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WHITE BURGUNDY
Burgundy is divided into a number of sub-regions and these are important in
sorting out this jigsaw puzzle of a viticultural area.
White Burgundies are, typically, Chardonnay wines. There are a few exceptions:
"Aligoté" is a rather simple and acidic dry white, making its most noteworthy
wine in the area of Bouzeron.
"Sacy" is responsible for some wines designated "Bourgogne Grand
Ordinaire" which come from the Yonne (Chablis) region.
"Sauvignon" (blanc) makes some very nice little wines in the Chablis sub-region
of "St-Bris-le-Vineux" and we've, periodically, had some of this steely, dry
white here in the shop.
I have seen references to Pinot Blanc and Pinot Chardonnay with respect to Burgundy. There
is even a supposedly "mutant" clone of Pinot Noir, said to be first isolated at
the domaine of Henri Gouges in Nuits-Saint-Georges.
So, for the most part we're dealing with CHARDONNAY.
Now, you need to know the sub-regions here:
"Chablis," located about 60 miles
northwest of the heart of Burgundy. There is a wine known as "Petite Chablis"
from small pockets of vineyards scattered around the region. This is usually really
simple, acidic, bone dry and very light. "Chablis" can be magnificent wine. The
most prestigious are of Grand Cru status and encompass seven "crus": Blanchot,
Bougros, Les Clos, Grenouilles, Les Preuses, Valmur and Vaudésir. These can be the most
interesting and long-lived wines, going ten or more years. The most common Premier crus
include: Beauroy, Fourchaume, Montée de Tonnerre, Montmains and Vaillons.
These often take three to five years to blossom.
Click here for a page with
Chablis photos and maps...
"Côte d'Or," the heart of
Burgundy and where the most prestigious wines come from is divided into two sub-regions:
the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune. It is from the latter area that the most
well-known white Burgundies come from. Here you'll find Corton Charlemagne, Meursault,
Auxey-Duresses, Saint-Romain, Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet and Saint-Aubin.
"Do you know the way to Montrachet?"
"Cote Chalonnaise" makes some
good, lighter-weight Chardonnays. These might be found with the appellations of Givry,
Mercurey, Rully or Montagny.
"Macon" is the most southerly
region of Burgundy and it's most famous wine is Pouilly-Fuissé. There are a number of
producers attempting to make oakier, richer white wines here, but, frankly, the
wines sold by the large negociant firms are expensive and, to our taste, rather soulless
and empty. Happily some small estates have figured out how to make
more interesting and complex wines. A few of these rival good California
Chardonnays and offer an alternative to good Côte de Beaune whites. Few,
though, reach the level of quality of fine Premier Cru or Grand Cru white
Burgundy. On
the other hand, the area is loaded with producers of good, simple, straight-forward,
non-oaked Chardonnays and these, costing around twelve bucks, can be pretty satisfying.
White Burgundy Producers We Like:
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DOMAINE PINSON
 The
7th generation of Pinsons is running this family estate right near the
'wash-a-teria' in beautiful downtown Chablis.-
No kidding...the winery is right along the little creek that flows through
town and there's an ancient community clothes-washing place right there in
case you're visiting and feel a need to beat the hell out of your
laundry. I didn't notice an automated laundromat in town, by the way.
The Pinson family traces its roots back to the year 1640. We think
their Chablis wines are better than ever, but then we weren't around to
assess the wines made in the 1640s.
The winery was one of the first to bottle its own wines. They hadn't
thought of this in the 1600s and it took them until 1940 to come up with the
notion of vinifying wine and selling it in glass containers which customers
could transport home. The property encompassed some 3 hectares back
then. By the 1982 vintage the domaine comprised all of five
hectares.
Laurent and Christophe run the estate today and they care for a whopping 12
hectares of vines. In 2004 they built a new, modern cellar. We
found a nice installation of temperature-controlled stainless steel
fermentation tanks. This allows them to really capture the fruit and
minerality of the various parcels of vines.
Laurent explained they like to incorporate a small percentage of
wood-fermented wine into most lots. Even the basic Chablis has a small
amount of barrel-fermented juice, though the wood is rather neutral.
Laurent explains they like the complexity this adds to the wine.
Yields are much less today than in their father's day. The grand cru
vines produce about 35 hectoliters per hectare, while the premier cru vines
turn out 45 to 48 hectoliters/hectare. Quality seems to be the name of
the game here and we tasted some very fine bottles on our visit.
