French Wine

Expert Reviews - Vintage 2022

The Wine Enthusiast by Roger Voss writes 92 Points | This luscious wine, dominated by Merlot, has a smoky aroma and spicy black fruits. It is a rich wine at its opening and this continues through the ripe tannins and the balancing acidity. Drink from 2027. 

Expert Review

The Wine Advocate by Kristaps Karklins 92 Points | Paillard’s NV Bouzy Grand Cru Les Parcelles XX hails from the 2020 vintage and, in keeping with the tradition, incorporates 20% reserve wines. It embodies the signature blend of 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay, sourced exclusively from the sun-drenched, south-facing slopes of Bouzy. The bouquet is expressive, unfolding with aromas of pear, ripe citrus and warm spices, mingling with nuances of toasted bread and orange zest. On the palate, it is medium- to full-bodied, showcasing a livelier, more luminous fruit profile than its predecessor, driven by racy acidity and finishing with a pronounced saline finish. True to the estate’s approach, maturation take place in 350-liter oak barrels, with the final cuvée composed from a mosaic of approximately 25 distinct parcels across Bouzy. The dosage is set at two grams per liter. 

Winemaker Description 

Les Parcelles is a precise expression of Bouzy terroir vinified by the Paillard brothers; the powerful Pinot Noir from south-facing slopes is balanced by the finesse of the chalky subsoil. Produced mainly from the 2020 harvest, with 20% reserve wines, this cuvée is composed of 80% pinot noir and 20% chardonnay. Fermented in oak, it is cellared for three years on lees before disgorgement. Dosage: 2 gr/l. 

Warehouse stored item - please allow one to three business days to fulfill.

Jeb Dunnuck 93 Points | The 2022 Château La Tour Blanche is juicy and lively, with an exotic nose of honeyed orange, white chocolate, flowers, and hints of mint. It's a rich, unctuous, fleshy, full-bodied Sauternes that brings incredible opulence while staying nicely balanced and relatively light on its feet.

Warehouse stored item - please allow one to three business days to fulfill.

Pascal Janvier Coteaux du Loir Blanc bears a unique aromatic signature. Exotically perfumed with hints of guava, musk, and clove, it finishes dry and quite flinty. 

Warehouse stored item - please allow one to three business days to fulfill.

Citrus and lemon aromas with slight notes of fresh grass. The mouth is balanced and structured.

Warehouse stored item - please allow one to three business days to fulfill.

The Wine Enthusiast 93 Points | Grown from a select plot of old vines, this beautiful expression of Valmur is full bodied and rich, with warm oak spices, ripe citrus, white peach, acacia and honeycomb. Approachable in its youth, the wine will cellar well through 2030.

Warehouse stored item - please allow one to three business days to fulfill.

Light gold in color and green highlights, this Savagnin surprises with its mineral, floral and fruity notes. This complex wine offers lemony, mineral notes, aromas of white flowers and substance for a long, pleasant finish.

Warehouse stored item - please allow one to three business days to fulfill.

The perfect association between the elegance and finesse of Chardonnay, with white flowers and white fruits aromas, pleasantly combined with roasted almond and hazelnut notes brought by the Savagnin.

Warehouse stored item - please allow one to three business days to fulfill.

In the nose, this wine is powerful and complex, It develops smoked and toasted aromas, and more particularly aromas of brioche associated to the notes of honey and vanilla. The mouth is frank, round and rich. This wine is perfectly balanced.

Warehouse stored item - please allow two to five business days to fulfill.

Méditerranée Blanc is intended as a fresh tasting, juicy and easy-to-enjoy white wine. Aromas and flavors of peach, lemon and wild herbs are accompanied by salty minerality.

Warehouse stored item - please allow two to five business days to fulfill.

Warehouse stored item - please allow two to five business days to fulfill.

Gold colour. On the nose, it is fresh with a nice combination of fruit, mineral and floral nuances. Elegant and refreshing, it is straightforward and concentrated. It first develops aromas of ripe fruit and then finishes on delicate mineral and lively notes. The wine shows great purity.

Warehouse stored item - please allow two to five business days to fulfill.

Pale-yellow color. Fresh, very pleasant, open tea and mineral aromas. Well balanced, with an excellent freshness. A nice dry wine with enjoyable fruitiness. Crisp, easy-drinking wine.

