Chardonnay

This Wine is the Epitome of Structured, Textured Fruit  Roll out the red carpet for the triple 96-point 2006 Champagne Billecart-Salmon Cuvée Louis with all its mouth-watering aromas of apple strudel, freshly baked brioche, alpine flowers, and chalk, opens to a melange of mouth-coating pear, white peach, and citrus fruit with pinpoint mineral precision and tautness….

100-Point Grand Cru Champagne “Will Age For Years” Today, we are thrilled to present an exceptional, exceedingly rare, and simply outstanding 100-point Champagne — the 2006 Salon Blanc de Blancs. “Salon is renowned, even celebrated, for its refusal to make wine in anything other than the absolute best vintages,” says Decanter. And the facts back…

2007 White Burgundy — Direct From the Catacombs of Château Corton Grancey It’s been 35 years since we knocked on our first cellar door in Burgundy. Since then, we’ve visited hundreds more. All are cold, some frigid. Few are as deep — or as spooky — as the catacombs of Louis Latour’s Château Corton Grancey….

Back in August 2008, the Champenois were not sanguine about the season. The spring was frosty. Then it hailed. July was chilly and wet. A cold August didn’t offer much help—but hey, at least it was dry. Then came a glorious September. The sun emerged, raising temperatures but remaining mild enough to stretch the ripening…

Whenever we see one of Daniel-Etienne Defaix’s Chablis on a wine list, we order it without fail. His business model is completely nuts, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. He’s the last of a dying breed.  Defaix refers to himself as “Le Dernier des Mohicans” or the “Last of the Mohicans,” a reference…

A Perfectly-Cellared Classic Joe Davis of Arcadian Winery is a ratings juggernaut and his wines are manna for Wine Access clients: The last time we offered his 2011 Clos Pepe Chardonnay, the entire allocation was spoken for within hours. We raided his cellar once again and came away with 35 perfectly cellared cases, available at…

Unbeatable Value Grand Cru Vintage Champagne It’s not easy to find value in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. The tiny hamlet in Champagne’s Côte des Blancs produces some of the most expensive bottlings in the world — think Krug Clos du Mesnil at upwards of $1,000 per bottle. Here, the chalky, limestone soils yield rich, ethereal wines that…

“Agricultural Yosemite” — Ehren Jordan’s 2012 Hudson Vineyard Chardonnay Over the last 20 years, we’ve enjoyed meals and conversations with hundreds of Napa Valley growers and winemakers. While we’ve been lucky to know many great people, a few stand out. In chronological order, based on when we met each man, first is Robert Mondavi, one…

“Midas Touch” at Home Ranch The 2012 vintage in both Napa and Sonoma wasn’t only extraordinary for Cabernet Sauvignon, but also for Chardonnay. That being said, this was also an exceedingly large crop vintage, and those that didn’t pay close attention to yields — on both sides of the Oakville Grade — were penalized for…

Craftsmanship from Rully’s Rising Star Vincent Dureuil’s wines are catapulting the Côte Chalonnaise onto the radar of white Burgundy lovers in France and abroad. Their ascension is propelled by his own cachet as a winemaking wunderkind — a reputation he’s been building since he took over his father’s estate in his early twenties. The terroir-driven…