Author: Thomas Wilcox
Mixed Case: White Burgundy Under $30
Chardonnay inhabits nearly every corner of the wine world, but nowhere does it reach the same expression as in Burgundy. The gently sloping hillsides of Burgundy are uniquely suited to growing perfectly balanced Chardonnay — sunny enough to ripen grapes fully, but northern enough to retain enough acidity to provide lively freshness.
We’ve put together a collection of four white Burgundies and set the price under $30 per bottle. Two are premier crus from Chablis, and two are from the Côte d’Or — one from the northern end, and a Premier Cru from the southern end. There’s no wrong time to drink white Burgundy, but a cool glass on a sweltering July day may be the most right.
Collet Chablis 1er cru 2013
Jean Collet is a well known family domaine in the heart of Chablis, where they make pure, classic Chablis. Their Premier Cru Forets is rich and ripe, with notes of pear and straw, crisp minerality, refreshing acidity, and a careful use of oak.
Thomas St-Aubin 1er cru 2014
Gérard Thomas and his daughters make excellent wine from their hometown of St-Aubin, a source for some of Burgundy’s greatest values. Their 1er cru St-Aubin is an exquisitely balanced white Burgundy with notes of lemon peel, toast, wild honey, and almond.
Gros Hautes-Côtes de Nuits blanc 2013
Michel Gros is best known for his classic red Burgundies from Vosne Romanée. But he also makes an excellent white from the hills to the west of his domaine. This is round and full with notes of hazelnut and baked lemon, and in 2013 comes with exceptional balance.
Gautheron Chablis 1er cru Vaucoupin 2014
Cyril Gautheron is among the rising stars in Chablis. His wines are made from pure, unoaked Chardonnay at its most elemental. His premier cru Chablis is full and elegant — there’s classic Chablis minerality behind the dense, rich core of Chardonnay fruit.
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MIXED CASE:
WHITE BURGUNDY UNDER $30
3x COLLET Chablis 1er cru 13: $34
3x THOMAS St-Aubin 1er cru 14: $40
3x GROS Hautes-Côtes de Nuits blanc 13: $36
3x GAUTHERON Chablis 1er cru 14: $30
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Ansonia Retail: $420
mixed case price: $325/case
(free East Coast shipping) | save $95
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70-Year-Old Vines in Gevrey-Chambertin
Muscle. Gevrey-Chambertin is the largest appellation of Burgundy’s Côte d’Or. And because of its clay rich soils, its wines are of a similarly grand scale. Known for power and longevity, Gevrey-Chambertin often shows dark, intense fruit and a sturdy tannic structure.
Gérard Quivy’s vines in his tiny two-acre En Champs vineyard date to around 1945, or just after VE Day. The yield from these vines has dropped significantly in the decades since, but the quality of their fruit has improved each year. Quivy’s style is silkiness and elegance, which harmonizes well with Gevrey’s typical muscular fruit.
Cinnamon. This year’s Guide Hachette, the premier French language wine guide, describes Quivy as “undoubtedly one of the reference points in the appellation.” This helps confirm what our noses told us last summer — Quivy is an uncommon and exceptional find.
The 2012 En Champs is beautifully expressive in the nose: notes of charcoal, toast, and graham cracker join dense jammy red fruit. In the mouth it is typically Gevrey: plenty of ripe tannin alongside pleasant young briary fruit. As with Quivy’s other village level Gevrey “Journaux,” additional patience will be rewarded, but isn’t required — today this is handsome, crisp young Burgundy in unusually elegant dress.
Decant this for an hour or more, serve near room temperature, and pair with skirt steaks.
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QUIVY Gevrey-Chambertin “Champs” 2012
Ansonia Retail: $50
quarter-case: $42/bot
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AVAILABLE IN 3- 6- AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS
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or call Tom: (617) 249-3657
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Terms of sale. Ansonia Wines MA sells wine to individual consumers who are 21 or more years of age, for personal consumption and not for resale. All sales are completed and title passes to purchasers in Massachusetts. Ansonia Wines MA arranges for shipping on behalf of its customers upon request and where applicable laws permit.
Classic Puligny-Montrachet: Pear, Lemon, and Stone
Royauté. “Puligny-Montrachet is the greatest white wine commune on earth.” Thus begins the chapter on the town in Clive Coates’s seminal tome on Burgundy. The tiny appellation covers less than a single square mile, and though neighbored on either side by the legendary towns of Meursault and Chassagne, many consider Puligny the source for the world’s finest white wine.
