Author: Thomas Wilcox
Floral, Refreshing Gamay from Beaujolais. $22
Spring Flowers. We spent last Friday morning in the Beaujolais. It’s a charming region — really a 30 mile vineyard punctuated by a handful of villages. The region’s most widely distributed wine is an inexpensive and insipid red that’s rushed to market several weeks after the harvest. But as connoisseurs have known for years, there’s far more to Beaujolais than meets the eye.
The region is split into 10 small appellations called “Crus,” each with its own distinct character. Among the most respected is Fleurie, a small village whose wines tend show a floral character — violets, dried roses, and lavender, among others. Our producer here is the Chateau de Juliénas, whose Fleurie 2013 is classic, bright, and lovely.
Summer Red. Wines from the Crus of Beaujolais are made from Gamay, the same grape used to make Beaujolais Nouveau. But given time to ripen properly and a year or more to mature, real Beaujolais is a different thing entirely from its simple bacchanal cousin. The Chateau de Juliénas’s Fleurie is lively and vibrant, showing the carefree joie-de-vivre for which the Beaujolais region is known.
For those in search of a refreshing summer red wine, look no further. Chill this a bit below cellar temperature, close your eyes, and you’ll be transported to a Paris brasserie on a summer afternoon. The Fleurie is crisp, refreshing and full of energy, with notes of wild cherries and raspberry jam.
If a food pairing is necessary, find some young goat cheese and a cracker or crusty bread. Otherwise, this wine requires only a Friday afternoon, a friend or two, and a place from which to watch the world go by.
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CHATEAU DE JULIÉNAS Fleurie 2013
Ansonia Retail: $26
case, half-case: $22/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.
Travel Blog: Day Eight
DAY EIGHT | Hautes-Côtes de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin, Vosne-Romanée, Beaune | 6.13.16
Coffee, baguettes, and Beurre d’Isigny this morning — strikes and lunch breaks notwithstanding, there’s something civilized about a country with a protected AOC for butter.
A half-hour drive over the gently rolling hills of the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits to a new address, this time for crème de cassis. Based on the recommendation of a vigneron in Vosne, we hit the perfect source on the first try. The family has been producing crèmes since at least the 1600s — for some reason that’s as far as their records go — and today makes tiny batches of crèmes de cassis, framboise, pèche, and cerise. After a tour of the workshop and explanation of their biodynamic commitments, we set to tasting the most extraordinary crèmes we’ve ever tasted: at once dense, sweet, vibrant, crisp, and refreshing. An exciting and perfect addition to the Ansonia portfolio, coming this fall.
Lunch back in Beaune, and a few new maps from the Atheneum, then back up to Gevrey for a tasting of back vintages of an old school style. Excellent whites and a 2014 red that should handsomely reward a few years’ patience.
Finally our tasting in Vosne — without doubt a highlight of our annual trip, and this time as good as ever. These are silky, crisp, dense but croquant wines that will be overshadowed by the 2015s, but in any other context would be exceptional. A Morey-St-Denis and Vosne 1er cru stand out.
Afterwards we taste samples from Champagne — extraordinary complexity, and even better than last year’s batch. Plenty to like in the sparkling category. Dinner at Ma Cuisine — a 2010 Meursault, and 09 Vouvray from Huet are stars; epoisses as always, the Fromage des Rois, and Roi des Fromages.
Tasting Trip Video Blog: Day Eight
Pure, No-Oak, Premier Cru White Burgundy.
Value. Chablis has had a rough year so far. With hailstorms and late frosts devastating the region this spring, our conversations during yesterday’s tastings all turned to the cruel whims of Mother Nature. It would have been an entirely depressing visit had it not been for the two most recent, truly excellent vintages already in the cellars.
The wines of 2014 and 2015 include some of the freshest, most drinkable Chablis we can remember. Our favorite wine from Cyril Gautheron is his premier cru Vaucoupin, a wine that marries the richness and complexity of a premier cru with the classic stony freshness of Chablis. The 2015 won’t be available for many months, but there’s no need to wait for the 2014 — it’s already at the depot in Newton.
Pure. Many young Chablis winemakers use oak in their premier crus to add richness and depth, but with his Chablis 1er cru Vaucoupin Gautheron avoids this temptation. This wine is entirely vat raised, allowing the wine’s natural complexity and minerality to shine through. Today the 2014 shows a ripe, savory, and lemon zest nose alongside a beautiful chalky minerality. The mouth is rich but precise, with a hint of salinity next to the citrus and stones.
This is a perfect summer white — it’s rich enough to serve on its own at a cocktail party, yet zippy enough to match even a flavorful fish or shellfish dish. Sushi or raw oysters might be its best accompaniment, but all this really needs is a warm summer evening and a few glasses.
