The way to find value in Burgundy these days is to look for wines from down-market appellations made by great producers. This one fits the bill perfectly. Domaine Geantet-Pansiot, a top producer based in Gevrey-Chambertin, makes a stunning array of wines from the village and Chambolle-Musigny.… Read more

Marsannay, practically a suburb of Dijon and the northern-most village appellation of the Côte de Nuits, lacks cachet. Its lack of prestige may be secondary to its relative youth since it gained a village appellation only in 1987, roughly 50 years after every other village (or maybe because it is the sole village in the Côte de Nuits that lacks Premier Cru vineyards).… Read more

Most village Chambolle-Musigny cost less than $100 a bottle, so the price might put you off. Don’t let it. This is no ordinary village wine! Indeed, you would be excused for thinking it is a Premier Cru. The grapes come from 75-year vines planted in three different plots around the village.… Read more

Erwann Boivin, the Commercial Director at Domaine Geantet-Pansiot, explains that the Le Poissenot vineyard is a cool site because sits high on the slope just under the forest and in the path of cooling breezes that come down the valley. Boivin thinks the site explains the wine’s elegance and liveliness in a warm vintage like 2023.… Read more

The Château de Chamirey, a top producer in Mercurey, has extensive holdings there. Their white is a blend of multiple plots throughout the appellation, giving the consumer a good idea of the character — the firmness — of the white wines from this primarily red appellation.… Read more

Château de Chamirey, a major producer of Mercurey, is also one of the appellation’s best, as this lovely village-designated wine shows. Blended from 10 plots throughout the village, it’s an excellent representation of the appellation. The generosity of the 2023 vintages melds beautifully atop the firm base typical of Mercurey.… Read more

Clos du Roi, unsurprisingly given its name (basically, “the King’s walled vineyard”), is a top Premier Cru in Mercurey. It is ideally situated, facing east to get the gentle morning sun, and was one of the original vineyards awarded that status in 1943.… Read more

The Marquis de Jouennes d’Herville acquired the Château de Chamirey in 1932 and, two years later, started to estate-bottle the wines to ensure their quality and authenticity. Currently, his granddaughter and grandson, Aurora and Amaury Devillard, run the estate. Aurore describes the soil at Clos des Ruelles as red, filled with iron, which she explains imparts structure to the wine.… Read more

The Devillard family, headed by the talented brother and sister team of Aurore and Amaury Devillard, run three major estates in Burgundy, this one in Givry, Château de Chamirey, in neighboring Mercury, and Domaine des Perdrix in Nuits-Saint-Georges. Aurore explains that they’ve owned Domaine de la Ferté since 2009 but have leased, farmed, and made wine from it for 35 years, so they know it well.… Read more

Clotilde Davenne, a top producer in Chablis, has expanded her portfolio to the adjacent appellation of Bourgogne Côtes d’Auxerre. With climate change, this northern appellation bordering Chablis, is rapidly becoming a fine source of affordable Bourgogne Blanc as more than one wine grower has told me, “We can make wine with ripe grapes now.”… Read more

Domaine de la Soufrandière, undoubtedly one of the finest and most consistent producers in the Mâconnais, made a sensational lineup of 2024s. The wines are all unique, reflecting their individual terroirs. Consumers can basically shoot blindfolded at Soufrandière’s 2024s and be happy with their choice.… Read more

Half of the wines from the Mâconnais are sold under the label of Mâcon-Villages, which indicates that the wine is a blend from more than one village. The other half come from one of the 27 villages allowed to put their name on the label, like this Mâcon-Vinzelles.… Read more

The Bret brothers inherited the Domaine La Soufrandière, the family estate in Vinzelles, in 2000 and have been making exceptional wines ever since. They acquired additional vineyards in the nearby appellation of Saint-Véran in 2016 and stated making this engaging wine.… Read more

Jean Philippe Bret, who along with his brothers, owns Domaine La Soufrandière, explains that 90 percent of this wine comes from the 1er Cru vineyard, Les Quarts, that they have declassified. Jean Philippe describes how some plots of Les Quarts have more clay in the soil, making the grapes not suitable for the elegance and finesse they value in their 1er Cru bottling.… Read more

Some 16 years after the growers of Pouilly-Vinzelles, a small appellation encompassing only about 130-acres, applied for 1er Cru status, the French wine authorities awarded that accolade to three vineyards, one of which is the 32-acre Les Quarts, starting with the 2024 vintage.… Read more

Domaine Samuel Billaud, a top grower in Chablis, consistently makes terrific wines at all levels, AOC Village, Premier Cru, and Grand Cru. This excellent AOC Village Chablis is a blend from three plots, two on the left bank of the Serein River and one on the right bank, so it offers a good representation of the appellation.… Read more

