Chateau Biston Brillette 2006: A Winning Bordeaux from the Medoc in a 90-Point Vintage
Subscribe to Cynthia’s free newsletter
The classic elegance of the Chateau
Biston Brillette label
Shimmery, garnet robe and dark berry fruit that is perfectly balanced with its tannins, this wine is real Bordeaux class. Chateau Biston Brillette is on my Top Ten list of my favorite Petits Chateaux, and I’ve sampled hundreds.
Biston Brillette is a Moulis wine. This very high-value-to-price commune lies between Margaux and St Julien. In fact if this same wine was from St Julien or Margaux it would cost + 50% more. That is why finding very well made wines from neighboring communes to the famous Medoc appellations can be the insiders source for the best values in Bordeaux.
I love going on a quest for over-achieving, under-priced Bordeaux. I’ve been doing it for 25 years now and Chateau Biston Brillette was one of my first discoveries. I first got interested in Biston Brillette when I started seeing it on many restaurant wine lists in the Medoc & Bordeaux.
This is significant because these are the restaurants that all the Chateau owners and winemakers go to and a bad wine is not going to stay on the list for long. Over the years, vintage after vintage of Biston Brillette has remained on those wine lists. And, it is no surprise to me.
Wine Spectator gives the 2006 vintage in Left Bank Bordeaux an “outstanding” 90-Point rating. This is not a vintage to miss.
Everyone needs a Few Bottles in the Cellar: Méthode Champenoise Sparklers At Very Friendly Prices
Subscribe to Cynthia’s free newsletter
The label for the Chateau
de Chorey sparkling wine
Who doesn’t like Champagne? I do not see any hands out there.
All my wine participants have been asking for a Champagne-like wine for ages.
Anniversaries, birthdays, a good day at work, a friend from out of town drops drops in mais oui – any good dinner (almost defined by opening a bottle). Sparkling wine is required at celebrations of all sorts (planned and unplanned).
You won your flight , the boat is out of the water, almost anything can become an impromptu celebration and make the day a bit special with a glass of sparkling wine
And I agree! Although until this year – despite a lot of requests – I have not imported any sparkling wines myself. Why not? Because I have been looking too long in Champagne.
I import only individual winemakers’ wines because across France that is where the most interesting and best wines are made today. Champagne is dominated by big corporate brands with most producers’ grapes coming from a thousand sources where yields are high and quality is unknown. Yes they are serviceable but they are also expensive. Most Champagnes are $40+ per bottle and while they have their ‘house style” they are more similar to each other than individually distinctive. That is what you get when you buy grapes from hundreds of sources and blend them.
But last year I had an epiphany – why not look to other French regions like Burgundy and the Loire where very good sparkling wines are made. Regions where there is a long tradition of sparkling wines made by winemakers I know and respect. Winemakers who are using all the traditional methods used in Champagagne but also who respect their vineyards. They use much lower yields (half those in Champagne) and are devoted to getting the best expression of the source and the integrity of the grapes they harvest. And because it is not from “Champagne” it cost about half as much per bottle.
Subscribe to Cynthia’s free newsletter
The Macon Villages
by Auvigue
Frankly, this is a wine that I drink with relish – by the vat-load – so pure, so subtle, so charming and flavorful. You need two cases at the very least. It will evaporate in your cellar and you’ll say, “What?! I could have sworn there was a case of that Auvigue Macon-Villages down here somewhere!”
And the 2010 vintage? Perfection. Steven Tanzer’s write-up of the vintage says it all when he calls the 2010s “my kind of white Burgundies: fresh, pure and minerally, with high-pitched fruit, floral and herbal notes along with intriguing saline soil tones; it’s a vintage of wines that clearly express their terroir.
