France

Alan Meadows - Burghound A discreet application of wood sets off ripe and fresh aromas of poached pear, just sliced green apple and lemon-lime nuances that are picked up by the rich and voluminous medium-bodied flavors that exude evident minerality on the clean, dry and sneaky long finish. This too could use a bit more depth but it's already more complex plus it's a bit more tightly wound. Even so, this refreshing effort could also be enjoyed young without leaving too much potential on the table. Jasper Morris, Inside Burgundy, 90 points. Also a lemon and lime colour, with a little more flesh than the Bataillère. Light fennel...

WE 97 Wine Enthusiast,  (95-97 points) Barrel Sample. An elegant wine, aristocratic in its poise and restraint yet it is full of great richness. The botrytis is dominant now, giving the dry core a push of density. The more exuberant side of this great wine will take its time but is sure to be there. ROGER VOSS  WA 96 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, July 2021. (WA 94-96+ points) The 2020 Coutet has a pale lemon-gold color, waltzing out of the glass with energetic notes of lemon tart, pink grapefruit, green mango and lime blossoms, with hints of chopped almonds, clover honey, candle wax and straw, plus a waft of sea spray. The...

WE 96 Wine Enthusiast To begin with the wine seems reticent, hiding its glories. Then, little by little, the remarkable richness of the wine comes through, offering an impressive array of flavors and balance between sweet and dry. The wine will definitely age well. Barrel Sample: 94-96  Decanter Powerful fleshy exotic fruits - the juice comes in from the first moment and doesn't let up, ensuring the apricot and mango fruits are shot straight through the core of steel. A brilliant showcase of what the soils of Barsac can do. Barrel Sample: 95. #SAUT

"The nose has a lovely floral note and a ripe apple fruit touched with honey. It is a rich style, but it is balanced and very elegant, with a fleshy, powerful texture on the palate and impressive length. This complex wine is blended from more than 100 parcels. 30% is fermented in tank - this being the young vines from lieu-dit Vers Chane on schist and granite soils. The grapes are slowly pressed without destemming."  Charlie Curtis Decanter   The Chateau de Fuisse is rich in history with the house dating back to the mid-15th century having been run by the Vincent family since 1882.   The estate owns 32 hectares of...

94-95 Points, James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com: "Spicy and intense with dried-apple, peach and some stone character. It’s medium-bodied and sweet, yet fresh and vivid.' 05/21.   94 Points, Antonio Galloni, Vinous: “The 2020 Guiraud is very delicate and beautiful. Hints of jasmine, lemon confit, green pear, mint and chamomile lend vibrancy to this mid-weight, wonderfully nuanced Sauternes. The mid-weight style of 2020 is hugely appealing.” 12/22.   #SAUT

(80% Sauvignon Blanc, 20% Semillon) Rated 94 by Wine Enthusiast Barrel Sample. Texture and taut acidity are the hallmarks of this wine. It has the potential for great fruitiness and a fine richness to come as the wine develops. With its hints of spice and its concentration, the wine needs plenty of time. WA 91-93+. The 2020 Larrivet Haut-Brion Blanc is a little closed to begin, soon unfurling to offer notes of fresh yellow apple, ripe Bosc pears and key lime pie, plus subtle hints of paraffin wax and lemongrass. The medium-bodied palate is tightly wound with apple and citrus layers, supported by compelling tension, finishing steely. LPB May...

(68% Sauvignon Blanc, 32% Semillon) JD 94 jebdunnuck.com, May 2021 (92-94 points) The deep inky colored 2020 Château Latour-Martillac is another classic Graves from this vintage with loads to love. Lots of red, blue, and black fruits, notes of flowers, chocolate, and gravelly earth, medium to full-bodied richness, impeccable balance, and silky tannins all make for an outstanding, undeniably impressive 2020 that shines more for its elegance and purity than outright power and richness. It will benefit from 3-5 years of bottle age and cruise for two decades. WE 94 Wine Enthusiast, June 2021 (WE 92–94 points) Citrus and crisp white...

