For a few years now Pascal Bardoux has supplied us with his exceptional Champagne — from his charming Rosé Brut to his elegant Vintage blends to his remarkable 15-year-old magnums. (Watch this space for more magnums later this year.)
Merlot has had a rough decade. Though it plays a starring role in some of the world’s rarest and priciest wines (Petrus, Cheval Blanc, Ausone), the Sideways effect has dampened sales and made the grape unfashionable. And we’ll admit, there’s plenty of bland, boring Merlot out there.
If you have trouble finding Saint-Péray on a map, you’re not alone. The tiny Northern Rhône appellation is tucked just south of Cornas on the Rhône River, and covers only three tenths of a square mile. But Vinous’s Josh Raynolds calls it “currently the most exciting appellation in the northern Rhône Valley.”
If Sancerre had a grand cru vineyard, it would be the Monts Damnées. This most famous of Sancerre’s terroirs abuts the hamlet of Chavignol west of the town. Sancerre produces popular wine from every corner of its appellation, but the hillside of the Monts Damnées is special.
Most wines made from Pinot Noir are red, whether light and elegant or rich and fruity. But in fact the juice of Pinot Noir grapes is clear. The color of Pinot Noir rouge comes from soaking the grape skins in the juice — press the juice off the skins and ferment it without them, and you get a wine that’s much closer to a white.
The Loire Valley is a pastoral land of magnificent chateaux and humble goat cheese makers. The range of wines across its 250 mile expanse is just as dramatic: sparkling and still, dry and sweet, and everything from almost-clear Muscadet to deep purple Chinon. There’s a wine here for every palate. For this case we’ve selected […]
We think summer wines should be refreshing, affordable, and served cool. Usually this means whites, and we’re thrilled about the new Sancerres we added to our site yesterday. But sometimes the menu or the moment calls for a red.
We’ve spent years looking for a good Sancerre source. It’s harder than you might think — Sancerre is a small appellation with a big name, and everyone wants to have the wine in their portfolio. But this spring we struck gold, and they’ve just arrived in the warehouse.
Morey-St-Denis is a most Burgundian style of Burgundy. The wines are firmly rooted in the old world — precise, refined, and sophisticated. Difficult vintages sometimes require deliberate aging in Morey-St-Denis, though they nearly always reward it handsomely.
“If gold were a flavor,” Matt Kramer once wrote, “it would taste like Meursault.” Though it has no Grand Cru, the wines of Meursault are some of the most sought after in the world. For most, the name recalls white Burgundies of decadence, opulence, and style.
For white wines, it doesn’t get much drier than Muscadet. Grown near the mouth of the Loire River, Muscadet is at once brisk and hearty — the essence of the windswept Atlantic coast. When it’s this hot out, we can’t think of much else in our glasses.
The French have a long tradition of eating outdoors. From harvest tables in Burgundy to breezy rooftops in Paris, a French meal en plein air is full of beguiling aromas, clinking glasses, and hearty laughter. In France and at home we like to eat sur terrace, and we find that wine (and really food in general) tastes better outside, with room to breathe and open.
Oysters are a common sight at French markets. Huitres are a natural pairing for wine, in both the gustatory and philosophical senses. Just like wine, they’re an expression of terroir (or merrior, if you like) whose character changes with their origin. And in matters gustatory, well, it’s a match made in heaven.
“Puligny-Montrachet is where Burgundian Chardonnay is at its most complete,” writes Clive Coates MW. The tiny town, covering less than one square mile, has made highly sought after wine for nearly a thousand years. Today most consider it, as Coates puts it, “the greatest white wine commune on earth.”
We often joke that inhabitants of the Beaujolais consider themselves Burgundian, but that the rest of Burgundy isn’t quite as sure. And while differences between the two halves abound — grape varietal, soil type, landscape, etc. — they share a tradition and style as well.