2019 Vintage
- Incredibly High Quality
- 50% the Number of Bottles
- Top Wines in This Vintage Will Be Very Hard to Source at Retail
The Style (Important)
- Style Is Polished Traditional
- Terrific Elegance
- Stunningly Sensual Levels of Fruit
- Perfect Balance
- Incredible Palate Presence, Intensity and Thrust
- Among the Most Delicious Wines We Sell
Our New Burgundy Prodigy
- Raised in the Vineyards
- His First Vintage Was at 18
- Amazing Wines at 18 Years of Age. 18.
- These Wines Already Place Whitehead as a Top Producer
- And HE IS ONLY 22 YEARS OLD NOW
- The French Have Bought Almost All of His Wines
- Selling out at the Tasting Room - In a Pandemic
- His Upside Is One of the Top Producers in Burgundy. Full Stop.
2019 Domaine Rebourgeon Pommard 1er Cru "Les Pezerolles"
- Pico Production: Fewer Than 25 Cases Made
- Sells Out in the Tasting Room Except for My Few Cases
- Bigger and More Mineral Than Arvelets
- Nose: Gorgeous Sappy Red Cherries, Loads of Spice
- A Floral Cornucopia - Truly Masterful
- Sappy Red Cherries, Raspberry Wild Strawberries
- Loads of Spice, Minerals
- Palate: Superb Fruit Density
- Terrific Finesse and Elegance
- Remarkable Depth, but So Linear and Pure
- Gorgeous Finish: Cherry Flower, Spice, Raspberry
- Needs 5 Years. Will Age 10-15 Years
- Compare Other 2018 Pezerolles at $105-$200+
- Under $58 with Tariff Rebate*
Oh My God! What Was I Thinking?!?Amazon at $18
Bitcoin at $3,000
Netflix at $15.
There are certain things you look back on in your life and ask yourself, "what was I thinking?" It was so obvious that this asset was a screaming value at that price. Why didn't I buy it?!?
I am selling today one of the most delicious wines in Burgundy. It was made by a 22 year old. It is stunningly well made. Stunningly.
A 22 year old!
Please think about this for a second. Winemakers improve dramatically over the first decade or so of their careers. William is already better than 95% of the winemakers in Burgundy of any age.
Do you think that these wines are going to be stunning values given that through me they are bottom of the barrel prices for 1er Cru Burgundy? Will they be wines you want to pour in 10 years?
Amazon at $18
Bitcoin at $3,000
Netflix at $15.
Rebourgeon at $58...
The wines are selling out in France and I have a very small allocation.
That's all I have to say.
The Tariffs
A few words about the tariffs. Yes we are still charging them. We are doing it to play it safe given the epic bill we had to eat when they were first implemented. I personally think that once these wines land at port we will not pay tariffs on them and all of you will get credits. Once tariffs are removed they tend to not be re-implemented. But it's much too large a risk for us to take as a business.
The 2019 Vintage
This is the most complex vintage I've been associated with since we opened Fass Selections. First the quality is extremely high. All my winemaking partners and all the critics seem to agree. Second, quantities are down 50-60%. I have to reserve all the top wines before I taste them. To summarize:
- VERY HIGH QUALITY
- VERY SMALL QUANTITIES
Below is a great Burghound comment on 2019.
"With respect to other vintages that 2019 might reasonably resemble, somewhat surprisingly, growers nominated relatively few unique vintages, meaning a direct comparison with only one. Most, at least among those who proffered an opinion, did so by invoking two vintages, such as part 2009 and part 2010, or part 2015 and part 2016 or even a blend of 2017 and 2018. The idea behind these hypothetical blends is combining a ripe and generous vintage with one that is finer and more transparent. I would go with half 2009 and half 2010, as 2019 offers the richness and generosity of the former with the finesse, punch and gorgeous terroir definition of the latter.
If I had to choose just one vintage with which to compare 2019, I would have to go way back in time to 1966 or even 1949." Burghound.
William made stunning 19s but he is 50-60% down from 2018. There are 4-5 wines that he is not letting anyone taste as he only has a few hundred bottles of each. Each bottle is valuable revenue and profit during a global pandemic during a highly desirable and very low yielding vintage. I'd do the same thing.
