Longtime Grower's Third Vintage Under Their Name: Stunning Value Before this Newcomer Becomes Well Known

It was a crisp day in Tain l'Hermitage at the Salon des Vins and I was sulking. I had just tasted the

brilliant Cornas of Guillhaume Gilles and was bummed to find out he was represented by Neal Rosenthal. Oh well, you can't win them all.  I then asked Guillhaume who he thought the best talent in the room was and he immediately pointed to Michele Luyton; I headed over there in a flash. Michelle Luyton, is an absolute wonder. One of those people you meet, that charms you with her wit and warmth instantly. She was very humble in saying her English was not good, but it was fantastic. She was passionate and enthusiastic and most importantly the wines she makes are absolutely stunning and a wonderful entry into the mostly high-priced world of Hermitage.  While the Luytons have been planting grapes for 25 years, this is only their third year bottling wines under their name; they are still building a name for themselves and hence the wines are just incredibly cheap. Even for Fass Selections, this is an incredible steal.

Today I am proud to offer for the first time in the United States the 2011 Luyton "Hermitage" Rouge for as little as $44.99 on the 3-pack. For estate bottled red Hermitage, that is a stunning value. It is even more of a value as the wine is tremendous. Complex, chewy, meaty, deep and rugged like an old school Hermitage. Delas from the 80's comes to mind when I was tasting these. Yet, Michele Luyton also gets a stunning elegance and finesse to her Hermitage and yet it stays bloody, gamey and meaty as well. No sacrifice of structure at all as this will last 10-15 years easy.  It is delicate yet also gives off the vibe that this is a product of the earth.

There is not a better deal in Hermitage currently going.  To give the non-Hermitage lovers a comparison, Delas Hermitage goes for $75+, Sorrel at $70+ and Faurie for $100+.  This is a very small appellation and the wines are very much in demand.  Getting a great Hermitage at under $50 is really quite a find.  If you are a Syrah fan, I suggest you get some while the getting is good before Luyton's fame (and prices) catches up to her quality.

Michele also makes a wonderful white Hermitage. Before I get into this brilliant wine which can be had for as little as $44.99 on the 3-pack, I want to briefly discuss the two types of White Rhone wines out there. The first, which I will never sell at Fass Selections is the gloppy, sometimes oaky, rich, no acid, no balance, hot white Rhone wines. I tasted many at the Salon des Vins this past February in Hermitage. But what really rung my bell was the different style of white Rhone wine that seems to be developing. The style I like and have sold is the brisk, minerally, with opulence in the background style of white Rhone. The 2011 Luyton Hermitage Blanc is a textbook example of this new emerging style and it is about time. Lean, minerally, with tremendous waves of fruit and salinity. The concentration is remarkable as is the finesse and elegance. It is so lean, minerally and fresh I would be hard pressed to think it is white rhone. The finish lasts and lasts forever. So elegant and rich. Such a nice juxtaposition of texture and flavor. I fell in love pretty quickly with this as white Hermitage is way harder to pull off successfully than red Hermitage.

Michelle's father, 25 years ago, planted a small parcel with some Syrah vines but always sold to the Cave Tain l'Hermitage. He did this so he could eventually afford to buy vineyards in Hermitage. Michelle loves working outside so her time in the vineyards is a natural fit. As her father aged, she worked in the vineyards and continued to sell the grapes to the Cave Tain l'Hermitage and hired someone named Lionel to help her out. Lionel, though, secretly learned how to make wine at a neighbor. When Michelle found out she left him a vineyard in St. Joseph. Lionel made a brilliant wine and Michelle decided after tasting that wine she would no longer sell her grapes to the Co-op and vinify all of them herself. She had that a-ha moment which I am sure all of you have had with wine.

When it comes to the cultivation of the vines, she takes a hands off approach and will spray as little as possible. She has maximum respect for nature and is humbled by it. She definitely has a flower child, respect nature approach to her work and it really comes out in the wines. They are alive. She has a winemaker now, named Christophe, who guides her every step of the way. Christophe is all about respecting the balance of nature and it is again reflected in the wines which are supernally balanced. They glide across your palate but have major stuffing. Another iron fist in velvet glove type of wine.

2011 Michele Luyton Hermitage Rouge - $49.99 ($134.97 3-pack)

2011 Michele Luyton Hermitage Blanc- $49.99 ($134.97 3-pack) 

Mix and match on 3 bottles for best price

Making some of the Best, Most Complex Morgon, Her Way.

Long time subscribers will recall that I was introduced to Marie Elodie by Jeremy Seysses of Domaine
Dujac, one of the top wineries in Burgundy.  Marie Elodie is one of the best winemakers I know and conforms to no standards as to how Beaujolais is made. She is uncompromising and makes wine her way. This is no light, elegant, carbonic Morgon that smells like spice and fresh red fruit, which I love, but this is an apple to that orange. This is Beaujolais made in the style of Burgundy and it's at a completely other level in terms of complexity (Marie Elodie is married to the owner of the  Confuron-Coteidot estate in Vosne-Romanee).

Today I am proud to offer the 2011 Clos du Mez Morgon "Chateau Gaillard" for as little as $21.99 on a 6-pack. As anybody who has had Clos du Mez knows this is a steal for a wine of this quality. The Clos du Mez Morgon shows gorgeous dark fruit aromas, with seductive mineral and cooling tones on the nose but also loads of earth and bark. The palate is classic explosive Clos du Mez Morgon, with tiny dark black and red fruits hitting your palate in waves with a distinctly rocky, cooling minerality. Velvety tannins throughout coat the palate with the juicy, vivid pure fruit. She ages her wines much longer than almost anyone as she is making it just like Burgundy.

$21.99 usually gets you a gluggable wine without much complexity.  $21.99 wines usually have generally unidimensional fruit but lack aromatics, structure and secondary and tertiary flavors.  Clos de Mez has complexity that punches way above its weight.  From the first sip you can taste the structure and complexity of the wine; it's almost like a coiled 20 foot python that gradually unfurls as the wine opens.  It's unlike almost any other Cru Beaujolais and more like a complex, fruity Burgundy.  If you are looking for an affordable red wine that is delicious, interesting and will age, this is a tremendous, tremendous value.

2011 can be maligned in Beaujolais, not nearly as much say 2008, but it is for sure a grower by grower vintage when it comes to evaluating your purchases. I was very lucky as Guignier and Clos du Mez both showed extremely well given the somewhat difficult vintage. The 2011's are showing up now, along with certain earlier releasing 2012's. This gets "officially" released in France in April, so she really holds back her Beaujolais. Financially it certainly hurts her, but uncompromising winemakers make decisions like this all the time as it is all about the quality.  This is a deep wine. Especially for an '11 when at their weakest and mediocre they can be thin. That makes this wine all the more remarkable.

The Morgon character comes out after 2-3 days open, 10-15 years in the cellar, or as a customer recently astutely noted (about another Morgon made in a non traditional way), with food. Most, if not all of the the wines I sell are enhanced by food. Just like with Bonnes-Mares, Gevrey-Chambertin "Clos St. Jacques" and Vosne-Romanee "Malconsorts" the character of the site will only show itself after days open or many years of cellaring. That is what Marie-Elodie is going for in her wines and she executes it perfectly.

Below is some history from various Clos du Mez offers in the past.

Marie Elodie's wines have the traditional wonderful Beaujolais fruit but that fruit is interlaced with acid balance, complexity and soaring aromatics.  These are incredibly serious, structured wines that are built for aging and will soon be added to the canon of top Beaujolais producers that Beaujolais lovers and even serious Burgundy lovers must own. Just like every Beaujolais wine dork I have a rotation of Beaujolais that I drink. Roillette, Brun, Desvignes, Lapierre, Breton, Metras (when I can find it), Vissoux and Lapalu. The usual suspects. There are also other Beaujolais dorks that have rotations such as mine. One of those said dorks is Jeremy Seysses of Domaine Dujac. Jeremy has a love of German Riesling (how we met and became friends), which is a bit unusual in Burgundy and also a love of great Beaujolais, not as unusual in Burgundy.