The young ’10s are very much in the manner of the 2008s, but perhaps less dense and tactile in spite of their low yields, and often a bit more pure, owing to healthier grape skins…” – Stephen Tanzer, International Wine Cellar
And I won’t soon forget what Michael Apstein (former wine columnist to the Boston Globe) said of the 2008 vintage of this wine: “If there’s a better $20 Chardonnay-based wine on the market, I’d like to know about it. Auvigue is one of the very top producers in the Cote Maconnais…The 2008 vintage in Burgundy produced stellar white wines, like this one, with bright acidity to balance ripe fruit underpinned by a stony creamy quality. Great balance and intensity, it outclasses many producers’ Poullly- Fuisse. In short, don’t miss it. 92.” -Michael Apstein
Villa Mongiron Bordeaux 2005: Another Great (Very Reasonable) Jean Luc Thunevin Selection That’s Leagues Above its Peers
Subscribe to Cynthia’s free newsletter
The Villa Mongiron label
I don’t go to Bordeaux without stopping in to see Jean- Luc Thunevin. He’s always got something very good to pour into my glass. This time it was Villa Mongiron. I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat it now: a great little Bordeaux for a price you thought you might never see again is something that disappears lightning style from my cellar. One day it’s there and the next day it’s gone.
Here’s the Robert Parker review from when Villa Mongiron 2005 first came out: “This lower pedigree wine represents undeniable quality/value rapport in 2005. This vintage is so deep in quality among the better run, less heralded estates, that these wines should appeal to readers looking for terrific values from Bordeaux. Most of these wines are Merlot-based and will be drinkable young. Sleeper of the vintage.”RParker
Villa Mongiron is the second cuvee of Chateau Fleur Mongiron. The vineyard is right outside of St Emilion. The owner is the very gifted winemaker Guillaume Queron – so gifted in fact, that when Guillaume’s parents sold the property in 2006 leaving Guillaume high and dry without a vineyard, Jean-Luc snatched him up to work on the Thunevin property in Margaux, Chateau Bellevue de Tayac.
Villa Mongiron has the Thunevin signature all over it – right down to the cold maceration and the micro- oxygenation (to tame and soften tannins) – techniques often reserved for pricier wines. But that’s typically Thunevin & Guillaume: they really pour everything possible into making distinctive and delicious wine. They dig very deep to make sure a wine is everything it can be.
For newcomers who don’t regularly drop the name Jean-Luc Thunevin in conversation, he’s the iconoclast who shook up Bordeaux by starting the “garagiste” revolution in St. Emilion back in the ’90s. He took a small plot of land on the “wrong side of the tracks” in St Emilion, vinified it in his “garage” and made a phenomenon of it.
Bernard Bouvier’s Marsannay Le Clos 2007: White Burgundy from the Vintage We Should All be Drinking Now.
Subscribe to Cynthia’s free newsletter
The label on Bouvier’s
Marsannay Le Clos
I served Bouvier’s white burgundy recently at a tasting of Burgundy experts and afinados and it was a stunning success!
First it is pretty rare – most whites in the Cotes d’Or come from the south. Cotes de Nuits whites are much rarer in these generally red wine vineyards. But they can be very good and Bernard Bouviers Le Clos is both wonderful and relatively reasonable.
And, what about the 2007 vintage? I loved the 2007s immediately when I tasted them in Burgundy. And I wasn’t the only one.
Here is what Allem Meadoews in Burghound says: the 2007s are classically styled wines that reflect beautifully the underlying terroirs … Another aspect that makes the ’07s appealing, in addition to being indisputably delicious, is that they have rich and generous if not truly opulent mid-palates but with plenty of supporting acidity to maintain the proper focus and balance. Wine Spectator on 2007′s white Burgundies: “The whites are pure, precise, dry and marked by vibrant, even racy structures, with plenty of mineral flavors… Rated 92 points.
Robert Parker concurs, rating the vintage a 91!
It’s hard not to get very excited about this wine. It brings beautiful flavors and is the equivalent of most of its fancier southern neighbors like Meursault, Chassagne Montrachet, and Puligny Montrachet at a much more modest price.