Wine Advocate 93 points. The pale lemon colored 2016 Clos Haut-Peyraguey reveals a veritable cornucopia of tropical notes—guava, mango and pineapple—with nuances of spiced pears, jasmine, fallen leaves and allspice plus a touch of acacia honey. The palate is elegantly styled with all those intense scents marrying beautifully into a perfumed restraint, finishing with a lively citrus lift. LPB Mar 2019. #BB

.The Vineyard: Corton Charlemagne is a grand cru situated on the Corton hill and benefiting from strong sunshine. Its aspect ranges from East to South. Whereas the neighboring plots are planted with pinot noir on clay and limestone, the grapes growing in the Corton Charlemagne area are planted in a layer of sandy soil on top of a bedrock of calcareous marl, which is particularly well-suited to chardonnay. Grape Variety: chardonnay Appellation: Grand Cru Location: in the village of Aloxe-Corton Origin: Corton Charlemagne owes its name to two emperors: Corton is the contraction of Curtis d’Otton, (which...

WINERY NOTES: Grape: 100% Chardonnay. Harvest period: End of Sept, Early Oct. Age : 70 years old by Massale Selection. Exposure: East. Ground: Predominantly calcareous clay. Yield: 55 hectoliters per hectare. Manual harvesting. Cultivation: 12 to 18 months. Tasting: Our oldest vineyard, on the left bank facing east, always produces a beautiful wine with notes of acacia honey grape and apricot that complements a long and beautiful minerality. A rich and fragrant wine to drink with a capon or a turbot. Drink in 3-7 years. All our wines are cultivated, filtered and bottled by us. Burgundy Report Bill Nanson : 0.20 ha of 80-year-old vines, the...

Oh this is lovely! The finest 1er Cru in Chablis. The vines of this 1 ha vineyard plot are over 60 years old - all hand harvested and fermented purely in tank and then aged in tank for a further 16 months. A yield of only 33hl/ha has resulted in a wine of great intensity. WINERY NOTES: Grape: 100% Chardonnay. Harvest period: End of Sept, Early Oct. Age : 55 years old by Massale Selection. Exposure: South-East. Ground: Predominantly calcareous clay. Yield: 55 hectoliters per hectare. Manual harvesting. Cultivation: 12 to 18 months. Tasting: Powerful and complex long-keeping wine. All our wines are cultivated, filtered and bottled by us....

Grape: 100% Chardonnay. Harvest period: End of Sept, Early Oct. Age : 60 years old by Massale Selection. Exposure: South-East. Ground: Clay and limestone. Yield: 50 hectoliters per hectare. Manual harvesting. Cultivation: 12 months. Tasting: Elegant wine with notes of fruits and white flowers. Pretty pale golden yellow color, a very beautiful lemon fruit with notes of acacia and pear. BILL NELSON BURGUNDY REPORT: Some of the oldest vines, planted in the late 50s/early 60s. From Beugnons. Only a single 500-litre barrel this year. A calmer nose – riper yellow citrus at the base. Clean, pure – incisive again. Such clarity and...

Winery tasting note: The color is pale gold with reflections of emerald, a perfection of finesse and purity that flourishes over time, we find notes of menthol, liquorice against the backdrop of this iodized mineral very characteristic of the great Chablis wines. Drink it over the next five to ten years. "Somewhat unusually, here the nose is actually quite similar to that of the La Forêt but with slightly better layering. Otherwise there is terrific intensity to the firm, racy and overtly mineral-driven flavors that possess excellent size, weight and mid-palate density, all wrapped in a super-saline and beautifully well-balanced...

BILL NELSON BURGUNDY REPORT: At this time the nose is airy and clean but still lacking some of the volume of the previous wines. Wow again – intense – extra mineral – a little extra volume in the mouth – it’s a step up from the brilliant Forets. Beautiful clarity and texture with balanced concentration. Gorgeous wine and currently just a nose short of greatness!

