We’re calling it: it’s now rosé season.
Okay, sure — it might have snowed last week, and it might be barely breaking into the 70s where you live today. But we’ve all been inside for what seems like over a year now, so we’ll take any excuse for sunshine we can get.
Riesling continues to be a criminally underrated varietal. Its sweet examples can be transcendent and delicious, but it’s also capable of excellence in dry form. Dry Rieslings make up some of the best values in our portfolio.
Chablis is at the forefront of Burgundy’s conflict with climate change. As the entire region warms, its northern outpost has begun to yield rounder, more full-bodied wine. This has led more and more Chablis producers to raise some wine in oak barrels, and it is now common to see wines there that bear a close resemblance to those of the Côte d’Or.
A wine made up of 50/50 Grenache/Syrah can take on many shapes. Grown on a flat plain in irrigated soil by a large-volume winery, the blend will be a cheap, unremarkable Côtes du Rhône. Grown just miles away in the legendary soils of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and the wine can be an ageworthy gem. Today’s wine is […]
White Burgundy is an easy wine to pair with food. At the high end, an ageworthy bottle Meursault or Puligny can be as subtle and magnificent as a red. Paired with a lobster risotto or veal in cream, it’s a marriage of opulence and charm.
Where much red Burgundy tends towards subtleness and finesse, the Varoilles style is noticeably more intense. The winemakers harvest relatively late, and use a long cold soak to extract loads of flavor and texture from their grapes. The resulting wines are concentrated, dark, and delicious.
We’re thrilled to have Poggerino back in stock. We visit only once a year, and last year’s supply evaporated by the fall. So after some shipping delays (sans Suez) and a long trip across the ocean, the wines are at last in stock.
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.
The impossibly steep hillsides of the Côte Rôtie seem like 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. Every time we visit we wonder aloud what on earth would drive people to plant vines here.
The critical reception of the 2018 red Burgundies can be described as qualified enthusiasm. The best examples are said to be ripe, rich, mouthfilling, bold, and delicious — Vinous’s Neal Martin found “a sense of nascent joie-de-vivre” across the vintage. But wines picked too late can be overripe — “very ripe wines of highly variable quality,” concluded Burghound.
For many years at the start of our tastings, winemaker Denis Basset would give us a small taste of his only white cuvée. “Just to set the palate,” he’d explain, before continuing on to his rich, syrah-based reds. The white was always lovely — floral and fresh, beautifully expressive, and a perfect way to start a tasting.
Michel Gros tends vines in some of Burgundy’s most famous towns: Vosne-Romanée, Chambolle-Musigny, Nuits-St-Georges, etc. The wines from these iconic appellations are magnificent, and priced fairly but accordingly.
Compared with most regions in France, the Southern Rhône is an easy place to make wine. There’s plenty of sun and warmth, the grape varietals are generally hardy, and the northwesterly Mistral wind keeps the grapes dry and maladies at bay. It’s still hard work, for sure, but lots of winemakers we know in Burgundy look longingly at the conditions to their south.
The Jura region has an untamed feel to it. Lying only an hour east of Burgundy, its a wilder, craggier landscape, producing unusual wines to match. Its most famous product, the sherry-like oxidized Vin Jaune, is fascinating and not to everyone’s taste. (We love it, though, and keep a few bottles in stock if you do too.)
Like most grapes, Syrah changes character based on where it’s grown. In warmer climates like South Africa and Australia (where it’s known as Shiraz), it’s big, rich, jammy and full of ripe plummy fruit. In France’s Northern Rhône, the wine takes on a much subtler expression.