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.

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".

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.

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.

With all the hype around 05 Burgundy and the troubles of the 04 growing season it's very easy to overlook the vintage. However if you have any regard for putting the kids through college or paying NYC rent, 2004 suddenly becomes more appealing. You have to tread carefully while exploring 04 Burgundy because many of the wines are showing poorly now and some may never come into their own. I have been disappointed with many Grand Cru wines from 04, even with the vintage's pricing considered.

So when Ian asked me if we should open this bottle I was not surprisingly jaded and cynical saying "sure" but assumed it would be another 04 that was dilute, green and out of whack. But in classic Burgundy style just when you think you understand the wines of a vintage a wine will slap you in the face and say, "You don't know me!" The wine was opened and poured into a decanter and drank over about an hour.

The nose was very perfumed and expressive right from the start. There was that 04 greenness but it was more herbal and peppercorn rather then bell pepper, which I can not stand in red Burgundy. The nose continued to open up with more spiciness and some wonderful tart red fruit and lead notes. On the palate there is no doubt that this is a Grand Cru wine as it had great weight and wonderful acidity. This was showing quite well for its age however I think in around six to twelve years the wine will be peaking. The balance is quite impressive especially when you consider that Bruno Clair commented about how difficult the summer and vintage overall was saying, "There was oidium, hail and wet, damp weather with limited luminosity. You had to be very vigilant because otherwise, you had serious problems. And you absolutely had to harvest late because if not, your levels of phenolic ripeness were just too limited to make really good wines."

After all that you would think it would be hard to produce jug wine let alone a respectable Grand Cru. Making great wine in 05 was easy, making simply good wine in 04 took sweat and tears. While I love my 05 burgundies and all their glory, I appreciate all the long days and hard work that had to be done in the vineyard to make this very good 04 Clos de Beze. Cheers Bruno!

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.

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.

"A Classic and Achingly Beautiful Volnay"
2005 Lafarge Volnay 1er Cru Mitans
Intensity, Finesse, Agility - Lowest Price in the Nation

Any time a Lafarge offer comes up, it's personal.

Lafarge is one of our favorite producers; there is just something about the delineation, the fine-ness, the purity, the understated grace of these wines.

Today we present the flat-out gorgeous 2005 Lafarge Volnay 1er Cru Mitans at the lowest price in the nation. At $98.75 a bottle, this is basically lower than the wine was on release - by a healthy 30%. (Think of it as a great offer with free cellaring for over 3 years).

Grand Cru. Back Vintage. Ex-Cellar. Beautiful.
2001 Jadot Chambertin-Clos de Bèze
The Only Pricing in the Country

"Robust, intense, broad-shouldered, supremely complex, solidly structured...An altogether superb effort that delivers knock-out quality." - Burghound

Jadot's 2001 Bèze is a stacked wine, dense, muscular and with the guts for another 20+ years. Burghound's review, above and below, speaks to the quality here.

No Longer a Secret
2009 Fèvre 1er Cru Vaulorent
The Chablis Value of the Vintage

Winemaker Didier Séguier calls the Vaulorent their "baby Grand Cru."

This isn't hyperbole; the fact is Vaulorent is tucked right against the Grand Cru Les Preuses (see map below). On the palate, the wine strikes a similarly impressive balance of power and delineation.

The Burghound cuts to the chase with a simple three-word sentence: "This is impressive."