Samuel Billaud’s Les Vaillons, from old vines, comes from the heart of Les Vaillons, not one of the adjacent vineyards that are allowed to use the name Vaillons. Typical of Vaillons, it displays a lovely floral aspect that contrasts with, and enhances, its minerality.… Read more

Minerals, flint, stones – these are the primary sensory signals that sum up this fabulous Chablis 1er Cru. Billaud admits that his 2023s are more minerally than many from that vintage and thinks it is because he waited longer to bottle them, allowing them to pick up additional complexity from the lees.… Read more

In general, the wines from Vaudésir and Les Clos compete for the pinnacle at the Chablis Grand Cru level. Vaudésir typically displays touch more richness, perhaps at the expense of minerality, compared to Les Clos. Samuel Billaud’s comes from two plots, one from the east side of the vineyard and the other from the west.… Read more

Paradoxically, robust yields saved this hot vintage from producing over-the-top wines. With a smaller crop, Frédéric Barnier, Jadot’s technical director, explains that all the vines’ energy would have produced overripe grapes. The dark color of the 2023 predicts the generosity on the palate.… Read more

The vintage was panned by many at the outset. Indeed, in 2018, when I tasted the 2017 Clos des Ursules from barrel, I found that it lacked charm. Oh, how it’s blossomed and developed since then! A brick-like color and a hint of leafiness on the nose accurately predict some maturity on the palate.… Read more

Montmains is what the Chablisiens refer to as a “flag bearing” Premier Cru vineyard. That means that the less well-known Forêts and Butteaux, neighboring Premier Cru vineyards located on the same hill, can use Montmains, the more well-known name, rather than their own.… Read more

Although the 2023 and a few 2024 Chablis represent the current releases from that appellation, I draw consumers’ attention to Domaine Louis Michel’s stellar 2022s, which, inexplicably, are still available on retailers’ shelves. This Vaillons and their Montmains (also reviewed this week) show the wonderful diversity of Chablis.… Read more

Maison Louis Jadot, one of Burgundy’s venerable producers, is a grower, that is, they own or control vineyards, as well as a négociant. The Domaine Gagey designation at the bottom of the classic Jadot label means that the grapes came from a vineyard owned by the Gagey family, which has run the company since 1962 after the sudden death of Louis Auguste Jadot, who had no heirs.… Read more

Roland Masse was the winemaker for the Hospices de Beaune for years, so it’s not surprising that he should have turned out this balanced and engaging Pinot Noir-based Burgundy from the Côte Chalonnaise. As the price shows, once you leave the Côte d’Or, value in Burgundy is not an oxymoron.… Read more

With the prices for Burgundy at ridiculous levels, those 99-percenters of us who love the wines from the region must search wines from less prestigious appellations – like Bourgogne Côte d’Or – that are made by top producers, like Domaine Sylvain Dussort.… Read more

This bargain-priced Chardonnay-based white from the Hautes Côtes supports my opinion that Domaine Sylvain Langoureau is one of the unrecognized stars in Burgundy’s Côte d’Or. The grapes for this beauty come from vineyards above St. Aubin on the way to the village of La Rochepot.… Read more

The Hautes Côtes, as they are called, is the current hotspot for affordable Burgundy thanks to climate change. The rustic tannins due to unripe grapes are no longer an inevitable hallmark of wines from there. Based in the Côte d’Or village of Gamay in St.… Read more

Firmly established in Échevronne in the Hautes Cotes de Beaune, Domaine Jean Féry, still family run, has been making wine there since 1969. They were early advocates of organic farming, achieving organic certifications for all their vineyards in 2011. They do not receive the recognition they deserve, which is a good thing for consumers because it means their pricing is more reasonable.… Read more

A native of Champagne, Boris Champy spent a decade in California at Dominus and another decade as the technical director at Beaune-based Maison Louis Latour. It’s an understatement to say he knows something about wine. He’s rightly championing the Hautes-Côtes as an appellation for making affordable and high-quality Burgundy.… Read more

With his wines, Boris Champy shows the potential of wines from the Hautes-Côtes, the area just above and to west of the Côte d’Or. In the past, almost everyone dismissed wines from the Hautes Côtes because the elevation made it difficult to ripen the grapes.… Read more

The Hautes Côtes, as they are called, the area extending above the Côte d’Or, is making better and better wines thanks to climate change that allows the grapes at this higher altitude to achieve excellent ripeness. And since the appellations still have a distinctly down-market reputation, the prices remain reasonable — at least for Burgundy.… Read more

