February 22, 2008

Lignier: 2005 Clos de la Roche and Company

The campaign of top 2005 Burgundies at compelling prices continues at Crush!

I'm thrilled to be able to offer out the 2005 Ligniers, from the Bourgogne Rouge up to the grand Clos de la Roche, direct from the domains at some of the lowest prices in the nation!

Regardless of the confusion during the last two years, the Lignier domains continue to produce some of the best wines out of Morey, Chambolle and Gevery-Chambertin.

To my palate, few estates have been able to so successfully marry the power and energy of the ultra-vivid 2005 fruit to such a sleek, delineated mouthfeel. There is a focus to these wines, a clarity of fruit, a super-fine polished minerality that is seemlessly built into these 2005 Burgs. This is delineated hedonism!

Posted by Stephen Bitterolf at 5:33 PM | TrackBack

Louis Boillot - Grower Burgundy with Heart and Soul

Louis Boillot crafted some outstanding wines in the more difficult 2004 vintage. As he's married to Burgundy phenom Ghislaine Barthod, this is a family that lives and breathes wine. In 2005 he has outdone himself, gifted as he was by the near-perfect fruit that has already made the vintage famous.

Posted by Stephen Bitterolf at 5:20 PM | TrackBack

January 16, 2008

2005 Comte Senard Grand Cru: A Cellar Steal at Well Under $100

The 2005 vintage in Burgundy has elevated wines that are ordinarily great to absolutely outstanding. Case in point: Comtes Senard.

While the domaine has glorious parcels in some of Corton's best climats, their past efforts to coax out the full potential of their Grand Cru fruit have been uneven.

2005, however, is another story. This vintage gave Senard, as it did most Burgundians, near-perfect fruit, and winemaker Lorraine Senard took full advantage of this gift. While the domaine's 2005 lineup is very, very good across the board, two bottlings distinguished themselves with such authority that I had to buy them: The 2005 Corton-Clos du Roi and Corton-Bressandes. These are absolutely top notch Cortons. For those looking to put a few 2005s in the cellar before they disappear, look no further.

Posted by Stephen Bitterolf at 12:08 PM | TrackBack

December 13, 2007

Ian's Wine of the Year: 2005 Potel Cote de Nuits-Villages

So I have to begin this email with the embarrassing admission that I drank up most of the bottles we had in stock of my Wine of the Year - Nicolas Potel's delicious 2005 Cote de Nuits-Villages. (Sorry about that.)

As penance though, I'm happy to offer the final shipment, arriving in early 2008, at a special pre-arrival price that's discounted down to under $30. I've been on a 2005 Burgundy rampage for much of the year, going to just about every tasting I could find. At this price, Potel's Cote de Nuits is the most authentic and invigorating 2005 Burgundy I've experienced - an energetic and worthy mascot for this unbelievable vintage.

Posted by Stephen Bitterolf at 12:22 PM | TrackBack

June 15, 2007

2004 Servin Chablis "Cuvee Massale"

Crush Staff Pick for June!

While 2005 Red Burgundy has been getting a lot of attention recently, it's important not to forget that the great 2004 White Burgundies are some of the best ever made.

There's just no denying the invigorating cut and precision of the 2004s. Since the wines were first released, the best 04s have been the darlings of critics and the Crush staff alike. 2004 is undeniably a purist's vintage: Wildly aromatic with laser-like intensity, pure citrus fruit, transparency and grip. Our Staff Pick for June, the 2004 Servin Chablis "Cuvee Massale," is electric - you can almost hear it crackling with tension...

Posted by Tom Stephenson at 10:58 AM

September 7, 2006

Back up the Truck #2: Great White Burgundy

After the incredible support we received from our loyal customers during our 25% off "Color War" sale, our first offer back had to be top-notch

While many vintners espouse a "winemaking begins in the vineyard" philosophy, it is especially true with today's pick.

Winemaker Olivier Morin lets the terroir do the talking with his Cuvée Olympe - a selection of his absolute best hand-harvested grapes from the oldest Chardonnay vines on his property.

The extremely high quality of his vineyards and his attention to detail in all steps of the winemaking process create a wine that shows up much more expensive Chablis.
While Morin's wines have only been available in the US for 3 vintages, he is a best kept secret to French connoisseurs.

How does Morin do it?

Morin's vines are planted in kimmeridgian soil that in includes a large amount of Calcaire (sedimentary rocks made up almost entirely of calcium). The calcium in these rocks comes from "Exogira Virgulae," the tiny oyster fossils also found in the Grands Crus vineyards of Chablis.

To make the most of the incredible raw material, all vineyard work is done without machines so the vines can plunge deeply into the soil and give the most accurate sense of place.

Morin uses no chemicals in the field and vinifies with only natural yeasts and a minimum of SO2. The grapes are gently pressed and spend 12 months in barrel + 6 additional months on the lees in tank before the finished wine is bottled unfiltered.

Here are our tasting notes:

"A wine of incredible concentration that combines richness with excellent minerality. While the flavors are precise, there are almost too many of them to name - there's something different each time you go back to the glass. Shocking complexity for the price"

This is an excellent opportunity to stock your cellar with grossly undervalued White Burgundy from a small-scale producer making large-scaled wines.

