If Vosne-Romanée embodies Burgundian sophistication, then neighbor Nuits-St-Georges has the humbler charm of a country gentleman. Spread across five miles of varied terroir, the wines of Nuits-St-Georges range from spiced and elegant to meaty and rich. Wines from plots near the Vosne border can borrow a bit of spice and silk from their neighbor.
Even among a portfolio of low-profile winemakers, Jean-Marc Monnet is under the radar. We visit him every year, and we still have trouble remembering all the turns to find his domaine. He has no website, his house is unmarked, and there’s one tiny road sign.
For centuries Champagne has been a symbol of refinement and class. It’s sophistication in a glass, the pick of high rollers from Gatsby to Churchill. And for the most serious aficionados, Blanc de Blancs is the best of the best. Made from only white grapes, it’s Champagne at its most elegant.
The Côte d’Or produces nearly all of Burgundy’s most famous wines. It’s split into the Côte de Nuits (famous for its reds), and the Côte de Beaune (famous for its whites); if you’ve got an expensive, ageworthy Burgundy, it’s almost certainly from the Côte d’Or.
Burgundy can be an intimidating place. Its classification rules are complicated, and its wines often require precise and careful cellaring. Even for experienced collectors it can tricky to time the optimum drinking window, and getting it wrong can be disappointing and expensive.
“Puligny-Montrachet is where Burgundian Chardonnay is at its most complete,” writes Clive Coates MW. The tiny town, covering over 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.”
“Crémant should never try to be Champagne.” That’s how winemaker Philippe Chautard answered when one of our guests asked him to compare the two. “Crémant is from Burgundy, and should act like it.”
Romain Collet is a rising star in Chablis. After taking over the domaine in 2009, Collet has introduced ambient yeasts, new fermentation vessels, and a move towards organic viticulture. The quality has jumped, and despite recent disastrous weather patterns, Romain has produced some remarkable vintages.
We’re always on the hunt for overperforming wines. We often find them just over the border of a famous vineyard or village. At their best, these wines provide exceptional value: near-perfect terroir, but without the famous name and ensuing cost.
White Burgundy makes an excellent “by the glass” wine for your house. It pairs with a wide range of foods, and with no food at all -- an essential component to a well-stocked cellar. Think of it as wine’s Swiss Army Knife, useful in far more situations than you can think of at one time.
The neighboring towns of Nuits-St-Georges and Vosne-Romanée produce strikingly different wines. In general, Vosne is elegant and ethereal; Nuits is bold and muscly. Taste them side by side and it’s hard to believe they share a border.
In a fast-paced world, cellaring wine has become a rarity. Not all wines are meant to age, and indeed the wine world’s style continues to shift toward early maturity. But for wine that rewards patience, the transformation of bottle aging is nothing short of magic.
The Côte d’Or is home to nearly all of Burgundy’s most famous wines. As monks learned centuries ago, the region’s combination of soil, exposition, slope, and weather makes it a near-perfect place to grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Burgundy can be an intimidating place. Its classification rules are complicated, and its wines often require precise and careful cellaring. Even for experienced collectors it can tricky to time the optimum drinking window, and getting it wrong can be disappointing and expensive.
Chablis is a singular place. Its combination of deep stony soils and cool climate exists nowhere else on earth. These factors produce a similarly 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…