Burgundy and Beaujolais

One of the most interesting aspects of the wine trade is getting the opportunity to visit producers and taste wines in the regions in which they are produced. On a recent visit to Burgundy and Beaujolais I was able to taste many wines from the same region and select the best available wine from each category.

I tasted between ten and twenty wines from Meursault, Pouilly-Fuisse and Gevrey Chamertin for example. This enabled each wine to be assessed along with its peers. In this way we do not only select a good wine, but one that we consider to be among the best of its type avaialable.

One producer that we have admired for a while is the Domaine de la Creuze Noir. Their white wines have great elegance and finesse and really stand out against other wines from the same region. We have selected their Pouilly Fuisse (£17.50) and St-Veran (£12.99) to add to our Burgundy range.

It is also reassuring to taste new vintages of wines that we already stock against their competition and reconfirm that these are class leaders. Domaine de Roally Vire-Clesse stood out among all the eight Vire-Clesse on taste and our Nuits St-Georges Domaine Philippe Gavignet and Givry Rouge Danjean-Berthoux showed very well against their peers. Our Aloxe Corton 1er Cru Domaine Maurice Chapuis was excellent and we now have the 2006 and 2007 vintages in stock as well as a few remaining cases of 2005.

The Beaujolais tasting was a real lesson in the terroir of the region and confirmation that we have wines from some of the best Beaujolais producers making wines or real depth and character. My particular favourite remains our Moulin-A-Vent Gerard Charvet, which is outstanding at £11.99.