Burgundy 1er Cru Club: April 2026

The newest release in our 1er Cru Burgundy club includes a "choose your own adventure" red with 3 different vintages to pick from! This is not an April fools joke, btw. 

White Wine: Domaine de la Soufrandiere Pouilly-Fuissé 1er Cru au Vignerais 2022

This domaine is run by the Bret Brothers, and they make a confusingly huge amount of different wines. Their own vineyards get the Soufrandiere title, while Bret Brothers is the official name of their purchased fruit wines. They've farmed biodynamically since 2006 and have succeeded in their mission to make serious wines of terroir from the Maconnais, a region of Burgundy not often known for such wines. Pouilly-Fuissé has long been and continues to be the pinnacle of Macon wines, arguable with a name more famous than the larger area.

The landscape of this region, which includes four communes, is undulating and gorgeous. The most famous landmarks are the 2 rock cliff formations which in a way signify the end of the limestone bench which makes the Chardonnay from Burgundy so special. The Au Vignerais site sits on the slopes of the 2nd rock cliff, the Roche de Solutré. The site sits on pure limestone with a touch of red clay and has an ideal southern exposure, which helped make it one of 20 sites to be promoted to 1er cru in Pouilly-Fuissé as of 2020. 

The wine itself shows the minimal-intervention winemaking used by the brothers, with only a tiny amount of sulfur added at bottling and no filtration. But don't let that scare you; this isn't new-school "natty" wine at all, but serious, age-worthy Chardonnay crafted to let the site speak rather than the winemaking. It does spend 12 months in oak and has the texture to show that, but as with all great White Burgundy, the limestone helps maintain a high level of acidity to balance the richness. This is drinking great now and will continue to for the rest of the decade. 

Red Wine: Domaine Chicotot Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru Les Rues de Chaux (Choose your own vintage adventure)

Chicotot is currently run by Clément, and she helped push the domaine towards biodynamic farming which it now uses. Still, this is an old-school Burgundy domaine based on the south side of Nuits right on the main road. They own a tiny slice of Les Rues de Chaux, the northern most 1er cru of the southern half of the Nuits-St-Georges appellation, which is split in half by the town itself. 

The site has brown limestone and makes a classic Nuits red: broad and tannic. In the cellar, Clément uses about 1/3 new oak on 1er crus giving this wine plenty of stuffing. Now, here's the fun part: we have 3 vintages of this wine to chose from. First come, first served to pick up your choice of these 3 vintages:

2020: The covid year - sunny and warm. This should show the darkest fruit profile of the 3 and the highest alcohol, and it can age mid to long term.

2021: The classic year - cool and damp. This is the most old-school of the 3 vintages, harking back to what Burgundy was like in the 80's. The result is a more terroir-expressive wine but one for younger drinking as they have tended to show relatively quick development in bottle.

2022: The fruity year - hot and dry. 2022 is a great vintage for reds, especially those who prefer a little more fruit and weight on them. Compare to 2020 it's more classically red-fruited, but still a crowd-pleasing fruit forward style with the ability to age long term. 

Swing by the store soon to grab the vintage of your choice! See you all again in June with some more Pinot and Chard bangers.