It’s starting to feel like Fall again — football is back, there’s a chill in the air, and pumpkins are popping up at the market. Chez nous, the change in seasons means a change in our wine habits — a shift towards bottles that are richer, redder, and more robust. But most importantly, autumn means Beaujolais.
The Clos de Tart is one of Burgundy’s iconic vineyards properties. The vineyard has had only four owners since the 12th century, and, unusually for Burgundy, has never been subdivided. Today the wines from this 7.5 hectare monopole start around $500 per bottle.
At a perfect $5/glass, this wine has become hard to keep in stock — we’ve just reupped (again). Garenne’s 2019 Sancerre is easy and delightful. It’s bone-dry with pure sauvignon grapefruit in the nose. In the mouth it’s lively but with no astringency or grassiness — a warm vintage gave added weight but no less freshness. Look for minerals and lime in the mouth alongside the ripe fruit.
Much of the world’s Merlot is undistinguished. Its default expression is a soft, rounded wine lacking tannin, acidity, and character. “Global” merlot is smooth and easy, but neither distinctive nor particularly interesting. But in Bordeaux, Merlot thrives as an essential component to the region’s most iconic wines.
Perched where the Loire river meets the windswept Atlantic coast, Muscadet has long been a source for a classic, dry white wine. Served by the carafe in the oyster bars of Paris and London for decades, it’s refreshing, abundant, and inexpensive — a perfect glass to wash down a plate of crustaceans.
Transition to organics/biodynamics may be trendy in winemaking today, but it’s nothing new at the Domaine Pierre André in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Jacqueline André’s grandfather stopped using chemicals in his vines in 1963, and the domaine has been certified organic since 1980 – the first in the appellation.
If we were to sum up Thomas Morey’s wines in one word, it would be “precise.” Much like the man himself — wire rim glasses, serious demeanor, Zalto stemware in his tasting room — Morey’s wines offer crystalline elegance, with not one hair out of place. Each cuvée conveys its terroir with honesty and clarity.
Romain Collet took over his family’s fines in 2008, and has since made great strides. Having introduced organic farming, natural yeasts, and a lighter hand in the cellar, the Domaine Collet has regained its once lofty status among sources for high-end Chablis.
In a Beaune restaurant last spring we stumbled upon that most elusive of wine merchant targets: an unknown Burgundy domaine. Formed in 2002 with just 1.5 hectares of vines, the Domaine Bohrmann has no other importers, zero critical reviews, and a (very) hard-to-reach winemaker.
For years, Gigondas was a savvy wine collector’s secret: near-Châteauneuf-level complexity and richness, at a substantial discount. But even as its name has spread and prices have crept up, the price-value ratio in Gigondas remains unusually good. As Vinous’s Josh Raynolds put it after tasting several hundred cuvées this spring, “in the context of the world’s best wines, almost every Gigondas delivers solid and even remarkable value.”
Of the 12,000 acres of vineyards planted in Chablis, only 250 acres (2%) qualify as Grand Cru. And of these, most consider the “Les Clos” the finest. As Clive Coates MW puts it, Les Clos is “Chablis at its very, very finest.”
Michel Gros is a quiet, humble vigneron whose wines are world famous. Having directed every vintage at his family’s winery for 45 years, his knowledge of Burgundian terroir is deep and intimate. His relatively interventionist style stands out today amid today’s laissez-faire winemaking, but his skill in the vines and cellar is unparalleled, and the results are consistently superb.
Harvest began in much of Burgundy last week, the earliest in a century. It’s a good reminder that even with all the advancements in measurement and technology, winemakers remain subject to the whim of Mother Nature — if the grapes are ripe a month ahead of normal, the picking must start.
Sisters Dany and Carol Chastan make exquisite Rhône cuvées using old-school techniques. ambient yeasts, no oak (not even foudres), 100% whole cluster, no fining or filtering. It sounds like a recipe for a big rustic wine, but the Chastan sisters somehow managed to produce wines of superb texture and subtlety.
Cyril Gautheron is a 6th generation winemaker who approaches his winemaking with fanatical precision. He farms over 65 different plots of vines across the Chablis appellation, and vinifies each in its own separate tank. His obsession results in perfectly-calibrated cuvées.