Full Pull

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Kimmeridgien Kloseout, 3/20/2019

  (Jean-Marc Brocard Bourgogne Blanc Kimmeridgien) Hello friends. We were recently reoffered a closeout parcel of one of the more delightful white wines we offered in 2018: Chablis specialist JM Brocard’s Kimmeridgien Bourgogne Blanc. By going long on this parcel, we were able to secure considerably better pricing than our previous 14.99 TPU. (Note: 14.99 is also the current internet low.) I’ll excerpt our original April 2018 offer below, and will only add that a recent sample bottle showed marginally more development than a year ago, with savory notes of sweet hay and hazelnut beginning to take on more prominence, lovely complementary notes to an appley core. What intellectual and sensual pleasure Burgundian Chardonnay offers with a few short years in bottle. Excerpts from the original: White Burg is not a value-hunter’s paradise. There’s a sea of overpriced wine in this category. Yet it seems like each year, we end up with access to deals on one or two value white Burgs with a few years in bottle, and each time, our list members gobble the wine up. Jean-Marc Brocard is a famous name in Chablis. And it should be—Brocard produces over 20 different bottlings from the region annually. A farmer’s son from the Cote D’Or, he stumbled into wine through marriage, and learned all about winemaking from his wife’s vigneron father. Brocard credits his father-in-law for teaching him how to understand terroir with a simple sentence: look, be quiet, and learn. With this knowledge, he planted his first vineyards in 1973. Terroir has long been the cornerstone of Brocard’s winemaking, once saying: “the truth of wine lies in the soil where it has grown. The technique is an important factor in the wine growing, but it is only an aid, the wine is essentially the product of its soil.” While Brocard’s central production lies within the boundaries of Chablis, this Bourgogne Blanc is sourced from just west of Chablis in Auxerrois. This part of the region boasts the same chalky Kimmeridgien soils found in Chablis (as well as parts of Champagne and the Loire Valley). Kimmeridgien, named for the town in England where it was first studied, is made up of layered chalk and clay with miniature marine fossils. These layers provide drainage for the vines and impart their own limestone and oceanic minerality. Kimmeridgien is what sets Chablis apart—and in turn, what sets this region of Auxerrois apart.  The term “baby Chablis” applies; this is a wine made by a leader in Chablis from the same terroir just a few miles down the road. The nose opens with signature Chablis flint, green apple, citrus rind, and saline. It’s bright and fresh, with no touch of oak. At 12.5% listed alcohol, the palate runs vibrant, chock full of juicy acidity and salty minerality. For all of its bright qualities, there is a richness of fruit—apple, pear, peach—finishing smooth and creamy. Chablis is an ultra food pairing wine, which extends to this Bourgogne Blanc, too. Creamy cheeses, shellfish, sautéd mushrooms—name just about anything and this bottle would be a worthy companion.

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Baby Chablis, 4/12/2018

  (Jean-Marc Brocard Bourgogne Blanc Kimmeridgien) Hello friends. In the grand search that is value white Burgundy, we’re able to hit a fifteen dollar price tag today on a killer specimen crafted by Chablis experts, from a small parcel just west of the Chablis boundary. Better yet: it comes from the exquisite 2015 vintage. I’ll excerpt our original April 2018 offer below, and will only add that a recent sample bottle showed marginally more development than a year ago, with savory notes of sweet hay and hazelnut beginning to take on more prominence, lovely complementary notes to an appley core. What intellectual and sensual pleasure Burgundian Chardonnay offers with a few short years in bottle. Excerpts from the original: White Burg is not a value-hunter’s paradise. There’s a sea of overpriced wine in this category. Yet it seems like each year, we end up with access to deals on one or two value white Burgs with a few years in bottle, and each time, our list members gobble the wine up. Jean-Marc Brocard is a famous name in Chablis. And it should be—Brocard produces over 20 different bottlings from the region annually. A farmer’s son from the Cote D’Or, he stumbled into wine through marriage, and learned all about winemaking from his wife’s vigneron father. Brocard credits his father-in-law for teaching him how to understand terroir with a simple sentence: look, be quiet, and learn. With this knowledge, he planted his first vineyards in 1973. Terroir has long been the cornerstone of Brocard’s winemaking, once saying: “the truth of wine lies in the soil where it has grown. The technique is an important factor in the wine growing, but it is only an aid, the wine is essentially the product of its soil.” While Brocard’s central production lies within the boundaries of Chablis, this Bourgogne Blanc is sourced from just west of Chablis in Auxerrois. This part of the region boasts the same chalky Kimmeridgien soils found in Chablis (as well as parts of Champagne and the Loire Valley). Kimmeridgien, named for the town in England where it was first studied, is made up of layered chalk and clay with miniature marine fossils. These layers provide drainage for the vines and impart their own limestone and oceanic minerality. Kimmeridgien is what sets Chablis apart—and in turn, what sets this region of Auxerrois apart.  The term “baby Chablis” applies; this is a wine made by a leader in Chablis from the same terroir just a few miles down the road. The nose opens with signature Chablis flint, green apple, citrus rind, and saline. It’s bright and fresh, with no touch of oak. At 12.5% listed alcohol, the palate runs vibrant, chock full of juicy acidity and salty minerality. For all of its bright qualities, there is a richness of fruit—apple, pear, peach—finishing smooth and creamy. Chablis is an ultra food pairing wine, which extends to this Bourgogne Blanc, too. Creamy cheeses, shellfish, sautéd mushrooms—name just about anything and this bottle would be a worthy companion.