The South of France has always been hot, but like everywhere else, it’s getting hotter. Even with grape varietals adapted to warm climates, winemakers often struggle to achieve freshness in their wines. One winemaker who doesn’t struggle is Nicolas Haeni of the Domaine Malmont in Séguret.
The 2020 white Burgundies have been almost universally terrific. The drought caused many chardonnay vines simply to shut down mid-season, stalling the production of their sugars and in the end producing wines with both a ripe concentration and tremendous energy. We’ve bought just about all the 2020s we could get our hands on, and they’ve rightly disappeared from the warehouse at quite a clip. We’ve just added what’s likely our final cuvée from the vintage.
Chablis continues to be a haven of terrific value Burgundy. After several scorching hot vintages in which the crisp, piercing soul of old-school Chablis seemed temporarily offstage, 2021 provided a return to traditional form. A cooler, wetter, trickier growing season pushed harvest into late September, and the wines are effortlessly tasty in a vintage that was anything but.
Much of the world’s syrah is rich, velvety and mouthcoating. But in the Northern Rhône Valley, syrah draws its strength from subtlety. Here delicate aromas of violets, perfume, smoke and stones combine with fresh mouthfeel and vibrant texture. Northern Rhône Syrah is a marriage of dark-fruited complexion with elegance and pep.
Our first two vintages with the Forces Telluriques have been wildly popular. The magnificent, unoaked, biodynamic white Burgundy has quickly become a reader favorite. It shouldn’t surprise anyone, really – you won’t find the Forces Telluriques label on any CellarTracker accounts (except Ansonia customers), but the wine in the bottle is from an iconic Mâconnais source with an exclusive importer for the primary label.
Christophe Mestre and his wife are from old Châteauneuf du Pape families. Like many such families, their vines are in plots scattered across the town’s remarkably diverse terroir. The Mestres makes a single red cuvée from these terroirs, seeking an expression of the appellation as a whole. It’s always delicious, and always well priced.
Every January we search our lineup for an early bird Futures offer that isn’t Poggerino’s Chianti Classico, and every year we come up short. It’s simply one of the best values in our portfolio, and somehow seems to get better every single year. This year’s sample is even more packed with flavor than usual, and its many (many!) fans will be delighted.
Philippe Cheron is one of the most exciting winemakers in our portfolio. He’s not new to the job – indeed he’s spent his life making wine around the Côte d’Or. But his newly created Domaine du Couvent, a combination of his family plots and the old Domaine des Varoilles, is an outstanding collection of properties, and Cheron himself is a master.
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.
Roget Belland’s wines are too tasty. His wines age well, but they’re so delicious and approachable young that most don’t last long in our cellar. He uses a long, slow fermentation to produce wines with ripe fruit and beautiful aromatics.
The Clos de Vougeot is one of Burgundy’s great landmarks. First planted with vines in the 11th century, the wall around the vineyard dates to 1336, and the majestic Chateau to 1551. It’s a Burgundian icon, both of culture and viticulture.
Lots of wine drinkers will tell you they don’t drink Merlot; but we bet far fewer would turn down a glass of this wine. After seven years in the bottle, the Chateau Destieux’s 2016 Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classé is pure, hedonistic pleasure. It may not be as complex as Ausone or as long lived as Cheval Blanc — but it’s proof that in the right terroir, Merlot can profound and outstanding.
Barbaresco is an appellation in the Piedmont region, and along with neighboring Barolo is one of Italy’s best known wines. The grape from both towns is Nebbiolo, a thin skinned varietal capable of tremendous subtlety and elegance, with more than a passing resemblance to Burgundian pinot noir. Barbaresco is generally lighter-bodied than Barolo, offering less aggressive texture and often earlier drinking windows.
It took several years of working with Denis Basset before he’d sell us any of his white cuvée. The wine was so popular in Parisian restaurants that it was all spoken for – we’d sample it to start our tastings at his cellar, and then never see it again. Now we thirstily buy all of our small allocation each year – it’s the only wine of its kind in our portfolio, rounder and more tropical than white Burgundy; more tension than Condrieu; more softness than our Loire whites.
The 2021 vintage was a tricky one in Burgundy. The growing season was considerably cooler and wetter than in recent years, and vignerons were forced to change tack. Winemakers who followed the vintage’s cues (rather than forcing a lush 2018-2020 style) were successful, making wines with beautiful clarity, a light, refreshing, classical touch.