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.
Romain Collet’s lineup of 2018 Chablis is delicious. From their simple Vieilles Vignes to the magnificent Grand Cru Les Clos, Romain Collet handled the warm vintage with expert control, finding perfect balance and freshness in every cuvée.
The Domaine les Goubert is among the most consistent winemakers in our portfolio. No matter the vintage – warm or cool, sunny or wet, easy or difficult — the Goubert wines are reliably outstanding.
Pouilly-Fuissé was once the darling of American wine drinkers — fun to pronounce, rich and voluptuous in texture. Popularity bred overproduction, and quality suffered in the 80s. But in the last few decades local winemakers have begun to reclaim the wine, and today Jasper Morris calls it “the most dynamic white wine appellation in Burgundy.”
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.
Gautier Desvignes is a rising star among Burgundian winemakers. Vinous’s Neal Martin recently found Gautier’s wines “really quite superb.” And the Wine Advocate’s William Kelley calls the domaine “very much a Côte Chalonnaise address to watch,” and advises that “importers looking for a potential future star should beat a path to his door.”
Vincent Boyer is one of Meursault’s young superstar winemakers. His golden white Burgundies from Meursault and Puligny are among the finest in our cellar. Vinous calls his wines “superb” and “very impressive;” Jasper Morris MW writes “Boyer seems to make better wines year after year.”
Ansonia isn’t exactly your local hipster natural wine store; (too much Burgundy, not enough Brett). But we do enjoy a bit of “natty wine” from time to time, and celebrate the largely positive influence it’s had on the world of wine. And so we’re excited today to introduce our first Pét-Nat, our most hipster wine to date.
France’s Southern Rhône valley produces rich, smooth red blends. At one end of the spectrum there’s Châteauneuf-du-Pape, famous and long-lived; at the other there’s Côtes du Rhône, uncomplicated and inexpensive. Today’s wine is from the middle.
Grown near the mouth of the Loire River, Muscadet is at once brisk and hearty — the essence of the windswept Atlantic coast. Wine writer Lettie Teague calls it “one of the world’s best, if most obscure, bargains,” saying “a glass of $8 Muscadet will always be a better wine than an $8 glass of something else.”
We love enjoying wine en plein air. There’s a certain harmony in enjoying a natural wine with the sun on your skin — a product of nature adid the natural world. And among our favorites are the vibrant, exuberant, life-filled organic white Burgundies of Nicolas Maillet.
The 2018 vintage provided the Chablisiens with something they hadn’t seen in years: decent volume. The 2016 and 2017 growing seasons brought the trials of Job — hail, frost, freezes and everything else, it seemed. In 2018, catastrophe turned to fruitfulness, as the vines produced strikingly large quantities of ripe fruit.
The Clos du Joncuas might be the most exciting recent find in our portfolio. Based in Gigondas in the Southern Rhône, sisters Dany and Carol Chastan learned their craft from their parents and grandparents, and have themselves been farming organically for 40 years.