Reviews

The surreal packaging of this wine with its baroque bottle and kissing heads suggest something very unique. Indeed. It shows balance and pleasure with black currant, spice and cedar undertones. Give it three or four years and see the love.

Presenting an authoritative message, this is a dense, muscular, extracted Cabernet loaded with dark berry, graphite, crushed rock and tobacco notes, cloaked in chewy, detailed tannins and ending with a long, full finish. 

“The crisp nose conjures up shades of green: meadow and fresh apple peel, fresh foliage and lime, but also has some honey and oatmeal. The palate remains crisp but has a toned lithe note of pure lemon that sings. This is taut, shows backbone and rounds itself out wonderfully on the palate, finishing with harmonious note of apple and shortbread.” – A.K. 

The standout among all the Bourgogne rouge we tasted for this issue, this smells like Burgundy ("Tart and stinky," said Sarah Looper of SevenFifty.com. Burgundy needs to stink. It shouldn't smell like the buxom fruit of California.") It's a blend focoused on clay soils, from two parcels in Gilly-lès-Citeaux (east of the D974, near Vougeot and Chambolle), and two parcels in Beaune (one-quarter of the blend comes from Montèe Rouge, where the vines date to the early 1950s). Harmonious, red fruited, with bright sour cherry flavors, delicate herb flavor tannins and meaty notes, this is soft on acidity in the end, even as the aroma draws you back for another sip. 

A small wine with graceful power in its tannins, this is focused more on earthy vegetal and mineral character than on any direct fruitiness. The flavors last, perfumed with spice. Pour it with something fatty, like duck rillettes. 

This 7.4-acre clos rises toward the top of the hill just north of the village; half of the vines date back to 1975, the other half were replanted in 2013. The vineyards chalky soils, organically farmed and certified since 2000, built a wine with a tense floral buzz. Its vibrant, vibrating flavors of forest mushrooms, raspberries and raspberry seeds feel more umami than fruity, restrained by powerful tannins that slowly release the equally powerful fruit. It continues to reveal layer upon layer of flavor as the inner strength of the wine shows its potential for long aging. 

Scents of fruity forest mushrooms and woodland herbs gives this the feel of dappled light. The the tannins close off the light completely with their concentrated power. The flavors are simple and rooty, focused mostly on tannins, hinting at black raspberry fruit along with initial aromatic complexity that should gain with time in the cellar. 

Catch this as a young wine, while the tension in its structure elevates the delicate dried herb notes, and Brett adds detail to the tannins, a little dry, but spicy and delicious. Packed with a sweet cherry fruit, this is solidly built Gevrey, ready to drink with a steak. 

Brian Maloney makes this mostly from an estate vineyard on Olivet Road, that fruit augmented by four other vineyards, including two cool sites in the Sebastopol Hills. This has an appetizing warmth to its wild strawberry flavor a ripeness that feels earned rather than pushed. It's sleek and lively, content to be delicious rather than complex. 

Bedecked with a large gold fleur-de-lis on the bottle, this wine is showy in flavor too, a rich, ripe celebration of California exuberance, full bodied in cranberry, cherry, orange and blackberry fruitiness. —V.B.