Every now and then, we taste wines from a producer that’s clearly Going Places—like the star student in a high school class, it’s painfully obvious that some domaines are driven in a fundamentally different way from their peers. The current incarnation of Clos de la Chapelle is clearly one of those estates—the praise keeps coming and it won’t be long until these are thought of (and priced with) wines like D’Angerville, Lafon and Lafarge as some of the top bottlings in Volnay.… Read the rest
The 2008 La Grande Dame looks to be a classic, and lovers of the style will want to pre-order now and stock up. It is the top vintage since the ’02 (and possibly since ’96—only time will tell). 2008 was a smaller harvest than normal (see: the pitifully small quantity of 2008 Salon, for example), yet yielded exceptionally high quality wines and so it seems unlikely this vintage will be offered for as long as the ’06 or ’04. The Wine Spectator was enamored by the vintage… Read the rest
New Wines from Domaine Vocoret
Classic Chablis at reasonable prices is increasingly rare. The best producers make exceptional and classic wines, but at prices that are hard to afford for casual drinking. There is an ocean of affordable but mass-market Chablis that lack any sort of typicity. Domaine Vocoret, on the other hand, exists in a perfect overlap—the wines are delicious and have an essential-ness about them that screams Chablis. The pricing, too, is within reach, even with the Grand Cru wines, all under $70 a bottle. When you combine the quality of the estate with the excellent 2017 vintage, you have a truly winning set of wines on your hands that you can buy now. … Read the rest
Clos Rougeard is one of the toughest wines in the world to source—and older vintages even more so. These are bottles that are some of the most coveted in the world—the only producer of their stature in the Loire, they’re on par with the highest end Burgundy. Collectors fight to get mere bottles of current releases, so it’s even more exciting to get our hands on a massive collection of back-vintage Rougeard with excellent provenance. These are moving fast—we’re down to one vintage of Breze and only a few bottles of a number of the single vineyard wines. You can view a full list on our webstore, or keep reading for more details on provenience, etc … Read the rest