My business partner and I arrived at Domaine Dujac as our first stop in Burgundy. We had a wonderful lunch and many bottles were opened. Now that Jeremy was in a slightly altered state of consciousness I decided to ask him what, if any, new producers were in his Beaujolais rotation. Jeremy immediately blurted out Clos de Mez and pronounced it as his favorite Beaujolais. Our ears perked up and we listened.

Jeremy told us that Marie-Elodie is married to the owner of the Confuron-Coteidot estate in Vosne-Romanee. She has been making small amounts of Morgon and Fleurie since the 2005 vintage and splits her time between Beaujolais and Burgundy. He gave us her e-mail and we went back and forth with her playing e-mail tag. We were leaving our last appointment on our last day in France (with a daunting drive from Burgundy to Frankfurt ahead of us), and Marie Eloide got back to us and said we should stop by the Confuron-Coteidot estate and taste on our way back to Frankfurt.

After we left our last appointment we were beat. After over 3 weeks on the road, we both were stanky, had laundry on the back window drying, were wined out and had a 6-7 hour drive back to Frankfurt to fly back home. But we decided we had to go see her. It was Jeremy's favorite Beaujolais, she was waiting for us, and no matter how spent we were, this is what I signed up for and I had to embrace it no matter how bad I smelled. We arrived at the beautiful, picturesque estate of Confuron-Coteidot in the heart of Vosne-Romanee and there was Marie-Eloide waiting for us with her enchanting smile and profoundly adorable son. 

Marie-Elodie's wines have many of the characteristics that you see in great, undiscovered winemakers.  1) They are doing things slightly differently than most winemakers in the area (here, the use of traditional Burgundian elevage). 2) The wines are wonderful in difficult vintages (2008 and 2009 were incredible wines that show all the good and none of the bad of these vintages).  3) The wines illustrate the depth and complexity on the palate that illustrate that they will become more interesting with age.  4) The wines are underpriced at first then go up as people discover them (see Gonon). $21.99 is an insanely low price for a wine with this level of complexity and ageability. 

They are made in the Burgundian style in that it has Burgundian complexity and structure. Forget that this is made from Gamay, all you anti-Gamay people who don't like Beaujolais. There is NO better wine made in Burgundy that sells for under $22. Nothing that can even compare. The more Burgundian style elevage wines have more structure (sweet velvety tannin), sweeter fruit, and most importantly are NOT made via carbonic maceration, which allows the grapes to ferment in an enviroment rich in carbon, mostly before the grape is crushed, which leads to lighter wines with not much tannin and amazing aromas when young. Carbonic maceration wines can be wonderful (Metras, Guignier, Lapierre) but for my palate I prefer the richer, structured style of the Burgundian elevage way. I love the carbonic ones but there are surely more Burgundian elevage style ones in my cellar.

2011 Clos du Mez Morgon "Chateau Gaillard" - $24.99 

($131.94 6-pack)

The Intoxicating Aromatics of Domaine Cruchandeau

I'll never forget my first glass of a Julien Cruchandeau wine.  I got the glass and sniffed it, and sniffed it

again.  And again.  After about five minutes, I realized that at some point, I really should taste it.

There are a range of fruit profiles in Burgundian wines and don't get me wrong, I love them all.  But in Burgundy, what you are really paying for are the heights of aromatic complexity that only Burgundy can achieve.  All of my Burgundy producers have appealing aromatics but Julien Cruchandeau's wines are beautifully elegant and sleek with other wordly gorgeous aromatics that I could sniff all day and never get tired.  Julien only farms a miniscule 3 hectares and you can feel the love and attention that he gives to his vines in every sniff and every sip.  These wines are true artisanal labors of love.  I was lucky to beg for 2 small allocations from the incredibly wonderful (but small crop) 2012 vintage (for me, bets vintage overall since 1999).  If you haven't really had that Burgundian aromatic experience, this is your chance.

The first wine is the 2012 Julien Cruchandeau Ladoix "Les Ranches" for as little as $29.99 a 4-pack. The village of Ladoix never gets any love even though it has two Grand Crus and seven Premier Crus. It should. This is some serious terroir. It needs to get more love and Julien's expression is stunning. There is terrific clarity to this wine and the aromas really jump: Meaty, floral, mineral.  It is nimble yet mineral and has that terrific 2012 volume in the mouth along with sweet silky tannins and a crunchy, ripe, and deep finish.  A distinctive bottle of wine and a totally killer value in 2012. This is the sweet spot of 2012. Village and regional wines from less heralded AOCs. I tasted across many appellations and this is definitely the sweet spot.  Ladoix is officially called Ladoix-Serrigny and is famous for being the most northerly appellation in the Cote de Beaune. There are some decent whites, but the strength of Ladoix is red wines. There are flatter areas that are rugged and sold as Cote de Beaune-Villages. More complex and silkier wines are made in the two Grand Crus and seven Premier Crus. These are located to the north. Four of the 1er Crus lie on the famous slope of Corton called the Montagne de Corton. There are also two Grand Cru vineyards (Corton and Corton-Charlemagne) which are shared with the neighboring appellations of Aloxe-Corton and Pernand-Vergelesses. 6 ha of Corton-Charlemagne and 22 ha of Le Corton are actually situated in Ladoix-Serrigny. Ladoix wines are always lovely and pure and can age for up to 10-15 years.

Next up I have a stunning Nuits San Georges for way and I mean way under $50 that was one of the highlights of my recent tasting trip to France. It is the 2012 Julien Cruchandeau Nuits St. Georges "Aux St. Jacques" which can be had for as little as $42.99 on the 4-pack. This will be allocated.  Aux saint Jacques is on the Vosne side of Nuits and really acts like a Vosne-Romanee. Super elegant Vosne-like nose loaded with spice and flowers. Killer smooth tannins. Julien is a master at the young age of 26 of tannin management; so silky and suave. This really cuts a swath across the palate. Really incredible depth here. Just a terrific 2012 and an insane value. This is also Julien's first vintage from this site.

This was my second to last appointment in Burgundy. It was the 4th appointment after a long day of tasting. I was exhausted. That importer, lack of sleep, total exhaust, wanting and needing a bed, sleeping in car between appointments exhausted. But I put on my game face and greeted Julien at his really cool pad in Chaux. I am glad I did as this is another great Burgundy producer that offers exceptional value for the money via the Fass Selections model. He fits the general cutout of my Burgundy producers. Young up and comer, tiny estate, has a range of often under appreciated appellations and consistently out performs his appellations. His style is unlike any producer I import. Incredibly sleek, sexy and polished wines with fine elegant tannins and extraordinary site character; a minimal kiss of oak. Very drinkable and I am lucky he has some 2012 to sell me as yields were so tiny due to a devastating hail storm in July 2012.

Julien is a very cool, laid back guy. He is a musician turned winemaker.  His genre is turntable and electronic music, which is in my wheelhouse, so we got along instantly. At the ripe old age of 22 he was handed the keys to a six hectare domaine and was told to take care of it all. It was an estate in Bouzeron that made mostly white wines and that is where he honed his touch with whites. His last vintage there was 2005 and then he went on to tour Europe with Shrink Orchestra and Nomadic Lab. After the musician thing phased out a bit, he turned back to winemaking in 2010. He has slowly put together a tiny portfolio of really interesting sites. Ladoix, NSG, Bouzeron and HCDN to name but a few. He is a one man operation as many of my Burgundy producers are. Chaux is up near Herve Murat's winery in Concoeur, which is in the Hautes Cote de Nuits. He only has 3 hectares and in order to make money he still works as a sound engineer at various music shows. He says he needs 4 hectares to make money and not have to have a 2nd job.

