Wine & Spirits - October 2019 - 64

YEAR'S BEST RED BURGUNDIES
of the fruit rides through it with intensity and
refinement. Highlighted by floral strawberry
and deeper dark-cherry depths, the flavors
are concentrated, the wine built to last. § Taub
Family Selections, Boca Raton, FL

90 | Domaine Jessiaume

VOUGEOT
272534

91 | Domaine Bertagna

$125

2016 Vougeot 1er Cru Monopole Clos de
la Perrière ^ Bristling with beautiful richness, this has grand-cru complexity in its
scent without the depth or structure to follow through on that promise. New oak adds
sweetness to the cool umami saturation, giving the wine an old-fashioned Burgundy feel.
This will provide a lot of satisfaction with age. §
Taub Family Selections, Boca Raton, FL

CO TE D E B E A UN E
BEAUNE

273364

BLAGNY
272549

93 | Thierry et Pascale
Matrot

$86

$85

92 | Xavier Monnot

$93

2016 Beaune 1er Cru Les Cent Vignes ^
Sunny black-raspberry flavors brighten this
wine, a gracious Beaune with declarative,
smoky tannins that feel completely integrated into the fragrant finish. It doesn't
seem ambitious, just clearly articulated and
refined. § Craft + Estate/Winebow Imports, NY
236504

90 | Domaine Chanson

$59

2015 Beaune 1er Cru Beaune-Bastion ^ This
contrasts lively notes of hibiscus and tart
OCTOBER 2019

foot mushrooms to create a luxurious, savory
grand-cru wine with stature and youthful
intensity. § Loosen Bros. USA, Salem, OR
272542

93 | Dom. Antonin Guyon

$150

92 | Dom. Antonin Guyon

$135

2016 Corton Clos du Roy Grand Cru ^
Scents of truffles and roses rise out of the
initial oak impression of this wine. Then the
fruit races out of the center in tart blackcherry flavor, offering an immediate hit of
richness. The tannins have the earthy cool of
freshly dug soil, a quality that integrates into
the wine over the course of several days open.
That earthiness makes it feel like a peasant
wine dressed in aristocratic silks, effortless,
sumptuous and giving. § Taub Family Selections, Boca Raton, FL
272543

2016 Blagny 1er Cru La Pièce Sous Le Bois ^
The Matrot domaine includes 3.5 acres in this
vineyard at the top of the hill, on the Meursault side of Blagny. Organically farmed since
2000, this pinot noir grows above a range of
chardonnay vineyards, taking its dark wildcherry tones and sauvage cues from the forest above. It's a distinctive and distinctly
old-fashioned red Burgundy, with notes of
pomegranate and lavender, wild strawberries and rose stems in its inviting depths. §
Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL

2016 Corton Bressandes Grand Cru ^ This
is meatier and more reductive than Guyon's
2016 Clos du Roy (also recommended here).
Bressandes is black and tarry, with pomegranate and salty pumpkin-seed character.
That darkness turns toward flavors of blackberries with their seeds, and the burnt ends
of barbecued pork, as the wine develops with
air. It's a wine built to open ten years from
the vintage, or more. § Taub Family Selections,
Boca Raton, FL

CHAS S AGNE-MONTRAC HET

272471

92 | Vincent Girardin

2016 Beaune 1er Cru Les Teurons ^ This is
a domaine parcel at the top of the slope in
Beaune. Claudie Jobard farms it using biodynamic practices, then ferments the wine
spontaneously in open-top vats and ages it
in barrels (50 percent new). It has a lot of
substance, a contrast of savory and jammy,
of gaminess and brisk, plummy suppleness.
The flavors last with intriguing complexity,
smoky and heady with spice. It should age
with grace, though the wine is approachable
now. § North Berkeley Imports, Berkeley, CA
272409

WINE & SPIRITS

$50

2017 Beaune 1er Cru Les Cents Vignes ^
Brisk and rose-scented up front, this is clean
and as soft as down in the end. In between,
the tannins give it a rocky, substantial feel,
melding with ripe fruit that tastes like strawberry syrup, integrating with oak into that
soft finish. § USA Wine West, Sausalito, CA

272618

93 | Remoissenet
Père & Fils

herbal fruit with a formidable tannic structure. It's round in texture before spicy wood
tannins add some bitterness and tighten it
up. This needs cellar time to open. § Vintus,
Pleasantville, NY
272336

$82

2016 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos
Saint-Jean ^ From a vineyard on the western
side of Chassagne-Montrachet, just beneath
a limestone quarry, this is more substantial
than you might expect from a Chassagne
rouge. Its red-cherry scent seems to carry the
savory power of its tannins, which are completely wrapped in the red glow of the fruit.
That integration will serve the wine well as it
matures over the next several years. § Vineyard
Brands, Birmingham, AL

91 | Thierry et Pascale
Matrot

$56

2016 Meursault ^ This grows in a parcel adjacent to Santenots, near the border with Volnay, producing a delicate, fragrant pinot with
cool red-fruit persistence. A reductive, peppery note firms up the tannins, adding some
muscle and complexity to the fraises des bois
flavors. Pour it with meaty sea bass in a red
wine reduction. § Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL

POMMARD
236965

93 | Domaine de la
Vougeraie

CORTON
273217

94 | Maison Roche
de Bellene

M E U R S A U LT

$160

2017 Corton Grand Cru ^ Nicolas Potel
makes this from a parcel of 30-year-old vines,
facing east-southeast on the Corton hill. He
ferments it with ambient yeasts and ages it
in barrels, half of them new. That new oak
brings a fine grain to the tannins without
blocking their red-fruited essence. The wine
tastes like the meaty flesh of a dark cherry
along with the mineral skins of the fruit.
Those notes layer into the earthiness of blue-

$95

2016 Pommard Les Petits Noizons ^ This
parcel faces east from the top of the hill
above the village of Pommard. The vines,
replanted in the second half of the 1980s,
cover 2.73 acres of pebbly, chalky soil, the
site organically certified since 2000. The wine
itself is immediately complex, with the kind
of sumptuous oak integration that elevates
the tart cherry flavors. The wine keeps juicing
up out of its tannins with delicate yet persistent power, the unambiguous message of the
vineyard charged by its marriage with oak

http://www.northberkeleyimports.com/project/remoissenet-pere-et-fils/

Wine & Spirits - October 2019

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