Gigondas continues to produce some of the best value southern reds around. At their best they match the complexity and depth of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, but at a noticeable discount. Our producer here, the Clos du Joncuas, is described by Josh Raynolds of Vinous as an “insiders’ producer…true, old-school renditions of Gigondas.”
Vincent Boyer lost nearly 90% of his Meursault crop in a single cold night in April 2021. The resulting wines were tremendously successful, but exceedingly rare – indeed we’ve almost sold every bottle already. Somewhat unusually, however, the frost spared Vincent’s regional-level wines: Bourgogne Côte d’Or, and Aligoté.
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.”
With the summer heat now (mostly) behind us, we’re delighted to announce the restart of our monthly wine club! We’ve made a few changes, and have added to the membership offering. Join the wine club and, like last year, you can expect: 3 bottles delivered monthly; white or red 10-20% off retail value of the […]
Christophe Mestre is from an old Châteauneuf-du-Pape family. Together with his wife and son they craft a single delicious, traditional, early drinking cuvée. In a town where luxury cuvées and single-varietal bottlings have become in vogue, the Mestres stick with the original formula – a single, appellation-wide cuvée.
Romain Collet is an innovator. Each time we visit he has a new project – bold new French labels, more clay amphora, a gin (yes, gin!) collaboration with a local friend. And yet his lineup of Chablis remains classical and delicious. In the face of blazing hot recent summers, Romain continues to fashion cuvées that show their terroir with clarity and focus.
After several years of patiently waiting for an allocation, we’re delighted to introduce our newest Champagne source: RH Coutier. The Coutiers are an old family in Ambonnay (there since 1619), and today produce small-batch Champagnes exclusively from their own organic Grand Cru vineyards.
Vouvray is a hard wine to pin down – it ranges from very sweet to bone dry and from sparkling to still. The most famous cuvées from top names will improve for decades, and are among the world’s longest lived wines. We enjoy almost any expression of Vouvray, but our favorite is the simplest – still, fresh, early-drinking, and dry.
The pursuit of freshness is a perennial struggle for white Burgundy vignerons these days. They’ve adapted to warmer, drier summers by delaying pruning, harvesting earlier, and tweaking their cellar work. But Chardonnay loves the sun, and inattentive growers can end up with overripe, high alcohol wines.
In the last few years Michel Gros’s son Pierre has taken over as principal winemaker at the family domaine. His winemaking style is so far indistinguishable from his father’s, and we can’t blame him. Given Michel’s stellar reputation and 45 vintages of experience, we’ll give Pierre credit for seeking wise counsel.
Master of Wine Jasper Morris is an eloquent, experienced, extremely British wine writer, who doesn’t throw the word “superb” around lightly. And so while we at Ansonia have held this opinion of Cyril Gautheron for years, we took note when earlier this year he called him “a superb producer making wines in a crisp cool classically Chablis style, which is now really quite hard to achieve in these warmer seasons.”
The lone Austrian source in our catalog is the Weingut Salomon-Undof, a centuries old domaine overlooking the Danube river. They’re best known for their Grüner Veltliner, a humble grape that’s synonymous with Austrian winemaking. But we’re very fond of their Rieslings – dry, stony, piercing interpretations of the grape that are the perfect defense against a hot muggy summer evening.
Climate change has made most winemakers’ jobs more difficult, but in some sectors it’s brought more good than harm. One area basking in the abundant sun these days is the Côte Chalonnaise, a sub-region of Burgundy just south of the Côte d’Or. Vignerons here do have to manage drought, powerful storms, and other new challenges, but the struggle for ripeness is largely a thing of the past.
Weeknight Burgundy is not an oxymoron. Yes, pricing for the famous names in Burgundy has gone a bit nuts of late – and while the wines have never been better, many cuvées now occupy the “special occasion” tier for most consumers. But we’re happy to report that with legwork and a bit of patience, there’s still value to be found.
Chassagne-Montrachet is a town synonymous with opulence and richness. Its wines combine weight without heaviness – everything you want in a top class white Burgundy – but usually comes with a hefty pricetag. Roger Belland’s Santenay 1er cru “Beauregard” blanc is not quite as complex or long-lived as a Chassagne premier cru, but for half the price it does an admirable impression, and we think it’s a steal.