We were so excited about the quality of the 2004 Cuvée Olympe that we bought all that remained for the vintage. However, there's just not that much wine to go around. We quietly put a bottle in the tasting room last week and demand was so brisk that we rushed this email out to reward our loyal supporters before none remains.

Formally established in 1549, the village of Chitry (pron. Shee-tree) is a tiny farming village of 350 people situated next to the village of Saint-Bris 5-10 miles southeast of Auxerre, southwest of Chablis.

Chitry resides in Yonne, one of the four communes of Burgundy, along with Côte-d'Or, Nièvre, and Saône-et-Loire.

The name Chitry also applies to the wine growing appellation whose vineyards encircle the village. After being classified as "Chablis Village" or "Bourgognedes environs de Chablis" for nearly 100 years, the AOC was formally established in the early 1990s.

While the village itself is in a valley, the vineyards are well exposed on a sort of elevated ring around the town and rest on calcium-rich kimiridgian soil.

20 growers make about 50,000 cases of red and white wine from the vineyards of Chitry, with production split equally in thirds between Aligoté, Chardonnay, and red grapes (Pinot Noir, Sacy, Gamay, etc.).

While 230 hectares (568 acres = .88 square miles) are eligible to be designated "Bourgogne Chitry" wine from only 140 hectares is bottled using the Chitry name — the rest is bottle under the "Bourgogne" appellation.

Back up the Truck?

When someone on the Crush team finds an especially good wine, we often go to Crush Managing Partner Bob Schagrin's for a second opinion. We can tell he is as excited as we are about the quality when he exclaims "Back up the truck!" after he tastes.

Posted by Tom Stephenson at 12:52 PM

June 14, 2006

Domaine Michelot Mere et Fille

The wines of Domaine Michelot Mere et Fille are sumptuous, concentrated and tailor made for mid-term drinking due to a fairly traditional style of winemaking. Aged in 1/3 new French oak with extended lees contact, they are then cellared for several years and released late from the Domaine.

Posted by Bob Schagrin at 10:30 AM

April 12, 2006

1999 Antonin Guyon Pernand-Vergelesses Blanc

We're always on the hunt for great values - one of the most frequent requests we receive is for reasonably priced domestic Chardonnay or White Burgundy. One of our favorite places to look is closeout tastings. Here's the deal:

In general wine distributors buy as much as they think they can sell, but sometimes they end up with wine that hasn't moved like they expected it would. Whether the wine didn't get a high enough score from a famous critic, didn't catch on with their salespeople, or is just plain bad, distributors have a limited amount of cash flow like the rest of us. To turn the wine back into cash they drop the price.

These tastings are a great way to find high quality wines that may have been initially overlooked (oftentimes it takes wine a few years to develop in the bottle), however, the dud to gem ratio is very high and you have to dig through a lot of coal to find a precious few diamonds.

Posted by Bob Schagrin at 10:47 AM

March 2, 2006

2003 Fourrier - Pinot Noir

What do you get when you cross old-vine Pinot Noir with an innovative, traditional estate and a vintage with drought-like weather conditions? Some of the world's most exciting red Burgundies!

Before 1994, the Fourrier estate produced wines of agreeable quality. Now, under the leadership of young winemaker Jean-Marie Fourrier, the Domaine has a distinctive style that places it near the top of the Gevrey-Chambertin hierarchy with the likes of Rousseau and Mortet.

Like many great Burgundy producers, Fourrier has strong winemaking beliefs based on minimum intervention and a harsh selection process that includes selling fruit from younger vines to other winemakers so only his best grapes make it into bottles with his name on them.

Posted by Bob Schagrin at 3:38 PM

February 28, 2006

2001 Gerard Chavy St. Aubin 1er Cru "En Remilly"

For the past few years, Chardonnay has been so unhip that some clever wine drinker coined the term "ABC" (Anything But Chardonnay) .

But at Crush, we like to think ABC stands for "Awesome Bottles of Chardonnay," because believe it or not, they do exist.

While the rich, oaky and viscous style of Chardonnay has its place and is easy to drink at a party, a different type of Chardonnay makes the Crush staff do cartwheels: the kind that's racy, minerally and funky (in a barnyard kind of way). Even better, great Chardonnay has tremendous length and complexity.

Most Chardonnay that fits this description comes from the Burgundy region in France.

If you're used to blousey, New World Chardonnays, it's time to reintroduce yourself to the grape; otherwise, you'll miss out on wines that are expressive and full of character.

We suggest you start with Gerard Chavy's 2001 St. Aubin 1er Cru "En Remilly".

Posted by Bob Schagrin at 3:29 PM

February 15, 2006

Harmand-Geoffroy 2001

No new estate in Burgundy has gotten me more excited in the last year than Harmand-Geoffroy.

In the market today, discovering a new rising star has become increasingly rare due to the combination of Burgundy-mania and the sheer number of established estates producing great wines year after year.

So when I tasted the '01 Gevrey-Chambertin "Vieilles Vignes" I was absolutely floored by its sappy, dense, structure with oh-so-much soul -- everything a great Gevrey should have.

I quickly ordered the full line of 2002's and have been absolutely thrilled with every bottle I have opened.

Posted by Bob Schagrin at 1:04 PM