5 products
- White Wine
- Chardonnay
- Sustainable
- Dry
- Residual Sugar: 2 g/l
- Medium Bodied
- 750ml
- 13.00% alc./vol
Press Reviews
WineAlign
94 Points - David Lawrason
This is a powerful yet compact, mineral driven white Burgundy. Solid structure here! The nose shows generous, complex and detailed aromas of ripe peach/pineapple fruit, lemon, vague toast/smoke, pine nuts and some flint. It is medium-full bodied, firm and dry and warm, but not heavy. The finish is very mineral. The length is excellent to outstanding.
- Sparkling Wine
- Chardonnay, Pinot Noir
- Sustainable, Vegan-Friendly
- Medium Bodied
- 750ml
- 12% alc./vol
About the Winery
Champagne Fresne Ducret
Fresne-Ducret is rich in family history and has been rooted in the premier cru village of Villedommange since the mid 1800s. Originally growing grapes for the big champagne houses, it wasn’t until the end of the second world war that the family decided to make their own wine. The tradition carries on today with Pierre Fresne and his wife Daniella (an Oakville ex-pat). Their philosophy is to produce wines that best exemplify the terroir of Villedommange, and they do this with sustainability in mind.
In 2014, Pierre Fresne embarked on a new adventure by creating a limited series of champagnes based on his desire for experimentation. Since then, he has produced one or two of these wines each year. Each are unique, according to his wishes and the profile of the vintage. This unique collection is called Arquémie, the term for alchemy in the Middle Ages. In 2018 Pierre began converting the vineyards to organic viticulture, and 2021 will be their first organic certified vintage.
Press Reviews
Wine Align
96 points - David Lawrason
This has a very intriguing, generous nose of macaroon (coconut), straw, dried apple, toast and almond/hazelnut. Also a lovely sense of sweet nut fudge. It is medium bodied with fulsome flavour, riveting acidity and all kinds of Champagne minerality. Great focus and length here. Wow! Tasted October 2020
93 points - John Szabo
Fresne Ducret's latest release of this premier cru "Chemin du Chemin champagne is a characteristically smoky and savoury, toasty and biscuity, mature champagne in the English style, balanced and savoury. I really like the developed, mature profile here, the great length. This is very good champagne ready to go. Tasted October 2020.
93 points - Michael Godel
When richness, yeasty and warm toasted brioche get together in Champagne the effect is comforting and potentially hypnotizing. From the Premier Cru village of Villedommange dating back to the mid 1800s, the pedigree is noted and the 48 months of lees aging a coup for creating both a creamy and a revitalizing Champagne. There is an oxidative aspect here and it's effectualness is one that imagines exotic spice cupboards, masala mixes and gingery tisanes. Quite the exotic bubble, lightly frothy, elegantly styled, complex and fine. Drink 2020-2026. Tasted October 2020.
Wine Enthusiast
94 points
This Champagne shows some fine maturity. A blend based on the 2014 vintage, it now has toastiness while keeping intense freshness. Acidity and touches of minerality come through the spiciness. Drink now.
- White Wine
- Chardonnay
- Sustainable
- Dry
- Residual Sugar: 2 g/l
- Medium Bodied
- 750ml
- 13% alc./vol
About the Winery
Groupe Bellene
Led by Nicolas Potel in Beaune, Groupe Bellene is composed of the négociant arm Maison Roche de Bellene, the winery arm Domaine de Bellene, and a special back-vintage series under the Collection Bellenum label.
- Maison Roche de Bellene offers a complete range of wines, with an emphasis on individual terroirs from old vines of more than 40 years. All of the growers that Nicolas works with are either organic certified or sustainably farmed.
- Domaine de Bellene represents the wines that are produced and bottled from Nicolas Potel's private vineyard holdings.
- Collection Bellenum is a back vintage series that Nicolas Potel sourced from his friends in the region, offering a magnificent selection of bottled history. The wines have moved only twice in their lives, from the original cellar to Potel's and now to yours!
Nicolas Potel grew up at Volnay's Domaine Pousse d'Or, where his father worked. He trained abroad and returned home in 1996 to build a négociant business and started Maison Nicolas Potel, where he sourced grapes from good parcels, often working with the growers to improve the quality. By 2002, he was making 120 wines from 50 different appellations, and the rest is history!
Press Reviews
WineAlign
94 Points - Michael Godel
In 2013 the decision was made to plant chardonnay instead of pinot noir and here is yet another vintage to support that decision. More glaring this time in fact because while 2021 is a true throwback to the way things used to be in terms of hard, closed, unforgiving and austere pinot noir - such is not the case for chardonnay. Les Perrières is blessed with fruit, glorious but also grippy, tannic and high extract fruit. Not quite as aromatic as say Santenay but both texture and intensity are bigger, stronger and in serious command. This will age slowly and really well - the way it just sits in the glass for minutes on end without changing tells us that much. Drink 2024-2030
- White Wine
- Chardonnay
- Sustainable
- Dry
- Residual Sugar: 2.1 g/l
- Full Bodied
- 750ml
- 14% alc./vol
About the Winery
Mullineux & Leeu Family Wines
Mullineux Family Wines, established in 2007 in the Swartland region of South Africa, is owned and managed by Chris and Andrea Mullineux. Since its inception the winery has established itself as one of South Africa’s most celebrated wine brands, both locally and internationally. Originally from Northern California, Winemaker Andrea Mullineux studied Viticulture and Oenology at UC-Davis before working in Stellenbosch and meeting Chris at a wine festival in Champagne. Chris is the Viticulturist in charge of the vineyards on their farm on Kasteelberg Mountain as well as fruit sourcing for their value Kloof Street wines.