Droin, one of my favorite Chablis producers, made a spectacular Vosgros in 2022. This lesser known Premier Cru vineyard lies south of the town of Chablis itself, on the left side of Serein River. The vineyard has the best of both worlds, lying in a cool valley, yet mostly as a west-facing amphitheater that assures excellent ripening.… Read more

The 2023 vintage produced many fleshy Chablis wines that have lost their classical mineral-y profile. Not this one. Simonet-Febvre has crafter a spectacular Preuses in 2023, brimming with a stoney minerality and riveting acidity. Long and impressive, this Preuses is the real thing.… Read more

The Latour style — imbuing the wines with excellent acidity — worked especially well in 2023, which generally produced fleshy, generous wines with lower acidity. This splendid 2023 Les Chaillots could be considered a “baby” Corton Grancey, Latour’s flagship red. It delivers what for me is the typical iron-tinged body and firmness of red Corton.… Read more

As much as I was smitten by Latour’s 2023 Aloxe-Corton 1er Cru Les Chaillots, and I was, Latour’s flagship red, Chateau Corton Grancey shows the stature of a Grand Cru and is, well, just better. The name is an anomaly since there are no “châteaux” in Burgundy like those in Bordeaux.… Read more

Based in Savigny-lès-Beaune, Domaine Pavelot’s Bourgogne Rouge comes from plots in that village plus the villages of Pernand-Vergelesses and Alox-Corton, but obviously outside of those village appellation boundaries, so it is reflective of the Côte de Beaune. This well-priced 2023 has good weight and a marvelous combination of berry fruit and savory non-fruit nuances that make Burgundy unique.… Read more

Aligoté, Burgundy’s other white grape, accounts for only about five percent of all plantings in the region, which explains why it’s not very well-known. Regulations for the Bouzeron appellation mandate its use there, but otherwise it’s Burgundy’s only appellation that uses a grape name instead of a geographic one.… Read more

Domaine Jean-Marc Bouley has embraced a “modern” label, displaying a proprietary name prominently while relegating the appellation to the back label. The wine itself is quite traditional—and stunning. The roughly 2.5-acre plot from which the Pinot Noir for this wine comes is located on a slope just above Volnay with excellent southern exposure.… Read more

With prices for many Côte d’Or wines approaching triple digits, it a treat to find authentic Burgundy with a more affordable price tag. Climate change has helped the wines from the Hautes-Côtes, the areas above the Côte de Nuits, or in this case, the Côte de Beaune, which in the past produced coarse wines because of unripe tannins.… Read more

The wines from Marsannay, the northernmost outpost of the Côte de Nuits, almost a suburb of Dijon, has flown under the radar for decades. Indeed, it gained its legally recognized Village appellation status only in 1987. Prior to that time, its wines could only carry the regional appellation of Bourgogne rouge.… Read more

Domaine de Montille, one of Burgundy’s leading producers, has been organic since 1995 and biodynamic since 2005. They have a stunning array of wines that focus on finesse rather than power. With grapes coming come exclusively from their home base in Volnay and plots in Puligny-Montrachet, this refined Bourgogne Rouge is a fine introduction to their style.… Read more

One of the wonderful delights of Montille’s wines is how they express their terroir. That is, how they differ one from the other despite using the same grape, Pinot Noir, grown in the same region, only a few miles apart. This beautiful Beaune, from one of that village’s top premier cru vineyards, delivers an earthier and weightier profile compared to Montille’s more aromatic and suavely textured Volnay Taillepieds.… Read more

Domaine de Montille owns just over 20 percent of Les Taillepieds, one of the finest vineyards in Volnay. So, it is not surprising that it is one of Domaine’s flagship wines. The stunning 2021 grabs you immediately with gorgeous aromatics that leap from the glass.… Read more

Ernst Loosen, the talented and dedicated German Riesling producer, has said he has always been struck how both Riesling and Pinot Noir transmit a sense of place. Well, now he has the chance to see the similarity first-hand because he has started to produce wines in Burgundy.… Read more

Maison Drouhin, one of Burgundy’s most reliable négociants, shows the house’s talents with their low prestige wines, like this one. Every producer should make a stellar Grand Cru Burgundy, like Bonnes Mares, which often retails above $300 a bottle, but it takes real skill to craft an authentic Bourgogne, which is what Drouhin’s has done with their 2022.… Read more

Montagny, a village in the Côte Chalonnaise just south of the famed Côte d’Or that makes only white wine, remains an underappreciated site for white Burgundies. As usual, Domaine du Cellier aux Moines shows the heights an appellation can achieve. Les Combes, produced from young vines planted in 2012 in this south facing vineyards, displays the stoniness you’d expect from Montagny, but with an added touch of excitement.… Read more