We have their 2006 basic Chablis in stock. Here's a lovely example of
Chablis at a most affordable price. I seem to recall that 80% of the
wine is from one vineyard in particular. Only 7% of the wine sees
wood, as they strive to retain the character of "Chablis" in the
wine. Moderately stony and quite dry, it's a perfect accompaniment to
simple, pan-fried fish filets, a platter of oysters, etc.
Their 1er Cru La Forêt is magnificent Chablis. It comes from vines
which are 40+ years of age. Nice fruit and a whiff of wood.
Complete. Delicious now and it'll be good for a number of years.
The Grand Cru of Les Clos reaches great heights in this cellar. Very
fine and deep. It is delicious in its youth and one can see if will
continue to develop handsomely for a number of years.
By the way, I understand the Pinson wines cost more than
the famous Chablis wines from the Raveneau family at the cellar door.
The Raveneau wines, though, due to their fame and demand, end up commanding
insanely higher prices when they reach the consumer.
We are fortunate to have access to the Pinson wines through a reliably good
and honest importer here in the area.
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Currently in stock: 2006 PINSON "CHABLIS"
$19.99
2007 PINSON CHABLIS 1er Cru "La Forêt" (list $40)
SALE $32.99
2005 PINSON CHABLIS Grand Cru "Les Clos" $57.99
Chablis Meister, Laurent Pinson
Mr. and Mrs. Pinson
- DOMAINE Des COMTES LAFON
 It's not fair
to "tease" you with a huge write-up of a domaine whose wines are
so highly regarded and so scarce that we can't offer you but a bottle from
time to time.
I had the good fortune to visit this small domaine in Meursault in March
of 2002. The property covers some 13.9 hectares, 8 of which are
devoted to Chardonnay. This is one of those domaines run by a
perfectionist. Dominique Lafon took over for his father René some
years ago. "Dad" was a highly regarded wine-grower and
Dominique has the same reputation.
 It was really
great to taste these wines out of barrel (sorry if I'm torturing you),
because when I've tasted the wines fresh-off-the-boat I've wondered what
all the fuss is about. Tasting them out of barrel (we tasted very
fine 2000s and still-developing and hard-to-assess 2001s), I found the
elements about which I've read. These are deep and profound wines
which are refined and elegant. Dominique Lafon's right hand man, Stphane
Thibodaux told us that the wines are really nice after five or six years
in the bottle. But he said their 1992s, at ten years of age, are
still "closed" unless you decant them and let them
"breathe" for about an hour!
Ellen visited the estate in February of 2005 and described the wines she
tasted as "magical."
Lafon purchased
a property in Macon, so
we are now able to have a taste of how a Meursault-Maniac handles
Macon. The first vintages have been rather promising, so this will
be a project whose progress we will follow with great interest. (How
many Macon producers make great Montrachet? Only Lafon!)
Macon Milly-Lamartine. Good wines, though I didn't mistake them for
Lafon's Meursault Clos de la Barre. I am curious to see how these
develop with cellaring. Time will tell.
Post-script: I recently had a chance to taste some "older"
bottles of Lafon's Macon wines. Wow...what a difference with a year
or two of bottle aging! These are remarkably good wines but you
can't really evaluate them when they're just-bottled and
first-released. These showed nice depth and hints of ripe apple,
honey and toast (but not oaky). The texture on the palate was much
broader, too.
Montrachet, of which there is precious little! Lafon has one-third
of a hectare of vines in this appellation. In 2000 they made six
barrels. We are fortunate to be on the allocation list for this
rarity. Delicious and expensive.
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Currently in stock:
2003 Macon Milly-LaMartine $22.99
2002 Macon Bussires $22.99
2001 Macon "Clos du Four" $19.99
2001 Meursault $79.99
2002 Meursault $89.99
2003 Macon Uchizy $28.99
2003 Macon Clos de la Crochette $28.99
2003 Macon Villages $22.99
We also have some recent vintages of Meursault...
Stop by.
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DOMAINE LEFLAIVE
 The
Leflaive name has long been highly-regarded with respect to the wines from
Puligny-Montrachet. Having been privileged to taste these wines over
the years, I can say it is in the past decade that the wines have really
become a reference point for the appellation and for white Burgundy in
general.
Part of the rise in quality may be attributed, perhaps, to the conversion
of their vineyards to biodynamic farming practices. Another
contributing factor is due to a modest change in management back in 1990
when Anne-Claude Leflaive took over running the domaine. Her cousin
Olivier runs his own business, the Olivier Leflaive negociant company.
The winemaker is Pierre Morey, whose name appears on his own brand of
wines, both home-grown and negociant bottlings.
