety and elegance calls to mind a Volnay made from Gamay.

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Dupré-Goujon Côte de Brouilly “Heronde” 2021
bottle price: $39

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Weeknight Burgundy is not an oxymoron. Yes, pricing for the famous names in Burgundy has gone a bit nuts of late – and while the wines have never been better, many cuvées now occupy the “special occasion” tier for most consumers. But we’re happy to report that with legwork and a bit of patience, there’s still value to be found.

The 2022 vintage in Burgundy produced quantity and quality for the first time in years – the wines are low in alcohol, full of ripe fruit and excellent freshness, with terrific concentration and appealing textures. And none more successful than the lineup of whites from Sofie Borhmann.

This is our fifth vintage buying from Sofie, a domaine in Meursault whose wines we discovered in a Beaune restaurant. Her wines are quietly brilliant, many hailing from well-known vineyards in St-Aubin, Puligny and Meursault. But it’s her outstanding everyday Bourgogne blanc that has become a staple of many readers’ cellars.

From vines near Meursault, this cuvée offers more than a little of the golden, opulent quality of the famous town. The 2022 is simply beautiful, with a sleek core of yellow orchard fruit with lemon peel and minerals – drier than in past years, with more polish. The nose shows very light toast, and the texture is dense and sophisticated. This well outperforms its regional-level billing, and we’d struggle to find a better value white Burgundy in our portfolio.

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Bohrmann Bourgogne Côte d’Or 2022
bottle price: $35

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There’s no more exciting corner of Burgundy today than the Beaujolais. Long derided as a source for inexpensive plonk, the wines made here today are as dynamic and delicious as anything in the Côte d’Or – and at a fraction of the price. Wine writer Stuart Piggott calls Beaujolais “the best value reds in the world,” and it’s easy to see why.

A new wave of exciting winemakers priced out of the land market in the north of Burgundy has landed in the Beaujolais; and while we’re sure they’d make tasty wine in Beaune, they’re more than succeeding in Brouilly. Frederic Berne is a leader in this new Beaujolais – passionate about organic viticulture and low intervention cellarwork, he’s typical of this exciting and innovative wave.

Berne’s 2022 Chiroubles is seriously good gamay. It’s concentrated and sturdily built – it would age several years with ease – but carefully balanced with acidity and lush fruit. The appellation’s signature deep rose petal nose is there, joined by a burst of wild cherry and a zip of stony minerals. This cuvée benefits from the hot dry vintage, combining ripe fruit and refreshing granite into a tasty package.

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Berne Chiroubles 2022
bottle price: $29

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Romain Collet is a mad scientist in the cellar. He’s matched each of his Chablis terroirs with a specific recipe of elevage vessels – a combination of stainless steel tank, concrete egg, clay amphora, and wooden barrels of various ages. Each is designed to bring out the unique character of every plot of vines.

The most clay-rich of Collet’s terroirs is “Butteaux,” a south-east facing sector of the Montmains vineyard on Chablis’s left bank. For this cuvée, Romain ages the wine in a combination of old oak barrels (5 to 10 years). The resulting wine has a concentration and layered complexity somewhere between premier cru and grand cru.

We were blown away by the 2022 Butteaux when we tasted it at the domaine, and so were tasters at this past weekend’s MushroomFest. It’s not exactly classic Chablis – less brisk and angular than some of Romain’s cuvées; but it’s perfectly balanced and simply delicious in the glass. It begins with a rich attack of concentrated fruit that might make you think of modern Puligny-Montrachet, but a vibrant splash of Chablisienne minerals bursts through the palate and it finishes dry and precise.

Jasper Morris MW was similarly impressed, finding “lovely generous fruit yet with tension. Very good this year,” and awarding 91-94 points – just a point behind Romain’s Grand Cru Valmur. Think of it as a particularly stony village-level Puligny-Montrachet, at a roughly 50% discount…

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Collet Chablis 1er “Butteaux” 2022
bottle price: $42

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Several readers are already hooked on our newest Champagne producer, RH Coutier. Coutier has been a favorite of Vinous founder Antonio Galloni “for years;” he calls their wines “gorgeous… showing the natural richness of Ambonnay.” The Coutier style is open and accessible – the non-vintage “Traditionnel” is expressive, captivating wine at an exceptional price – today we’re introducing their finest cuvée.

We opened Coutier’s 2015 vintage champagne at a private tasting last week and it blew everyone (including the author of this post) away. It’s 75/25 Pinot Noir/Chardonnay, and has spent 96 months on the lees, gaining astounding complexity and depth. At 3g of dosage, this is dry, sophisticated and simply extraordinary.

The nose immediately jumps forth with layer upon layer of dry papery fruit; as it opens it adds almonds, brioche, and white flowers. The mouth is dry but full of texture and concentration, a sleek core perfectly balanced by delicate acidity and detailed minerality. Galloni found it “bright and sculpted” with “energy and cut,” remarking that “citrus peel, mint, white pepper and crushed rocks all race across the palate.”

If it sounds like we’re going over the top here, it’s a reflection of just how impressive we found this. Serve with a soufflé, cornish hens, a fish in beurre blanc, or just a quiet autumn Sunday afternoon.

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Coutier Champagne Millesimé 2015
bottle price: $82

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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”).

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. Writer Jon Bonné has named them a benchmark producer of the region, “essential defenders of grenache’s good name.”

Their just-arrived 2022 Vacqueyras is delicious, and a terrific value. From an appellation just south of Gigondas, this is nearly all Grenache (85%). The nose is extraordinary, bursting with dark wild strawberry fruit, plums, lavender, bay leaf and earth – a splash of Mourvedre adds complexity and backbone. It’s a crowd-pleasing everyday red that will offer immediate pleasure.

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Joncuas Vacqueyras 2022
bottle price: $29

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Much like their hometown of Morey-St-Denis, the Amiot family flies a bit below the radar. From their tiny domaine on the town’s main street, they craft delicious quantities of remarkable Burgundy. They make cellar-worthy, magnificent cuvées from premier crus like Ruchots and Combottes, and Grand Crus like Clos de la Roche and Charmes-Chambertin. But they also extend their considerable winemaking talent to their petits vins.

And none is friendlier or easier to enjoy than their Gamay-Pinot blend called Coteaux-Bourguignons. Drawn from up to 70-year-old vines, this cuvée for years was reserved only for family enjoyment. Particularly in a warm, concentrated vintage like 2022, it’s juicy, punchy and delightful – more serious than a Beaujolais, but more fun than a Bourgogne.

Amiot’s 2022 Coteaux-Bourguignons shows that top notch winemaking can elevate even humble terroir. The nose is dark and juicy with notes of plums, cherries, and earth. The mouth combines the elegance and length of pinot noir with the juicy freshness of gamay. It’s more complex than a blend of this type usually is, but no less fun.

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Amiot Coteaux-Bourguignons 2022
bottle price: $32

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