Warehouse stored item - please allow one to three business days to fulfill.

Warehouse stored item - please allow one to three business days to fulfill.

Warehouse stored item - please allow one to three business days to fulfill.

Warehouse stored item - please allow one to three business days to fulfill.

This fresh herbal wine is full of tangy, zesty fruits. It is bright, with a tight texture that will open out. Drink this attractive wine from late 2021.

Warehouse stored item - please allow one to three business days to fulfill.

Vinous 95 Points | The 2019 Clos de la Dioterie is a sophisticated, seductively perfumed style—brooding yet aromatic. Its concentrated flavors are pure; it remains light and elegant, with a delectable, chalky, veil-like texture residing on your tongue as the finish draws out with precision, sinew and line. This is a fine, texturally intriguing wine.

Warehouse stored item - please allow one to three business days to fulfill.

The Gelin family invested in a larger, more efficient winery, which was upgraded and ready for the 2011 harvest. “The new winery allows us more flexibility during harvest, as well as the technology to increase wine quality,” says Pierre-Emmanuel. The wines of Domaine Pierre Gelin have always been de-stemmed with a long cuvaison of 8-10 days and a judicious use of oak. Only indigenous yeasts are used for fermentation which takes place in stainless-steel and oak tanks. Malolactic fermentation occurs in barrel and the wines are aged for 20-24 months in varying percentages of new oak: up to 80% new oak for the Grand Cru, and 25% new for the premier crus. They use older barrels for village wines.

Warehouse stored item - please allow one to three business days to fulfill.

This Montagne Saint-Emilion Château Grand Moulin Macquin has a red ruby color; the black cherry aromas, red berries and cinnamon; firm tannins, balanced, harmonious finish.

Warehouse stored item - please allow one to three business days to fulfill.

Grapes are vinified traditionally in cement tank for anywhere between 10-15 days, depending on cuvée and vintage.

Warehouse stored item - please allow one to three business days to fulfill.

Mainly from Mourvèdre, which gives it this character that is both powerful and subtle, it expresses all the richness of a terroir on the shores of the Mediterranean. The Gueissard red asserts itself as a gastronomic wine that can be enjoyed now or in a few years.

Warehouse stored item - please allow two to five business days to fulfill.

The wine is dry, round and supple, with a beautiful refreshing acidity. It gives off notes of ripe fruits, peaches and pink grapefruit… On the palate, it gives immediate pleasure and has lovely weight.
 

Warehouse stored item - please allow one to three business days to fulfill.

Jeb Dunnuck 94 Points | The 2022 Gigondas Racines (75% Grenache and the rest Syrah and Cinsault) was mostly destemmed and spent 14 months in foudre. Coming from slightly lower elevation parcels (just beside the estate) and older vines, it's slightly deeper ruby-hued and has a meaty bouquet of black cherries, melted licorice, tapenade, and peppery garrigue. This carries to a more structured, medium to full-bodied, concentrated Gigondas that's going to benefit from 2-4 years of bottle age.

Warehouse stored item - please allow one to three business days to fulfill.

Jeb Dunnuck 93 Points | A great vintage for this cuvée, the 2022 Gigondas Terrasse Du Diable comes from higher elevation sites and pure limestone soils. (It's mostly Grenache.) Rocking levels of kirsch, ripe cherries, chalky minerality, melted licorice, and white flowers all define the aromatics, and it's medium to full-bodied, has a round, layered mouthfeel, and a great finish. It's one hell of a sexy, ripe, impossible-to-resist Gigondas.

Warehouse stored item - please allow one to three business days to fulfill.

Though a relatively new domaine, founded in 1979, Faury is rooted in traditions generations old. Under Philippe Faury's guidance, the winery has expanded to its current 17ha of vineyards, nearly all so steep that they must be terraced. Both Philippe and his son Lionel carry out backbreaking work to ensure the vineyards are perfectly cared for. 

The Faurys eschew new oak in large quantity, and fermentation is carried out only by foot pigeage.

Black fruits, olives, and violets leap from the glass with this wine. On the palate this is filled with dark, rich blue and blackberry fruit with elements of black olive, dried herbs, and tapenade.

Warehouse stored item - please allow three to five business days to fulfill.