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The winemaking is straightforward, adding credibility to the
notion that "wine is made in the vineyard."
Leflaive has segmented its vineyard holdings into numerous
"blocks" and harvests according to the maturity of the
fruit.
The Leflaive holdings are outside the village of Puligny-Montrachet in various
colors.
Once the grapes have come into the cellar, the fruit is pressed
and the juice is allowed to settle in stainless steel tanks. I have heard
some winemakers argue against this, claiming it robs the wines of a dimension of
character, while other winemakers assert this allows for a "cleaner"
fermentation. You can't argue with the results from Leflaive, however.
The juice is then racked into small French oak barrels and the
fermentation is initiated. They're big fans of stirring the sediment
following the fermentation. The French call this battonage and you
can't miss it in the Leflaive wines as they show a really intensely smoky,
"leesy" character which is their signature.
Some people may describe the wines of Leflaive as oaky or the product of really
toasted oak barrels. But this isn't the case. The wines are
smoky from their maturation on the spent yeast.
 I've
been a fan of the Clavoillon wines, a cru which is just north of Les Pucelles
and east of Folatières. Leflaive owns nearly the entire site, holding
4.79 hectares of the 5.59.
The 2006 Clavoillon is young and delicious, but probably
won't really shine for another couple of years. You can see the wine has
some outstanding qualities, however. We're big fans of this steely
dry, smoky, minerally white Burgundy.
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Currently in stock: 2006 Leflaive
Puligny-Montrachet "Clavoillon" $139.99 (several bottles in stock)
2004 Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet $359.99
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MAISON AMBROISE
 The
Ambroise name is note hugely well-known, though the family has been in
Burgundy for hundreds of years. The estate of Michel Dupasquier
passed to son-in-law Bertrand Ambroise, whose signature now appears on the
labels.
They're in the town of Premeaux-Prissey, near Nuits-St-Georges, but today
their holdings extend from a parcel of Clos Vougeot in the north,
south to Meursault. Ambroise is now cultivating the vineyards using
biodynamic principles and yields, we're told, are well under the maximums
mandated by law.
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- We tasted a really stellar Saint Romain recently...it's from the 2007
vintage and it's not only top quality, recognizable as "fine"
White Burgundy, it's also priced fairly.
Ambroise likes to put whole clusters of Chardonnay into the press and
allow the free run juice to cascade out...he gently presses the fruit and
then allows the juice to 'settle' for a day or two before transferring it
to small French oak barrels.
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- Ambroise uses indigenous yeasts and but a light filtration to his white
wines before bottling. We were amused to see the Saint Romain comes
with a screw cap...and it's remarkably good! There's a nice touch of
wood to the wine, along with some stony, minerally notes. The fruit
is in the direction of ripe apples, though it's not an especially
"fruity" wine on the nose or palate. Bone dry, of course
and it's nicely acidic. Very showy for thirty bucks.
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Currently in stock: AMBROISE 2007 SAINT
ROMAINE Sale $29.99
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PIERRE MOREY
- Monsieur Morey (there are a lot of Monsieur Morey's in Burgundy!)
used to rent vineyards from the Comtes Lafon property, but these have
reverted back to Lafon, the lease having run out. Today he
owns about eight hectares of vineyards and produces about 48,000
bottles of wine annually.
Morey has been the regisseur for the famed white Burgundy producer, Domaine
Leflaive. Like Leflaive, Morey prefers to tend to the vines
using "old fashioned," methode biologique cultivation
techniques.
The juice is pressed from the Chardonnay grapes and fermented in oak,
Morey using about 25% new barrels for each wine. He stirs the
"lees" or yeast sediment regularly for a few months and then
leaves the wine on the lees for another year before racking. As a
result, you'll find his wines to be somewhat toasty and decidedly
smoky.
A French publication characterized his wines as having the "finesse
of Coche-Dury with the richness on the palate of Lafon." High
praise, indeed!
We tasted a 1999 Meursault "Les Tessons" which we thought was
superb. It's really toasty like a Coche-Dury wine with lots of smoky
notes. Bone dry. Long and toasty on the finish. Very
fine. Drinkable now, yet I'll bet this can go another 5-10 years.
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Currently in stock: 1999 MEURSAULT "Les
Tessons" $49.99
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DOMAINE LABET
 The
Labet family is co-owner of the famous Clos Vougeot estate of the Chteau
de la Tour. In addition to making a majestic red wine, there
are some wines appearing under the Domaine Labet banner.
