Prestige Offers

Domaine Albert Bichot Long-Depaquit Premier Cru Chablis 2022-2024

2024 was a spectacular vintage for Chablis. Allen Meadows (Burghound.com) writes, "2024 Chablis are excellent wines and completely classic in style. They offer everything I look for in old school Chablis as the aromatic profile instantly makes crystal clear that it could come from nowhere else." Allen also favors the easy-to-like 2023 vintage stating that, "there is a tenderness to them that can be quite attractive, especially if your taste runs to fruit forward easy-going whites," but notes that they needn't be drunk young as "2023 whites will absolutely age, and should age well, particularly among the top Chablis 1ers and grand crus." Not to be overlooked, Allen notes that the 2022 vintage produced wines which are "fresh and utterly delicious", stating that "the best attribute of the finest 2022 whites is just how refreshing they are." This is all good news for those purchasing this bundle as it contains only Premier Cru Chablis from these vintages. Founded in 1791, the well-known, highly regarded sub-domaine of Albert Bichot, Domaine Long-Depaquit, produced all of these wines.

The Domaine Long-Depaquit wines are blessed with complete detailed tasting notes from respected wine critics. We therefore recommend you read through these to get a more detailed sense of each wine. Broadly speaking, these are all powerful examples of Chardonnay, with great depth and personality, but also a perhaps surprising amount of freshness too. The Les Beugnons is a rare "subclimat," a plot that can be marketed as the more famous Les Vaillons but is nevertheless vinified alone and labeled separately because the folks at Albert Bichot believe that the particular location of this vineyard produces a wine that is materially different from their other Vaillons holding. Specifically, the Beugnons offers a strong aroma of citrus and stone fruits, lots of minerality and an unusual almond/hazelnut influenced set of flavors. The Les Vaillons (largely from the "Epinottes" subclimat) is noted for its lighter nose (more floral and earthy) and fuller-bodied presentation. Finally, the Les Montmains, from the mid-slope, is a bit more full-bodied even than the Vaillons, boasting a floral and citrus nose and a palate that is rich, concentrated, and balanced.

Château de Laborde 1er Crus and Villages 2023-2024

Hervé Kerlann acquired and renovated the magnificent Château de Laborde castle - originally built in 1678 - in 1998 and revived its pre-revolution winemaking glory. (Note: the chateau is so picturesque that the Tour de France 2024 route drove on the tiny road past it - see the photo below featuring the Chateau and Hervé in front.) As for the wines, Hervé works with nine hectares of grapes, including many in key Côte de Nuits sites in Chambolle-Musigny and Gevrey-Chambertin, where he, now alongside his son Dylan and daughter Shannon, makes mostly single-vineyard wines from old vines which can express each unique terroir. Despite the higher concentration afforded wines from older vines, Laborde wines tend towards red fruit flavors and freshness so they can be enjoyed young.

In this bundle focused on the 2023 and 2024 vintages, the Château de Laborde team has assembled a nice collection of Premier Cru and Village wines for you to sample. Showcasing the distinctions in the range of individual vineyard sites, this grouping will be fun to explore. Getting started with one of the two wines to not hail from Gevrey-Chambertin, the 2024 Chambolle-Musigny Village, from 40-year-old vines, is a blend mostly from Bas Doix with additional amounts of Aux Echanges, Les Fremières and Les Jutruots. The wine features gentle aromas of fruits, spices and flowers, is fairly dense on the palate, and leaves a long finish. Typically one of the longest-lived wines of Kerlann's set, this offering from the softer, fresher 2024 vintage, can be enjoyed quite young. The other non-Gevrey, the 2024 Savigny-les-Beaune 1er Cru Les Lavières, is the only wine in this grouping from the Côte de Beaune. Even though the vineyard lies at the base of the Hill of Corton - known for producing very powerful wines - this wine is softer, rounder and very approachable now, with a nose of black cherries and a lean towards red fruit. Moving northward to Gevrey-Chambertin, a commune well-known for producing perhaps the densest and most powerful red wines in Burgundy, Hervé works with old vines to produce concentrated wines, but not too concentrated. He really wants the wines consumed while fresh, without many years of cellaring. Among Laborde's many wonderful single-vineyard village wines, we at BurgDirect believe the Gevrey-Chambertin En Derée is consistently best and thus offer it here in both 2023 and 2024 versions. En Derée comes from 70-year-old vines on the mid-slope in the cooler, northern part of Gevrey, so it shows more mineral elements along with mouth coating red fruit flavors. It is easy to drink! Naturally, the 2023 version has a bit more stuffing than the fresher, lighter 2024.

