Champagne is a complicated place. Since its early days the region has been inseparably linked to a sense of glamour and “le marketing.” It can be easy to lose track of quality and distinctiveness amid Champagne’s glossy promotional haze.
Chablis is a singular place. Its combination of deep stony soils and cool climate exists nowhere else on earth. These factors produce a unique wine — mineral and crisp, pure and clean. Our goal as importers is to find wines that reflect the place from which they come, and there is no better place to find such wines than Chablis.
No, that’s not a vintage typo in the subject line. We’ve just called up our small collection of 2005 Gros Burgundies from our offsite warehouse. Purchased back in 2007, and they’ve rested quietly under temperature control for over a decade. Today we’re bringing them out of their slumber to pass them along to you.
We raided our offsite warehouse a few weeks ago, and have brought some older gems with a bit of bottle age. Stay tuned over the next month for a series of throwback wines (including some really exciting old Burgundies this Friday). Today’s pick should hardly be considered old, but it’s in a lovely place.
The Loire Valley is an exciting place these days. The two new sources we discovered this spring have already gained fans among our readers — the Sancerres of Domaine de la Garenne, and the Chenin Blancs of Nicolas Paget. Today we’re excited to introduce a third — the Domaine des Sanzay in Saumur-Champigny.
Sauvignon Blanc has seen a recent surge in popularity. It’s hard to find a wine list these days without examples from New Zealand, California and Washington. But the original source for Sauvignon Blanc is France’s Loire Valley.
We often preach the value of well-aged wines. Under the right conditions, time has a magical effect on a bottle of wine. Usually it’s red wines (or sometimes whites) that are ageworthy, but we often forget the third category: Champagne.
The town of Maragnes is an underrated source for red Burgundy. Located at the very southern end of the Côte d’Or, it’s often left off regional maps, and its reputation is for rusticity over refinement.
The Domaine de l’Arlot is one of the iconic estates of Burgundy’s Nuits-St-Georges. Early adopters of biodynamics, they farm their impressive holdings with precision and care. The estate uses whole-cluster fermentation, which adds a structure and tension to their wines.
Nearly all white wines from Burgundy spend some time oak. The barrels help develop the texture wines’, adding a roundness through micro-oxygenation. And while they’re typically less heavily oaked than many New World wines, the toasty notes are an important part of the great white Burgundies of Chassagne, Puligny, and Meursault. But not all white Burgundies are oaked.
With Thanksgiving next week and December holidays only a few weeks after, entertaining season is upon us. Whether host or guest, it’s always handy to have an inexpensive, crowd-pleasing red around. Today we suggest the a 2016 Juliénas from Jean-Marc Monnet.
There’s no wine quite as cozy as Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The best Châteauneufs all contain a splash of southern sunlight, combining the region’s rugged, sunbaked earthiness with rich, mouthfilling fruit. With cold weather upon us on the east coast, Châteauneuf is as essential as a crackling fire or warm jacket.
The reds of Burgundy are known for their elegance and finesse — but not Pommard. Its clay-rich soils produce reds that Rajat Parr calls “masculine, rustic, and earthy.” Next to the elegant, ethereal red Burgundies of the rest of the Côte d’Or, Pommard stands out. It’s a bit less subtle, but no less delicious.
Our only Italian producer, the Fattoria Poggerino, has long been a favorite among our readers. Their wines are all pure sangiovese — dark, delicately balanced expressions of an intense, powerful grape. Rajat Parr in his recent book calls their wines “excellent” and “some of the purest expressions of the grape in Italy.”
Chablis is the quintessential food wine. With its refreshing mouthfeel and vibrant minerality, it matches beautifully with a wide range — a foil for rich, creamy dishes, or a match for crisp ones. And for nearly all Chablis, the price-to-quality ratio continues to impress.