The wines of Burgundy are not known for their weight. Their grape is Pinot Noir, a delicate, thin-skinned grape that is relatively light in color. The region is relatively northern, and it’s often a struggle for the grapes to ripen fully.
Much has been written about the 2015 vintage in Burgundy, one of the best in a generation. But the vintage also brought impressive wines from elsewhere in France. In particular, the syrah-based wines of the Northern Rhône had a banner year in 2015. Master of Wine Jancis Robinson in a recent article proclaimed them “the best in 55 years.”
When vines grow old it presents vignerons with a choice. Older vines mean lower yields, which can squeeze a domaine’s bottom line. But old vines also produce more concentrated and better quality juice, leading to wines of depth and intensity. We are always pleased to find vignerons who sacrifice quantity for quality and allow their vines to continue into old age.
With so many different dishes and flavors spread across a Thanksgiving dinner table, wine pairing can be tricky. Our suggestion is to cover all your bases — we recommend having some white, red, and sparkling around to match everyone’s tastes and pairing preferences.
Châteauneuf-du-Pape dominates the south of France. No other town is more famous or produces more widely respected wines. But the relative anonymity of the surrounding towns belies the high quality of wine they produce. And while Châteauneuf-du-Pape will always be a more recognizable purchase, Gigondas provides more bang for your buck.
We work with a lot of winemakers with low profiles, but Jean-Marc Monnet’s might be the lowest. He has no roadside, no website, and no other American importer. We’ve gotten lost trying to find his domaine two years in a row. Jean-Marc himself is as humble as his winery is hidden, but the wines themselves are a wholly different story.
Châteauneuf-du-Pape is the perfect wine for cooler weather. Made famous by French popes in the 14th century, and then again by Robert Parker in the 1980s, the area is rich with winemaking history. Today the appellation, which covers only about 12 square miles, produces some of the most sought after wine in the world.
The towns of Volnay and Pommard are the two finest red wine towns in Burgundy’s Côte de Beaune. Hugh Johnson describes Volnay as “fragrant and ethereal,” Pommard as “dark” and “potent.” Together they’re a perfect example of the power of Burgundian terroir: they share a border and the towns themselves are less than a mile apart, but their identifying characteristics are nearly opposite.
We don’t import much Bordeaux. We’ve always taken more readily to the scale and culture of Burgundy, where the estates are much smaller and the atmosphere less formal. But it’s no secret that Bordeaux makes some extraordinary wines, and we like having some in our portfolio.
It’s hard to justify opening a magnum for a small dinner with a friend or two. But if your guest list numbers more than eight — particularly if they’re the jovial type — you’ll probably need an extra bottle of everything anyway. With less than a month until Thanksgiving and the holidays close behind, entertaining […]
Of the 12,000 acres of vineyards planted in Chablis, only 250 (2%) qualify as Grand Cru. This highest tier includes seven distinct vineyards, each famous in its own right. But among the seven, the Grand Cru “Les Clos” is generally considered the finest. As Master of Wine Clive Coates puts it, Les Clos is “Chablis at its very, very finest… combining depth, intensity, and great elegance.”
Grape varietals often get their names from a visible aspect of their fruit. The name Sauvignon blanc comes from sauvage (“wild”) because its leaves look like those of wild grape vines. Pinot Gris refers to the blue-gray (gris) color of its grapes. But our favorite varietal (etymologically speaking) has to be Sangiovese — a wine so inky and black that it is named for the “blood of Jove.”
Today’s wine comes from one of the most famous names in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. We imported their wines for our Futures group for decades, but their national importer kicked up a fuss about us a few years ago. So to avoid conflict we’ve taken them out of our main sales channels.
Beaujolais is the source of plenty of uninteresting wine. Fully a third of the region’s production is the Beaujolais Nouveau, a cheap insipid red rushed to market a month after harvest. But the rest of the region contains many undervalued wines, some in the same class of top wines from the north of Burgundy.
The first inquiries about the 2015 Michel Gros lineup started coming in more than a year ago. Our best-known producer; the vintage of a generation; “just want to make sure I don’t miss it.” Back in April, our barrel tastings confirmed 2015’s considerable hype — an excellent vintage, from top to bottom.