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.
Perched on a charming Tuscan hillside, the Fattoria Poggerino is certainly one of the most attractive domaines in our portfolio. (If you’re ever in the area, we highly recommend a visit.) As it turns out, the wine is just as beautiful as the source. Poggerino’s careful organic viticulture results in wines of unusual purity, as they practice what Jancis Robinson calls “true craftsmanship.”
Three new $250 samplers to help celebrate the 4th and 4th of July. All ship for free in the eastern half of the US.
Alsace is a land of contradiction. Wedged between France and Germany, this charming region changed hands four times between 1918 and 1945. Its inhabitants tend to identify as Alsatian rather than either French or German, and today Alsace incorporates the best traditions – cultural, culinary, oenological – of both nations.
Gevrey-Chambertin is known for its bold, powerful red Burgundies. Located at the northern end of the Côte d’Or, Gevrey’s wines are at the masculine end of the Burgundy spectrum. Pinot Noir never makes wines as big and extracted as those from the south of France — but for Burgundy, Gevrey is about as bold as it gets.
Most Americans avoid Riesling. We can’t really blame them — much of the Riesling on the market is mass produced, sugary, and uninteresting. But to ignore the grape entirely is to miss out on beautiful, dry, affordable whites.
“Natural” wines are hard to get right, but when they’re good they can be extraordinary. Mas Foulaquier’s cuvées are exceptional — clean and well formed, marrying ripe fruit with earthy notes from their rugged terroir.