Those of you who are Oregon collectors need little introduction to 00 Wines. This project of Chris and Kathryn Hermann is in the 99th percentile when it comes to critical acclaim in the Willamette Valley. This is the extremely serious, buttoned-up side of this region, the side that convinced the top names in Burgundy to buy land here while they still could.
The French love Vincent Gaudry. He’s on top wine lists and, as you can see above, the French press revere him too. Partly it’s his devotion to that nearly-lost tradition of Sancerre. The French love their traditions.
Of course, they also love organic and biodynamic producers, and Vincent is a leader on both fronts: organic for 30 years and biodynamic for 25 (he began conversion soon after the 16-year-old Vincent joined his father at the domaine). Thirty-four years later he is a model for many of Sancerre’s greatest producers.
When the King of Rosé crafts another vintage of his stunning, watermelon-hued wine, we have no choice but to kiss the ring.
This king is Tamás Dúzsi, a winemaker from Hungary’s Szekszárd region. He makes a whopping 25 different wines from a variety of native and international grapes, but the wine we love to drink is his rosé of Kékfrankos, a.k.a. Blaufränkisch.
Olga Raffault is best known for red Chinon from the Les Picasses vineyard, an incredibly long-lived, classic expression of limestone terroir through a Cabernet Franc lens. Their most undeniably joyous wine, however, is this rosé. This annual favorite is in fact one of the best examples of a rosé that manages to be delicious enough for drinking on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and also complex enough that it can elevate a meal.
The first time we encountered Thibaud Boudignon’s Savennières ‘Clos de la Hutte’ it clobbered us. We didn’t know anything about Boudignon or his wines, so we expected something typical of the appellation: a wine of opulent, confit fruit flavors, dry but unctuous, maybe even honeyed. Instead, the wine was like a salty lemon laser beam melting our faces: brilliant, explosive, and precisely focused. Amazing out of the gate, it continued to blossom sip by sip, showing the kind of depth and class of a first-rate Grosses Gewächs or Grand Cru Chablis.
Gérard Boulay is a quiet guy. He lets Chavignol do the talking.
And with his family’s collection of prime terroirs, the message comes through loud and clear: the wines crackle with energy and crystal-clear expressions of terroir, balancing profound minerality with deliciously ripe fruit.
Thomas-Labaille’s Monts Damnés Sancerre isn’t just any old Sancerre. It’s from, arguably, the best site in Sancerre, crazy-steep and full of Kimmeridgian limestone .
And it's from inarguably one of its best, low-key producers. Jean-Paul Labaille isn’t out there trying to make the next Le Montrachet. He’s farming the old family vines in the old family way and making a wine that is a delicious, classical expression of that terroir.
We’ve got the new release of Moreau-Naudet’s baby Chablis. But “baby” doesn’t do the wines justice. These are great and complete wines, faithful expressions of their terroir. While there’s no doubt that Moreau-Naudet’s wines reach their “apogee” with their 1er Cru bottlings, great bottles of Foréts and Montée de Tonerre aren’t exactly rare.
As I said last year, if I were told that I could buy, cellar, and drink only one wine for the rest of my life for under $50/bottle, the Barbaresco from the Produttori could well be my choice. It is consistently excellent. It is fun to drink on release. It becomes seriously impressive after just five years of cellaring, but it can really go the distance if you want it to.
Everything has changed, and nothing has changed. The 2023s from Les Héritiers du Comte Lafon have just landed, and they’re exactly what we hoped for: already delicious, fresh, and totally honest expressions of Mâcon terroir.
Bermejos’ iconic rosé is back, and at least for now, we've snatched up enough to share with all of its devoted fans.
Trediberri, founded only in 2007, is one of the newest producers in the entire Barolo DOC. Yet their wines taste so utterly classical and traditional that you would never guess. The wines feel like they've been around for generations.