What makes Puligny-Montrachet so special? On the ground, it’s a combination of soil content (limestone, clay, and other minerals), slope, and exposition. In the glass, it’s a white Burgundy with added structure, more tension, and a beautiful, angular elegance. As Coates puts it, “Puligny is where Burgundian Chardonnay is at its most complete.”
Elegance. We visited Vincent Boyer last month to taste at his cellar, and it was a reminder just how exceptional his wines are. Most of Boyer’s vines are in Meursault, but his wine from the small plot in Puligny-Montrachet “Reuchaux” is as elegant and vibrant as his others. The 2013 Reuchaux shows pear and lemon peel, with classic, steely Puligny minerality. This is a precise, elegant chardonnay with its subtle oak meticulously integrated.
Puligny famously ages well, and this should weather the next 5 years with grace. But it’s already fleshing out nicely, and when combined with Puligny’s signature stoniness, it’s a perfect accompaniment to a range of classic food-pairings — roast chicken, fish in beurre blanc, etc. Vincent himself counsels serving scallops with this wine. We think the match would be excellent, and we offer one of our favorite recipes as a suggestion.
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BOYER-MARTENOT Puligny-Montrachet “Reuchaux” 2013
Ansonia Retail: $66
quarter-case: $54/bot
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AVAILABLE IN 3- 6- AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS
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or call Tom: (617) 249-3657
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Terms of sale. Ansonia Wines MA sells wine to individual consumers who are 21 or more years of age, for personal consumption and not for resale. All sales are completed and title passes to purchasers in Massachusetts. Ansonia Wines MA arranges for shipping on behalf of its customers upon request and where applicable laws permit.
New Everyday Cabernet. $15
Well-traveled. Cabernet Sauvignon is the world’s most widely planted grape. It’s grown everywhere — from Bordeaux to Brazil to British Columbia — and comes in a wide variety of textures and expressions. Cabernet Sauvignon is a cross, likely spontaneous, between Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon blanc — a gift from the winemaking gods.
Today’s Cabernet is unlike any we’ve ever had. Grown in the rugged Ardèche region of central southern France, the “Cab” from the Domaine des Accoles is dark, juicy, and earthy. Accoles commitment to biodynamic farming and natural winemaking is clear in this complex wine. It’s distinctly Cabernet, but it’s just as distinctly Accoles.
Blackcurrants. Accoles is the project of Olivier Leriche, who brings a Burgundian elegance to his wines, including old-vine grenache, syrah, and carignan. Leriche, late of Burgundy’s famous Domaine de l’Arlot, established the Domaine des Accoles a few years ago. His first few vintages have been met with much acclaim, and his wines appear in restaurants by Michael Mina and Daniel Boulud, among others.
“Cab des Acolytes” is distinctive and delicious. Olivier has blended a touch of Grenache into the wine to soften the mouthfeel, but the wine does not lack for character or complexity. Notes of earthy, wild blackcurrants dominate, and the palate is juicy, rich, and exuberant. At 12.5% alcohol it’s dark but perfectly balanced, making it well suited for hot weather. Olivier recommends charcuterie and sheep-milk cheeses as a pairing.
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ACCOLES Cab’ des Acolytes 2014
Ansonia Retail: $20
case, half-case: $15/bot
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AVAILABLE IN 6- AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS
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or call Tom: (617) 249-3657
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Terms of sale. Ansonia Wines MA sells wine to individual consumers who are 21 or more years of age, for personal consumption and not for resale. All sales are completed and title passes to purchasers in Massachusetts. Ansonia Wines MA arranges for shipping on behalf of its customers upon request and where applicable laws permit.
Crisp, Bone-Dry Alsatian Riesling for the Summer Heat.
Dry. Francis Muré’s Alsatian Riesling has long been one of our most popular wines. We’ve used this wine to cure dozens of tasters of their “Riesling fear” — it’s bone-dry, crisp, and as refreshing as a Sancerre or Chablis. There’s plenty of sweet, heavy, uninteresting Riesling around, but after one taste of this and you’ll want to reexamine the grape.
Francis Muré makes delicious wines is his Alsatian hill town of Westhalten. The charming narrow streets are lined with flower boxes, and when Muré steals away from his vines or his cellar it’s to make his own delicious duck confit or smoke his own local brook trout. He’s an artisan in every way, and his wines are a perfect expression of their bucolic origin.
