Domaine Rougeot has a long history of making superb white wines out of Meursault. The Rougeot-Dupin label is a small negoce started by the family in 1990 in order to diversify the family range. This wine is made from sustainably grown, purchased grapes from a well-sited 1er Cru in Montagny, just near the Chalonaise villages of Givry and Mercury.
This is tight and bracing in a "Chablis" kind of way, but with more brioche and a nuance of oak. There are underlying white peach and citrus notes with subtle yeasty lees influence. It has nice "saline" minerality, good middle richness and impressing length and finesse.

In Northern Burgundy, Saint Bris is a traditional AOC where the sauvignon blanc tastes more like neighbouring Chablis wines, except in the case of this wine, richer and riper; no grass and gooseberry here! This estate has been organic for 12 years and is planted in limestone dominant clay soil. Spontaneous fermentation in tank, followed by 6 to 8 months on lees. The nose is mainly based on ripe peach, a lick of honey and limestone mineral. The palate is round and fresh with a slightly smoky / stony finish.

“What beautiful wines have emerged! Fine, sexy, juicy, vivacious, saline and chalky.” - The late, great Becky Wasserman This is a dense white for one that comes from near Chablis and the south of Champagne. It’s more like a lighter but generous Puligny than a Chablis and Tonnerre is the village. The previous vintage came and went in a flash and it left a trail of smiling happy Burgundy clients! This has a lemon citrus vibrancy with a chalky / rocky underlay but also faint nuances of pineapple and honeysuckle; it’s such a generous and complex wine for a Bourgogne!

Irancy is a historic appelation just 20km SW of Chablis, but with appropriate slopes and soil that make for famous for pinot. These vines, and the best of the region come from amptheatre slopes hugging the village itself. The “Cuvee Louis Bersan” is from 70yo vines planted on clay and limestone soils in 0.7 hectares of the Vodon lieu dit. The grapes are hand harvested, From old vines planted by Jean-Christophe’s grandfather. All in wood, two thirds 600 liters, 8% new wood, with 12 months in wood then six months in tank. Deliberately VERY Bourguignon in style.

This has a very youthful and deep colour, vivid red – purple. The fruit driven aromas are intense, plummy, spice box and fresh berry inflected. This is a very deep and rich wine with a riot of red and dark berry fruit, some ferric / and rocky minerality. It tastes very much like a wine from Gevrey. The tannins are ripe, the depth and richness almost unbelievable for a village wine. The 2.3ha of vines are split between 2 plots, one just above and adjacent to 1er Cru Montaigu, the other about 500m SW on a gently sloping site. This wine has some whole bunches and some new oak. It's bottled after 12 months in barrel and about 6 months in tank.

Marsannay is just a few kms north of Gevrey Chambertin. This is vibrant, fragrant, super-juicy and full of fruit. This hillside site called En Batayard is only .23ha but the vines are very mature and the resulting wine is quite full and rich yet with "Chambolle tannins". They are firm, a result of roots pushing into the limestone rock through the shallow topsoil (another Chambolle comparison). The 30% new oak used for the maturation has been swallowed up by the wine!

Laurent makes authentic, ageable and fully fruited cru Beaujolais. Les Feuillees ("the leaves”) is the crown jewel in Laurent’s holdings in Cote-de-Brouilly: a unique, 1ha vineyard of gamay planted in 1916 that cling to the rocky hillside of Mount Brouilly overlooking the town of Odenas. The silver-streaked Blue Granite common to ”Bright ruby. Mineral-laced red/dark berry aromas are complemented by a suave hint of candied flowers and a subtle touch of succulent herbs. Silky and appealingly sweet, offering intense raspberry and lavender pastille flavours are given clarity and energetic lift by a smoky mineral quality. Smooth, harmonious tannins give shape to a mineral-accented finish with excellent focus and spicy cut." 92 pts - Vinous.com

This is a single-vineyard with 50yo vines from the village of Quincie next to Mont Brouilly. It's under screwcap! The biodynamic / viticulture guru Sojna Geoffray, makes sure that soil and vine health are paramount . Hand-picking. judicious carbonic maceration for optimum extraction of the fruit, vats filled and emptied by gravity to ensure gentle production and minimal oak are the main methods. A wine full of fruit, crunchy and fresh with a fine, pure bouquet of Gamay and an elegant, smooth mouth-feel.

"Brilliant violet. Expansive, spice-and mineral-accented red fruit and spicecake scents show fine delineation and pick up a suave floral note with air. Juicy, sharply focused and alluringly sweet, offering vibrant raspberry, boysenberry and five-spice powder flavors that deepen slowly through the midpalate. Shows superb energy and finishes seamless and impressively long, with polished and reverberating mineral and floral notes" 93pts - Josh Raynold, vinous.com. This is an estate that has a single-site high on Mont Brouilly. The "Ambassades" relates to it being traditionally sold to the French Foreign office for use in foreign embassies.

This is a 100% carignan (Rhone and Languedoc grape) red made with no oak, but it's a complete, rich and spicy mid-weight warm and generous southern-French red. It is estate -grown from near Sete on the Mediterranean west of Montpellier. Tasted blind, it has a little Rhonish character, and it a very authentic and well made red.

This is a lovely, ripe, fairly deep and solid wine with impressive, almost perfect ripeness, but also delicious vibrancy, freshness and balance. The tannins whilst ever present, have a silky well-ripened character and they carry the wine beautifully. It has plum, liquorice, dry pine-forest and damp earth notes in a melange with red fruits, dark berries, Asian spice and some antique furniture notes. There is no new oak here, but the 2020 vintage has produced a wine that seems complete and very impressive.

Saturated ruby. Ripe black raspberry and cherry aromas are complicated by suggestions of cracked pepper, allspice and liquorice. Supple, appealingly sweet red and blue fruit preserve flavours mingle with some damp earth, and a bright mineral element adds to the finish. Supple tannins add shape to a persistent, spice-accented finish.

Cheers, Randall, Nick, Rose & Issy