Cotes du Rhone Villages-Cairanne 2009: Perfectly Ripened Fruit & Wonderful Complexity in the Perfect New Vintage
Subscribe to Cynthia’s free newsletter
The appealing Domaine Les Hautes
Cances Cairanne Tradition Label
It looks like all you need to know in the Southern Rhone is “Buy the odd years” (from dedicated winemakers). That’s right – excellent in 2005, near perfect in 2007, now comes the more than “outstanding” 2009
Bob and I lived in a small French mountain village for a month one January and guess what wine we had shipped in to drink all month? That’s right – this Hautes Cances Cairanne. We loved every drop of it and there was nothing left over.
If only we’d been lucky enough to have had it in the 2009 vintage to boot! In their Vintage Report, Wine Spectator summed up the 2009 vintage for the region by saying, “In the Southern Rhône, growers were extremely pleased.” Wine Spectator rated the vintage a very high 93-96, indicating it runs from “outstanding” to “classic” (their highest praise). You don’t want to miss this excellent wine in this excellent vintage.
What makes this wine different from other Cotes du Rhones?
First, the production is very limited because the Astart’s old vine hillside vineyards produce extremely low yields. Low yield is the first giant step in producing great wine. Second, the Astart’s small production means that they take personal care of each vine and the winemaking. What about the flavor? I would have to say its sophistication is what sets it apart. It has it all: rich, blackberry fruit with a roundness in the mouth and a fragrance which transports you right to Cairanne in the Rhone.
This wine is not heavy or over-ripe. It is just the perfect glass of Rhone wine.
Anne-Marie Astart sums up the good life in the following way: “Love what you’re doing.”
She and her husband Jean-Marie gave up their medical practices to work the land that she inherited from her parents some years back. She would tell you they have been worked off their feet, but the vines have more than compensated for their efforts.
Subscribe to Cynthia’s free newsletter
Imagine a tall, thin, sweating
bottle in your refrigerator
- the perfect apparatif
This is the perfect wine to have in your refrigerator: low-priced, low-alcohol, zippy acidity, and always refreshing when you want a cool glass of white.
And, just like the 2009, the 2010 vintage is a stunner in the Loire. Everybody is saying it: great acidity, great fruit, great balance, gorgeous ripeness. Yes, in 2010, Muscadet produced some truly great wines (no exaggeration). That’s what the growers are saying.
Wine Spectator writes “France’s Loire Valley…now looks to have rare back-to-back strong vintages in the pipeline. The 2010 harvest appears to be a potentially outstanding follow-up to the excellent 2009 vintage.”
Everyone I spoke to in the Loire felt that while 2009 was a wonderful ripe vintage the 2010s had better acidity. In white wines acidity is what makes the difference and between refreshing and crisp and just OK. It also magnifies the fruit. Acidity is a delicate thing to get just right but in 2010 that is what you get. A perfect day ending refresher at a no-holding-back price.
Wine Spectator further specifies, “[2010] Wines should be fresher in style than the concentrated 2009s, with brighter acidity.”
And, you can probably have two bottles of this Muscadet for the price of one bottle of that Chardonnay you’ve been drinking.
Believe me, I’m never one to choose quantity over quality, and that’s the beautiful thing about Chateau La Touche Muscadet – it is a stunning, crisp mouthful of grapefruit, passion fruit, flowers, and minerals for a very low price.
Muscadet isn’t going to set off rockets in your mouth with a barrage of exploding oak bombs and floral and spice detonations, but somehow when you’ve parted with your last mussel or the last oyster has slithered down your gullet, you’ll feel mighty satisfied. The food will somehow just taste better because of the long, tall one, trust me. Any type of seafood will get our amicable little Muscadet going.
Paul Garaudet’s Puligny Montrachet 2007: “indisputably delicious, round, rich and generous” -Allen Meadows
Subscribe to Cynthia’s free newsletter
This is (sort of) the first offer of this magnificent white Burgundy- I have been holding it for a while and it perfect now – ready to drink but certainly with a fine future ahead of it.
I say sort of because I did send this out on Labor day and only a few folks responded – and after checking i found that hardly anyone opened it on their computer. Lesson learned do not complete with Labor Day.