Fresh. Muré’s Riesling is a perfect match for the summer heat. The nose is bright and floral, with notes of lime, mango, and spring flowers. The mouth is dry and crisp, with a wonderfully lively mouthfeel — there’s plenty of rich, mouthfilling fruit, balanced by a bright line of citrus and minerals.
We drink Muré’s Riesling year round — it pairs beautifully with Asian cuisine, particularly those with a bit of spice. But in the summer, it’s almost a necessity. For a cocktail party or outdoor barbecue, there’s little more refreshing than a chilled glass of this Riesling. Just don’t tell your guests what grape it is until they’ve tried it.
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MURÉ Riesling 2014
Ansonia Retail: $20
case, half-case: $15.95/bot
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AVAILABLE IN 6- AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS
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or call Tom: (617) 249-3657
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Terms of sale. Ansonia Wines MA sells wine to individual consumers who are 21 or more years of age, for personal consumption and not for resale. All sales are completed and title passes to purchasers in Massachusetts. Ansonia Wines MA arranges for shipping on behalf of its customers upon request and where applicable laws permit.
Advance Order: Small-Batch, Classic Left Bank Bordeaux from a New Source
A find. Burgundy and Bordeaux are the two giants French wine. In nearly every aspect — style, tradition, grape varietal, scale — they are opposites. As a small père et fils enterprise, Ansonia’s model fits far better with Burgundy, and we work with more than four Burgundy sources for every one in Bordeaux.
But the wines of Bordeaux continue to intrigue us, and we’re always on the hunt for a Burgundy-scale producer from the southwestern coast. Earlier this month we struck gold — a small family domaine in Saint-Estèphe whose wines have never been exported to the US.
Left Bank. The catch with much of Bordeaux is its need for cellaring. The finest Bordeaux demand investment and perfect timing — the more expensive a wine is, the more you’ll want to make sure you’re opening it at peak maturity. Our new Bordeaux source provides a bit of wiggle room — for two reasons.
First, price: at $275 a case, precise timing isn’t crucial for a satisfying return on investment. The drinking window for this wine is more opinion than fact: it’s delicious now and will be even better in five years. And second, vintage: Bordeauxphiles consider 2014 the finest vintage since 2010. Particularly in the Haut Medoc towns of Paulliac and St-Estèphe, the year produced ripe, forward wines that will drink well without lengthy cellaring.
The Fleuron de Liot is a blend of equal parts Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, made from a tiny 1.5 acre plot in Saint-Estèphe. The wine is inky and dark, with plum and dark cherries in the nose. The mouth is dense and full, with solid ripe tannins and low oak, notes of cedar and licorice, and a long, velvety texture.
Velvet. With a concentrated mouthfeel and rich, dark fruit, this wine should develop for at least another 5-7 years. But given time to breathe, it’s beautifully drinkable today — we opened a bottle around lunch, and the glass we had after dinner (8 hours later) was the tastiest. Put a case in your cellar and watch this wine develop over the next 1-2 presidential administrations. (Depending on who wins you may need an second case.)
We don’t claim to be experts on Bordeaux, but we’re pretty sure we can spot a very well-made wine that’s also a bargain. Here’s our latest find.
NOTE: This wine is part of our upcoming July Futures Issue, which offers near-wholesale pricing through advance orders. The rest of the Futures Issue will be released on Sunday July 3.
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FLEURON DE LIOT Saint-Estèphe 2014
Ansonia Retail: $420
Futures Price: $275/case ($22.91/bot)
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AVAILABLE IN 6- AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS
NOTE: THIS IS AN ADVANCE ORDER. WE EXPECT THIS WINE TO ARRIVE IN LATE AUGUST.
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or call Tom: (617) 249-3657
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Terms of sale. Ansonia Wines MA sells wine to individual consumers who are 21 or more years of age, for personal consumption and not for resale. All sales are completed and title passes to purchasers in Massachusetts. Ansonia Wines MA arranges for shipping on behalf of its customers upon request and where applicable laws permit.
15-Year-Old Premier Cru Red Burgundy
Alchemy. Time can have an extraordinary effect on a bottle of wine. Not all wines are meant to age, and indeed the world’s style continues to shift towards early maturity. But for wines that are designed to be cellared, the transformation by bottle aging is nothing short of magic.