The Rive Droite Chablis from Domaine Testut comes from 45-year-old massale selection vines planted in clay and limestone soils. The resulting wine tends to be incredibly complex, with elegant minerality and freshness that will only improve with time. BILL NELSON BURGUNDY REPORT: Fresher, lots of clarity – if a less overtly concentrated nose. A little gas – more incisive again – essence of citrus intensity but with fine texture and a more floral delivery of flavour. A wine of extra energy and pure joy! Bravo – just so delicious and already more approachable than the previous – though the bottling has certainly...

Jasper Morris From Troesmes, above the lake at Beines, where the soil is reasonably full. The 2021 Beauroy has a pale lemon colour, a softer and quite graceful nose, with a crunch of citrus acidity at the finish. Drink from 2024-2028.  A relatively new wine in the Lavantureux stable, the premier cru Beauroy is a round, ample expression of Chablis from a south-facing parcel. Silky and suave on the palate, it finishes with a whisper of salinity. Drink it over the next eight years. —Anthony Lynch. WINERY NOTES: Beauroy is a south facing 1er Cru. This aspect allows it to receive more sunlight than any of our other vineyards. The wine...

Jasper Morris 92-94. "Ripe , spicy nose, very typical of Bougros. There is a huge mouthful here with excellent tension, some peach notes, everything is there in the rich but balanced style of the vintage. And very long. Tasted Sept 2020." Now that the new generation has settled in at Domaine Lavantureux, we can barely keep track of the new developments, each one more exciting than the last. This bottling marks just their third release from Bougros, a grand cru with abundant sun exposure noted for its high proportion of clay. It stands out from their other wines for its lavish richness, pampering your palate with decadent,...

Jasper Morris 95 points. A paler colour and richer nose, some wood, some muscle. Gently concentrated, with some citrus, then a wealth more fruit on the second half of the palate, a surge of energy. A really very long finish. Drink from 2027-2034. 

Jasper Morris 91 points. Paler yellow, a lighter nose than the Vieilles Vignes but perhaps with more elegance. This was previously vinified and partly aged in 50% wood which shows in the coconut and the more tannic finish, both of which should subsequently integrate. Drink from 2024-2028.  

Jasper Morris 94 points. Clear pale lemon. The nose does not really speak at this stage. The volume of fruit is present, but perhaps not quite the nobility. Perhaps this is just very backward, with saline and citrus notes, with clearly some concentration on the palate. Drink from 2024.

Decanter 93 points. "TOP VALUE & UNDER THE RADAR The new generation arrived in 2010 with the arrival of David & Arnaud, following on from their father/grand-father. Roland first bottled his own wines in 1979 and the domaine has gone from strength to strength in recent years. Vauprin is a special selection on the hill of Vauprin, situated close to Lignorelles. Vines range from 20-80 years old and the parcel is 1.8ha in size. This AP Chablis is notable for the confident way in which oak is used (up to 50%, ranging from new to five-year-old). Lovely density on the palate allied to purity of fruit. Here, the oak really does add a...

"Pale yellow, this has a classic bouquet without the simplistic overt fruit of many 2021s and showing instead the classic framework of Chablis. Racy, juicy, even some yellow fruit, excellent acid balance and persistent. Drink from 2024-2027." Jasper Morris MW.   Rich and Fruity, full of minerality with excellent balance. This domain is a benchmark reference for the Chablis Appellation. This estate has been in the hands of the Lavantureux family for 4 generations and covers a total of 20 hectares. It is now run by the latest generation of 2 sons. Arnaud is in charge of vineyards and winemaking, David of sales, communication and...

Decanter 92 points. "From south-west facing vines in the hills around Lignorelles, the vines were planted in the 1960's and cover 3ha. The wine is fermented in steel tanks, with 60% aged for 10-12 on lees in tank, and 40% in older wood. Doesn't have quite the richness of the Vauprin Chablis but this is still a very fine, pure expression of 2021. Lovely acidity and mineral notes compliment the grapefruit characters and ripe pear fruit on the palate. Complex and classy. No hurry to drink this."   WINERY NOTES: A flattering nose, reveals flavors of ripe fruits, also identifiable during Tasting because of the natural...