He refuses to sell grapes to negociants to improve cash flow. He wants to be in the vineyards and be in total control of it all. As I said we got along. He is a hard worker too and wants to do it his way. He says that he wants to make his NSG with power and concentration and without hard tannin and he has masterfully done that with the 2012 for sale in this email but I believe he has done that with all his wines. The style is very sleek with power and concentration yet with the most refined tannins. Julien is an incredible talent and this is the first time his wines are being sold in America.

2012 Julien Cruchandeau Ladoix "Les Ranches" - $32.99 ($119.96 4-pack)

2012 Julien Cruchandeau Nuits St. Georges "Aux St. Jacques" - $45.99 ($171.96 4-pack) (LIMITED)

Mix and match on 4 bottles for best price

March Madness or Corton Madness? I prefer the Corton Version!

With the NCAA tournament upon us I have decided to throw my hat in the ring and say Corton is the winner, especially at the prices I am offering today. I have VERY LITTLE wine today and I will have to allocate. These wines are so good that even one bottle, if that is what it comes to, will make anybody who buys these very happy.

I'll start with what I have a little bit of. The 2012 Corton from Jean-Jacques Girard is a profound bottle of Grand Cru Red Burgundy. Today, the 2012 Jean-Jacques Girard Corton Grand Cru can be had for as little as $63.99 on the 3-pack. Frankly, this is the best high end deal to be offered at Fass Selections, since the 2012 Domaine Girard Corton Charlemagne.   Corton is usually $100 and up.  Do not pass this up. 2012 Burgundy at the Grand Cru level is just insane. The volume in the mouth, the concentration, purity, rich velvety tannins and absolute clarity of site makes this the best vintage I have tasted young since 1999. Corton represents tremendous value even through 3-tiers so through Fass Selections $64 for Corton Grand Cru is a give-away. Many of you will be tasting your way through various '11's and 12's of Domaine Girard when they ship in April and you will see why I will have more of Girard in my cellar than any other Burgundy producer. Just classic wines, made in a traditional style with the utmost finesse. They just are super pretty and he does it in appellations that can be tough to make pretty. Corton, Pommard and Aloxe-Corton to name a few. His wines, for my palate, can be drunk from day 1 but will improve and improve for years to come. This has the necessary Corton tannins, but in 2012 they are just super special. Not much more to say than buy this wine at this price as this does not come around often.

Next up is one of the greatest stories I have heard yet in Burgundy. I have almostno wine so get rea

Remi Poisot
dy. Raise your hand if you have heard of Louis Latour. So, the story goes like this:

1) Marie Poisot, inherited her wine estate when her father Louis Latour died in 1902.
 - Louis, her brother, inherited the other half.  That other half is the hub of the eponymous Louis Latour estate.
2) Marie's vineyards were shared between her six children, including Pierre Poisot. The latter married Yvonne Misserey.
3) Three children were born of this marriage between 1932 and 1935: Maurice, Henri and France. Pierre was the head wine-grower at Louis Latour until he died in 1937. From 1902, Pierre's plots were farmed successively, under rental or sharecropping agreements, by Maison Louis Latour, Henri Poisot and Michel Voarick, prior to being taken back in 1986 by Maurice Poisot.
4) Maurice Poisot, married to Marie Louise Piguet, has five children. The third, Rémi, resumed cultivation in June 2010. Only Maurice's and France's plots remain of the original estate, Henri having sold his in 1990.

Enter Remi Poisot. He left Burgundy after high school at 18 and entered the navy and travelled the world as a decorated officer for 28 years. In 2009 he left the Navy to go back to Beaune and trained at the agricultural school there. He resumed cultivation and winemaking duties of the family vines in 2010. The estate is 3 hectares and he only has one 1er Cru and three Grand Cru's which is impossibly rare for an estate this small. The wines are brilliant. Like the great Louis Latour wines of the 60's. Incredibly pure fruit with also a lightness of touch, only found in the top estates in Burgundy and amazing freshness that Remi provides with his personal touch. These are not Louis Latour wines at all, they are Remi Poisot wines and he is a brilliant winemaker and so humble. The winemaking is very traditional with no tricks in the cellar. On to today's wines.

First a word about 2011's. To my surprise in, when I just travelled to Burgundy, I was shocked how great the 11's were. They have gained weight in the bottle and have more freshness and precision. They have gotten much much better. Crack some of yours and see if you agree.

I have the brilliant 2011 Remi Poisot Corton Charlemagne for $109.99 NET pricing as I have so little it is silly. This is just one of the best new Corton Charlemagne's I have ever tasted. Made in a traditional way, in an insanely beautiful finesse-driven style this hits your palate with waves of fruit on clouds of minerals. It is a haunting wine as the elegance is just insane, but also chock full of fruit and mineral. So gorgeous, so pretty, so delicate, so Corton-Charlemagne, which is perhaps my favorite Cote de Beaune Grand Cru. I don't want to talk it up too much but it is that good and I have so little.

I also have the 2011 Remi Poisot Corton Bressandes for $79.99 NET pricing as I only have so little it is even sillier. What can I say about this wine? The style here is so delicate and the wines are so true to their site I need to just give a dissertation on Corton-Bressandes so you have an idea. It reminds me of the Mugnier style here, in that the Mugnier style is that there really is no style, just the ideal expression of the site. Bressandes is very well drained as the soil is clay based with many small rocks. The wine has a beautiful structure when young with none of the harshness that sometimes come from Corton. It has super sweet fruit and the 11's have gained weight since July and this wine was firing on all cylinders. Velvety, ripe and sweet tannins that are dense but spread out nicely on the palate. There is some spice and musk after maximum aeration, but that is a hint of what I expect to be a spice bazaar as this ages. A tremendous bottle of Corton.

2012 Domaine Girard Corton Grand Cru $67.99 -

($191.97 3-pack) (Limited)

2011 Remi Poisot Corton-Charlemagne - $109.99 NET 

(Extremely Limited)

2011 Remi Poisot Corton Bressandes - $79.99 NET 

(Extremely Limited)

Greatness Created in the Vineyards, Not the Cellar - Incredible Ageworthy Bordeaux Value

The trend in Bordeaux now, as we are all too familiar, is excessive ripeness and extraction. Pierre's 2006 Chateau Beausejour is the opposite of that as he goes for balance, purity, freshness and structural

tightness. Today I am honored to sell the 2006 Chateau Beausejour (Montagne St. Emilion) for as little as $24.99 on the 4-pack. This is a silly price for a wine of this high quality. I bought it direct from Pierre and this would make other much more famous Chateau go red in the face with embarrassment as the quality is so high here.  It has that wonderful cooling mineral, yet deeply red/blue fruited nose that is a trademark of high quality right bank wines. It takes a while to open up (like most of my wines and all great Bordeaux), but when it does there is a wealth of tiny explosive berry concentrated fruit that attacks the palate. The freshness and delineation are wonderful for a wine from the "outskirts of St. Emilion." This hails from Montagne-St.Emilion, aka the satellite country, which 30+ years ago no one cared about and the wines were thin, weedy and the result of high yields. Beausejour 2006 is my style of Bordeaux and I suspect many of yours. Many wine people complain about Bordeaux, but that is only because they love it and want more Bordeaux made in this style for this price. I love the structure on this and 4 bottles is my recommended buy but this is so classically structured that I can see it lasting 10-15 years so more could be bought and cellared. It is quite amazing that this comes from the 2006 vintage. It is not considered a great vintage, just average, but this wine shows more in common with '10 or '09 with it's deep structure, freshness and purity. Really a marvel from 2006 as it also does not show much aged character yet. Blind I would have said 2010 Right Bank. This has an extremely long life ahead of it.