The Style: Intoxicatingly Sensual and Original VERY IMPORTANT
I am going to try and explain what these wines are like and I'm gong to fail but I hope that I can get you enough of a sense of them that you try them. These wines are so good and so original that I sort of feel like John Belushi in a hypothetical sketch of Samurai Wine Store - if I can't get you to buy these, I should commit seppuku.
The aromatics on these wines are absolutely among the most sensual and sexy of any wines I've had. They are elegant but man there is this sweet delicious fruit on them that you can't believe. It tickles and envelops the nostrils. The secondary flavors live around the edge of that gorgeous fruit. Some wines have lilacs, some blackberry flower, some a hint of licorice or spice. But it's on the back of that sensual fruit.
This is a contrast to a more traditional style of Burgundy where the fruit and aromatics are more bound together on a line and you have to sort of mentally say "oh there's the fruit" and "oh, there's the lilac." Here the fruit just seduces you right off the bat.
The palate is in a similar vein. You get that spectacular fruit but balanced with perfect levels of acidity to
keep it fresh and vibrant. The fruit is so so so so clean. It almost feels like essence of the fruit (blackberry, cherry, depending on the wine) that was passed through a distillery to concentrate, purify it and remove any impurities. The wines all have terrific intensity and palate thrust. Again - these are not shy wines and not what you might think of as the classic Burgundy of 20 years ago. But they are a faithful and beautiful representation of Burgundian Pinot Noir.
You know that you will want to pop one of these in 10 years when Whitehead is famous and you can say that he made this at the age of 22.
The Wine
I am selling the 2019 Domaine Rebourgeon Pommard 1er Cru "Les Pezerolles" for $69.99 a bottle on an a 4-pack (under $58 with the tariff credit). This illustrates why I'm the perfect importer for him. So many would turn him down if he has to slice that up for markets all over the world. They sell mostly out of their tasting room. I'm like the US outlet of their tasting room. This is such a mega small production wine.
Unreal nose. Superbly floral and just so gorgeous. Red cherry, black cherry, floral again, hint of licorice. So stunningly fragrant. Just bright and lifted. Nose of gorgeous sappy red cherries and loads of spice. Huge huge cherries and loads of minerals. Also raspberry and even wild strawberries. Very floral. Maybe lavender? Just enormously complex and very airy. So much black and red berry fruit and as it airs more violets and spice intertwine with the lavender. Just superb and classic Pezerolles. It is a ridiculous nose that you can get lost in and gains traction every minute. Stoney aromas after some air.
Palate is just oozing with gorgeous pure fruit. Red fruit driven with a black fruit edge to it. Sappy and so complete. Palate has melty tannins that are so fine. The palate is just superb after air and on the finessed and elegant side of Pommard with wonderful refinement but also gorgeous up front fruit. After proper air William's wines are so engaging to drink versus many Pommard producers which need years to show well. The palate is voluminous with just awesome sweet fruit, loads of minerality and wonderful freshness and velvety tannins. Terrific power and concentration but with utmost finesse. Sappy and dense with brilliant Pommard earthiness and minerality. Terrific balance and engaging earthy sweetness. The palate is all freshness with that silky texture only Burgundian Pinot can get. The depth is remarkable as is the linearity and purity of this wine.
The finish is mineral, saline and long with beautiful mid season cherry fruit and echoes of cherry flower, spice and raspberry. It is stunningly refined. The tannins are ripe sweet and so fine. What complexity on the finish with stones, spices, fruit and flowers.
This opened up after air at the end of the day and became much more integrated. It's a big wine in need of age but a smokeshow.
An epic epic Pezerolles. Do not drink this young. It needs 2 years minimum.
The kid making it couldn't even drink in the United States. Think about that. This is class in a glass and all elegance. Stunning wine and will age 10-15 years and I think will really show well in 3-5 years. Not that it is any way inaccessible now. Just beautiful. Obviously very limited.
2019 Domaine Rebourgeon Pommard 1er Cru "Les Pezerolles" - $71.99 ($279.96 4-Pack) (*Including tariff of $8.40)
No comments:
Post a Comment