Author: Thomas Wilcox

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.

Winemakers Celine and Didier Sanzay are fifth generation growers in Saumur-Champigny in the central Loire. Their reds are pure Cabernet Franc, and fit modern Loire style — small batch, organic, wild yeasts, no fining or filtering. They’re lovely on their own, but it’s the freshness and vibrant texture that makes them perfect food-paring reds.

Sanzay’s just-arrived Saumur-Champigny is exactly what you want Loire Cab Franc to be: pure, joyful, unoaked, and refreshing. 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. Picture a juicy Beaujolais with more serious texture and darker fruit.

Consider it an alternative to your everyday, catch-all Côtes-du-Rhône red. Pair with crackers and goat cheese, coq a vin, or a fresh pizza.

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Sanzay Saumur-Champigny 2022
bottle price: $22

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It doesn’t take an expert to notice that Guillaume Goujon and Sebastien Dupré are farming organically. Their vines, located in the Côte de Brouilly, share the earth with an impressive array of 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 and almost no sulfites.

The resulting wines are remarkably complex, and yet immaculately crafted – no funk or off notes to be found. Our favorite cuvée is their “631” Côte de Brouilly, and we weren’t alone – customers told us they didn’t know it was possible for so much depth and elegance to be packed into a bottle of gamay. The texture is refreshing and thirst-quenching, but the underlying fruit is detailed and very fine. William Kelley agreed with our enthusiasm, calling the wines “supple and charming” and labeling it “an estate to watch.”

The 2020 “Cuvée 631” keeps getting better. The nose shows perfume of violets and roses, with a fruit profile somewhere between Pinot and Syrah. The mouth is sturdier and more complex, with perfectly coated tannin and a dark, crackling finish. Kelley awarded 92 points, finding “Aromas of sweet berries, spices and loamy soil [in a] fleshy and lively wine framed by sweet, powdery tannins.”

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Dupré-Goujon Côte de Brouilly “631” 2020
bottle price: $35

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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.”

Groundhog predictions notwithstanding, there’s clearly a bit of cold weather left this season, and at our house we’re firmly “cozy red” mood – wines with mouthfilling textures, dark inky fruit, and long, layered finishes. So today we’re suggesting Jacqueline André’s magnificent Châteauneuf, the very definition of coziness. The 2020 is lush, round, and beautiful – it has the capacity to cellar much longer, but it’s extraordinarily lovely today.

Come taste it at this Saturday’s CassouletFest at the warehouse in Newton, or pick up some for our own cellar.

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André Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2020
bottle price:$65

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Unlike Burgundy, most wines of Bordeaux are distributed through a vast network of resellers – negociant houses with distribution agreements that can stretch back centuries. It can be a confusing place to do business, but also one that offers hidden gems – the sheer volume of wine available means that turning over rocks can result in real discoveries.

Our favorite recent discovery is the Chateau de Malleret, whose 2016 Haut-Médoc is quietly
excellent. Of the 249 estates given Cru Bourgeois distinction, it’s one of only 14 elevated to “Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel.” The blend is roughly 60/40 Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon, and the wine punches well above its weight.

We opened the 2016 last night and found it terrific. The nose is deep and intense without a hint of evolution – look for notes of blackberry, leather, and cocoa. The mouth shows slightly softened tannins (but with enough left to keep it clean-cut), excellent concentration, and a perfectly coated, surprisingly long finish. Neal Martin of Vinous, a notoriously tough grader, gave 91 points, finding an “intense bouquet” with “superb delineation” on the palate, concluding “this is definitely worth seeking out.”

Serve this with steak this winter and your guests will guess you paid twice what you did.

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Chateau de Malleret Haut Médoc 2016
bottle price:$35

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Aside from Champagne, Chablis is perhaps the most versatile food-pairing wine in our cellar. It’s fresh, crisp, dry, and lively – perfect for a wide range of foods, or for nothing at all. Seafood in particular is a perfect match, and we serve Chablis with everything from linguine with clams to grilled halibut to bouillabaisse.

