2024 Accolades
It's been a big year for our producers! From exciting write ups to high scores and more, we're so proud to share a roundup of praises for our vignerons across France. Check out a few of our 2024 accolade highlights below.
26 June 2024 – Etienne Calsac & Stéphane Regnault in Top blanc de blancs grower Champagne in 2024
https://cluboenologique.com/report/best-blanc-de-blancs-grower-champagne-2024/
“Nine of my top ten wines in the Grower Champagne Report 2024 were Chardonnays and eight of them single-vineyard Champagnes (or, in one case, a dual-vineyard offering). Chardonnay is known to express its terroir, thus to no surprise many growers choose to craft their top bottlings from single-site Chardonnay. In addition to being able to beautifully reflect its origin, Chardonnay offers unparalleled opportunities for winemaking wizardry. The endless opportunities for using oak and toying with malolactic fermentation may add to its complexities. Thus, single-vineyard Champagnes, which see no benefit from blending of different origins, can instead gain complexity from the combinations of various winemaking ways.”
31 July 2024 – Hauts Baigneux Clos des Brancs – Highest Scoring in Touraine section of Loire Valley reviews in Wine Enthusiast 2024
94 Points – Hauts Baigneux 2022 Clos des Brancs Monopole – Chenin Blanc – “This warm, characterful Touraine will make you smile. Perfumed aromas of ginger, baked apples, clove-and-nutmeg baking spice, almond skin, and honey open on the nose. The palate revels in freshly-baked brioche, cinnamon stick, and pear that precedes the long finish.” Editor’s Choice – R.S. 13.5% ABV Retail: $42.00
27 August 2024 Etienne Calsac in Le Guide des Meilleurs Vins de France 2025
Text from the guide : La cave familiale d’Etienne Calsac est installée sur la commune d’Avize. Ce jeune vigneron confirme les espoirs que nous placions en lui. Il cultive quelques hectares de chardonnay, dont le CLos des Maladries, dans ce grand cru prise par les amateurs de grands blanc de blancs. Le reste de son vignoble se situe à Bisseuil, dans la vallée de la Marne. Ses champagnes, qui font leur fermentation malolactique, expriment pour autant une droiture précise, soutenue par des élevages très justes. Sa cuvee Les Revenants, assemblage de pinot blanc, arbane, et petit meslier, nous raconte avec eloquence les gouts oublies de la Champagne. Les vins présentés cette année sont purs et races. Bravo !
Les vins: a son habitude, L’Echappée Belle propose une bulle fine et sapide, tandis que Les Rocheforts impose sa consistance vineuse et son amplitude, tout en restant droit et énergétique. Persistance saline et tension définissent le superbe Clos des Maladries. Quant aux Revenants, complantation de cepages champenois confidentiels – pinot blanc, arbane, et petit meslier – c’est un jus salivant, a la bulle delicate, cisele, et persistent. Val L’Hermite, blanc de noirs aubois, tres type pinot noir, charme par sa structure et sa densite. Rosé de Craie combine caractère pâtissier, iodé, et une pointe de fruits rouges. Au vu de l’homogénéité qualitative, de la précision, et de la complexité des grandes cuvées, nous attribuons sans hésitation une première étoile à ce jeune vigneron talentueux.
Text from the guide: Etienne Calsac’s family winery is located in the commune of Avize. This young winemaker confirms the hopes we placed in him. He cultivates a few hectares of chardonnay, including the CLos des Maladries, in this grand cru prized by lovers of great blanc de blancs. The rest of his vineyard is located in Bisseuil, in the Marne Valley. His champagnes, which undergo malolactic fermentation, however, express a precise verticality, supported by proper aging. His cuvée Les Revenants, a blend of pinot blanc, arbane, and petit meslier, eloquently tells us about the forgotten tastes of Champagne. The wines presented this year are pure and racy. Bravo!
The wines: as usual, L’Echappée Belle offers a fine and tasty bubble, while Les Rocheforts imposes its vinous consistency and its amplitude, while remaining vertical and energetic. Salty persistence and tension define the superb Clos des Maladries. As for the Revenants, a co-plantation of confidential Champagne grape varieties – Pinot Blanc, Arbane, and Petit Meslier – it is a salivating juice, with delicate, chiseled, and persistent bubbles. Val L’Hermite, a Blanc de Noirs vinified in wood, charms with its structure and density typical of Pinot Noir. Rosé de Craie combines pastry character, iodine, and a hint of red fruits. In view of the qualitative homogeneity, precision, and complexity of the great wines, we attribute without hesitation a first star to this talented young winemaker.
SCORES
Extra Brut L’Echappee Belle – 91
Extra Brut Premier Cru Blanc de Blancs Les Rocheforts – 90
Extra Brut Rosé de Craie – 90
Extra Brut Val L’Hermite – 93
Le coup de <3
Brut Nature Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Clos des Maladries 2019 – 93
Maison Stephan in Decanter – 25 November 2024
Maison Stephane So’Brune, Côte-Rôtie, Rhône, France 2023
Valérie Courrèges, LA RVF N. 686 – Décembre 2024 / Janvier 2025
Cahors Nouvelle Physionomie du Vignoble du Lot
93/100 Clos Terre Kermès (Valérie Courrèges) Cahors Bois Carmin 2022
Le millésime chaleureux a mis du temps pour trouver la voix de l’élégance que Valérie Courrèges parvient à extraire des malbecs produits sur le plateau, plaçant ses vins en haut de la vague cadurcienne sur laquelle surfent les meilleurs. Les malbecs de 40 ans offrent à cette cuvée un toucher éclatant et profond sans se départir de la gourmandise qui souligne le style Courrèges.
The warm vintage took time to find the voice of elegance that Valérie Courrèges manages to extract from the Malbecs produced on the plateau, placing her wines at the top of the Cadurcian wave on which the best hail. The 40-year-old Malbec vines give this vintage a bright and deep touch without losing the gourmandise that underlines the Courrèges style.
Enric Soler in NYT – 13 December 2024
The Most Memorable Wines of 2024
Enric Soler Catalonia Istiu 2020
I have been writing about Enric Soler’s wines for several years now, and I see no reason to stop. Each time I try a bottle, it seems like a revelation.
Mr. Soler, a former sommelier, makes tiny amounts of white wine, all based on the xarello grape, best known as a traditional constituent of cava, the Catalonian sparkling wine, along with macabeu and parellada. But xarello can make wonderful still wines as well, as Mr. Soler and others have demonstrated in recent years.
His other cuvées are made entirely of xarello. Istiu, though, is half xarello and half malvasia. It’s got a lightning bolt of acidity and a texture that feels great in the mouth. I drank it as I was researching a piece on Sapin, perhaps the most exciting wine country today. This bottle is itself a compelling argument.