We tasted a wonderful example of "Beaune" from the Clos du
Dessus Des Marconnets site. The wine displays nice, smoky, toasty,
leesy notes. It's dry and medium-bodied on the palate with oak being
in the background. We understand the vineyards are
organically-farmed, by the way.
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Currently in stock: 2004 DOMAINE LABET BEAUNE
"Clos du Dessus Marconnets" $34.99
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JEAN PAUL DROIN
 I'd bet probably not many winedrinkers know this fellow or his wines, yet he's regarded
as one of the very top producers of Chablis. With a range of vines, this 20-hectare
domaine covers Petit Chablis up to Grand Crus. Though barrel-fermented, the wines are not
especially oaky, Droin managing to highlight the fruit and minerally notes.
We've often been fans of their "Tete de Cuvée," a wine carrying
the basic "Chablis" appellation but it's a good deal better than
most other "simple" Chablis wines.
The 2004 is a recent arrival and we bought a bottle from the importer to see
if it was to our taste. As usual, it was! There's a bright apple
tone to the fruit and a whiff of lemon zest and stony, minerally notes on
the nose. The wine is bone dry on the palate. One of our wine
industry pals found it too tart and austere for her California palate.
C'est la vie. Paired with seafood, this wine really
sings! I suspect most customers probably buy it and drink it right
away, though we've seen these can age quite handsomely for 10+ years.
Maybe more.-
Currently available: 2004 Chablis "Tête de Cuvée"
$21.99
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 BENOIT DROIN
POURS WINE IN THE FAMILY CELLAR.
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MANCIAT-PONCET
Claude Manciat and his wife Simone Poncet have been growing grapes for
decades, but they only began bottling their own wines in 1979.
 They
have about 4.5 hectares of vineyards in the Pouilly-Fuissé appellation and
another five in Macon. While most of the vineyards in Macon are
machine-harvested, Manciat-Poncet vineyards are still picked by
hand.
Though they both qualify for the senior citizen's discount at the local
cinema, both Claude and Simone are vivacious and still enthusiastic about
their work.
We tasted a variety of tank and barrel samples on our visit a few years ago. Claude buys oak, for example, from several different coopers and
the wines aged in each has a slightly different "seasoning" as a
result. To complicate matters, slightly, Manciat-Poncet works with one
importer whose preference is for lavishly-oaked wines and another whose
preference is more for wines which have no oak or merely a hint of
wood. The importer we purchase from prefers the wines which taste more
of the grape than of the lumber.
 The
Pouilly-Fuiss we have is the "Les Crays" bottling, a wine which
shows just a bit of wood. One part of the wine is exposed to a
percentage of new barrels, while most is matured in seasoned, more neutral
oak. Large negociant firms such as Louis Jadot bottle a small lake's
worth of Pouilly-Fuiss which is rather bland, simple white wine of little
character. (And I'm being polite.)
Manciat-Poncet's wine actually has quite a bit of Chardonnay character and a
hint of wood.
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- Their Macon-Charnay (Charnay is a village whose wines can be sold either
as Macon-Villages or Macon-Charnay) is a delicious, light, uncomplicated
white wine. It still has character, though, even though wood is not
part of the equation. The 2006 comes from a good vintage and the fruit
in this wine is reminiscent of the fragrance we get from a bucket of
fresh-picked apples from our friend's place in Woodside.
Delightful! It's an uncomplicated, yet delicious, wine.
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- They make a bit of Pinot Noir and Gamay.
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Simone organized a lovely lunch for us.
Crudités and Macon-Charnay.
This is a lovely combination!
Asparagus, Haricots Verts and Jerusalem Artichokes along with
some Pike Quenelles made for one nice lunch!
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CURRENTLY IN STOCK: POUILLY-FUISSÉ SALE
$24.99
MACON-CHARNAY $13.99
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MICHEL COUTOUX
 This
is a name that's slowly been gaining a bit of fame, but it's still
below the radar of most wine fans.
Michel Coutoux comes to Burgundy from the Loire Valley and married
into a somewhat "royal" family, that of Michel
Niellon. Now, most folks have not heard of Niellon, either, but
that's because you have to be a serious white Burgundy fanatic to know
the Niellon domaine. Production is tiny and the wines are highly
sought after, but difficult to find.
Coutoux married Niellon's daughter and he learned the craft and
artistry of making white Burgundy from the "old man."
And, obviously, Coutoux is a capable student as his own wines are
often remarkably good.
We've had some of his wines, off and on, over the past decade and the
overall quality and style is impressive.
