Type of Wines

wines

The 2024 Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons, 30% of which is vinified in wood, wafts from the glass with aromas of orange zest, pastry and honeysuckle, followed by a medium- to full-bodied palate with a crisp yet demonstrative core of pure, open-knit fruit. Sourced from a warm site of higher maturity—where Droin typically begins the harvest—it has, unsurprisingly, turned out very well this year.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 91 RPThe 2024 Chablis Vaillons 1er Cru has a comparatively strict and correct nose for this vineyard. It’s stonier than I expected. The palate is more generous with hints of fresh apricot and peach. This is well balanced, pretty and quite persistent. Give it 18 months in bottle for the aromatics to open up.Vinous Media | 90-92 VMModerate wood serves as the backdrop for the more floral-suffused aromas of sea breeze, white orchard fruit and a touch of citrus confit. The caressing but punchy middle weight flavors possess a succulent mid-palate texture before concluding in a youthfully austere and attractively dry finale. This could use better depth so a few years of keeping are recommended.Burghound | 89-91 BH30% oak in the blend. A little more yellow in the colour, and a softer more opulent yellow fruit on the nose. Power up front, lighter behind, with lemon notes to finish. Drink from 2027-2030. Tasted Jun 2025.Jasper Morris | 89-91 JM

The 2024 Chassagne-Montrachet Village is Niellon’s largest cuvée, around 20,000 bottles, representing the entire appellation—10 different climats from 15 parcels. This is quite forward on the nose, with perfumed fresh lime scents intermixed with a touch of apricot. It is very… giving. The palate is actually more complex than the nose: fresh and quite edgy, well-integrated oak, nicely focused with a touch of pepperiness towards the finish. Well worth seeking out.Vinous Media | 90 VM

They were thinking about pulling this plot out but it has come through the wetter conditions of 2024 very well, so they may keep it going. Clean pale lemon. The bouquet is quite reticent. Concnetrated white fruit, plenty of energy here, the fruit well married with the oak, fair length. A little extra here in 2024. Drink from 2029-2033. Tasted Oct 2025.Jasper Morris | 91 JM

One of the few 2024s in bottle was the 2024 Cíes, a village Albariño from different soils and expositions fermented in neutral barrels of different sizes, where it matured for eight months. The year is characterized by good ripeness; this has 13.3% alcohol and notable balancing acidity and freshness. It’s clean, expressive and serious, with a salty twist and a faint bitter twist in the finish. 15,000 bottles produced.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 95 RPThe 2024 Albariño Cíes is from Meaño in Rías Baixas. This is from old vineyards and it fermented in used barrels. Expressive and floral, this opens with intense aromas of pear and white flowers, followed by hints of blossom and pear over time. The palate delivers freshness, sapidity and a subtle saline note. This was recently bottled.Vinous Media | 93 VMThis has notes of white peaches and citrus zest. The palate is medium- to full-bodied, angular and precise, with great fruit volume yet an equally austere, mineral finish. Drink now.James Suckling | 93 JS

Creamy, rich and delicious, the Bâtard-Montrachet from Niellon’s replanted parcel is in good form, with expressive ripe pear and apricot fruit aromas and hints of fresh flowers, butter and spice. The wine has typical Bâtard opulence, but it also has lovely freshness. The length is impressive for young vines, and there is undoubtedly a promising future ahead for this – ideally, cellar for at least 10 years before opening.Decanter Magazine | 95 DECThe 2024 Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru comes from a single plot, a "baby wine" according to Coutoux, since it is the second vintage from five-year-old vines after the parcel was replanted. This takes time to unfold on the nose, perhaps not quite mustering the mineralité that you find elsewhere due to the youth of the vines. Yet it is well defined and the oak is well integrated. The palate is fresh and vibrant on the entry, a little chalky in texture, a keen thread of acidity that lends edginess with a twist of sour lemon on the finish. Fine, but there will be better to come once the vines mature.Vinous Media | 91 VMA little more colour, slightly biscuity with hidden fruit on the nose. Some tension behind, a little sandalwood, young vines so the lesser concentration is to be expected. Tasted Oct 2025.Jasper Morris | 91 JM

The 2024 Chassagne-Montrachet Clos Saint-Jean 1er Cru is very aromatic and generous on the nose, with scents of white flowers, mirabelle and light beeswax aromas that blossom in the glass. The palate is very well balanced, with more body and depth than the Maltroie. Really good mineralité in this Clos Saint-Jean, very persistent in the mouth; this is exactly where the vintage excels in the Côte d’Or. Recommended.Vinous Media | 94 VMPale lemon colour. More biscuit than fruit at first on the nose, though ripe enough. First year for Rebichets replanting. A softer style of white fruit than Chenevottes. A little more depth to the colour, medium length, a little touch of acidity. Drink from 2028-2032. Tasted Oct 2025.Jasper Morris | 91 JM