To add to their acclaim, Andrea Mullineux was named Wine Enthusiast’s Winemaker of the Year in 2016 and in 2016 Chris & Andrea were Tim Atkin’s South African Winemakers of the Year. . By focusing on producing handcrafted wines from the granite and shale based soils of the Swartland and it is quickly becoming South Africa's wine frontier. Located an hour's drive away from Stellenbosch, the Swartland is rolling hills of wheat and jagged outcrops of old vines.
Press Reviews
Robert Parker
95 Points
The 2020 Leeu Passant Stellenbosch Chardonnay is more generous and shows more ripeness than the previous vintage, with a touch more approachability and youth, as it encapsulates a broader-shouldered expression. Medium to full-bodied, the wine explodes on the palate with flavors of lemon pastry cream, popcorn kernel and sweet citrus and a lingering nutty and creamy sensation across the mid-palate. The wine glides to a gracefully long finish that persists with flavors of peach yogurt. Bravo!
Wine Align - Michael Godel
96 Points
Chris and Andrea Mullineux started the project in 2013 with the help of viticulturist Rosa Kruger. "New" vineyards were unearthed and rehabilitated through four solid years of re-pruning, re-training and re-working of the soils. Then the wines could begin being made. A deconstruction and reconstruction, now seven years in and entering the opening gambit of true maturity stage for what is one of South Africa's most unique heritage collections. Leeu means lions, a reference to a meandering walkabout, personified in these wines. They are made in the Franschhoek winery, certified organic, coming of age in their foray into regenerative agriculture, which says Andrea Mullineux, "in the southern hemisphere also means cultural and worker sustainability practices." The 2020 is as fine a reductive but mainly lightning acidity charged chardonnay as a vineyard can determine. Located in the upper mid-slopes of the Helderberg facing the Strand with a clear view of False Bay. That said or perhaps out of necessity this is made in an oxidative way, which makes sure to keep the flinty and salty faith alive. The '20 is possessive of fibres, threads, strings and wires braided to make a layered whole. Finesse and sophistication co-exist in a vacuum where waves crash upon one another in great open space, with no shore for to finish. If you would like to experience chardonnay in a way you’ve not likely done before than swim all the way out, well offshore, all in, all the way to this place. Turn around and off into the deep distance, gaze upon the strand. Drink 2022-2028. Tasted October 2022.
James Suckling
95 Points
Aromas of sliced lemon, crushed thyme, green apple and flint. Medium-bodied, but don’t let that fool you, because this is so expressive and vibrant on the palate. Complex, too. It rides the line between fresh and nutty wonderfully. Succulent, bright and persistent. A pleasure. Sustainable. Drink or hold.
Vinous
95 Points
The 2020 Chardonnay Stellenbosch comes from a single vineyard in Helderberg just above the Cabernet. This has a wonderful, slightly flinty bouquet with outstanding precision. The palate is very well balanced with a perfect line of acidity, extremely pure, hints of white peach and orange pith, augmented by grapefruit and crushed stone of the finish that's as nervous as a child with stage fright doing school panto for the first time. Brilliant.
- White Wine
- Chardonnay
- Sustainable, Volcanic
- Dry
- Residual Sugar: 2.00 g/l
- Medium Bodied
- 750ml
- 13.00% alc./vol
About the Winery
Vinos Baettig
Francisco Baettig and Carlos de Carlos have been friends for more than 20 years and share a passion for high-quality wines that are genuine and connected to the land where they are made.
"A promising project in a wine region that is the future of high-quality Chilean wines" - Patricio Tapia, Descorchados
Press Reviews
James Suckling
96 Points
Complexity and lots of stamina and verve here! Smoky lemons, nougat, ginger and flint provide a very flavourful palate. Intense and substantial on the palate, but still elegant and nuanced, with a hint of phenolics at the end. Long, focused finish. Think fine Meursault. Drink or hold.
Robert Parker
95 Points - Luis Gutiérrez
The 2020 Selección de Parcelas Los Primos Chardonnay was cropped from a warm and dry vintage, but in Traiguén in the south, it is not as warm as in the central valley of Chile. The grapes were harvested the first half of April; they harvested earlier and finished with more alcohol, still a moderate 13.5%, from a year of more body and rounder wines but without heat. The wine kept a pH of 3.16 and 6.9 grams of acidity. This also makes the wine a little more Burgundian, more Meursault than Chablis or Puligny, tasty, spicy with a tad more oak (all the new barrels for white are 400-liter ones, 38% of them new in 2020), because in warmer years there is a little more extraction from the oak. This is the warmest vintage so far, but the wine is still bone dry and there is no ripeness; but there's more weight and width. The wines have to show the differences of the climate conditions each year... 4,069 bottles were filled in July 2021.