Monthly Archives: September 2013

Good burgundy is magical. It occupies more room in my cellar than any other wine, I think about it more than any other wine, and I do genuinely enjoy it more than any other wine. But of course, good burgundy is also really fucking expensive.

Well, most of the time.

Fortunately, Evan Barrett at Plum Market in Bloomfield was recently selling a nice bottle for me to fawn over. From a somewhat unheralded parcel of land called Les Dames Huguettes, this isn’t fancy stuff. The vineyard is from the Hautes Cotes du Nuits, which is a stretch west of northern burgundy known mostly, I believe, for making cheap plonk that ends up on supermarket shelves under the faded, laminated sign that says “FRANCE.”

By contrast, Les Dames Huguettes is, as I understand it, the only chunk of land in the Hautes Cotes for which the name may appear on the label. In other words, the French wine police think it’s not exactly a shitty place to grow grapes for wine. I agree.

This particular bottle is young and juicy, full of fruit. But there’s a lot of acid to it. It’s a very delicious, natural fruit flavor. Incredibly fresh stuff with a nice mineral edge and a finish that lingers. This is seriously delicious. And for around 30 bucks (or so), it’s a very reasonably price for entry level burgundy.

The label struck me as kind of odd and whimsical, so I was surprised by the seriousness of what’s in the bottle. As it so happens, this is produced by Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret, a classic burgundy producer with wines from some of the most sought after grand crus in all of burgundy. So I guess they’re actually slumming it a bit, but hey, good for us.

Those who attended our “Wine Soak” tasting back in April would recognize similarities between the burgundy we tasted there and this bottle. Both from 2010, each wine has the same incredible transparency through the wine to the fruit itself, despite the fact they’re both inexpensive wines. And despite the allegedly less-than-stellar vintage, which was wrought with frost problems leading to dead vines and low yields. But the wines I’ve tasted from that year are spectacular in exactly the same way. I’ve seen plenty of wine critics online indicate that the best winemakers quietly had standout years in 2010 with beautiful, elegant wines, and it’s hard to disagree based on my limited experience.

Anyhow, if there’s any of this left around Michigan, burgundy lovers who aren’t so much blessed with the fat ass pocketbooks should grab some while they can.