In most cellars, Côtes du Rhône is the workhorse wine. Hosting thirsty guests? Go with a Côtes du Rhône. Pairing anything from salad to stew to soup to sirloin? Côtes du Rhône fits the bill. The best examples are crowd-pleasing, inexpensive, and full of character.
Eric Chauvin’s story is a familiar one. A fifth generation winemaker inherits his family domaine. He begins to bottle the wines himself, tightens up the quality, converts to organic viticulture. We stumbled across Chauvin’s tiny Domaine le Souverain in the Rhône Valley a few years ago, and have been delighted at the discovery.
Chenin blanc is a tough grape to pin down. The varietal produces a staggering array of styles: from still to sparkling, bone dry to very sweet, and everything in between. Even today, the winemakers of the Loire, France’s center for winemaking innovation, continue to push what’s possible from the grape.
Twelve wines, all 25% off! Highlights include: legendary 5-year-old premier cru red Burgundy, everyday Syrah blend under $12, premier cru Chassagne-Montrachet, old-vine Chablis under $20, and more! Sale ends 1/31/19.
Many of our winemakers are multi-generational, some stretching back for centuries. We’re always slightly apprehensive when a new generation takes over. Some try too hard to make their mark early, changing styles and abandoning longtime traditions. But at many domaines the younger generation arrives with modern techniques and a new energy.
French wines have long been the focus of the Ansonia portfolio. Of the 45 winemakers we work with, about half are from Burgundy, and all but a few are French. Our longtime exception to this rule is the Fattoria Poggerino. Poggerino’s wines are all pure sangiovese — dark, delicately balanced expressions of an intense, powerful […]
Sometimes the moment calls for a grand wine: something ageworthy, pulled from the back of the cellar, opened at just the right time, decanted for hours, etc. Other times, it doesn’t. For this sampler we’ve collected four uncomplicated wines from the “easy” category — wines you can enjoy with out too much consideration or contemplation. They’re cozy weeknight reds for pizzas, salads, pastas, soups, and leftovers.
____________________________ Wine: Goubert Beaumes-de-Venise 2016 Type: red Rhône Valley blend Price: $22/bot Learn More
France’s Rhône valley produces rich, smooth red blends, perfect for a wintery afternoon meal. At one end 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.
The Clos de Vougeot is a 900-year-old Grand Cru vineyard in the heart of Burgundy. It’s the largest Grand Cru in the region, and certainly the most famous. Over nine centuries of growing seasons, it has seen kings and countries rise and fall.
As another year draws to a close, we reflect on time and its passing. Wine has its own relationship with time — each bottle contains a multitude of timespans.
The wines of Chablis are known for their limited oak, piercing minerality, and crystalline elegance. Our favorites are often mid-range bottles that combine everyday pricing and with great energy and beautiful precision.
We spend lots of time reading about French wine regions, following critical reviews and leafing through guides. But our favorite discoveries often come from time spent on the ground. One such pleasant surprise came from a wine list at a small outdoor bistro in Séguret a few years ago.
With chilly, drizzly weather settling into Boston this week, our first suggestions for wine are usually red. Recently arrived reds from Goubert are approachable and affordable, and were a hit at yesterday’s depot tasting. But if your menu or your guests require something white, look no further than today’s cozy Meursault.
We’ve collected five new samplers to help with gift giving this month. (And if one of them happens to find its way to your own cellar, we promise not to tell…)