We find, usually, a nice minerality to the Coutoux wines. But
they often have a really fine balance of leesy, smoky notes from being
matured on the spent yeast sediment and a toasty quality from oak
barrels.
Recently we purchased a bottle of the 2005 Puligny-Montrachet.
Wow! This shows the really smoky notes we find so attractive in
the higher end wines of Domaine LeFlaive. And then there's a
minerally character which is simply so different from California
Chardonnay...one guest described this as showing the sort of flavors
you might encounter from biting into an oyster shell. There's
nice weight to the wine...it's substantial, but not heavy or
ponderous. Delicious now, we suspect this wine will continue to
grow over the next several years.
The importer tells us the 2005 Puligny is a blend of three small
parcels of vineyards, all located just below some Premier cru
sites.
Further exploration is required here...I look forward to the research!
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Currently in stock: 2005 MICHEL COUTOUX
Puligny-Montrachet $59.99
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A. et P. DE VILLAINE
 Bouzeron
isn't exactly the center of the universe when it comes to Burgundy.
It's a small appellation (and a new one, at that) which is devoted to the
white grape, Aligoté. When wine connoisseurs visit Burgundy,
Bouzeron is almost certainly on the itinerary. Visiting there
would be a bit like heading to a fancy car dealer and taking a spin on a
scooter, instead of test-driving a Bentley.
The Bouzeron appellation was created in 1998 and today it
comprises about 52 hectares of vineyards and there are perhaps a dozen vintners
who offer wine of this designation from La Côte Chalonnaise.
The most famous is this domaine, which is run by the main man of the Domaine de
la Romanée-Conti, Aubert de Villaine. He's the "A", while his
wife Pamela is the "P." She's the first cousin, by the way, of
Carneros (Napa) grower, Larry Hyde. They have a modest estate in Bouzeron,
with about half the production devoted to this looked-down-upon grape.
Aligoté, however, was, once-upon-a-time, more highly regarded and even
cultivated in such esteemed appellations as Pernand-Vergelesses and
Meursault. There still may be scattered plantings in those towns and in
other places around Burgundy, but it's typically cultivated in places where you
wouldn't bother with the more noble Chardonnay or Pinot Noir.
In Bouzeron, however, it's a different story: Aligoté is cultivated
exclusively on slopes and not on flat land. Not surprisingly, what is
often a meager, skinny, runt-of-a-wine in other areas, produces a somewhat more
interesting white wine in Bouzeron.
I don't want you to think this is a wine of the complexity of a major league
White Burgundy. It is not.
It is, though, a very enjoyable, stony, minerally, bone dry white wine which may
strike you as being sort of like a crisp Sancerre with the minerality of a good
Chablis. It's a good partner for shellfish starters as it will provide a
lovely contrast with a more complex and opulent wine with the main course.
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Currently in stock: 2007 DE VILLAINE
"BOUZERON" $19.99
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LAMBLIN
 This
family traces its history in Chablis back to the year 1690. Three
hundred and fifteen years later, we finally bought some wine from
them. I'm sure they're hoisting a glass of bubbly to celebrate.
We've tasted various vintages of the Lamblin's simple "Bourgogne
Blanc" and typically found the wine to be well-made, crisp, nodding in
the direction of Chablis. The 2005-2007 bottlings were quite good and now the
2008 vintage is here...quite nice! And it's selling for but eleven bucks! There's a touch of
the minerally, appley, mildly mushroomy note...sort of Chablis-Meets-Vouvray
(except no sugar). It tastes like it
comes from Chablis or near Chablis and is a good example of non-oaked
Chardonnay.
We like this paired with steamed clams, pâté, cold chicken and other light
fare. The Lamblin's suggest serving this with cream-sauced
fish. Your mileage may vary.
Currently in stock: 2008 LAMBLIN "Bourgogne - Chardonnay"
SALE $10.99-
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GERALD & PHILIBERT TALMARD
 This
is a father and son team located in the village of Uchizy in Macon.
They actually have holdings in a couple of places and produce
attractively-priced, crisp, snappy Chardonnays.
They make two wines, one from Uchizy and the other from the town of
Chardonnay (yes, the grape is Chardonnay and the town is called
Chardonnay!).
We stock the Macon-Chardonnay and this has been a frequent offering here
in the shop.
The wine is not exposed to wood and it's a simple, crisp, bright dry white
wine. You won't confuse this with Montrachet, but then, you can buy
cases and cases of Talmard Macon for the price of a single bottle of
Montrachet.
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Currently in stock: 2008 TALMARD
MACON-CHARDONNAY $10.99
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