The neighboring towns of Nuits-St-Georges and Vosne-Romanée produce strikingly different wines. In general, Vosne is elegant and ethereal; Nuits is bold and muscly. Taste them side by side and it’s hard to believe they share a border.
In a fast-paced world, cellaring wine has become a rarity. Not all wines are meant to age, and indeed the wine world’s style continues to shift toward early maturity. But for wine that rewards patience, the transformation of bottle aging is nothing short of magic.
Our focus on Burgundy means we spend a lot of time talking about subtlety: the nuances of terroir, the intricacies of weather patterns, etc. But sometimes we like to drink wine that’s a bit simpler — not boring or one-dimensional, just uncomplicated enjoyment in a glass.
Pomerol is a small place. The appellation is home to a mere 150 winemakers, and covers less than three square miles. But the wines of Pomerol are anything but small. In his landmark World Atlas of Wine, Hugh Johnson calls Pomerol “richest, most velvety and instantly appealing form of red Bordeaux.”
There is no more underappreciated wine than Riesling. Many US consumers, burned by syrupy Rieslings with no life and too much sugar, have sworn off the grape. But for lovers of dry wine, there’s enough bone-dry Riesling out there to make avoidance a mistake.
The Côte d’Or is home to nearly all of Burgundy’s most famous wines. As monks learned centuries ago, the region’s combination of soil, exposition, slope, and weather makes it a near-perfect place to grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
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Over the years it feels like we’ve sampled nearly every type of French wine – every color, grape, blend, age, technique, region, etc. But last fall we discovered a wine we’d never before tasted in France: orange wine.
Burgundy can be an intimidating place. Its classification rules are complicated, and its wines often require precise and careful cellaring. Even for experienced collectors it can tricky to time the optimum drinking window, and getting it wrong can be disappointing and expensive.
Organic viticulture has taken hold in France. Well more than half the winemakers in our portfolio now farm organically. Even in Burgundy, where long history and continuing demand make an argument for the status quo, many domaines have converted. “It’s the future,” one winemaker last week put it simply.
Champagne is a complicated place. Since its early days the region has been inseparably linked to a sense of glamour and “le marketing.” It can be easy to lose track of quality and distinctiveness amid Champagne’s glossy promotional haze.
We’re excited about our new Alsatian source. Vincent Gross is a skilled young winemaker making organic wines from classic Alsatian varietals. His vibrant, bone-dry Riesling has already become popular among readers; his orange wines made from Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer are unusual and exciting.
Chablis is a singular place. Its combination of deep stony soils and cool climate exists nowhere else on earth. These factors produce a similarly unique wine — mineral and crisp, pure and clean. Our goal as importers is to find wines that reflect the place from which they come, and there is no better place to find such wines than Chablis.
Even by Burgundy standards, the town of Morey-St-Denis is small. With only 110 hectares of vines (0.4 square miles), it less than a quarter the size of neighboring Gevrey-Chambertin. Neither as elegant as Chambolle, nor as masucline as Gevrey, Morey is perhaps the prototypical Burgundy — a melange of earth, fruit, wood, stones, forest and silk.
Sancerre has always been the star of the Loire Valley. Though recent years have seen interest rise in the region’s other appellations, Sancerre remains the best known and among the best-liked. It’s popular, easy to drink, easy to pronounce, and pairs well with lots of dishes.