France

This cuvee is sourced from vines the age of which is between 45 and 70 years. A wine of exceptional concentration for a village level appellation, this wine is always a true expression of the kimmeridgian soils that make Chablis so distinctive. Aged for thirty months before release, Defaix?????s old vines Chablis is richly dense with a classic "pierre a fusil" bouquet and long mineral-infused finish.

Organic

96 points James Suckling
So expressive and so precise, this is a great modern Cornas. Haunting nose of black forest berries with notes of dry forest floor and wild herbs. Then comes the wonderful combination of restrained richness and youthful freshness on the vertical, medium-bodied palate. And just as the coolness of evening follows the heat of the day, the mineral vibrancy of the finish follows the succulence of the mid-palate.

93 points Vinous
The 2022 Cornas Granit 30 was made from fully destemmed grapes. It exhales prominent black fruit aromatics paired with pencil shavings, iodine and an underlying rusticity. Medium- to full-bodied, structured and concentrated, theres plenty of old-world savoriness in this classic 2022 Cornas...Vincent Paris produced a solid set of wines in 2021 but really excelled in 2022. These are distinctively savory Cornas expressions, but they neatly capture balance and freshness. Neither truly modern nor fully traditional, the Paris style sits somewhere in between, perhaps leaning a bit more toward the latter.

Organic / Biodynamic

Notes of lime, herbs and spring flowers preface the 2024 Vouvray Le Haut-Lieu Sec, a medium- to full-bodied, lively and incisive dry white with a chiseled palate framed by a delicate bitterness and a long, ethereal finish. This is a classic at this address that could gain roundness with time in the bottle. Residual sugar: 7.5 grams per liter.

93 pts Vinous Media
A totally sexy, voluptuous wine, the 2015 Fonbadet is terrific. A rush of dark cherry jam, wild flowers, mint, espresso and licorice gives the 2015 its decidedly exotic, voluptuous personality. Silky tannins and plush fruit add to the wine's sumptuousness. There is a presence to the 2015 that is hard to describe but that has been present each of the three times I have tasted it so far. Simply put, Fonbadet is gorgeous in 2015.

This is their oldest vineyard.

Organic / Biodynamic

90 points Vinous
The 2023 Vire-Clesse has a lively bouquet with more yellow fruit than the other cuvees and touches of beeswax that develop in the glass. The palate is poised on the entry, lightly spiced with impressive harmony, a "fluid" Vire-Clesse with a persistent finish. A notch above the 2022

93 points Vinous
The 2020 Sociando Mallet has retained its impressive aromatics from its showing in barrel with beautifully defined blackberry and raspberry fruit, pressed violet and light cedar aromas. The palate is medium-bodied with firm backbone, a little powdery in texture, fine backbone with ample freshness and tension towards its graphite-infused finish. Bravo!

Organic / Natural

The grapes are from old vines (60-90 years old) with granite soils and average altitudes of 400m, ocated in the "La Madone" plot in Villi??-Morgon, Beaujolais, France. The harvest is manual and the
grapes are destemmed and gently pressed. The must ferments in stainless steel tanks at controlled temperatures and the wine is aged for 10 months in French oak barrels. 13.5% abv

Having lived and worked among the ?????superstars????? of Beaujolais, Joseph Chamonard created a wonderful environment for his vines in Morgon. On the hill of Morgon, his vines stayed healthy without chemical assistance, remaining in their natural living soils alongside the packed earth and starved vines of his neighbors. Sadly, Joseph passed away in 1990, leaving his daughter Genevieve and her husband Jean-Claude Chanudet to carry on the health of his 4 hectare parcels, located in Corcelette, near the town of Ville-Morgon. With each successive vintage the duo has strictly kept to disavowing chemical treatments, in or out of the vineyards. Harvest is done by hand late in the season for full natural ripeness and complexity, with only natural yeasts used for fermentation and little else done outside of patient guidance to its natural end. The wine is made the traditional way with respect to nature. As some of the others of his era passing on as well (Marcel LaPierre in 2010), there is a sense that the pattern set here in Beaujolais will be altered. With so much natural beauty remaining, it will take more than a gang of four to do so, after all, it's now almost tradition.

90-92 points Jeb Dunnuck
Moving to the reds, the 2020 Gigondas La Gille is the base Gigondas and has a medium-bodied, supple, seamless style as well as classic spice, peppery herbs, and red and black fruits. It’s well worth seeking out and should easily be an outstanding wine.

Organic / Natural

The 2023 Fleurie Chapelle de Bois offers a refined bouquet of spice, cranberries, cherries and delicate dried rose and peony petals. On the palate, the medium-to-full-bodied wine maintains a focused and condensed profile, with supple fruit supported by a ripe acidity. A subtle-grained texture imparts the needed dimension, leading to a distinctive finish tinged with a hint of sea salt.

Needing little introduction, the Domaine de la Grand'Cour covers 11.5 hectares, with the majority located in Fleurie (9.7 hectares) and the rest in Brouilly (1.8 hectares). In recent years, Jean-Louis has taken a step back from the day-to-day operations, entrusting his children, Ophélie and Lucas, with leadership. However, upon my arrival at the domaine, I found Jean-Louis driving the tractor in the Chapelle de Bois parcel across the street, so I think it's safe to say that it's only a partial retirement. The domaine farms some of the most revered vineyards in the appellation, all meticulously tended under the Ecocert organic certification since 2009, though their commitment predates formal recognition. In the cellar, the grapes undergo a low-temperature semi-carbonic maceration and ambient yeast fermentation, followed by eight months of aging in a combination of demi-muids, barrels, foudres and tanks, with no added SO2 until bottling. The resulting wines epitomize exceptional purity and are easy to appreciate in their youth, while possessing the structural integrity to evolve gracefully over the years. In 2023, similar to 2022, the family decided to pick their fruit earlier than usual and shorten the vinification length to preserve freshness and elegance. The resulting wines boast more approachable profiles, especially when compared to the 2020 vintage, with lessened concentrations and finer tannins - The Wine Advocate