“The best fertilizer is the winemaker’s shadow.” Nowhere does this aphorism hold truer than in Nantoux, Burgundy, where Boris Champy carries on an endless quest to reveal the soul of each vineyard plot, the spirit of each grape variety and…
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Posted on 2025.01.27 in Pommard, Beaune, Côte de Beaune, France, Burgundy, Wine-Aid Packages  | Read more...
A true masterpiece is composed of many elements, and all the details must be in precise balance: The forearm musculature on Michelangelo’s ‘David’ for example—the intake of breath in the nostril of Sanmartino’s ‘Veiled Christ.’ This is as true for…
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Posted on 2024.11.21 in Fleurie, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Vosne-Romanée, Gevrey-Chambertin, Hautes-Côtes de Nuits, Cidre, France, Wine-Aid Packages, Cava  | Read more...
Climate change gets a lot of ink in this newsletter, and there’s a reason for it: Consistently elevated temperatures and unpredictably violent weather is having a profound effect on some of the world’s most celebrated wine regions, and the new…
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Posted on 2024.11.01 in Côte de Beaune, Monthélie, Auxey-Duresses, Saint-Romain, France, Burgundy, Wine-Aid Packages  | Read more...
Two things that France and the United States share: A red, white and blue flag and a passion for rosé. So, while we’re celebrating both on the Fourth of July, we’ll take the opportunity to offer a springboard to this…
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Posted on 2024.07.05 in Chinon, Sancerre, Côte-de-Provence, Côtes-du-Rhône, Rosé de Loire, Anjou, cassis, Bandol, Menetou-Salon, Santenay, France, Beaujolais, Wine-Aid Packages, Loire, Southern Rhone  | Read more...
2024 marks the hundred-and-second anniversary of the release of James Joyce’s modernist masterpiece ‘Ulysses,’ and a few venerable souls who purchased a copy on the day it came out are still trying to wade through it. Not everyone agrees on…
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Posted on 2024.06.15 in Chablis, France, Wine-Aid Packages  | Read more...
“I am tasting stars!” Dom Perignon’s famous quote, reported to have been uttered upon his first taste of Champagne, is likely apocryphal, but the trio of stars that align in a cold, northerly slice of France that sits on the…
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Posted on 2024.05.13 in Crémant du Bourgogne, France, Champagne, Wine-Aid Packages  | Read more...
In our last newsletter, we looked at Burgundy’s fantastic 2015 vintage as represented by some of the top vignerons in the Côte de Nuit. This week, we head south to Beaune to look at the stylistically-unique red wines…
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Posted on 2024.05.01 in Côte de Beaune, Savigny-lès-Beaune, Aloxe-Corton, Auxey-Duresses, Santenay, Côte de Beaune, Pommard, Beaune, France, Burgundy, Wine-Aid Packages  | Read more...
What do you get when you blend an ideal vintage with top terroirs and then let the wine mature within a perfect setting for nearly a decade? You get the ideal expression of Pinot Noir in all its textural plenitude,…
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Posted on 2024.04.02 in Gevrey-Chambertin, Chambolle-Musigny, Hautes-Côtes de Nuits, Vougeot, Morey-Saint-Denis, Premeaux-Prissey, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Marsannay, Vosne-Romanée, France, Burgundy, Wine-Aid Packages  | Read more...
We can accept that each plot of land on earth is handed a certain microclimate, and whereas climate change may alter some aspects of its character, an acre’s terroir is written in stone… and soil, and elevation, and exposure. But…
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Posted on 2023.12.15 in Maranges, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Santenay, Vosne-Romanée, Pommard, Volnay, Gevrey-Chambertin, Chambolle-Musigny, Savigny-lès-Beaune, Monthélie, Aloxe-Corton, Auxey-Duresses, Morey-Saint-Denis, France, Burgundy, Wine-Aid Packages  | Read more...
“The Emperor would drink only Chambertin.” – Louis Constant Wairy, Napoleon’s valet. What does Gevrey-Chambertin have in common with Westland, Michigan? Not much, except that Westland was named for a mall and Gevrey-Chambertin was named for a vineyard. As those…
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Posted on 2023.10.12 in Marsannay, Gevrey-Chambertin, France, Burgundy, Wine-Aid Packages  | Read more...