($100, Vintus):  The wines from Santenay, an often-overlooked village of the Côte de Beaune, often display a touch of rusticity, charming in good hands, less charming in others.  Clos Rousseau sits at the southern end of Santenay on the border with Maranges. … Read more

($62, Vintus):  Lucien Le Moine, a tiny “boutique” négociant, bottles only about 100 barrels of premier and grand cru red and white Burgundies annually (about 2,500 12-bottle cases).  They are of uniformly high-quality, in short supply, and expensive.  He also produces a Bourgogne Rouge and Bourgogne Blanc that are more readily available and punch far above their weight class. … Read more

($125, Becky Wasserman Selection):  In a word, wow!  Airy and mineraly, this Meursault has an underlying richness.  All its glory is amplified by leaving the bottle re-corked in the fridge overnight.  It’s like a cross between Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault, which given the location of the vineyard, high on the slope (literally, the area under the forest) bordering Puligny, makes sense. … Read more

($49, Becky Wasserman Selection):  Benjamin Leroux is a small négociant who shows that, with all the fuss about growers, négociant is not a bad word.  I tasted an extensive line-up of his staggeringly good barrel samples of his 2020s in November, which made me open some of the 2019s I had purchased. … Read more

($80, Becky Wasserman Selection):  The hamlet of Blagny sits high on the slope within the limits of Meursault and adjacent to Puligny-Montrachet.  Red wines from this terroir carry the Blagny appellation, while whites are labeled Meursault-Blagny.  The elevation of the site, which keeps the grapes cool, plus the talent of Benjamin Leroux accounts for the wine’s charm and balance. … Read more

($12):  Coteaux Bourguignons, a relatively new appellation in Burgundy, has few rules, allowing growers broad latitude.  They can blend Burgundy’s Pinot Noir and Beaujolais’s Gamay, along with a couple of obscure varieties, grown anywhere in Burgundy from Chablis in the north to Beaujolais in the south. … Read more

($20, Baron Francois):  Yes, some Beaujolais is white.  And it’s worth looking for because it frequently delivers great value.  As white Burgundies, even from the Mâconnais, rise in price, consumers need to search elsewhere for value for French Chardonnay-based wines.  Made exclusively from Chardonnay, white Beaujolais accounts for only about five percent of the region’s production. … Read more

($24):  Jean-Marc Brocard, one of my favorite producers in Chablis, consistently makes a stunning array of wines.  I can’t remember a wine from them that failed to impress.  The family-run estate farms organically and shuns the use of new oak barrels because they want to emphasize the character the site imparts to the grapes. … Read more

($96, Jeanne-Marie de Champs Selection):  Château de la Maltroye, a consistently reliable producer of both red and white wines, succeeded admirably in 2018.  This white, from their monopole, exhibits the broader and weightier minerality characteristic of Chassagne, compared to Puligny.  Good acidity balances and amplifies its charms. … Read more

($56, Jeanne-Marie de Champs Selection):  This lieu-dit, entitled only to a village appellation, lies across the road, but downhill from the Grand Cru Bienvenue-Bâtard-Montrachet.  Even in Jean Pascal’s talented hands, this village wine is not in the Grand Cru category, but it is more impressive than many producers’ premier cru — and at a far more attractive price. … Read more