The Domaine Pierre Bourée builds wines for the long haul. Where many Burgundian winemakers destem their grapes for softer tannins and earlier maturity, Bourée uses only ambient yeasts, and ferments whole clusters for several days, allowing tannins from the skins to soak fully into the juice. It’s an old-school style, rare in an era where patience is in short supply.
Lucky for us, Bourée has supplied the patience. Today’s wine is a 15 year old Santenay 1er cru — a wine built for aging, which also happens to be perfectly aged. It hasn’t moved from the domaine since it was bottled, save for a quick one-way trip to Boston a few months ago.
Sous-bois. We tasted a lot of young Pinot Noir in the last few weeks — the next few vintages from Burgundy will be excellent and relatively approachable young. But it’s nice to remember what patience and proper cellaring can achieve. Bourée’s 2001 Santenay 1er cru “Gravières” is complex and delicious after its decade-plus of quiet repose; a glimpse back into a older style from a slower time.
The 01 Gravières is elegant and beautiful, with delicate, softened tannins and an enchanting bouquet. The nose shows toasted cherries, dried roses, and a classic old-Pinot earthiness. The mouth is smooth and full, showing dried prunes, mushrooms, and underbrush. Pick a Sunday afternoon, open a bottle of this Santenay, put a fine roast in the oven, and remember that some things are worth waiting for.
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BOURÉE Santenay 1er cru “Gravières” 2001
Ansonia Retail: $50
case, half-case: $42/bot
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AVAILABLE IN 6- AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS
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or call Tom: (617) 249-3657
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Terms of sale. Ansonia Wines MA sells wine to individual consumers who are 21 or more years of age, for personal consumption and not for resale. All sales are completed and title passes to purchasers in Massachusetts. Ansonia Wines MA arranges for shipping on behalf of its customers upon request and where applicable laws permit.
July Fourth Mixed Cases
The July Fourth weekend is just nine days away. A local beer might seem the patriotic choice, but we’ll throw our hat into the ring in case you’re moved to support your enterprising local importers. It was the struggle against import tariffs, after all, that helped kick off this whole experiment.
We’ve put together two mixed cases for your holiday wine needs. The first — July Fourth Sampler — is a mix of two crisp, refreshing whites, and two dense, delicious reds; a perfect mix for a holiday gathering. The second — the Summer Grilling Sampler — is all red; four wines with hints of smokiness to pair with steaks, burgers, and vegetables from the grill.
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Mixed Case: July Fourth Sampler
Maillet Macon-Villages 2014 ($26)
elegant, floral, unoaked, white Burgundy
Lehoul Graves blanc 2015 ($24)
crisp, refreshing Sauvignon Blanc from Bordeaux
Bagatelle Veillée d’Automne 13 ($24)
dark, mineral syrah-blend from the Languedoc
Saint-Clair Crozes-Hermitage 13 ($26)
peppery, balanced, pure syrah from Northern Rhône
Retail: $300
Case Price: $235/case ($19.58/bot)
FREE EAST COAST SHIPPING
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Mixed Case: Summer Grilling Sampler
Goubert Sablet 2012 ($18)
classic, smooth, woodsy, delicious Côtes du Rhône
Bagatelle Veillée d’Automne 13 ($24)
dark, mineral syrah-blend from the Languedoc
Saint-Clair Crozes-Hermitage 13 ($26)
peppery, balanced, pure syrah from Northern Rhône
Lehoul Graves rouge 2012 ($30)
classic blend of Merlot and Cabernet from Bordeaux
Retail: $294
Case Price: $235/case ($19.58/bot)
FREE EAST COAST SHIPPING
Tasting Trip Video Blog: Trip Recap
Cool, Dark Syrah for a Summer Barbecue. $18
Balance. For winemakers in Burgundy, finding enough sun is a perennial concern, and an unusually rainy year like 2016 can make life difficult. In the Languedoc, France’s southernmost region, the concern is just the opposite: how to harvest grapes with enough acidity to preserve freshness.
It’s no surprise, then, that our favorite Languedoc wines often come from high-elevation zones, where cool breezes encourage balance. Located high in the schist-laden hills of St-Chinian, the Clos Bagatelle is a centuries old domaine that makes delicious, refreshing syrah-based reds.
Crisp. Today’s offer is for Clos Bagatelle’s “Veillée d’Automne,” a majority syrah wine that also includes carignan and cinsault. The nose shows plums and dark fruits; the mouth is chewy and dense, with a hint of toast and a crisp mineral line that balances the ripe fruit.
