Wine & Spirits - October 2019 - 65

YEAR'S BEST RED BURGUNDIES
into something delicious. (W&S 4/19) § Boisset Collection, St. Helena, CA
236231

91 | Louis Jadot

$67

2016 Pommard ^ This has a potent blackcherry core, but it takes time to access it.
Instead, the wine delivers a briny green-olive
character and a buzz of tannins at first. As it
opens, the fruit tones grow floral, lovely and
lasting. This demands several years of cellar
time to show itself more completely. (W&S
4/19) § Kobrand, Purchase, NY
272624

91 | Vincent Girardin

$100

2016 Pommard 1er Cru Les Epenots ^
There's generous berry-scented fruit at the
center of this wine, its cool, saturated blueberry and ripe-raspberry notes surrounded
by the woody-green-herb tones of stem tannins, which hold it in restraints. This is concentrated and needs five years or more to
fully show its potential. § Vineyard Brands,
Birmingham, AL
236826

90 | Jean-Claude Boisset

$115

2016 Pommard 1er Cru Les Arvelets ^ This
wine's beefy tannins add phenolic weight to
the red fruit, turning the floral strawberry
scents toward something rootier, like red
beets. There's a lot of oak char up front, but
the fruit lasts with bell-like clarity. A supertannic action hero in training. (W&S 4/19) §
Boisset Collection, St. Helena, CA
236533

90 | René Lequin-Colin

$58

2016 Pommard Les Noizons (Best Buy) ^
A wine of quiet power and muscular tannic
strength, this hides its sweet, fragrant strawberry and raspberry tartness behind what
initially seems like a severe structure. Firm
and tightly knit, this eventually opens to gracious freshness, but it might be better off in
the cellar: It should begin to show its best in
five or six years from the vintage. (W&S 4/19) §
Schatzi Wines, NY
272538

90 | Fernand & Laurent
Pillot

$135

2016 Pommard 1er Cru Rugiens ^ Sweet oak
and lush blueberry-compote flavors meet
this wine's dark minerality, the tannins and
fruit lasting together in a structured, harmonious finish. Everything is in place for long
aging. § Taub Family Selections, Boca Raton, FL

SANTENAY
272630

93 | Vincent Girardin

$49

2016 Santenay 1er Cru Les Beauregard ^
Eric Germain makes this wine from a parcel
of 45-year-old vines, farmed without herbi-

cides, fermented with some stems and with
ambient yeasts, then aged in mostly older
oak (he and Girardin have worked to cut back
on new oak across their range, and Germain
now uses 20 percent new barrels for this particular wine). The wine buzzes with energy,
a hive of raspberry and pomegranate flavor,
saturated without weight. The tannins add
some youthful green stemminess and gamey
depths, setting this up with the structure to
age five years or more. It's notably grand for a
Santenay premier cru. § Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL
236534

92 | René Lequin-Colin

$39

91 | Vincent Girardin

$54

2016 Santenay 1er Cru La Comme (Best
Buy) ^ This comes from a vineyard on the
east side of Santenay, near Chassagne-Montrachet, where the soil has a higher percentage of limestone. It's a wine of finesse and
length, the clean and gentle strawberry and
raspberry fruit lasting as a spicy essence of
pinot noir. One taster described it as "pure
pinot-everything I hope for in a quality Santenay." (W&S 4/19) § Schatzi Wines, NY
272631

90 | Dubois Bernard

$40

2016 Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Clos des
Guettes (Best Buy) ^ With its meaty scents of
fennel and coriander and bold, coffee-like
notes of oak, this wine brings to mind a dinner with a crown roast of pork. Its cool raspberry flavors would be an asset at the table. §
Skurnik Wines & Spirits, NY

VOLNAY
272400

92 | Dom. Joseph Voillot

$105

2017 Volnay 1er Cru Les Epenots ^ Voillot farms 0.43 acres in Les Petits Epenots,
a parcel of vines rooted in clay soils on the
north side of town. Those vines produced
a clean and fragrant 2017, cherry-scented
with cracked-black-peppercorn spice. Panelist Craig Ganzer, a rare-wine appraiser,
described it as "old-school forget-about-itfor-ten-years Volnay," finding that the mineral structure and potent herbal-cherry richness needs time to come around. § Vintage '59
Imports, Washington, DC
236168

91 | Maison Roche de
Bellene

$70

2016 Santenay 1er Cru Les Gravières ^
Mariko Kobayashi of Frankly Wines in NYC
described this as a wine with "power and the
perfumed elegance of Santenay." It offers a
wild-strawberry essence, clean and tangy, following a simple line. As light and airy as it
feels, it has depth to the flavor and substance
to the tannins, a structure that will pay off
after several years of cellar time. § Vineyard
Brands, Birmingham, AL

2016 Volnay Vieilles Vignes ^ This has a
youthful crunch to its fruit, like summer
plums in a cold cellar. It also has a mineral
edge of fruit-skin tannins, and a lighter,
higher tone of red raspberries, complete with
the bitterness of their seeds. It's a meaty, concentrated wine that's structured to age, from
vines ranging from 48 to 62 years old. (W&S
4/19) § Loosen Bros. USA, Salem, OR
272399

SAVIGNY-LES-BEAUNE

2017 Volnay 1er Cru Les Fremiets ^ This
grows at a vineyard on the border with Pommard, a 1.5-acre parcel where Jean-Pierre
Voillot farms vines from three generations:
1932, 1950 and 1978. Presented with a minimal amount of sulfur and new oak, the wine
has an intriguingly natural bent, tasting more
like a food-my notes mention beef tartare
and horseradish, beets, parsnips and peppercorns. It's round, spicy and earthy, suited to
age, or to decanting for filet mignon with
morels. § Vintage '59 Imports, Washington, DC
272622

236502

93 | Domaine Chanson

$79

2016 Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Savigny-Dominode ^ Located midslope in Savigny, facing northeast toward Aloxe-Corton,
this vineyard produced a bold and complex
2016, with high-toned spice emanating from
a deep well of tannins. That spice needs lots
of air time to clarify and shift toward a fruitier tone, as the wine develops into harmonic
layers. It may be a little more rustic in its
power than a grand wine from Corton, but
it's no less beautiful. § Vintus, Pleasantville, NY
273111

90 | Dubois Bernard

$35

2016 Savigny-lès-Beaune Les Ratausses
(Best Buy) ^ A tight, black-fruited wine, this
is dense and saturated with fruit and spicy
floral notes of jasmine. It's flavorful and
intriguing, with lasting spice. Ready to pour
with grilled chopped-sirloin burgers. § Skurnik
Wines & Spirits, NY
273112

91 | Dom. Joseph Voillot

90 | Vincent Girardin

$105

$88

2016 Volnay 1er Cru Les Santenots ^
Focused on bright fruit when first poured,
this takes several hours to gain its grounding.
At first, it's all cool and lasting cherry, a fleshy
wine that builds in potency and harmony as
it opens with air. This may prove markedly
elegant with several years of age. § Vineyard
Brands, Birmingham, AL
272621
WINE & SPIRITS

OCTOBER 2019

Wine & Spirits - October 2019

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