What I love more, or just as much, than selling wine is telling stories. And Pierre Bernault (who is the spitting image of Sean Connery) of Chateau Beausejour has quite the story. Working as an executive for Microsoft in France for the 9 years before he stumbled onto Chateau Beausejour, he wanted a different life.  An agricultural life. In France the pull for an agricultural life can be very strong and appealing, especially after 9 years working in a corporate culture. He wanted to return to the land and his original passion, which was wine. He studied in Beaune at the CFPPA (Professional Training and Agricultural Promotion Center) and after that he spent a year and half searching for the right estate.

When Pierre stumbled onto Beausejour it was in ruins and barely sanitary. The cellar was nasty, the chateau looked dilapidated like it could be a horror film set and there were depleted vines and martyred, dead soil. Pierre had a project to do and he was certainly up to the task. He had his old friend Stephane Deroncourt assess the situation and he told Pierre this estate won't be able to produce wine for five years. But, there is a truth in wine that Pierre did not expect, but had always heard about. That is that great terroir can endure the worst conditions. That sped up the process by a few years.

Pierre has 12 hectares of vines that cover outstanding terroirs in Montagne St. Emilion. It is a limestone base with a topsoil of chalky-clay. There are also eight plots from vines planted in 1901! That is amazing that they survived the utter lack of care from the previous owners. Pierre was on his way. He also identified 31 perfect vine stocks that were to be cloned and replanted in coordination with the great Alain Vauthier of Ausone. The attention to detail was apparent from the beginning.

Because Pierre has all this great terroir he decided to use sustainable agriculture going forward, which I cannot emphasize enough is not the norm on Bordeaux. No more herbicides or pesticides, and a very drastic reduction in spraying his vines were his main moves. There is also much working the soils and composting. Pierre is in tune with his land and he says that when the vines are well tended there is barely anything he does in the winery. That was music to my ears. Most Bordeaux goes in the cellar to die, but here the wine evolves after it is born in the vineyard. A true Bordeaux that is made in the vineyard which goes contrary to the saying "Burgundy is made in the vineyard and Bordeaux is made in the cellar."

Yields are low at 31 hl/ha and the vines ages range from vines planted in 1934 to 1998. The maturity is perfect at harvest as he really lives in the vineyard. His main objective in making the wines is elegance and purity and he has hit the jackpot in that. Once you give this 15-30 minutes it just explodes with purity in your mouth. Using 15-20% new oak you could never tell as it is so well integrated. He ages it for around 18 months but it could also be longer or shorter depending on the taste in the cellar. Sulfites are used sparingly, which is also rare for Bordeaux, and the wine is neither fined nor filtered. This cuvee is around 600-1500 cases a year, which is ridiculously tiny for a Bordeaux Chateau. Pierre makes 4,500 cases total across all of his wines. All of his hard work and attention to detail shows up in the bottle and in every sip and sniff.

2006 Chateau Beausejour - $27.99 ($99.96 4-pack)

The Brothers Rings Are Changing German Wine One Bottle at a Time

As soon as I walked into Andreas Rings' winery in Freinsheim I knew I would like Andreas and his

wines. There were oceans of great bottles lining the walls. Rebholz, Rousseau, Roumier, etc.  My instincts were right; this is the new star in Germany and he can barely shave.  I found out about this winery because one of their Pinot Noirs was ranked the top Pinot in Germany by Martin Zwick's group of experts.  I always form my own opinion of any wine I taste but my props to Martin for discovering Rings.

I have never been this excited for an appointment in Germany, perhaps ever. The Rings brothers have taken the German wine world by storm with their profound bottlings of Spatburgunder and Riesling. It's almost as if they popped out of nowhere. Located in Freinsheim, which is great for Pinot Noir and Riesling, the brothers Rings have an adept hand at both grapes, especially at such a young age.   Andreas, who is in charge of the winemaking, at the tender age of 26, is a genius; if these are the wines he is making at 26, Germany needs to watch out what he can do at 36 or even 46. He will be an important winemaker for a very very long time and you are getting the opportunity to get in on the ground floor. The style of the wines is as big as Andreas' teddy bear-like personality. The Rieslings and Spatburgunders have incredible freshness, verve and depth. They are big, powerful and explosive wines that take no prisoners, which I find is typical Pfalz style; the Pfalz is not for wimps.

I am proud to be the first person in America to offer the 2013 Rings Steinacker Riesling for as little as $24.99 on a six pack. This is a silly value. This is the equivalent of Spatlese Trocken, which typically go for $30-$40 through the 3 tier system. This wine is so pure, so fresh, so chiseled, so buff and just so drinkable. The precision here is unreal. There is so much explosive yellow fruit and stony vibe to this wine. It is something to ponder and also something to throw back and not think about.  Wines that have structure, minerality and density, like the 2013 Steinacker, yet are also easy to drink and keep you coming back for one more sip. This also showcases the high quality of the 2013 vintage in the Pfalz with such nice acid (yes 2013 is an acid lover's vintage) and structure. This is a startling value made by an up and coming winemaker that you will all want to keep on your radar. Steinacker as a site is very dry and every bit of water is needed by the vines. Despite all this it creates such fine, mineral and lean wines.

If this killer Riesling was not enough, they also make world class Pinot Noir here (he is actually even more famous for Pinot Noir). For me the best value was obvious as soon as I tasted it. The 2013 Freinsheim Spatburgunder, which can be had for as little as $29.99 on the 4-pack, is a stunner. It has everything I look for in top class introductory German Pinot Noir. Think very good Village Côte de Beaune quality. Freshness, elegance, wonderful pure fruit and amazing gout de terroir. These Pinot Noirs just resonate - Pfalz! You can smell the sand, the clay, the rain and the salt. The freshness of the red fruit and balance is just startling. So pure, so clean. The high limestone content in the soil contributes to its lean and fruity character. For their introductory Pinot Noir to be this complex I knew I was in rareified air.

2013 Weingut Rings Steinacker Riesling - $26.99 

($149.94 6-pack)

2013 Weingut Rings Freinsheim Spatburgunder - $31.99 ($119.96 4-pack)

The Wine that Gets Battenfeld-Spanier into the Conversation for the Best Dry White in Germany

I had an absolutely lovely morning meeting with H.O. Spanier and Carolin Kuhling-Gillot and a

wonderful walk through the vineyards this past trip to Germany last month. Many of you have been waiting patiently to dig your teeth into the 2012 Am Schwarzen Hergott Riesling Grosses Gewachs. That will be shipped with all of your other wines in April/May. When you taste it your eyes will pop out of your head. I believe that with the 2013 vintage, H.O. Spanier has catapulted himself into being considered one of the top 5 dry white winemakers in Germany.

Today I am proud to offer the 2013 Batenfeld-Spanier Frauenberg Grosses Gewachs for as little as $49.99 on the 4-pack. GG's of this quality level are normally priced at $80-100+ a bottle in the States - they are the best dry white white wines in Germany. Keller's Kirschspiel, Abtserde and Morstein, Rebholz's Kastanienbusch, Schafer-Frohlich's GG' (all of them), Burklin Wolf Kirchenstuck are amongst the wines I would say that the 2013 Frauenberg is on the same level qualitatively. This is almost a perfect dry Riesling. It takes over your mouth with waves of fruit yet is balanced by what I called in my notes, "an oyster." The finish is like the best, most saline, sweetest, balanced oyster you have ever had. It's so distinctive that I kept going back and back to it.  You want this in your mouth. The texture and vivid precise flavors are like clouds passing through on your palate due to the incredible finesse. With extreme care to the land and an expert attention to detail, H.O Spanier has created a monument to the 2013 German dry wine vintage. This is your one shot at this one. This is a unique distinct expression of Riesling that Riesling geeks will swoon over, but this is also a wine that even the budding wine geek can really get into. This wine is on the same qualitative level as the great white wine producers of the world - it's only because it's German and it's bought direct that it costs this little.   If you rarely spend $50 on a bottle, make it this bottle. This wine is allocated to longstanding German private clients and distributors - I was only able to secure a small parcel because Carolin and H.O. wanted to reward my customers for their purchases of the 2012 wines.

