Author: Thomas Wilcox

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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Every January we search our lineup for an early bird Futures offer that isn’t Poggerino’s Chianti Classico, and every year we come up short. It’s simply one of the best values in our portfolio, and somehow seems to get better every single year. This year’s sample is even more packed with flavor than usual, and its many (many!) fans will be delighted.

“The 2021 Chianti Classico is exceptional.” Thus begins Antonio Galloni’s review of Poggerino’s flagship wine, and having just tasted a sample, we wholeheartedly agree. We found the same gorgeous floral, dusty nose as always, with perhaps a deeper plum fruit profile than usual. The mouth carries an extra dose of richness and length.

Galloni awarded 93 points, finding “lavender, spice, menthol, licorice, and tobacco,” and calling it “racy and layered.” Jancis Robinson’s reviewer found it “fantastic,” calling it “long, intense and concentrated, with bags of polished tannins that never dominate the fruit.” This is many readers’ house wine, and loyal customers will be thrilled with the new vintage. For those unfamiliar, this is good a value as any in our cellar, and one you won’t regret adding to yours.

Poggerino Chianti Classico 2021: $250/case

Email Tom to reserve this wine

Available by the case and half case; expected arrival March 2024

Philippe Cheron is one of the most exciting winemakers in our portfolio. He’s not new to the job – indeed he’s spent his life making wine around the Côte d’Or. But his newly created Domaine du Couvent, a combination of his family plots and the old Domaine des Varoilles, is an outstanding collection of properties, and Cheron himself is a master.

He told us that Chambolle has always been his favorite town, and so when the opportunity arose to acquire some vines there last year he jumped at the chance. Cheron’s newest cuvée is Chambolle-Musigny 1er cru “les Fuesselottes,” and even though he had to give up some Grand Cru Charmes-Chambertin wines to get it, we’re awfully glad he did.

The inaugural vintage 2021 Couvent Fuesselottes is magnificent, with distinctly floral aromas of violets and briary blackberries. Burghound awarded 90-93 points, as well as his “outstanding” distinction, finding “a wafting, airy and elegant nose [that] displays perfumed notes of rose petal, herbal tea, spice and essence of red cherry.” He concluded: “This is classic Feusselottes.”

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Couvent Chambolle-Musigny 1er cru
“Fuessellotes” 2021
bottle price: $150
2+ bottle price: $127.50 (use code FRIDAY)

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The style of winemaking in Chablis is somewhat in flux these days. Recent hot summers in Chablis have meant a departure from the stony, crystalline expression of old. These richer, rounder wines can handle more oak, and some winemakers have extended their elevage, creating wines with richness and complexity to rival those of the Côte d’Or.

Not Cyril Gautheron. To him such wines may be tasty, but they’re not Chablis. Gautheron has doubled down on the classic style, dialing back his oak in some places, and relying solely on terroir and fruit for expression. The results are magnificent. From a cool, wet vintage, his 2021s may be small in number, but they are nothing short of exquisite.

One of our favorite Gautheron wines in recent years has been his “Fourneaux,” a premier cru raised entirely in steel. White peaches and lemon peel join chalk and minerals in the nose. The mouth is pure and lithe with exquisite tension and a long, beautiful finish. A perfect example of classical Chablis, and exceptional pricing that somehow still accompanies it.

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Gautheron Chablis 1er “Fourneaux” 2021
bottle price: $42

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Roget Belland’s wines are too tasty. His wines age well, but they’re so delicious and approachable young that most don’t last long in our cellar. He uses a long, slow fermentation to produce reds with ripe fruit and beautiful aromatics.

In 2020 Belland’s friendly style compliments an unusually dense vintage, and the resulting wines are elegant, refined, and packed with flavor. Winemaker Martin Boyer has expertly balanced the lush fruit of the vintage with clean freshness and stony precision.

Belland’s Santenay 1er Gravieres 2020 is fresh and lively, with exquisite floral notes and a fine mineral nose of stones and roses. The mouth is crisp and fresh with excellent length. There’s classic juicy 2020 fruit, but it’s not a bit overripe – the stony fruit is perfectly supported by careful tannins. Burghound gave 90 points, finding it “attractively textured,” “seductive,” and “refreshing.” Serve with roast chicken or pork chops.

 

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Belland Santenay 1er “Gravieres” 2020
bottle price: $49

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