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Cellar Favorite: 2005 Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet Les Vergers 1er Cru
France: Burgundy, cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites
, Sep 2023
At an evening meal in Tokyo, I had the pleasure of tasting the excellent 2005 Chassagne-Montrachet Les Vergers 1er Cru from Jean-Marc Pillot. This was poured from magnum.
Cellar Favorite: 2011 Domaine d'Auvenay Bourgogne Aligoté Sous Chatelet
France: Burgundy, cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites
, Sep 2023
Let’s get the elephant out of the room. The secondary market price for this “humble” Aligoté is around £3,000 per bottle. That is absurd. That is unbelievable. But that is reality. Someone out there is prepared to pay that amount of money for this wine, motivated by the fact that it was crafted by Lalou Bize-Leroy or perhaps motivated by pecuniary gains.
Cellar Favorite: 1997 Boekenhoutskloof Syrah
cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites, South Africa
, Sep 2023
Rewind to the mid-nineties, South Africa is basking in the afterglow of the dissolution of apartheid dissolution and Nelson Mandela’s election as President. After decades of selling wine domestically, South Africa’s wine industry is suddenly exposed to a competitive, global market, often under governmental control. Among a vast ocean of turbo-charged Bordeaux blends, the 1997 Syrah from Boekenhoutskloof is sui generis and becomes one of the Cape’s most iconic, mythical wines.
Cellar Favorite: 2016 Royal Tokaji Essencia
cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites, Hungary
, Aug 2023
Royal Tokaji has released only eight vintages of Essencia in the last three decades: 1993, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2008 and 2009. A fallow period ensued until the imminent release of the 2016 in September/October, limited to 2,300 half-bottles in individual red lacquer boxes with hand-crafted crystal spoons.
Cellar Favorite: San Giusto a Rentennano Chianti Classico: 2001-1990
cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites, Verticals & Retrospectives, Italy: Tuscany
, Aug 2023
When was the last time a grower presented a vertical of their entry-level wine where the youngest vintage was more than twenty years old? Never, in my experience. That’s exactly what Luca Martini di Cigala did during my most recent visit to San Giusto a Rentennano. It was a remarkable tasting and a fitting continuation of themes I explored last year in my report on vintages 2002 through 2010.
Cellar Favorite: Domaine Jean-Marie Guffens Mature Pouilly-Fuissé
France: Burgundy, cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites
, Aug 2023
I have been drinking and enjoying Jean-Marie Guffens’ wines for a quarter-century now. With his larger-than-life personality and tendency to utter the utterable, Guffens might not be everyone’s cup of tea. What cannot be denied is that he has the magic touch when it comes to making wine, and over the last two or three years, the demand for back vintages has dramatically increased.
Cellar Favorite: Chartreuse Yellow Label - Distilled 1935
cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites, France
, Aug 2023
Spirits are big business these days. We are not talking bottles you buy off supermarket shelves, but ancient bottles that might be covered in thick dust in rural bistros or perhaps lying in your grandparents’ drinks cabinet. Demand has risen exponentially as more and more connoisseurs have a newfound appreciation of their quality and rarity. Basically, the hunt is on.
Cellar Favorite: 1865 Giscours
cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites, France: Bordeaux
, Aug 2023
I don’t know the record for the oldest bottle in Cellar Favorites, but this must be a contender. It certainly ranks as one of the oldest bottles of Claret that I have drunk, and I should point out that it was drunk, not tasted.
Cellar Favorite: Blandy’s Madeira - 2023 Bottlings
cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites, Portugal
, Jul 2023
As is customary every year, I report on the latest Madeira releases from Blandy’s, though readers should note that the 1995 Malmsey is under the Cossart Gordon label. I broach these from dry to sweeter styles.
Cellar Favorite: Famille Hugel - The 2015 Riesling Séléctions de Grains Nobles S and 2014 Riesling Grossi Laüe
cellar favorite, France: Alsace, Cellar Favorites
, Jul 2023
Jean-Frédéric Hugel paid a brief visit to London to launch a brace of late-release Rieslings. One from the 2014 vintage, from their top site Grand Cru Schoenenbourg. While the 2015 has already been released, this is the first vintage in which Hugel finally uses the grand cru designation rather than their Alsatian dialect term Grossi Laüe.