Pale lemon colour. The bouquet has a little extra concentration, firm footed fruit. The white fruit blossoms rather more on the palate, delivering an attracting middle weight Chassagne, extending further at the finish. The Chenevottes was a little riper at the harvest, coming in at 12% before chaptalisation.Jasper Morris | 92 JM

While the Romassan is all plushness and the de Selle is all drive, the 2024 Rosé Clos Mireille is all about fine delineation and precision. The core of fruit here is so pure. White cherry, white nectarine, apricot and Seville orange are all crystal clear. Everything about the 2024 speaks to pedigree, calibrated winemaking and finesse. The Clos Mireille is superb and uncompromising in its balance. Provence Rosé at its finest.Vinous Media | 93 VMThe quiet nose draws you in with wet stone aromas that combine with peaches and cream and a tiny pop of citrus. The palate has a hint of pear with lots of citrus pith. This rosé coats your whole mouth and the finish leaves a lingering heat. Wine Enthusiast | 92 WEA refined, restrained style, with beautiful textural purity to the delicate notes of melon, rose water and herbes de Provence. Salty and mouthwatering through the well-meshed finish, which shows range, energy and mineral depth. Grenache, Cinsault and Syrah. Drink now. 250 cases imported.Wine Spectator | 91 WSThere is an Ott signature for all of their rosés, creating elegant silky wines with subtle differences reflecting the terroir of each estate. This one, from coastal vineyards surrounded by a nature reserve, seemingly has an extra salty tang from its proximity to the sea, and whiter, fresher fruit. A pale shell-pink, with delicate peach aromas; the wine opens up to ripe white peach and creamy nut richness (from slightly longer ageing on the lees) is balanced by a long, crisp, saline citrus acidity.Decanter Magazine | 91 DEC

Lemony richness on the nose, a struck match character that falls in with lemon vanilla note. Toffee apple allure on the palate with chalky coolness & savoury nutty finish. Drinking Window 2020 - 2025.Decanter | 94 DECLike Moet & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot is also owned by LVMH, but no-one would suggest this has led to any confusion between what are radically different styles. Most obviously, a few extra years of bottle-age for the Veuve allows the wine to add nuances of toast or biscuit. This bottle is halfway, so it seems, with lots of citrus and stone fruit, backed by good acidity, and a hint of toast.James Halliday | 94 JHThe non-vintage edition of Veuve’s rosé Champagne has a bright-strawberry and raspberry-fruit thread on the nose with a gently spicy edge too. The palate’s big on flavor and really exuberant thanks to expressive strawberry and hints of pink grapefruit. Drink now whilst it is on the fruit.James Suckling | 92 JS(roughly 50% pinot noir, 30% chardonnay and 20% pinot meunier; Lot 14009913): Light gold. Musky orchard fruits and dried fig on the mineral-accented nose. Fleshy and broad on the palate, offering smoky pear and nectarine flavors and a hint of honey. Finishes on a gently spicy note, with very good cling and a touch of bitter lemon pith. Things have definitely begun to turn around for this bottling, which had been lagging behind the winery’s vintage offerings for some time.Vinous Media | 90 VMThis is tightly knit and racy, with a spicy underpinning and a clean-cut mix of poached pear, grated ginger and pink grapefruit zest. An aperitif style, showing a crisp, lacy finish. Drink now.Wine Spectator | 90 WSOne of the most popular of all Champagnes, this is now showing a freshness that wasn’t always there. The crisp texture and green-apple flavors give it an immediate drinkability as well as perfumed acidity and a vibrant aftertaste. Drink this bottling now. Wine Enthusiast | 90 WEBrisk lemon-lime flavors and floral apple clarity lend this wine its freshness and mineral-tinged refreshment. It smells like chalk, then the flavors are enriched by toasty brioche and spiciness from the lees aging. Simple and saturated, finely made in a grand-marque style.Wine & Spirits | 90 W&S

Year after year, Egly’s NV Blanc de Noirs Grand Cru Les Crayères remains one of the most compelling and reliable wines from the Montagne de Reims. Sourced from a south-facing lieu-dit in Ambonnay that was planted between 1946 and 1947 on shallow chalk soils with just 30 centimeters of topsoil, it was disgorged in October 2024 with a dosage of one gram per liter. This release blends the richer 2017 vintage with the taut, incisive character of 2016. Notably, prior to 2000, Francis Egly produced this cuvée as a single-vintage expression, only later opting for a two-vintage blend to buffer against the variability of any given season. The wine ascends from the glass with a bouquet of remarkable complexity—aromas of acacia, ripe pear, orange zest, toasted nuts and patisserie elements unfurl. Full-bodied, concentrated and layered, with ample chalky structuring extract and mouthwatering acidity, it concludes with a long, saline finish. While I often vacillate between Les Crayères and the Millésime as to which I favor, this year, Les Crayères stands as the most captivating wine in the cellar. It offers immense youthful appeal yet promises to evolve beautifully with age. Readers would be wise not to hesitate—it fully lives up to its reputation, and I’d gladly secure bottles for my own cellar.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 98 RP