But the wine is wonderful, I actually had some on Friday evening another reason for offering it again – so I thought I would give everyone a second chance.
It was in fact was a simple beet salad with goat cheese and walnuts and some scallops with persillade, suddenly catapulted into a world class dining experience by breaking out a bottle of Paul Garaudet’s 2007 Puligny Montrachet.
Paul only makes about 150 cases of his best white Burgundy and I only get a small allocation subset of this. Each bottle is a treat and I was looking forward to trying my first bottle here at home.
Bob & I agreed, we think it’s the best Puligny Montrachet we’ve tasted from Paul and it got me thinking about the 2007 white Burgundy and why I am finding these wines so compelling.
The 2007 Vintage The most important takeaway on the ’07 white burgundy vintage is that while it is a classically styled vintage, meaning that it’s pure, transparent and displays impeccably well the underlying terroir, it’s also relatively forward and accessible. Allen Meadows Burghound
Subscribe to Cynthia’s free newsletter
One of the high rated
Henri Boillot 2009s
Here is the Universally Consistent Praise from the Press for the 2009s
2009 Red Burgundies – Peerless Perfection! “The 2009 red Burgundies are the wines most Americans thought they were getting when they paid through the nose to snag the much-hyped 2005s four years ago…fleshy, fruity wines with great richness and sex appeal.
“Don’t get me wrong…2005 is one of the greatest red Burgundy vintages of my professional lifetime and will be uncommonly long-lived. But…the wines are mostly tough going today, and still require extended aging. They are not wines to open on a whim, and those who bought them expecting early pleasure will be disappointed. Two thousand nine, on the other hand, is a splendid and alluring vintage from the get-go. These wines are more heterogeneous in style than the 2005s, and less powerfully structured as a rule, but the majority of wines from the top producers I visit every year should provide pleasure to their lucky owners pretty much throughout their lives in bottle.
“…The year is potentially great in the Côte de Beaune. As more than one grower pointed out, 2009 is one of those rare vintages where the finest examples from the Côte de Beaune can be mistaken for their counterparts from the Côte de Nuits. I certainly tasted some sensational Volnays. The texture and depth of fruit of the best 2009s are truly exhilarating.” -Stephen Tanzer, International Wine Cellar
“I am impressed by the 2009 vintage, especially for the reds. In cellar after cellar, the Pinot Noirs were charming, bursting with ripe fruit, balanced in a very seductive, forward manner and absolutely delicious to taste…
Subscribe to Cynthia’s free newsletter
The Petit Clos presentation.
From the birthplace of Malbec comes its finest expression!
The popular Petit Clos 2008. Fabulous stuff. Don’t miss it!
“It is impossible to separate Clos Triguedina from the name Cahors. Jean-Luc Baldes is a passionate grower possessed by true know-how and the determination to produce wines of great distinction…” -La Revue du Vin de France
Every time I serve Petit Clos at a tasting, it comes out way ahead of far more expensive wines. It’s a big wine for the price; vineyard owner Jean-Luc Baldes suggests a half hour of decanting before drinking.
The cepage is 80% Malbec and 20% Merlot. Petit Clos is aged partially in oak. There is severe selection and a green harvest in the vineyard. You will taste red fruits and some licorice.
This Malbec comes from Cahors, which is where the grape type originated many centuries ago and grows best even today. Argentinian Malbecs may be trendy at the moment, but with their super-high alcohol content, the Argentinian Malbecs can be very fatiguing on the palate, not to mention the next morning. Although the Malbec grape does take a fair amount of heat to ripen, the extreme heat in Argentina cooks the grapes to an overripe state where they lose the fruit that’s present in a Malbec from Cahors.
Jean-Luc Baldes took over Domaine Clos Triguedina in 1990 and has put this estate in the elite of Cahors growers. The Domaine is old, back to 1830. The name Clos Triguedina means “Longing to dine” in the ancient language of Occitane, and I can relate to that. There are few things better than a duck breast sizzling and a glass of Clos Triguedina.