The Northern Rhône produces the world’s most complex and balanced expressions of Syrah. Particularly in Côte Rôtie, at the region’s northern limit, the wines combine inky, black, masculine fruit with extraordinary lift and finesse. Our producer in Côte Rôtie is Christophe Bonnefond, who seems to make more impressive and well-balanced wines each year.
Christophe Mestre and his wife are from old Châteauneuf du Pape families. Like many such families, their vines are in plots scattered across the town’s remarkably diverse terroir. Their parcels cover all three of Châteauneuf’s famous terroirs: the famous galets roulés (see photo), sand, and clay-limestone. Mestre makes a single red cuvée from these terroirs, […]
The 2019 vintage produced outstanding wines in red Burgundy, white Burgundy, and the Rhône valleys. But the success of this vintage stretched further, across the Mont Blanc and into Tuscany. The 2019 Chianti Classico from Poggerino is as good as it's ever een.
It seems that hot, dry growing season are now the norm in Burgundy. Twenty years ago these vintages would have been unusual – a challenging outlier requiring some careful adjustments in the cellar. But as warm, sunny conditions have become the new normal, both growers and vines have begun to adapt more permanently.
At its best, white Burgundy is a balance of richness and elegance. Expressions range across the region from light and crisp (Chablis) to lush and ripe (Maconnais), but if we had to pick one, our favorite expression is somewhere in the middle. At the center of this spectrum lies the famous stretch of Meursault, Puligny, and Chassage.
Some wine writers will tell you that we’re living in the golden age of Loire Valley Cabernet Franc. Twenty years ago winemakers would struggle to ripen their grapes, and as anyone who’s had one will agree, underripe Cabernet Franc is a particular sort of unappealing. Twenty years from now, if warmer summers and earlier harvests continue, the wines may become…
The Northern Rhône represents (for now) the northern limit of where Syrah can ripen fully. As with many grapes, the area of northernmost range produces the most elegant and delicate expression of the grape – think South African Shiraz, now picture its opposite. But recent warmer drier summers have changed the character in frontier regions […]
One of our most popular white Burgundies these days was the product of an accident. After tasting a Gevrey-Chambertin from a small unknown domaine in a restaurant in Beaune a few years ago, and spent a week full of emails, calls, and text trying to track down the winemaker. When we at last managed to get an audience, the rest…
The wines of Chablis are known for their limited oak, piercing minerality, and crystalline elegance. Our favorites are often mid-range bottles that combine everyday pricing and with great energy and beautiful precision.
The soils of Sancerre are famous for their flint. This unusual rock gives the region’s wines a note of smokiness and minerality -- a perfect foil for Sauvignon Blanc’s lush grapefruit notes. This unique balance has made Sancerre one of the world’s most popular wines.
In Burgundy as in real estate, location is everything. Today’s wine comes from a vineyard in Gevrey-Chambertin called “Combottes.” It’s classified Premier Cru but surrounded on all sides by five famous Grand Crus, including Charmes, Latricières, Mazoyères, and Clos de la Roche.
Vosne-Romanée and Nuits-St-Georges are neighbors with opposing characters. Vosne tends towards elegance, finesse, and spice; Nuits towards richness, more structure, and bolder flavors. In the hands of a talented winemaker, both can be superb.
The wines of Margaux are prized for their elegance and perfume, and combination of left-bank Bordeaux power, and unusual grace and lift. Our source here is the Château du Courneau, and their 2018 delivers both subtlety of fruit and richness of palate. Courneau is the second wine of Chateau Haut Breton la Rigaudiere, a well respected Margaux vineyard which Jane…
Volnay has no Grand Crus, but the premier cru Caillerets vineyard is the finest in the appellation; in fact the local saying goes “he who has no vines in Caillerets knows not the worth of Volnay.” We’ve had delicious bottles from all over Volnay, but one taste of Caillerets and the reasons for its reputation become clear.
If Nicolas Maillet were to sum up his winemaking philosophy, it’d go something like this: let the grapes speak for themselves. Firmly committed to organic viticulture, and always a light tough in the cellar, Maillet coaxes rather than crafts his wines from each plot and vintage. If the fermentation needs a year to finish (a not infrequent occurrence chez Maillet),…