Over the weekend Pascal Bardoux welcomed us to his kitchen table for an intimate tasting of his terrific grower Champagnes. Pascal’s wines are just like the man himself: subtle, understated, and delightful. In a region where “le marketing” is king, Bardoux’s delicious, hand-crafted, well-priced cuvées stand out.
Something that often strikes us when we visit France is the expanded sense of time. The countryside is littered with twelfth century chateaux, Roman era churches, even remains of neolithic settlements. Vignerons in particular have an expanded time horizon – the vines they plant today may not be mature until their children are grown; Champagne producers lay down their vintage bottles imagining what the world will be like in ten years when they finally disgorge them.
The changing climate has caused dramatic shifts amid the tiny microclimates of Burgundy’s Côte d’Or. In a region where a few meters makes the difference between four-figure Grand Cru and $60 village, a couple degrees of warmer weather can have profound effect.
Yesterday morning we tasted through Michel Gros’s 2020 vintage from barrel. It’s a terrific year, with both tremendous density and great energy. Hot, dry growing seasons have become the norm in Burgundy, and while they still make life difficult for the growers, the vignerons here begun to adapt their practices in the vines and the cellar. The resulting wines are as good as they’ve ever been.
Robin’s finest wine is their 2011 Cuvée Kimmeridgienne – made from pure Pinot Noir grown in chalk/limestone/clay soils, this wine sat on its lees for seven years, gaining complexity and exceptional depth. The batch in stock in our warehouse was disgorged (final corking) last fall and it’s simply magnificent today.
We visited Romain Collet in Chablis yesterday morning – he pruned late this year and wasn’t too worried about tonight’s forecasted frost. (It’s another story in the Côte d’Or.) Spring frosts have become the norm in Chablis these days, and Romain has steered his domaine beautifully, making terrific wines in difficult circumstances.
The Bonnefond family’s star continues to rise. Once firmly in the ripe, oaky, “extroverted” camp that made them a darling of Robert Parker, the domaine has shifted towards subtler expression in recent years: less time in oak, larger barrels, and earlier harvests.
After three years away from in-person tastings, we were worried we might feel a bit rusty as we began our tasting trip yesterday morning. So we chose to begin with Christophe Mestre, a warm, generous winemaker who welcomed us into his cave as though we’d seen him only last week.
Nearly all of the domaines we work with here in France are family businesses. Some have been passed down for centuries, others feature three generations in business at once. As a family business ourselves, we love seeing the dynamics of small family enterprises play out on this side of the Atlantic.
The Ansonia team arrived in France this morning, after the longest stretch away (three years) in more than two decades. The world has changed a bit since April 2019, as has the market for Burgundy, Ansonia Wines, and even your trusty tasters. We’ve added new family members, new customers, new vignerons and even a few new gray hairs, but our passion for France and its winemakers has remained unchanged, and if anything we bring a renewed enthusiasm for our overdue visit.
The Domaine Ravaut is the ultimate local wine source. For over a century the Ravaut family has cultivated a loyal clientele of friends, neighbors, and local workers — our tasting visits are frequently interrupted by neighbors stocking up their cellars. The domaine continues to sell nearly half its wine to folks who walk in their front door.
We like to judge a vigneron’s talent by his simplest wine. Great wines from great terroir of course involve a steady winemaker as guide, but the material undoubtedly provides a head start. With humble fruit from an unsung plot of regional-level vines, winemaking skill comes even more into play.
Chenin blanc has an enormous range of expression. It can be anywhere from bone dry to very sweet depending on vintage, terroir, and winemaker. Vouvray is the original source for Chenin Blanc, but the surrounding towns in the central Loire Valley produce excellent examples as well.
Châteauneuf-du-Pape is one of the most recognizable brands in wine. Made famous by French popes in the 14th century, and then again by Robert Parker in the 1980s, the appellation’s place on the winemaking map is well established. And well deserved — the wines can be extraordinary, though they often come at a “special occasion” price point for most wine enthusiasts.
When we lived near Cluny in Burgundy more than twenty years ago, we stumbled upon a nearby producer in Viré-Clessé. The young couple who owned it tended their vineyards and made their wine according to organic and biodynamic principles – not at all the norm back then – and their work opened our eyes to the quality possible in the Maconnais.