Now on to the 2023 Premier Crus. The miniscule 1er Cru Les Goulots vineyard (only a few winemakers own land therein), planted with 40-year-old vines, sits near the top of the slope on clay soils (in an old quarry!), which allows the vines access to water despite its high perch, and also retains heat better than limestone. (The heat retention is key because in addition to its eastern exposure, the vines near the top of the slope receive less sunlight due to the angle of the sun and the forest above them.) This leads to a full-bodied wine, which offers unusual hints of flavor like menthol, anise or wood. Finally, the 1er Cru Les Corbeaux (60-year-old vines) has a similar soil makeup to neighbor Mazis-Chambertin Grand Cru, with a high proportion of limestone and clay. This allows the soil to store water but rapidly drain excess, forcing vines to work hard for hydration, leading to the production of high-quality berries, and more concentrated wines. Consequently, this wine will benefit more significantly from additional aging than any other in this bundle.
 

{Note: we've included some tasting notes/scores from critics for recent vintages of many of these wines, but no specific scores are available for the 2023 and 2024 vintages}

Domaine Maldant-Pauvelot Premier Crus 2020 & 2022

BurgDirect is pleased to again offer wines from sixth-generation owner Jean Luc Maldant, who directs this 23-hectare estate, which produces a range of reds and whites from the hill of Corton and surrounding vineyards. Jean Luc works hard to pay attention to small details in his work as he believes the details make a wine go from good to great. For example, the domaine presses grapes in an oxygen-free cage (under carbon dioxide) instead of using sulfur, resulting in better preservation of emerging aromas, and numbers each and every wine bottle individually. As for the wines themselves, the domaine releases wines when they consider them "ready," often harvesting and bringing new vintages to market later than their peers. This allows them to deliver wines that are often properly aged and more complete for near-term consumption. This is in part why we are offering the 2020 and 2022 vintages to you in this bundle.

In this lot, the domaine puts forth an interesting comparative set of Premier Crus for your enjoyment. By featuring three of their vineyards from different communes, you'll be able to sense the different terroirs, but also see and taste the differences created by the very different growing conditions of the 2020 and 2022 vintages. The 2020s are darkly colored but surprisingly bright, while the 2022s deliver a more powerful punch often seen from this extraordinary vintage. Moving on from the vintages to the vineyards, the Beaune 1er Cru Les Aigrots comes from a steep, high on the hill vineyard that produces a wine of great concentration and structure. The Beaune 1er Les Aigrots are rich and complex, and the initial hardness of this appellation has long-since faded away through proper aging. Next, this bundle features two bottles of Aloxe-Corton 1er Cru Les Valozières. Perhaps the most highly regarded of all Aloxe-Corton Premier Cru vineyards, Les Valozières lies at the base of the Hill of Corton just below Corton Grand Crus Les Bressandes and Clos du Roi, with similar limestone-rich soils and southeastern exposures. These wines are somewhat lighter in feel and structure than their higher hill counterparts, which allows them to be smoother with softer tannins (and can be enjoyed with little cellar time). Finally, the domaine has included the 2020 and 2022 versions of their Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Gravains. Savigny-lès-Beaune lies between (and just a bit west of) Beaune and Aloxe-Corton, and this climat is known to produce well-balanced wines featuring fine tannins, a medium body and red fruit characteristics. These wines are a bit lighter and fruitier than the Aloxe-Cortons or Beaunes.

The domaine explains that volumes have been so small in recent vintages that they have offered little for critic reviews. We are able to offer two recent notes (see reviews below) from James Suckling on two of the wines (one from an offered vintage) and have tasted the entire range ourselves. We are therefore confident that you will find these wines excellent.