With the first heatwave of the summer upon us, we’re in the mood for something simple and crisp. The usual hot-weather answers from our cellar are Chablis, Sancerre, or dry Riesling, but recently we’ve been reaching for Grüner-Veltliner from our lone Austrian source
Each town in Burgundy produces wines of a distinct character. Some are dark and brooding, others are lightweight and ethereal – but the boldest and most intense is Gevrey-Chambertin. One of our sources here, the Domaine des Varoilles, owns vineyards first planted in the 12th century – their vines today aren’t quite 800 years old, but they’re well over 70, and produce magnificently dense and concentrated juice.
The Northern Rhône is a small region, and new winemakers can be hard to come by — limited supply, steady demand, etc. So when we received a prospecting email from a new winemaker touting his terroirs in Côte Rôtie “Côte Blonde,” we took note.
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.
The 2019 vintage produced outstanding wines in red Burgundy, white Burgundy, and the Rhône valleys. But the success of this vintage stretched further, across the Mont Blanc and into Tuscany. The 2019 Chianti Classico from Poggerino is as good as ever, and is finally in stock.
For centuries Burgundy has swung back and forth between two models of winemaking: domaine bottling, where a winemaker makes wines from grapes he grows himself; and negociant, where a house buys grapes from local vignerons and crafts them into wine. With a few exceptions, most of the top names in Burgundy are the former (grower-producer) model, with the winemaker shepherding his product all the way from vine to wineglass.
With the temperature barely cracking 50 in recent days in New England, it appears Spring may have had some supply chain issues of its own. But yesterday’s warm sunny afternoon was worth the wait – we reinflated the bike tires, put on some sunscreen, and soaked in some long awaited Vitamin D.
“Crémant should never try to be Champagne.” That’s how winemaker Philippe Chautard answered when one of our guests asked him to compare the two. “Crémant is from Burgundy, and should act like it.”
Winemaking can be unglamourous work. Behind the romance of the craft lies months of labor-intensive farming: tractor maintenance, spring frosts, hand pruning, bookkeeping, trade shows, and so on. Even for us importers it can be easy to forget the work that goes into every bottle of wine.
“Oaked” or “unoaked” sounds like a yes-no question, but it really is a range. Most of the wines we import spend some time in oak, but the strength of its influence depends on the age and size of the barrel, the chauffe (how heavily the inside is charred), and time in the barrel. With this […]
For years we searched for a source in Chambolle-Musigny. The town has both a stellar reputation and miniscule size (population 300), and it hasn’t been easy to find a domaine without existing importing relationships. But a few years ago we finally stumbled upon the Domaine Boursot, a humble family of winemakers right in the heart of Chambolle.
Sauvignon blanc is among the world’s most widely planted grapes, but its origin is the Loire Valley. In the Loire, Sauvignon takes on a floral, mineral style, juicy grapefruit notes with a lively minerality, often notes of flint, and pleasant herbal finish.
We usually place our order from the Mas Foulaquier in January, and by the time the wines arrive in March the earth has barely begun to awake from its winter slumber. This year the wines have arrived a month later, with Spring in full bloom.
With a supply crunch from recent small vintages and seemingly inelastic demand, the cost of Burgundy is headed in one direction. And yet amid ballooning prices Chablis has maintained its place as a consistent source of value. Even Grand Crus from top tier producers still rarely break the $100/bottle mark.
We used to wonder why the humble Bourgogne rouge from the Domaine des Varoilles was so good. During our visit to Philippe Cheron last month we found the answer. He explained that the grapes for this cuvée come from vines planted in what until recently was village-level Gevrey-Chambertin.