Our two Chablis producers make excellent, ageworthy premier and grand crus, but their entry level wines are just as good for the price. Today we’re suggesting Cyril Gautheron’s old-vine Chablis, a wine we think well overperforms its humble billing. We loved this wine and stocked our cellar enthusiastically – turns out we weren’t the only ones to notice.

Writing last week in Vinous, Neal Martin heaped praises on this wine, finding a nose of “crushed stone and pressed white flowers” and “citrus peel, orange rind, fine weight and quite a cohesive finish.” He concluded “there is a breeze quality to this Chablis that is very appealing. Worth seeking out.”

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Gautheron Chablis VV 2021
bottle price:$32

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Pouilly-Fuissé has come a long way from the over-oaked buttered popcorn of decades ago. Today the appellation is a hotbed of talent, with passionate young winemakers converting old vines to organics and turning out truly excellent wines. With prices for both land and wine in the Côte d’Or headed through the roof, the Maconnais has become one of the most dynamic corners of Burgundy today.

One of our most exciting discoveries here is Sebastien Giroux, a thirtysomething winemaker farming just 6 hectares (14 acres) with care and precision. Since their introduction last year Giroux’s wines have quickly become some of the most popular white Burgundies in our portfolio, each presenting low oak, vibrant fruit, refined mouthfeels, and remarkably friendly pricing.

The 2020 Giroux Pouilly-Fuissé Vieilles Vignes is extremely classy white Burgundy. The oak is perfectly integrated – if you didn’t know it was there you might miss it. Leading Burgundy critic William Kelley awarded 93 points, finding “golden orchard fruit, buttery pastry, lemon curd and white flowers,” and calling it “ample and satiny, with lively acids and a vibrant, fleshy profile.” The concentration from the old vines unwinds slowly and gracefully in the glass – use your biggest red Burgundy glasses and sit with this for a while. It’s understated perfection.

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Giroux Pouilly-Fuissé VV 2020
bottle price: $39

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Bordeaux is best known for its Grands Vins, the famous chateaux whose pricey wines improve for decades. But the varied terroirs of Bordeaux also produce some terrific “petit vins,” which share the same soils and grapes, but are more accessible for both the palate and the pocket.

Fleuron de Liot is a tiny, Burgundy-sized domaine run by the Negrier family. Their Saint-Estèphe is 50/50 Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, a humble, traditional, simply delicious Left-Bank Bordeaux. It doesn’t carry the prestige or airworthiness of Cos d’Estournel or Montrose, but that’s not its game.

The 2019 Fleuron de Liot is a delight – with notes of plums, tobacco, pencil shavings, and gravel in the nose, the mouth remains sturdy and juicy, perfect for a weeknight plate of steak frites. Pour it into a decanter a few hours before your meal, and let it come to room temperature. Nobody will guess you paid less than $50.

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Fleuron de Liot St-Estèphe 2019
bottle price: $32

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The Loire Valley continues to be one of the most exciting corners of winemaking in France. Organic viticulture, balanced wines, and affordable prices are the rule here rather than the exception. We find ourselves reaching for Loire reds often these days, whatever the occasion – they’re characterful, refreshing, complex and downright tasty.

Our favorite source for these delicious reds is the Domaine des Sanzay, an organic fixture of Saumur-Champigny in the central Loire. Their unblended Cabernet Franc wines have become highly popular in our warehouse, with their simple Saumur red and old-vine cuvée opening tasters’ eyes to a new expression of the grape. But today we’re focused on their most impressive wine, an old-vine single parcel cuvée – a Cab Franc with real presence.

With 60+ year old vines and giving small yields and very intense fruit, Sanzay’s 2018 “Dares” cuvée has taken a few years to settle down. But today it’s magnificent and is only beginning to show its character. Vinous’s Loire Valley reviewer Rebecca Gibb MW found “masses of well-handled tannins, fruit depth and classy vanilla oak…powerful and well-made.” Well-aged Cabernet Franc can rival Burgundy for subtlety and depth, and this is a perfect example.

This isn’t quite to the level of its iconic neighbor Clos Rougeard, but at $32 (rather than $320), it might be a better buy.

