We’ve just released the May 2017 Issue of our Futures program. Ansonia Futures offers near-wholesale pricing through advance orders. The May Issue includes 2015 red Burgundies, white, red and rosé from Alsace, Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley, sparkling wines from Burgundy, Châteauneuf du Pape, left and right bank Bordeaux, and more….
It’s always a pleasure to arrive in France for a tasting trip. We do so often enough now that we know which way to go for the luggage, where to grab a quick coffee, and whether we need to hustle for the TGV when the plane is late. (Making the TGV was a near thing this time thanks to a late flight out of Boston, and we were pretty relieved to see the bags spill onto the belt. The next three trains south were all booked up, and had we missed ours the whole schedule would have been thrown out of whack).
In Burgundy as in real estate, it’s said that location is everything. But while it may be the most important thing to know about a wine, it’s not the only thing: sometimes the winemaker can be just as important. We’ve had disappointing wines from some of the finest Grand Cru vineyards in the world.
Champagne is unlike any other region in France. For a century winemakers have built their product into a worldwide brand associated with celebration, wealth, and opulence. The glitz and glamour of Champagne is in stark contrast to regions like Burgundy, where winemakers often arrive for our tastings with mud on their boots and dirt on their hands.
“Natural wine” is a popular buzzword these days, one with varied definitions and no lack of controversy. Whatever you take it to mean — biodynamic, no sulfites, organic, unfiltered — the goal is the same: to create wine with little intervention between grape and glass.
People sometimes ask why we’re so drawn to Burgundy. Partly it’s nostalgia — we lived here for a year two decades ago, and have a fondness for the place and its people. But our goal at Ansonia is to find wines that reflect their origin, and no region does this better than Burgundy.
We spent yesterday morning in Chablis, where winemakers were just finishing a difficult week. After eight consecutive nights fighting damaging frosts, the Chablisiens were sleepy but tentatively optimistic that the worst was behind them.
This week in France has been a reminder of the precarious livelihoods of winemakers. Overnight frosts devastated vineyards in several regions in France this week, and the vignerons aren’t out of the woods yet. As we drove through the Côte d’Or yesterday, winemakers were readying bales of hay in the vineyards, in preparation for the overnight bonfires to protect against the cold.
Northern Rhône and Beaujolais