Personally, I prefer the Battenfeld-Spanier wines over the Keller wines. They are organic/biodynamic and both Carolin and H.O. are absolutely nuts about quality. From 2011 to 2012 and now to 2013 each vintage they have taken a huge qualitative leap. The 2012 Molsheim Riesling, which many of you have had, is a testament to the great work they do at all price points. But then again, with my model, these wines become silly values, and as I said before, and will continue to say, they are the crown of my German portfolio and I see them only getting better.

Frauenberg is a GG I wanted to offer last year, but I couldn't get any.  The mid to high end Rieslings are all snapped up as quickly as they are bottled. They are that good. There is a hedonistic quality and depth to the Battenfeld-Spanier wines a la Coche-Dury (H.O. is a burg freak and had a 1963 Romanee-Conti the night before) that is so inviting it is impossible to stop drinking these wines. With that hedonistic depth none of the minerality, elegance or freshness is sacrificed. The hedonistic fruit allied with that mineral spine and freshness makes them in a class of their own for me. They are just so complex and drinkable at the same time due to that insane juxtaposition between texture, mineral and fruit. I cannot emphasize enough how stunning these wines are texturally. Truly jaw-dropping.

Below is some background info from our first Battenfeld-Spanier offer last year.

Battenfield-Spanier is co-owned by Carolin Spanier-Gillot (who has her own fine estate, Kuhling-Gillot) with her husband H.O. Spanier. Since they are married, some of the winery functions have been combined, such as the gorgeous tasting room and marketing. Each winery cannot be be more different in terms of style. I tasted them side by side with Caroline's father going back and forth and could not believe the differences. A fascinating exercise in terroir.

They are located in the Rheinhessen in which are three main departments. Bingen, Nierstein and the rest is called the Wonnegau, which is the southern most part of the the Rheinhessen, near Worms. It has been much maligned in its history because most growers were about quantity (Liebfraumilch anybody?) and not quality till around 20 years ago. The wines of the Wonnegau and the wines of the Bingen/Nierstein area have about as much in common as a tiger does with a bear. Yes, they are both mammals, but that's where it ends. Yes, they make Riesling in the Bingen/Nierstein area and yes they make Riesling in the Wonnegau, but that is where the similarities end. The Rheinhessen is over 25,00 hectares and there are tons of different terroirs.

Located in Hohen-Suelzen, Battenfield-Spanier farm 24 hectares biodynamically and they have some of the most beautiful steep vineyards I have ever seen in the Rheinhessen. This means they want a healthy, living ecosystem within their vineyards. It is painstaking work but the results usually speak for themselves.  This is very rare to be biodynamic in Germany. Wittman and Clemens Bush are the only estates I can think of off the top of my head that farm biodynamically. There is around 80% spontaneous yeast fermentation and wines are aged in stainless steel or oak in the cellar.

2013 Battenfeld-Spanier Frauenberg Grosses Gewachs - $53.99 ($199.96 four pack pricing)

28 Years Old and the Talk of Burgundy - the Renowned Monthelie Blanc and Stunning Puligny-Montrachet of Florent Garaudet

You know that you're on to something when you tell all the winemakers that you are going to

sell Florent Garaudet and they all say "oh yes, the one with the brilliant Monthelie Blanc."  Most winemakers, in my experience,  do not casually flatter their competitors (if you've met many winemakers, you know that this is the understatement of the year).   These are ground floor, must buy wines from a brilliant 28 year old winemaker.  Given what he is doing with village vineyards, I have no idea how good his wines will be as he acquires more land in more prestigious areas.  Suffice it to say that in 10 years, I want to be able to open bottles of these 20 years down the road.

Today I am proud to offer two white Burgundies from Florent Garaudet. This is the first time these wines have been offered in America. The first wine is his stunning 2012 Monthelie Blanc for as little as $34.99 on the 4-pack. The compliments are true.  This drinks like a great Meursault. No questions asked. It is a stunning expression from an overlooked appellation like almost no other I have ever experienced. There is around 40% new oak on this wine and it is beautifully integrated. I could not stop blabbing about how well integrated it was.  The wine just takes over your palate. The nose is big and very impactful with mineral, floral and a skoche of oak aromas. Really pretty nose that eventually opened up with the lovely rainy Burgundian dirt. It is at once powerful and elegant on the palate and exhibits beautiful grace, delineation and detail of flavor. The palate has an extraordinary amount of mineral and there is an explosive character that has to be tasted to be believed. There is serious almost mega chewy structure and it has the guts to age for 7-8 years, which is what Florent told me. I have no reason
to doubt him. This was a profound bottle of white burgundy and it's only under $40 because the appellation is less renowned and Florent is not yet well known outside of Burgundy. I implore people to grab some of this because they have never had anything like this. I'm buying a case for myself. 

If Florent can make that much of a stunning wine from Monthelie, what can he do with Puligny-Montrachet? I can honestly say his 2012 Puligny for as little as $44.99 on the 4-pack is one of the best value examples I have ever had. Usually for this quality you have to pay $60 - $80 (Carillon, Prudhon or even, dare I say, Leflaive). It has the classic, detailed, floral and minerally Puligny nose.  The detailed and vivid aromas of this Puligny are what are most striking.  I would not mind spraying this on as cologne if it was bottled. Puilgny #5 from Garaudet. After a while iodine and hazelnuts appeared and I knew I was in rarefied air. He was batting way above what I expected with this wine. Just stunning nose. But wait, there is a palate that is mindboggling as well. It is the full package as one could say. Stunning and classic Puligy elegance in the mouth with a super intensity, power and concentration like the best whites in Burgundy have. It is a monument to Puligny. No hyperbole here. My note said "intense as the winemaker."

I thought I was a passionate person, but Florent takes it to another level; He is a force of nature like none I have ever encountered in Burgundy.  The scary thing is he's only 28 - and he's going to get even better. I instantly clicked with him and my admiration and respect kept increasing as he spoke more and more about his wines, his philosophy and Monthelie in general.   

This guy is the best ambassador Monthelie has ever had. He is also a relentless hard worker in that he is a one man show. He does it all. Makes the wine, sells the wine, is in the vineyard and does all the administrative work. The estate is only 3 hectares which is minuscule and his first vintage was only 2008. He resides as previously stated in the very overlooked Burgundian village of Monthelie which is in between Auxey-Duresses, Meursault and Volnay.  His goal is to be like the legendary Loire winemaker Didier Dagueneau.  

Florent makes masterful wines of both colors from Monthelie. His vineyards, and many of the great 1er Cru vineyards of Monthelie, are very high up and it was a climb almost like up a mountain road to get there. It was a typical Burgundian day with lots of rain and you could smell the terroir. And oh what a smell it was.  

Florent met us in front of the winery where his big In Vino Veritas sign adorned the gate. Again, another estate where I want to sell all the wines. Choosing what I wanted to offer in the first email was especially tough in this cellar. I must admit that was the coldest cellar I have ever been to in Burgundy. Oh man I was shivering after the tasting when he took us to the vineyards to take pictures. Invigorated but shivering. 

2012 Florent Garaudet Monthelie Blanc - $36.99 

($131.96 4-pack)

2012 Florent Garaudet Puligny-Montrachet - $46.99 

($179.96 4-pack)

Mix and match for lowest price. 

