Wine & Spirits - Winter 2020 - 85

34TH A NNUA L B U YING G U ID E

bank of the Maipo River. In 2017, the blend
includes cabernet sauvignon (65 percent),
carmenère (23 percent), cabernet franc, petit
verdot and merlot, the wine aged 19 months
in new French oak barrels. It's a dynamic red,
its distinctive red fruit seriously concentrated
yet carrying the freshness of mountain air.
The tannins have a cocoa richness and subtle
nuances of truffles. While the vintage may
have been hot and dry, there is no apparent
heat in the wine, just plump ripeness and
impressive power, set to carry it for a decade
or more in the cellar. -J.G. (W&S 6/20) §
Joanne Bordeaux USA, San Francisco, CA

remarkable 1999, still vibrant and humming
with energy. It starts off tense, with fresh ﬂoral scents and ﬁrm spice, then opens to juiciness that feels welcoming. The wine hints at
its maturity in umami notes of meat broth
and touches of bitterness, but the overall
impression is sleek and beautifully fresh.
Delicious with salmon rillettes. -J.G. (W&S
12/19) § Imported by North Berkeley Imports,
Berkeley, CA

FR A N CE WHITE
BEST ALSACE PINOT GRIS
277621

F RAN C E S PA RKL IN G
B E S T C H A M PA G N E B R U T
271302

97 | Bollinger

$170

2008 Champagne La Grande Année Brut ^
Gilles Descôtes blends this from 18 crus,
pinot noir making up 71 percent of the blend
(mostly from Aÿ and Verzenay), the balance
from chardonnay (focused on Le Mesnil-surOger and Cramant). The base wine ferments
in oak barrels, adding to this Champagne's
concentrated power. Its dark intensity has
the coolness of Bollinger's deep aging cellars,
even as the wine sustains delicate notes of
wildﬂowers, morels and the perfumed grace
of pinot noir. Massive and still youthful, the
ﬂavors rounded into a sphere, this is a wine
to cellar. -J.G. (W&S 12/19) § Imported by
Vintus, NY

BEST BL ANC DE BL ANCS
274168

96 | Salon

$720

2007 Champagne Le Mesnil Brut Blanc de
Blancs ^ While there aren't a lot of brilliant
wines from the 2007 vintage in Champagne,
the unusual parameters that deﬁne Salon
produced a wine that could well be considered a classic. It's made only from chardonnay grown in Le Mesnil, and the vintage
turned out a wine of clarity and purity. A
grand and generous chardonnay, this opens
from a tight place into broad hazelnut ﬂavors
and elusive smokiness, even as it maintains
focus and precision. Lasting and delicious
now, it will only beneﬁt from several years
of cellar time. -J.G. (W&S 12/19) § Imported
by Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL

BEST BL ANC DE NOIRS
274603

96 | Jean Vesselle

$210

1999 Champagne Grand Cru Cuvée Le
Petit Clos Brut ^ Vesselle's tiny, walled-in parcel of pinot noir vines in Bouzy produced a

95 | Domaine
Zind-Humbrecht

$44

2017 Alsace Roche Roulée Pinot Gris ^ This
wine's silken concentration and grace make it
compellingly delicious. After our panel tasting, I gave the half-empty bottle to a friend
who responded with a question: "Why, if I
don't like rich chardonnay, do I like this so
much?" I could tell him it was the frost of
2017 limiting the yields on the vines, a natural enrichment of the fruit from gravelly valley-ﬂoor sites in Turckheim. Or that Olivier
Humbrecht's farming-certiﬁed biodynamic
since 2002-focuses Humbrecht's scientiﬁc
mind and his Master of Wine perspective on
an intuitive understanding of his vines. Or
maybe it's just that this particular mode of
creaminess is built differently than the sort
my friend ﬁnds in the wines he dislikes. Here,
the plump white-peach sweetness is powered
by the drive of savory pinot-gris tannins.
That combination lasts with a freshness I
remembered a day after tasting it, making
me want the bottle back. -J.G. (W&S 8/20) §
Kobrand, Purchase, NY

Wine & Spirits

BEST SANCERRE
275722

95 | J. de Villebois

$66

2017 Sancerre Les Monts Damnés ^ Joost de
Willebois doesn't sound like a French name,
but his ancestors were, in fact, French, and
when he settled in Touraine in 2004 to start
a winery, he branded his domaine with the
French spelling. He and his wife, Miguela,
started with 22 acres in Mareuil-sur-Cher;
they added Les Monts Damnés to the portfolio in 2012, farming their parcel with
another winegrowing family. It's a block of
35-year-old vines on the south and southwest-facing slopes of Monts Damnés, a steep
hillside of Kimmeridgian marl considered
one of Sancerre's best. The 2017, fermented
mostly in stainless steel, includes a small lot
fermented in barrel; then the blend ages in
stainless steel for six months. The wine offers
a pure mineral essence, with fruit to cushion
that ampliﬁed voice of the earth. Massive,
luscious and tense, its ﬂavors of fresh golden
apples and green lime last for minutes after
each sip, a beautiful wine that proves how
grand sauvignon can be. -J.G. (W&S 4/20) §
Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL

FRANC E ROSÉ
BEST PROVENCE ROSÉ

BEST BURGUNDY WHITE
278102

95 | Jean-Louis Chavy

$120

2016 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les
Folatières ^ Jean-Louis Chavy farms 1.27 acres
of vines in Folatières, some dating back to the
1960s. His 2016 marries intensity and grace
in a joyous yellow-plum reveal. Each day, as
I went back to taste this wine, it kept adding
layers, starting from a dry, white game-andnutmeat savor, moving through an umami
moment of mushrooms and Vegemite, all
the while building luscious power until it
became delicious on day three, then a saturated beauty on day four, shimmering with
gingery freshness. It's substantial enough to
serve with roast partridge, or cassoulet with
duck sausage; best to cellar it a few years
ﬁrst, or for many, if you prefer. -J.G. (W&S
10/20) § Terlato Wines Int'l, Lake Bluff, IL

277641

96 | Domaines Ott

$55

2019 Côtes de Provence Château de Selle ^
In the world of wine, rosé has it easy: If it's
pink and pretty, it's already on its way to
being well accepted. Rarely does a rosé jump
out of the glass and demand attention. But
this one seems to have packaged up a Mediterranean breeze along with the scents of
strawberries and garrigue, unleashing it
with every sip. My nine-year-old, doing her
own independent appraising, said, "It smells
warm-not like the wine is warm, but like
it comes from a warm place." That place is
inland from the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, 345
acres of stony soils and limestone terraces,
a remote location Marcel Ott purchased in

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Wine & Spirits - Winter 2020

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