A long, light but enveloping robe… Aromas of fresh fruits and spices… Curves of Grenache spiced with Mourvèdre and Syrah, blending with the connections of sandstone and pebble plots, delicately draped in clay and sand. What could be more sensual and elegant?

Warehouse stored item - please allow three to five business days to fulfill.

Brilliant color, intense, lovely red fruits, silky and rich attack. Deeply coloured with purple reflection. Fruity on the nose, dominated by morello cherry and almond paste. Medium-bodied on the palate, priority is given to the fruit. Turning more intense on the finish with good tannins.

Hailing from two 80+ year-old parcels and 0.50 hA of the family's oldest vines planted in 1900 - all located in the warmest sector of the village - the Cuvée des Fous has a sunny, luminous disposition with a deep, dark, and filigreed profile.

Importer Description 

This Pinot Blanc is a masterful display of subtlety and refinement. Honeysuckle, peaches, and stone don’t shout at, but whisper seductively to your nose and palate." - Kermit Lynch.

Coming from vines located mainly at the bottom of hillsides and on granite soil, this Pinot Blanc borders on insolence in its elegance and deliciousness. It is very far from the classic style that is often found in Alsatian Pinot Blancs, which is quite simple. Here, Jean Boxler has done a real job in the vineyards as well as in the winemaking where we feel a much finer and more mineral side.

On the palate, the attack is precise, there is, as with his Sylvaner, a beautiful maturity that brings a real delicacy. The wine has a sensual texture, very silky, no aggressiveness emerges.

This is really not just a simple Pinot Blanc, it is extraordinarily long, precise and delicious.

Winery Notes

TOP DOGS Wines - Supporting Animal Rescue

Jacques Azoulay has spent his life surrounded by dogs, many of them rescues. Over time, he became acutely aware of the widespread issues of animal cruelty, abandonment, and the staggering number of dogs euthanized each year in the U.S. "Visiting a shelter breaks your heart - you just want to take them all home," he says.

The cause is noble, but the wines have to live up to the mission - and they do. Behind each of our 100% French wines is a dedication to quality and taste.

The Red: A rich and velvety Bordeaux, with Merlot dominance - perfect for any occasion.

Expert Reviews

The Wine Spectator 92 Points | This vivid Champagne is tightly meshed, with a firm spine of acidity married to notes of poached apricot, toast point, preserved lemon and white cherry. Minerally through the creamy, focused finish.

James Suckling 91 Points | This has aromas of chopped apples, biscuits, croissants, walnuts, praline and lemon pie. Dry, tasty and toasty, with a medium body, fine bubbles and bright acidity. All in balance. 48% pinot noir, 42% chardonnay, 10% meunier. Base 2016, with 38% reserve wine.

Wine Enthusiast 90 Points | The nonvintage Champagne from this producer is beautifully textured, its white fruits lightly touched by a more steely edge. A fine Champagne to drink now.

Winemaker Description 

Color: straw gold, clear and bright. In the glass, a beautiful perlage creates a procession of fine and regular bubbles.

Bouquet: on the nose, the cuvée expresses a magnificent vivacity. Notes of citrus fruits followed by floral bouquets, vine flowers and elderberry. Finally, intense aromas of brioche, lightly toasted bread and toasted almonds.

Taste: the balanced and harmonious palate recalls notes of brioche, which combine with the strong taste of Burlat cherry and the brightness of white peach. Clean on the finish, with all the freshness of freshly picked hazelnut.

Expert Reviews - Vintage 2014 

Vinous 98 Points | Bollinger’s 2014 La Grande Année is a great way to start the evening as guests mill around Wheeler Farms. It is early evening in Napa, but there is still plenty of action in the winery, where various lots are being pressed under the watchful eye of winemaker Nigel Kinsman. There are some moments where I would very much like to be a civilian, a regular person enjoying the night, but I am more concerned with our guests having a great night, so I quickly go back to check on our wines. The Bollinger 2014 is everything I expected; bright, focused and full of all the energy this late-ripening vintage conferred to the best wines. 

Producer Description 

La Grande Année: The Great Year. This Champagne is the embodiment of everything that makes Bollinger the producer that stands apart in Champagne. La Grande Année symbolizes the word “hand-crafted” so strongly that an overused word suddenly becomes the appropriate definition. 

La Grande Année is only produced in the most outstanding of vintages, where ripeness and acidity reach a perfect balance and aging potential is excellent.