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Sanzay Saumur-Champigny “Dares” 2018
bottle price: $32

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Michel Gros tends vines in some of Burgundy’s most famous towns: Vosne-Romanée, Chambolle-Musigny, Nuits-St-Georges, etc. But he also makes terrific wine in the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits, a hilly sub-region just west of the famous Côte d’Or. The terroirs are more varied and the grapes ripen a bit slower, but Michel coaxes terrific wine from these less famous hillsides, and their pricetag is far friendlier

Gros’s finest wine from the Hautes-Côtes is “Fontaine-St-Martin,” a cuvée from perfect soils that in good vintages offers the complexity and elegance of his village wines, if perhaps a bit less site specificity. Today we’re offering up our last few cases of the 2016 Hautes-Côtes “Fontaine-St-Martin,” a wine at peak maturity, and one to be had for under $50.

The 2016 Fontaine-St-Martin punches well above its weight. It sports the vintage’s intricate, fine-grained tannins, with dark blue fruit, and floral notes of violets and roses. Now 7 years on from harvest, it shows delicate dried red fruits and a beautiful patinated palate.Master of Wine Julia Harding (via JancisRobinson.com) called it, “Dry, tight and fresh, elegant and refined … just a lovely, complete wine and well priced.”

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Gros Hautes-Côtes “Fontaine-St-Martin” 2016
bottle price: $45

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The South of France has always been hot, but like everywhere else, it’s getting hotter. Even with grape varietals adapted to warm climates, winemakers often struggle to achieve freshness in their wines.

One winemaker who doesn’t struggle is Nicolas Haeni of the Domaine Malmont in Séguret. Haeni’s vines lie on a terraced slope in the hills above Séguret, perfectly positioned to offset the blazing hot Provencal sun. The Malmont terroir is cooler and breezier, enabling the grapes to reach maturity without becoming baked or dried out.

Now with a few years in the bottle, Nicolas’s 2019 Séguret “Petit Rouge” is simply delightful, and a real bargain. It’s 70/30 syrah/grenache, raised in stainless steel, and alcohol clocking in at a cool 13.5%. The nose is dark and complex with classic syrah notes of violets and blackberry — by nose you might mistake it for a Northern Rhône pure syrah. But in the mouth the grenache shines through a bit more, with beautiful depth a splash of red fruit and cinnamon.

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Malmont Séguret “Petit Rouge” 2019
bottle price: $22

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The 2020 white Burgundies have been almost universally terrific. The drought caused many chardonnay vines simply to shut down mid-season, stalling the production of their sugars and in the end producing wines with both a ripe concentration and tremendous energy. We’ve bought just about all the 2020s we could get our hands on, and they’ve rightly disappeared from the warehouse at quite a clip. We’ve just added what’s likely our final cuvée from the vintage.

Nicolas Maillet is a well-known organic source in the Maconnais, Burgundy’s southernmost region. Maillet is a bear of a man with a quick smile and burly enthusiasm to match his impressive stature. His wines are characterful and charming, and still a bargain – William Kelley calls his Macon-Verzé “one of the Mâconnais’s perennial values.”

Maillet’s Macon-Verzé 2020 comes from vines on chalk-limestone soils, and offers beautiful tension, with terrific length and structure, and not a hint of wood. There’s a shimmering golden character to this wine that makes it irresistible. William Kelley found notes of “green apple, honeysuckle and orange blossom,” calling it “ample and lively wine that’s pure and mouthwatering.” It’s a perfect aperitif wine – a complete mouthful on its own. Serve it with anything and nothing.

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Maillet Macon-Verzé 2020
bottle price: $32

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Chablis continues to be a haven of terrific value Burgundy. After several scorching hot vintages in which the crisp, piercing soul of old-school Chablis seemed temporarily offstage, 2021 provided a return to traditional form. A cooler, wetter, trickier growing season pushed harvest into late September, and the wines are effortlessly tasty in a vintage that was anything but.

Romain Collet dabbles with modern, oak-infused Chablis, and the wines are tasty if not exactly traditional. But our favorites are always the classics: plenty of stony freshness, low or no toast, and clean zippy finishes. Romain’s 2021s are exquisite – Burghound called them “entirely classic” – and lovers of old school Chablis will find much to like. Collet’s vines in the Vaillons 1er Cru are between 55 and 60 years old, and they produce a nicely balanced wine, with good concentration and well-supported ripeness.