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GAUTHERON Chablis 1er Vaucoupin 14
Ansonia Retail: $30
case, half-case: $25/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.
Travel Blog: Day Seven
DAY SEVEN | Chablis, Beaune
This morning, after buttery croissants and homemade Stumptown coffee brewed through an Aeropress and enjoyed on the sunny veranda of our apartment, we drove to Chablis. It’s about an hour and a half to the north — an hour on the highway, and a half on the small, straight country roads of northern Burgundy.
At our first appointment we sampled mostly 2014s — a classic, chablisienne vintage, with great minerality, good acidity, plenty of gras, and an honest, terroir-transparent character. These will find many friends among Burgundy lovers. Our second tasting was a bit outside town; more 2014s and a few 2015s, both excellent and both clean, fresh, and delicious.
But it was talk of the weather dominated the morning meetings. Chablis has had a near-apocalyptic spring, with two violent hailstorms, and a late April frost. The result has been a catastrophic loss of crop — many parcels hit by both frost and hail have lost 100% of their grapes for the year. Others have lost certain cuvées, with certain others remaining untouched. Left to the cruel whim of mother nature, our first producer estimated about 35% of the crop was totally lost and another 15% severely damaged; our second put his losses at 70% — an unimaginable figure this early in the year. Vignerons are used to shrugging off difficult years with a casual “c’est la vie,” but this year is worse than many imagined possible.
We grabbed lunch in Chablis and then made our way back to Beaune, weaving in and out of thunderstorms and sunny blue skies. For dinner tonight we visited what has become a favorite spot in Beaune — the Comptoir des Tontons. Fantastic wines — 2013 Auxey Duresses, 2010 Volnay, and an extraordinary 2009 off-dry Vouvray with dessert. And the food was exceptional: tuna tartare with house-smoked salmon; escargot consommé with mushrooms and sausage; Poulet de Bresse on a bed of peas and spring vegetables.
Tomorrow our day off — samples and email.
Tasting Trip Video Blog: Day Seven
Travel Blog: Day Six
DAY SIX | Juliénas, Verzé, Givry, Beaune
Up early again today for our trip south — it’s about an hour drive to the Beaujolais, and the region greeted us with sunny skies, a pleasant breeze and an impressive morning of discovery.
Our first tasting was with a tiny-scale winemaker in Juliénas. We had little to go on besides a few notes in a journal we follow, but his wines would have exceeded even the highest expectations. These were crisp, crackling, juicy, unoaked, pure gamays — bursting with the joie-de-vivre spirit of the Beaujolais. With affordable pricing and an exceptional vintage, these will appear in our warehouse and on our email list sooner rather than later.
With such a morning, our second tasting was set up to disappoint; which makes how good the late-morning’s wines were even more impressive. These are a different style of Beaujolais — careful use of oak, 100+ year old gamay vines, with complexity and depth to match many a Côte d’Or red. Our host finished the tasting with a 2005 Juliénas from old vines that near perfection.
We grabbed a quick lunch in town — foie gras salads and a bottle of Badoit — then headed north to the Maconnais. Our source here is one of our most exciting new producers — one we discovered several years ago, and who already has many fans among our readers. His wines continue to be excellent, and we’ll be adding an elegant new Pouilly-Fuissé from him in the months to come.
Between tastings three and four we took the back roads and passed through our old neighborhood around the village of Cluny. We spent a year living here in 1998, and the pastoral green hillsides and gently winding roads brought back many a memory and smile. Tasting four took us up to Givry, where we sampled 2015s from the barrel — nearly a year away from bottling and they’re already pleasant. Quelle millesime.
Dinner in town at a new bistro — boeuf carpaccio, and cuisse d’agneau — with les Bleus on in the background. Tomorrow Chablis.
Tasting Trip Video Blog: Day Six
Inky Syrah from the Steep, Roasted Slope.
Syrah unlike no other. Other than the rock-covered fields of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the vertiginous hillsides of the Côte Rôtie might seem the last place in the world to grow vines. With slopes reaching 60 degrees in places, all field work — planting, pruning, treating, harvesting — must be done entirely by hand. As we walked through the vines yesterday we again wondered aloud what could make this all worth it.
And then we visited Christophe Bonnefond. The syrah from Côte Rôtie is unlike any other — at once dense and balanced, inky and crisp, mouthfilling and fresh. Christophe and his brother Patrick produce small batch wines of pure, concentrated syrah. Their domaine is a bit hard to find (we’ve found ourselves lost more than once on the way) but their wines are pure and fine; Robert Parker calls them “some of the finest in the appellation.”
