I have visited many wine growers over the years, and these days it takes a lot to truly surprise and thrill me. This is the unadorned truth of being a wine writer. But a few weeks back I was surprised and thrilled to my core by a young vigneron who is creating poetry and music with some …
In the Glass
Tedious or – Worse – Annoying Wines
This week I was planning a small yet, apparently, controversial expansion to the vin d'emotion scale to include the missing bottom end, meaning the wines I don't enjoy, or that are simply bad. This turned out to be highly charged. Calling a wine awful is clearly too much for delicate French …
Climbing the Cru Hill in 2022
The cru hill seems steeper than usual with the 2022s, meaning that there is a significant difference in intensity and concentration as we climb from regional to village to 1er cru, etc. The '22 reds can be charming and forward, and some early-bottled wines I've tasted maintain this lovely energy. …
Abordable: Affordable Thirst Quenchers
I have now lived in Burgundy for two and a half years, and during this period, wine prices in restaurants and shops have climbed significantly: 20-40%, or even more in some cases. What was vaguely affordable is now getting frightfully expensive. Some restaurateurs in the Côte d'Or have joined …
Domaine Duroché – Hedonistic Thrills
My list of emotional winegrowers is now a year old, and while the work in the last areas (Beaune, Savigny-les-Beaune, and the Hautes Côtes de Beaune and Nuits) is still lacking its finishing touches, I do feel the need to promote an estate to the second-highest level in Gevrey-Chambertin alongside …