A Walk on the Wild Side - Incredibly Distinctive, Complex Grower Champagne - Under $40

I always used to tell my old retail clients that Pinot Meunier dominant Champagne is the one

Champagne I would drink with a steak. It is wild, uninhibited, super expressive and can stand up to almost anything, including steak. But at Yann Alexandre they add some Chardonnay to make the Pinot Meunier a bit more civilized.  If great wine and great art is about veering from the standard course, then this Champagne qualifies.   Why do you want it?  Because a few times a year, you want something great but a little different and this qualifies in spades.

To be able to sell the Yann Alexandre NV Brut Noir today for as little as $38.99 on the 4-pack is just crazy.  The aromatics just rock; a huge whiff of floral aromas are intermingled with brioche and yeast notes that are finely detailed.  The palate offers wonderful depth and complexity.  This much complexity and depth for under $40 a bottle is just incredible. I could not stop waxing over this wine, which was the first one they poured for me. It kept opening and opening as well and I regret that I did not have a chance to spend more time with it.  These are for sure fruit-driven Champagnes that also have wonderful balance, elegance and finesse and reflect their terroir wonderfully.

Yann Alexandre is a small domaine of 6 hectares in the North in the small village of Courmas in the area of the Montagne-de-Reims. They have been producing wine since the mid 18th century which is about 9 generations. The wines are just what I like in Champagne. Lively, fruity, very precise, a tad unconventional and of course offering incredible value for the money.  They, like many other winemakers in the region, respect the land but don't go overboard and use the the lutte raisonnée method, which means "the reasoned struggle." This is a way of saying that producers who use this "reasoned struggle" are much less aggressive in their usage of chemical and pesticide treatments, but at the end of the day they will use it as they are running a business and need to harvest grapes to make wine.

They were very passionate in explaining that these are wines of terroir as some Champagne can be blends of so many parcels and vintages that eventually the terroir gets lost in translation. Not here.  Each parcel is vinified separately. They are aged in their cool cellar for 5 years before release. The malo, partial malo or no malo is decided on a vintage by vintage basis. The wines are all fermented in oak barrels so there is body to these Champagnes. But not huge body and they retain wonderful elegance and finesse. This is a house that has very small production of only 30,000 bottles a year split up with multiple cuvees.

In the early 18th and 19th century Ponce Alexannder sold grape musts to the Grande Maison de Champagnne, which is how this estate got started. The first wine-maker, Louis-Marie, made clear wine but continued to sell wines to the powerful merchants of Champagne. In 1933 Gaston Marcel decided to bottle their own Champagnes and market under their own name. They became NM's in that they still sold to traders and merchants but it was greatly reduced. In 1966 Yves joined his father Marcel and advanced the operation more. He extended the vineyards, cellar and bought a new more modern press. Today, Yann carries on that tradition and has continued to make tweaks that include using extensive cover crop in between the vineyard rows.

Champagne is a very provincial region and the difference between producers in the North and producers in the South are striking. Oger, Mesnil and Cramant are names that give Champagne enthusiasts shivers. You also have all the Grand Marques up north like Pommier, Moet & Chandon and the ilk. In between all the big houses you have hundreds if not thousands of small little houses that have become increasingly popular over the past 15 years. The South is more grassy and hilly with valleys and forests and the attitude is a touch more laid back. Yann Alexandre has the southern laid-back attitude in a northern area. And, oh the quality and style are exactly what you, me and everyone else is looking for.

NV Yann Alexandre Brut Noir - $41.99 ($155.96 4-pack)

Former Grand Cru Site - Back Up to Grand Cru Quality

This is perhaps the best value in Grand Cru quality white Burgundy in all of the Cote d'Or. The

vineyard was formerly Grand Cru but was downgraded to Premier Cru when the wines suffered from poor winemaking.  The new winemaker, Benigne Joliet, who bought out his family members, is an absolute perfectionist, easily the best winemaker in Fixin, making stunning, stunning vinous works of art and this wine is from the incredible 2012 vintage. This is a vintage that you need to buy stuff as soon as it is offered because it will dissapear.

The 2012 Joliet 1er Cru Fixin Clos de la Perriere which can be had for as little as $69.99 on the 3-pack, is the real deal.  Describing the 2012 Fixin 1er Cru Clos de la Perriere is one of the harder things I have had to do. Not because of the quality, but because it is that damn good and I want to do it justice. I am happy to offer one of the most profound white burgundy values I have ever tasted. Bar none. The Grand Cru I find it has the most in common with is Corton-Charlemagne. It pulls off the same type of high-wire act that Corton-Charlemagne so deftly pulls off. It has the elegance and finesse of Corton-Charlemagne, the power and concentration without being heavy at all, the unique flavors of iodine and hazelnut, the freshness and the beautiful, almost sweet minerality. The finish is so compelling and long. Mineral, juicy, with amazing framing acid. The difference for me, between 1er Cru and Grand Cru quality is two things. The vivid detail of all the components and the highest level of finesse/ elegance allied with power, concentration and the length. This wine has it. The Fixin Clos de la Perriere was considered and ranked a Grand Cru 100 years ago and Benigne is applying for it to be renamed a Grand Cru. The quality is there and now all he needs is the name on the bottle and the classification system. For under $75 you are getting the best bang for your buck in high quality "Grand Cru" white Burgundy.

These are the most expensive Fixin's that I've seen in France by far bit the quality justifies it. Forget what you know about Fixin and enter a new vinous paradigm. The red version of this wine is over $100 at a famous retailer.

There is a lot more to to the Clos de la Perriere than just the idea that is a monopole and that it is 1er Cru. This is one of the great sites of Burgundy and with the uncompromising Benigne Joliet at the head making all the decisions, the estate has never been in more capable hands. The man is obsessed with quality, which is probably why we get along so well. I visited Benigne on a very rainy, typical Burgundian day in February. He lives in a castle, on a hill, next to the great monopole, Fixin "Clos de la Perriere." One of those places that has to be seen to be believed. It is stunningly beautiful.

Below is some history from the 1st e-mail on the 2011 red.  

The Fixin 1er Cru "Clos de la Perriere" used to be mentioned in the same breath as the great Grand Crus of the Cote de Nuits (e.g. Chambolle, Morey and Vosne). But the vineyard is a Domaine Joliet monopole and decades ago the estate went into a qualitative downward spiral, harming its reputation.  With the resurgence in quality under Benigne Joliet, they are producing Grand Cru quality wines again.

Benigne's family has owned this incredible monopole site for six generations and is leading a profound resurgence in quality.  Fixin is next to Brochon which is next to Gevrey (a total of 2 miles down the road). The Clos de la Perriere sits atop a hill and the old cellars which date back to 1142 must be seen to be believed. I have been extremely lucky to visit many beautiful places during my career in the wine business and the Clos de la Perriere has to be in the top 3 or 5. Just gorgeous. One of those places you are in awe of but at the same time makes you feel incredibly alive. The vaulted cuverie still has an original press in it that was last used in 1959.

2012 Joliet Fixin Blanc 1er Cru "Clos de la Perriere - $74.99 

($209.97 3-pack)

A Rising Northern Rhone Star Selling Out in France

I just returned from France and it was about as memorable a trip as I have ever had. I tasted so many great wines and will have so many tough decisions to make as to what I would like to offer. It's a good problem to have and I am not complaining.

I knew what Northern Rhone estate I wanted to offer when I got back. That was easy, peasy as they say. It was Domaine Les Alexandrins. They are a relatively new and up and coming winery that is selling out in France.  They vinify their wines traditionally and they are just plain delicious. There is no other way to describe them. They will bring joy to your taste buds. Just fantastic.  