Jasper Morris found the bouquet “both stylish and typical, stones with lemon zest.” Burghound praised its “cool and airy aromas,” its “intense and attractively sleek” flavors, and its “lovely minerality.” The Burgundy pricing bubble still hasn’t floated up to Chablis, and we think this is tremendously polished sub-$40 white Burgundy.

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Collet Chablis 1er “Vaillons” 2021
bottle price: $38

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Much of the world’s syrah is rich, velvety and mouthcoating. But in the Northern Rhône Valley, syrah draws its strength from subtlety. Here delicate aromas of violets, perfume, smoke and stones combine with fresh mouthfeel and vibrant texture. Northern Rhône Syrah is a marriage of dark-fruited complexion with elegance and pep.

Our best value here are Denis Basset’s organic Crozes-Hermitage cuvées. They sport the texture of a fresh Beaujolais but with the dark fruits of Syrah. Basset’s “Etincelle” cuvée is the sort of wine you’d find in a wine bar – simple, refreshing, punchy and delicious.

This is wine you can snack on: settle into an armchair after a long day of work, or sip a glass while you cook dinner.

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St-Clair Crozes-Hermitage “Etincelle” 2020
bottle price: $25

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Our first two vintages with the Forces Telluriques have been wildly popular. The magnificent, unoaked, biodynamic white Burgundy has quickly become a reader favorite. It shouldn’t surprise anyone, really – you won’t find the Forces Telluriques label on any CellarTracker accounts (except Ansonia customers), but the wine in the bottle is from an iconic Mâconnais source with an exclusive importer for the primary label.

The family who creates this wine are true believers in the theory of biodynamics — minimal vineyard intervention in the vines, meticulous and hands-off winemaking. William Kelley calls them “one of the best producers in the Mâconnais “ producing “ honeyed, concentrated wines that are imbued with remarkable concentration and energy.”

The 2021 has just arrived in our warehouse, and it’s both exceptional and unique. Our last two vintages (2018 and 2020) were lush and ripe, with gorgeous golden richness and plenty of body. The 2021 vintage brought cooler and wetter weather, resulting in more botrytis than usual in the vines. This “noble rot,” generally considered a malady in Côte d’Or white Burgundies, is often embraced in the Maconnais. The resulting wine is dry, but with exquisite, delightful notes of botrytis.

The 2021 Forces Telluriques is a triumph. The domaine harvested slowly, over about 15 days, achieving 13.2% naturally – a real feat in a cool vintage. The resulting wine is superb, showing ripeness without weight, a wine that is lively and alive. The Wine Advocate’s William Kelley gave 93 points, finding “Aromas of clear honey, white flowers, beeswax and sweet spices” calling it “a suave and vibrant wine that’s satiny, bright and fine-boned, concluding with a bright, gently exotic finish.”

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Forces Telluriques Viré-Clessé 2021
bottle price: $45

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Christophe Mestre and his wife are from old Châteauneuf du Pape families. Like many such families, their vines are in plots scattered across the town’s remarkably diverse terroir. The Mestres makes a single red cuvée from these terroirs, seeking an expression of the appellation as a whole. It’s always delicious, and always well priced.

Mestre’s just arrived 2020 Châteauneuf-du-Pape is rich and beautiful, with lush fruit and an easy, appealing texture. The Wine Advocate awarded 91 points, calling it “an attractive effort” with “softly dusty tannins” and a “silky impression on the full-bodied palate.” We agree, and think this should offer pure, uncomplicated delight for the next five years. Some Châteauneuf requires years of patience to reach its potential – Mestre’s is delicious today.

The nose explodes with ripe strawberry fruit and a pleasant cool earthiness. Despite a blistering hot year, Christophe managed to build tannins behind the fruit beautifully, and this wine is well defined and not the least bit flabby. With chilly weather here for a while, this is as useful and cozy as a new pair of wool socks.

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Mestre Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2020
bottle price: $35

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