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.
Michel and Estelle Prunier are a father-and-daugther team making terrific, traditional red Burgundies the town of Auxey Duresses. Their best wine is their Volnay, from the famous premier cru “Caillerets” vineyard. With such impressive terroir, much of Prunier’s job is to get out of the way – and their understated style is a perfect match.
Stephane Robert of the Domaine du Tunnel is one of the brightest stars in Cornas. He’s humble and quiet in person, but his wines are bold, assertive, and charming. Robert farms an envious collection of old syrah vines around the tiny appellation, and his wines are well worthy of their hype. Vinous calls Tunnel “among the top producers of Cornas.”
We love discovering new wines and domaines – exciting new sources full of energy and innovation. But sometimes we open a bottle that reminds us of just how good some of the wines already in our cellar are. This week we enjoyed a bottle of Goubert’s Gigondas “Cuvée Florence,” and it was simply outstanding.
Philippe Cheron is just getting started. He’s hardly new to the trade – his father and grandfather were vignerons – and Phillipe has spent his career making wine around the Côte d’Or. But three years ago he managed to acquire most of the holdings from the defunct Domaine des Varoilles, and now farms an extraordinary collection of plots under the name Domaine du Couvent.
After a few years’ absence, the Fattoria Poggerino re-introduced the “Labirinto” cuvée this year. Made from the youngest vines on the estate, the Labirinto cuvée offers easy, uncomplicated pleasure. It’s Sangiovese with no rough edges – middle-weight, unoaked, unserious, and wonderfully easy to drink.
Champagne has a reputation as refined, elegant, and delicate. While this reputation fits much of the wine from the heart of the Champagne region, today’s wine is another story. Domaine Jacques Robin is a small grower producer in the Côtes des Bar, a satellite sub-region of Champagne an hour to the south.
Poggerino is often cited as a reference point for Chianti Classico. Vinous writes of their Poggerino’s “remarkable purity and nuance,” and Rajat Parr calls their wines “excellent” and “some of the purest expressions of the grape in Italy.” Their organic vines from Radda-in-Chianti produced exquisitely balanced wines, full of depth and richness but also tension and lift.
Sauvignon Blanc is among the world’s most popular white grapes, planted everywhere from New Zealand to California to Chile. But the original source for Sauvignon Blanc is France’s Loire Valley, in particular the twin villages of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé.
The 2015 vintage was just about perfect from top to bottom – warm but not scorching conditions, dry but no drought, good quantity and outstanding quality. It was also a vintage that was excellent at every level, from regional Bourgognes all the way up to Grand Cru.
Nicolas Paget is a creative, organic winemaker working in the heart of the Central Loire Valley. His pure, expressive cuvées have been wildly popular among our readers since we discovered him a few years ago – most notably his crisp, dry, unoaked Chenin Blanc cuvée called Melodie. The 2021 of this wine has just arrived and it’s as good as ever.
It doesn’t take an expert to notice that Guillaume Goujon and Sebastien Dupré are farming organically. Their vines, located in the Côte de Brouilly, share the earth with an impressive array of herbs, flowers, grasses, and wildlife – all in the name of fostering biodiversity and soil health. In the cellar Dupré and Goujon have a similarly light touch – their cuvées are made with whole clusters, ambient yeasts, limited oak and almost no sulfites.