As a long time lover of the Gamays from Cru Beaujolais, the first wine is a wine that was an eye opener for me.  Gamay from the Northern Rhone can be sick.   I have only tasted one Gamay from the Rhone, which is Herve Souhaut's brilliant Souteronne.  It turns out that right in the middle of a certain area of St. Joseph, Gamay has been grown for many years.  I am really thrilled to offer the 2012 IGP Collines Rhodaniennes "Intuition" for as low as $19.99 on the 6-pack.  The elevage for the Intuition is normal fermentation and it is raised in barrels so it has grippy tannins and sweet ripe fruit that just soaks and soaks on the palate. The nose is one of those that has nuanced depth and is so pure and aromatic your nose will be glued to the glass.  If you want to compare it to cru Beaujolais, it's similar to the really elite Burgundian elevage style Beaujolais but with darker, Rhone fruit. Think Bouland, Desvignes and Clos de Mez. 

This is an insanely great wine and one of the most tasty, cool and interesting discoveries of my trip. It is one of the more interesting and distinctive Gamays I have ever tasted and smelled. The wine is also a terrific value for the quality it represents in the bottle.  It's a six pack price as you will not be able to stop drinking this.

  

This is from the heralded 2012 vintage in the Northern Rhone, which from what I have tasted (which is a lot now) is absolutely delicious and better than 2011. 2011 was very good in the right hands, but 2012 is just a polar vortex leap over 2011. Bigger wines, more structure, riper tannins, sweeter fruit and incredible expression of terroir.   

The second wine is from Crozes-Hermitage.  As we all know, there is a good amount of land in Crozes-Hermitage and quality can be a mixed bag but great winemakers find the better pockets of terroir and make great wines.  I am proud to offer the2012 Domaine des Alexandrins Crozes Hermitage Rouge for as little as $27.99 on the 3-pack.   It is brilliant wine, with the all the classic Syrah bacon, smoke and floral aromas that great Crozes has, plus a nice structured palate with clean, lip-smacking acidity and pure as the sky is blue. It also has a lovely grapey quality. As with all young wineries, sometimes there are supply issues and I have a piddling amount of their brilliant 2012 Crozes-Hermitage, which is almost sold out in France. And I mean piddling. This will be allocated. I am offering it in a 3-pack and will not mix and match with the Gamay as I have so little. You could never tell this is from young vines and I am honored for this excellent Crozes Hermitage to be the first one I am offering from Fass Selections. Took me long enough to find one. 

  

The Domaine les Alexandrins is the type of winery I love to represent. Created in 2009 by William and Alexander Sorrel Caso, they treat their vineyards with respect and are incredibly passionate about the work they do. Thomas, who I met and dealt with at the Salon des Vins, speaks perfect English and was a great help in explaining what they do and the brief history of the winery. They vinify their wines traditionally and they are just plain delicious. There is no other way to describe them. They bring will bring joy to your taste buds. Just fantastic.

2012 Domaine des Alexandrins IGP Collines Rhodaniennes "Intuition" (Gamay) - $22.99 ($119.94 6-pack) 2012 Domaine des Alexandrins Crozes Hermitage Rouge - $29.99 ($83.97 3-pack) (EXTREMELY LIMITED)

An Offer that Counters The Wall Street Journal's Lamentation on Limited Great Red Burgundies Under $30

I am on a train leaving Beaune and am feeling nostalgic a bit as the past 6 days in Burgundy have been

some of the most important and impactful of my wine career. Exactly one year ago I sent the first E-Mail of Fass Selections and it was with the 2010 Murat Hautes Cotes de Nuits  "Les Herbues." Many of you have raved about the wine. It is the quintessential Fass Selections wine: from an unheralded terroir, made by a passionate young winemaker, one that provides excellent value, especially because of my model of selling direct to you, avoiding 2 layers of distribution and passing on the savings. Lettie Teague wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal last week lamenting the lack of affordable under $30 Burgundies (she bought through the 3 tier system). I am responding today with the big guns. The 2011 Herve Murat Hautes Cotes de Nuits "Les Herbues" for as low as $26.99 on the six pack.

I will unequivocally say that Herve's 2011's across the board are better than his 2010's. They just are and he agreed wholeheartedly with me. The 2011 Les Herbues is just incredible. The '10 was great but the '11 just has more of everything. Complexity, sweet fruit, ripe tannin, insane velvet texture and an intense fruit soak on the finish. Combine this with the weight the 11's are putting on in bottle and you have a serious winner in this wine.

I am offering it in 6 pack because so many of you drank your 2010's too quickly or drank them right as they started to shut down. With 6 you drink 1, maybe drink 2 and then hold the other 4 for 7-10 years. Herve says these are long agers for the appellation.

I was bowled over how much it changed since I tasted it in July. It is so hard to get a snapshot of a Burgundy vintage, which so many people try to do. They want to quantify, pigeonhole and classify it as soon as possible. It can't happen. It won't happen. 10 years out is a good time to firmly assess a Burgundy vintage. 2011 is a the big sleeper of 2010-2013. I tasted many on this recent trip that made me reassess the vintage. Burgundy can be humbling in so many ways and tasting the the same young evolving wines 6-8 months apart is about as humbling as it gets. People who proclaim this and that as soon as the grapes are picked are full of you know what. And it ain't terroir.

I have always loved Burgundy, but on this past trip I think I finally got it. What is it that I got? It's hard to explain but there is no region like in in the entire world. The growers, the quality hierarchy, the passion and the absolute control Mother Nature has over this region is just startling. These growers, farmers, at all levels, from the grandest of grand cru's to the introductory Bourgogne Rouges, are all just players in Mother Nature's grand plan. And they get frustrated but still acknowledge, out of reverence and respect that it is out of their control. They do the best with what they are given and make do. It is quite admirable and we could learn a lot from the Burgundians. 2010, 2012 and 2013 are short crops. '12 and '13 especially.

It's hard for the average American Burgundy drinker to comprehend this while sitting at their dinner table in their home or in a restaurant. For them it's a label and a price. For the vigneron it is their livelihoods. Price increases are necessary when half your crop is destroyed by a freak hailstorm.

I used to complain about price increases as well. But to witness the galvanizing force of Mother Nature I won't again. They have families to feed and wine to make. People like to say the wine makes itself but if it really did then Burgundy would be cheap. Barrels, bottling machines, tools, workers who prune, pick grapes, bottles and labels cost money. It's just a fact. When a grower made 10 barrels of wine X in 2011 and made 2 barrels of the same wine in 2012, really what is that grower supposed to do? Keep the price the same, take the loss, piss off their customers, and say C'est la vie? No, they have to adapt. Cut people back, raise prices and, yes unfortunately piss some people off. But if you take a long view how the hell are they supposed to keep making the wine that we swoon over? They wouldn't be able to do THIS unless they cut people back and raise prices. I finally got it.

It was profound when I made this realization at the end of my trip in Herve Murat's cellar as we were discussing what he would do for pricing his 2012's. He was rattled about it and was definitely causing him some serious anxiety. He still doesn't know what to do.

A little more on the Lettie Teague article. Lettie just wrote an article about how it is difficult to find values in Burgundy under $40 and $30. I have responded in this blog post. In our antiquated 3 tier system it certainly is hard to find a good value in Burgundy. An 8 euro wine at the cellar door which most, if not all French people can afford, turns into a $28-$33 bottle stateside which most people can afford but it is not 8 euro, which pretty much everyone can afford.

As many of my customers can attest, Burgundy is full of value. I have sold you $33 Pommard VV, $26 Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru, $24 Hautes Cotes de Beaune, $20 Irancy and the list goes on. Even with the price increase Fass Selections is offering the best bang for the buck across the board ($80 Corton Charlemagne anybody?) in the Burgundy wine business today in America. It's not even close. Lettie found two reds that were values. On this recent trip I have picked up so many growers that you will see in the coming months in your e-mail boxes that it will be extremely tough for me to decide what to offer because I tasted that much good wine. I research Burgundy like a hedge fund manager researches companies. It is my passion and I have always wanted to help people. At Fass Selections I am helping the growers to sell their wines and my customers to find extraordinary values. It is fun and humbling. There is nothing I would rather be doing.