Inky and dense. The Bonnefonds produce exceptional red wines, with notes of dark fruits and spice. They are rich without being heavy – only 13% alcohol – and there’s an attractive liveliness often lacking in Syrah from the Southern Hemisphere. Bonnefond wines will age with no trouble for ten or more years. Yesterday we tasted the 2014s, which will appear in Futures later this year. Today we’re offering their 2013.
The 2013 Côte Rôtie shows plum, roasted meats and black pepper; the mouth is spiced and dense, showing olives and dark chocolate, and a hint of smoke. The inky tannins here are firm but not harsh, and with a few hours in a carafe this is a lovely glass of wine. We wouldn’t be the first to volunteer to work the vertigo-inducing “fields” of Bonnefond’s vineyards, but we’re certainly glad someone does.
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BONNEFOND Côte Rôtie 2014
Ansonia Retail: $54
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.
Tasting Trip Video Blog: Day Five
Travel Blog: Day Five
Tasting Trip Video Blog: Day Four
Travel Blog: Day Four
DAY FOUR | Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Tain l’Hermitage
Our final morning in the South greeted us with perfect azure skies and a stiff breeze. After coffee and emails in the courtyard, we departed the house for our first visit. The first domaine sits on a hill at the eastern edge of the appellation, and by the time we reached the chateau the wind had become noticeable and steady. The winemaker smiled as she greeted us; “a petit mistral this morning,” she said, crediting the wind with keeping their grapes healthy and mold-free all year long.
Our second tasting was in downtown Chateauneuf-du-Pape, a family winery with whom we’ve worked for over a decade. The new generation of winemaker has maintained her parents lofty reputation, and the wines are just as good as ever. A fresh, seductive, perfumed white 2015 CDP was a highlight.
We stopped for lunch and wifi in the town’s central Square, and then headed north to the northern border of the appellation. Our final tasting of the Southern Rhône was with a new producer making dark, rich, tannic CDPs and interesting Côtes du Rhônes aged for 2 years before release. We’ve struggled mightily to winnow down our favorite producers this trip so far, and today’s tastings made nothing simpler. A good problem to have, I suppose, but a tricky one nonetheless.
We drove an hour and a half north to Tain l’Hermitage, a city at the foot of the famous Hill of Hermitage. We tasted a sample of a wine we found our first night at dinner in Séguret — just as good as we remembered — and then headed off to dinner. Our restaurant, called Le Quai, was perched on a terrace overlooking the Rhône River and the suspension bridge linking Tournon-sur-Rhône to Tain l’Hermitage. The sun set around 9:15, and we enjoyed our meal thoroughly, watching as the light crept up the steep hillsides across the river.
Tomorrow the north — inky syrah, perfumy whites, and then a last long drive further north to Burgundy.
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Juicy, Earthy Reds from the Garden of Eden.
Vibrant. Perhaps no wines in our portfolio more perfectly express their origin than those of the Mas Foulaquier. Our visit yesterday reminded us just how special this place is. Guided by a fervent belief in biodynamics, these vignerons have set their domaine in a old stone farmhouse on a sunny, idyllic hillside in Southern France.
The vineyards at Foulaquier literally buzz with life — insects and bees dart among the rows of vines, between which grows wild herbs, grasses, and flowers. Toward the end of our visit, winemaker Blandine Chauchat led us down to a rugged pasture where the domaine’s brebis goats froliced cheerfully. The goats, she explained, are let loose into the vines from time to time to trim the grasses and fertilize the soil.
We’re not sure what Eden looked like, but if there was a vineyard it couldn’t have been much different from this.
Inky. Foulaquier’s wines are just as vibrant and dynamic as the vineyards. If you’re a wine drinker who sometimes finds “natural” wines muddy or gritty, Foulaquier’s reds may just change your mind. Using no pesticides, wild ambient yeasts, and bottling without fining or filtering, the vignerons at Foulaquier still manage to create pure, exuberant wines that are also silky and elegant.
Today we’re offering Foulaquier’s simplest red — the Orphée 2014. A blend of grenache and syrah, this dark, punchy wine is at once dense and inky, but lively and fresh. The tannins are young and pleasantly ripe; the nose shows plum, blackberry, and hints of the Provencal underbrush known as garrigue.
We wish we could bring all of our readers to this pastoral utopia in the Languedoc. But short of a visit, we recommend a glass of their wine. Open it outdoors; close your eyes, listen to the birds, and imagine yourself in the sunny South of France.
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FOULAQUIER Orphée 2014
Ansonia Retail: $24
case, half-case: $19.95/bot
_
AVAILABLE IN 6- AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS
_
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.