This wine works well on its own at a cocktail party, but our favorite pairing is with something grilled. With July Fourth around the corner we have hamburgers and hotdogs in mind, but grilled vegetables and shish kabobs will also pair nicely.
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BAGATELLE “Veillée d’Automne” 13
Ansonia Retail: $24
case, half-case: $18/bot
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AVAILABLE IN 6- AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS
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or call Tom: (617) 249-3657
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Terms of sale. Ansonia Wines MA sells wine to individual consumers who are 21 or more years of age, for personal consumption and not for resale. All sales are completed and title passes to purchasers in Massachusetts. Ansonia Wines MA arranges for shipping on behalf of its customers upon request and where applicable laws permit.
Tasting Trip Video Blog: Day 13
09 Red Burgundy from a Master Winemaker.
Le weekend. We spent some fine days with winemaker Michel Gros this weekend. On Friday afternoon we toured his vines with some friends from Boston, then returned to his cellar for a vertical tasting of his family’s monopole. Then last night he and his wife joined us (and 600 others) for a grand dinner in the cave of the Chateau de Clos de Vougeot.
Gros is as modest as his wines are extraordinary – he regularly wins international awards for the wines he makes in “the greatest Pinot Noir village on earth.” (Clive Coates MW) And yet he’s happiest working in his vines, reminding us that great wines come first from vineyard work. More often than not he’s washing dirt from his hands as we arrive for a tasting.
This week we tasted Gros’s exceptional 2014s from cuve — (they will be bottled next month and available in November Futures). But we’ve already got quite a bit of Gros at the warehouse – and today we’re offering one of our favorites.
Silk and Earth. The 2009 vintage was a banner year in Burgundy – perfectly healthy, ripe grapes, and plenty of them. Today we’re offering Gros’s 2009 Morey-St-Denis, a plot from which Michel makes fewer than 1000 bottles each year. Michel’s vines in Morey are exceptionally well-situated, in a vineyard adjoining the Clos des Lambrays, the Clos de Tart, and Bonnes Mares, three of the region’s most famous Grand Crus.
We have tasted a lot of wine over the past few weeks, and more than a little red Burgundy – but Gros’s wines continue to stand out. This Morey-St-Denis is pinot noir at its very finest – ripe, round fruit from the famous vintage, now slightly softened six years on from the harvest, a silky and smooth mouthfeel with notes of cherries and toast, and a delicate, lace-like minerality.
We wish all of our readers could have joined us at the Clos Vougeot last night, but in its place we can offer an exceptional wine from one of Burgundy’s finest citizens. Decant this for a half hour and use your biggest Burgundy glasses – you might even hear some singing below the rim.
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GROS Morey-St-Denis 2009
Ansonia Retail: $76
quarter-case: $68/bot
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AVAILABLE IN 3- 6- AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS
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or call Tom: (617) 249-3657
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Terms of sale. Ansonia Wines MA sells wine to individual consumers who are 21 or more years of age, for personal consumption and not for resale. All sales are completed and title passes to purchasers in Massachusetts. Ansonia Wines MA arranges for shipping on behalf of its customers upon request and where applicable laws permit.
Tasting Blog: Day Twelve
DAY TWELVE | Beaune, Vosne-Romanée | 6.17.16
No new tastings today, but a full day of events. We spent the morning with the visiting Boston Chapter of the Chevaliers du Tastevin — we visited domaine in Beaune whose vines are in Pommard, and did a fascinating 10 year vertical of the Pommard, stretching back to 2005.
In the afternoon we met up with the Chevaliers again, this time in Vosne-Romanée, where Michel Gros took us on a tour of his vines at the Clos Vougeot. After explaining the history of the Clos and the effect of the subtle variations in soil content, slope, and exposition, we headed back to the domaine for a tasting. We began with a sample of 2015 en fut, and then continued on with a horizontal tasting of Vosne and Nuits 1er crus in 2012, and then a vertical of the Monopole Vosne 1er cru Clos des Réas. For a finale, a 2005 Clos Vougeot, from the plot we stood in an hour before: an personal and enjoyable tasting for all.
For dinner we visited “La Buisonnière,” and had one of the best meals of the trip. Chorizo boudin noir, ris de veau, and souris d’agneau. Jura tomorrow.
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