France

Mâcon, Burgundy, France. Seamless and energetic. There’s a combination for you. It’s frisky but svelte with lemongrass, citrus and white peach flavours gently melting into wet slate. There’s a hint of honeysuckle here, almost into lactose but not quite. Really, it’s just a joy to drink; it sits at the wonderful place where freshness shakes hands with charisma...

Viré-Clessé, Burgundy, France. Pale yellow-gold color. Very ripe aromas of peach, apricot and smoky minerality are a bit more dynamic than those of the Prêtres de Quintaine. Unctuous on entry, then tighter in the middle palate, with very ripe stone fruit flavors accented by spicy oak. This thick but energetic wine shows a distinctly creamy quality for the vintage. Finishes with slowly mounting length and considerable power...

Viré-Clessé, Burgundy, France. Bright yellow. Wet-stone minerality with hints of peach and orange zest on the nose. Penetrating, linear wine with flavors of orange and crushed stone complemented by a discreet touch of oak and sexy hints of botanical herbs. Finishes youthfully austere and persistent, with noteworthy lift to its firm lemon, orange and wild mint flavors, plus a suggestion of smoke that will doubtless become more pronounced as the wine ages...

Viré-Clessé, Burgundy, France. Bright yellow with a gold tinge. Sexy, expressive, very ripe scents of dried apricot, ripe peach, white pepper and hazelnut. Very rich, smooth, ripe and silky but youthfully unforthcoming in the middle palate. This plush wine finishes powerful and very long, with a touch of citrus peel firmness and a tannic quality I did not pick up in the other 2014s at this address...

Viré-Clessé, Burgundy, France. Bright, light yellow. Sexy aromas of yellow fruits, smoky minerality, marzipan and white truffle. Large-scaled and ripe but dry, filling the mouth without leaving any impression of weight. More large than long in the typical style of Quintaine, whose wines are known for their residual sugar. Finishes lively and gripping, with a light touch and lingering notes of fresh apricot and lemon. Needs time...

Viré-Clessé, Burgundy, France. It requires some coaxing. It’s taut, controlled, a little shy. The flavour lurks but it’s there; it feels slim at first but with air it reveals a good deal of depth. Spice, chalk, brine, shells, lemongrass and smoke. There’s some reduction, as a positive contributor. It needs another year or two. Or a good decant...

Burgundy, France.  This wine’s fine nose reveals notes of candied fruits and very pleasant hints of red fruits. A fresh and silky presence in the mouth reveals relatively mellow tannins...

Burgundy, France.  This Bourgogne white is subject to a special selection of 100% Chardonnay grapes that come essentially from the Côte d’Or. A veritable initiation in the great white grape variety of Burgundy, it envelops its fruit with much elegance. A wine for pleasure to be savoured amongst friends from the aperitif onward...

Burgundy, France. A wine with medium intensity colour, purplish in its youth changing to ruby and then garnet after several years in bottle. A harmonious and balanced wine with a plump fruitiness and silky texture offset by round, gentle tannins with a medium body and elegant structure. The very typical, fragrant varietal bouquet is complemented by a deliciously lingering finish...

Burgundy, France. Chassagne-Montrachet, situated in the south of the Côte de Beaune, is one of the 5 villages of the prestigious ‘Côte des Blancs’. The white wines of Chassagne-Montrachet are the most robust of the Côte des Blancs, becoming less delicate and more straight forward as one progresses southward from the Grand Cru vineyards at the Puligny border. Very limited...