I want to thank each and every one of you for supporting Fass Selections one year in. There have been bumps, allocation issues, etc.  It happens. It's all in the game, as Omar Little would say. But the countless e-mails from clients and growers put a smile on my face. It is soooooo worth it. As we get ready to ship you all new batches of my latest discoveries in April I am anxiously anticipating what you will all think. I appreciate each and every one of you.
   
This offer is open till 3/7/14.

Herve Murat Hautes Cotes de Nuits "Les Herbues" 2011 - $29.99 

($161.94 6-pack)

An Open Letter and Invitation to Lettie Teague

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”

William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

I recently read an article by the award winning wine journalist Lettie Teague in The Wall Street Journal.

In it, she writes:

“I found better values in the white wines than the reds. At least half a dozen whites were particularly notable, including 2010 Paul Pernot & Fils Bourgogne Chardonnay ($20), which had all the mineral quality of a good Puligny-Montrachet, and the dense, well-structured 2010 Méo-Camuzet Bourgogne Blanc. There were classic 2012 Chablis made by well-regarded producers like Patrick Piuze and Christian Moreau. Both their basic wines showed the crisp, flinty character of the region. There were some disappointments, especially among the reds. The 2010 Domaine Ponsot Bourgogne Cuvée du Pinson Bourgogne and 2012 Frédéric Esmonin Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Prieur were charming and lithe but others were one-dimensional. With pleasant aromas but little left to savor, they offered only the most fleeting impression of Burgundy.”

While I am pleased that Lettie was fortunate enough to taste and enjoy Ponsot, who is an excellent producer, I can't help but feel that the article perpetuates the belief that it is hard to find values in red Burgundies. The sad truth is that there is, unfortunately, a great deal of truth behind this sentiment.

The reason though is not that the Burgundians are not making great entry level wines, it is that our own antiquated and highly inefficient distribution system makes European wines at all price points more expensive than they should be.

In short, to reword the great bard, “the fault dear Lettie is not in the French wines but in our own inefficient distribution system.”

As anyone who has visited European wineries can tell you, a wine that costs you $10 (net of tax) at the winery costs $25-$30 in the United States at traditional retail. This is because the wines are sold to an importer who sells them to a distributor who sells them to a retailer who sells them to the consumer.  The price goes up at each stage along the way.

There are a lot of great entry level wines that would be $20 or less that end up costing $30 or more as result of this inefficiency.  

Full disclosure, I have a slightly different model in my business, Fass Selections.  I call it Direct to Consumer.  I buy from the estate, sell direct to the consumer and pass on the savings from cutting out 2 layers of distribution (30-40%) to my customers.  Those $30 wines are $20 when I sell them (to be fair, I also sell a fair number of $100 wines for $60, but that’s off topic).  

There are a lot of great unrepresented wines out there, including a good number of Burgundies that I can source and sell for $20-$30.  Why?  Because the market for Burgundy is crowded and it’s hard to sell another $35 wine without a lot of work.   For some importers, they often have to dredge the bottom of the barrel to find a producer willing to sell wines at $8 that they can market in the States at $25.

When your wine store cuts out 2 layers of middlemen, the world of Burgundy values is a whole lot different as you’re saving 30-40% on each bottle.  It’s a lot easier for me to find undiscovered gems to sell at $25 because I can pay more than $8 per bottle  because I’m much more efficient.

Of course, I’m not asking Lettie to take my word for it.  I’m extending an open invitation for her to drink some Direct to Consumer wines with me.  To quote a more modern poet, “Welcome to the New Age.”

Deluxe Cuvee: Single Vineyard, Classic Cote Rotie, Elite Producer, Under $60

God Bless the Danes - Last Minute Cancellation Gets Us a Small Parcel of This Super Allocated Wine

The magnitude of this wine is such that it is difficult to describe within the bounds of acceptable speech; I was absolutely going crazy when I drank it.

The concentration is off the charts.

The internal mouth aromas are crazor.

This has the longest finish of any wine I've sold at Fass Selections.

It has classic, structured Cote Rotie meaty and gamey notes. The color is as dark as blood.

Despite the stunning magnitude of the flavor profile of this wine, it is incredibly pure, balanced and simply wonderful. A masterpiece of classical winemaking that is meant for ageing.

Honestly, I am stunned that a wine of this quality was still available but a Danish importer cancelled on Christophe and the Danes loss is our gain. Frankly, I can't believe that Billon has no US importer but I guess that the small quantities make him less than ideal for a traditional importer. I'm thrilled to offer the 2010 Christophe Billon Cote Rotie "La Brocarde" for as little as $59.99 on the 4 pack.

This is not your regular $40-$60 bottle of Cote Rotie. This is a deluxe single vineyard cuvee. Think of a hard core cote style rotie that needs years or decades of aging.  Compare in price to Jamet Cote Brune at $300+. La Brocarde is right next to the Côte Brune, one of the most famous vineyards in Côte Rotie. The winemaker, Christophe Billon, worked at Guigal and knew that la Brocarde had perfect soil and exposure.

How good is Billon as a winemaker? Georges Lelektsoglou runs Compagnie de l'Hermitage, the most important wine retailer in the Northern Rhone. Ask any winemaker and they'll tell you to visit him; he's the godfather of Northern Rhone wine retail and incredibly well respected by all of the winemakers. He calls Billon one of the elite winemakers of the Northern Rhone. In fact, Billon is the winemaker that George selected to make his own bottling of Cote Rotie that he sells under his own name. John Livingstone Learmouth, arguably the world's foremost Rhone wine critic, is a big fan of Billon as well.

This is the bottling meant for long ageing - the Les Elotins is meant for earlier drinking. I drank a bottle of the Brocarde over 3 days. It took a day to calm down and integrate and then it was absolutely glorious.

I met with the charming Christophe and his wife on my first morning in Tain. He and his wife are incredibly humble and sweet. Christophe did not take the easy route to being a winemaker. His grandfather grew fruits and vegetables on a 0.17 hectare plot on Cote Rozier. Christophe took over his father's vineyard in 1986, planted half an acre and rented out the rest. It took 10 years of painstaking work to plant the half a hectare. He started bottling his own wine in 1991. Until 2007, he was working 2 jobs; one at his own winery and the other growing grapes for Guigal. Billon is a very serious, hardworking fellow whose wines are starting to get international recognition. I was lucky to secure this small allocation.  

Regarding Shipping: We are organizing shipping of wines purchased to date and they will be available in the spring shipping season.

 

If I could please ask you to hit reply and send me your billing and shipping addresses along with your order if you are a first time customer. My phone number is 917-912-4355 and you can reach me to give me your CC #'s (we prefer not to receive credit card numbers over E-Mail). 

  

A Word about Fass Selections and Social Media I am big into social media and I want people to take pictures of the wines they have received or will recieve and tag me in them and share their thoughts. My twitter accounts are @grapeylyle and @FassSelections. Tweet at me your thoughts. Use the hashtag #FassSelections. I am also on Facebook. My personal page and my Fass Selections page can be accessed here. Like the Fass Selections page if you have not. I am also way big on Instagram. You may not want to follow me as I post 2/3 sneaker pics and 1/3 wine and everything else pics. Please tag me there as well. I also just started using Delectable, which I love a lot. It is Iphone/Ipad only, but it's like Instagram meets Facebook for wine. Tag me there and find me there as well. I want to know if you liked the wine, were not moved by the wine, hated the wine or the wine gave you a religious experience. I want to know it all. Feedback is key and I will answer all feedback e-mails as quickly as I can.

2010 Christophe Billon Cote Rotie "la Brocarde" - $64.99 

($239.96 4-pack) (LIMITED)