Côtes du Rhônes are a dime a dozen. They’re cheap, reliable, and abundant — you’ll find them everywhere from a fine restaurant to your local supermarket. Most are mass produced, with low tannin and lots of fruit — they may lack flaws, but they’re short on character too.
In recent years the profile of Chablis has changed a bit. Most cuvées still show the terroir’s classic stony, mineral intensity; but warm summers have added a bit of extra flesh to the wines. Our favorites still taste like Chablis, but are often a bit easier to approach young or on their own.
Regular readers will know Gautier Desvignes, the humble, friendly, thirtysomething winemaker who has transformed his modest family domaine into a top name in the region. William Kelley writes that Desvignes is “one of the leading lights in the Côte Chalonnaise,” and we wholeheartedly agree.
Chassagne-Montrachet is a town synonymous with opulence and richness. Its wines combine weight without heaviness – everything you want in a top class white Burgundy – but usually comes with a hefty pricetag. Roger Belland’s Santenay 1er cru “Beauregard” blanc is not quite as complex or long-lived as a Chassagne premier cru, but for half the price it does an admirable impression, and we think it’s a steal.
In his book “The New French Wine” Jon Bonné writes that Jacqueline André’s wines “are about old-fashioned subtlety,” crediting her with “quietly upholding the extraordinary quality of her family’s domaine.” André is fully worthy of this praise, and it’s never been clearer than today.
Most wine today is opened before peak maturity. It’s not necessarily a bad thing – in general you’d rather drink a wine too young than too old. But as fewer wine drinkers cellar their wines and as winemakers increasingly craft cuvées for early drinking, it’s rarer to find a bottle that deserves patience and receives it.
The 2022s from Burgundy continue to delight. It’s a terrific vintage in both colors – the reds are characterful and intense with tremendous freshness and lovely fruit; the whites are vibrant and delicious, clear and compelling representations of their terroir.
Some wines in our portfolio hit a perfect balance between fruit, freshness, texture and price – Goubert’s Gigondas, Desvignes’s Givry, and Bohrmann’s Bourgogne blanc come to mind. But this category wouldn’t be complete without Poggerino’s Chianti Classico. It’s one of only a handful of non-French wines we import, and yet it’s among the most popular wines in the shop.
Most Burgundy drinkers are familiar with the Clos Vougeot, a 12th century castle surrounded by an enormous Grand Cru vineyard. It’s a cultural and viticultural landmark of Burgundy – impeccably preserved, and worth a stop on your next visit to the region. But even seasoned collectors are usually less familiar with the rest of the appellation of Vougeot.
There’s a cliche among wine critics that a “vintage of the century” tends to occur on average every decade or so. It’s true that the floor for vintage quality has risen dramatically in the last 25 years – sorting tables, better technical control of fermentation, and increasing demand for quality have meant that truly poor vintages are now few and far between.
As summers in France become warmer and drier, the line between Chablis and the rest of white Burgundy has blurred. Chablis was once known for its piercing wines full of tension, minerality, and zip, in contrast to the rich, mouthfilling whites of the Côte d’Or. Today there’s less stylistic room between them, as very ripe grapes have turned Chablis a bit plumper – the wines are tasty, but often less distinct.
Pouilly-Fumé is the less famous neighbor of Sancerre, located just across the Loire River. The grape is Sauvignon blanc, and there’s a high percentage of flint in the soil, which gives the wines their eponymous “smoky” (Fumé) character.
In real estate and winemaking, location is everything – and nowhere is this more true than in Burgundy. A few yards difference in vine location can amount to a few extra zeros on the end of the price. Every wine from Vosne-Romanée – the most famous winemaking town in the world – is at minimum worthy of interest. But Vosne is not a monolith, and each corner of the tiny appellation has its own expression.
Tasting this spring at her domaine in Meursault, Sofie Bohrmann summed up the 2022 growing season with one word: “parfait.” After the catastrophic 2021 vintage, in which some of her parcels lost over 90% of their crop, 2022 provided clean, healthy grapes, and plenty of them. It was hot and dry as it always is these days, but rain fell at exactly the right time – a bit of good luck after a season of bad.
Our newest Champagne source is RH Coutier, and it’s quickly become a reader favorite. The Coutiers are an old family in Ambonnay (there since 1619), and today produce small-batch Champagnes exclusively from their own organic Grand Cru vineyards.