- Village Level Quality
- Remarkable Concentration, Clarity of Fruit, Minerality and Balance
- Incredible 2014 Vintage
- Under $24.99 and Lower By the Case
It is that time of year now of eggnog, turkey, Charlie Brown's Xmas, bitter cold weather, leaves changing colors and of course the rollout of Fass Selections wines of the year. As always there is an interesting methodology about how this selection came about. Before that the core tenets of what I look for in Fass Selections White Wine of the Year are below.
1: Ideally the wine should be under $30 and be affordable by the case
2: The wine should provide extraordinary value for the price, appellation and peer group.
3: It needs to have all the core tenets of The Fass Selections Style (please click link or see below).
4: It should come from a top recent vintage.
5: It needs to be a crossover wine in that the hardcore list members will gobble it up but also the occasional customers will also pick up some bottles.
6: As this is Fass Selections and this is white wine we gotta have a slathering of minerals and some
It's a lot of tenets, I know, but as soon as I step foot in France in March and Germany/Italy in August it is on my mind and the hunt is on. Thank goodness there are producers who keep older vintages on hand and have late release schedules. That is the case with today's producer and today's white wine of the year.
It is unusual but increasingly common these days to have a White Burgundy vintage like2014, where literally every wine is great to profound and if you could not make wine in that great to profound scale you should maybe go into another profession, followed or preceded by vintages that don't have that acclaim. 2014 is bookended by the difficult 2015 and 2013 vintages. Difficult meaning you have to search and extensively taste to find great to profound wines and not every wine is great like 2014. That is why people go nuts over vintages like 2014 which seem to come along with increasing rarity.
And Now, Our White Wine of The Year
Today's white wine of the year easily checks off all the boxes listed above and is a tremendous value. The 2014 Domaine JanotBos Bourgogne Blanc which can be had today for $24.99 a bottle on a 4-Pack and $23.99 on a case purchase is the Fass Selections white wine of the year. It was a risk to offer a winery that some of you have not tasted because we are shipping the first bottles now but I think the majority of you trust me by now. This is an unreal Bourgogne Blanc and it's really village level quality in Bourgogne Blanc clothing and it comes from absolutely the Fassiest estate we have for White Burgundy.
- Vineyards The fruit in this wine is a blend of vineyards in Meursault (Les Pellons) and in Puligny-Montrachet (Champ Perrieres) which is very serious for a Bourgogne Blanc. This wine is what great 2014 White Burgundy is about.
- Aromatics This smells like a high class village wine off the bat and that's what I said blind as Richard Bos tasted me blind when I was there. Super mineral and super expressive nose with so much limestone character and big apple and pear fruits. Vivid and pure aromas. Loads of wet stones.
- Palate Incredible clarity of fruit, flavor authority and sappy minerals and tasty present and beguiling acidity along with terrific purity. Deep, very concentrated with tremendous village level finesse and sap. Terrific cut and acidity and that intensely friendly drinkable yet classical style that sets 2014 apart.
- Finish Long winding mineral finish that pitter patters down your palate. Really terrific mouthfeel and almost a sweet tart impression the palate. Tactile and grippy. Powerful and persistent this has the guts to age 10 more years. But this is glorious now and I am proud to call it my white wine of the year.
These are the FASSIEST white Burgundies in the portfolio. What does that mean? It means these have what I, if could create a killer white Burgundy in a lab, would want in the Lyle Fass perfect White Burgundies.
What Makes a Wine Fassy?
1) Balancing Acidity. First of all, these wines have acid to keep them fresh. Like acid you cannot believe. Martin Müllen acids. Ever present acids that balance the fruit on the palate but never seem forced or too much. These wines are the FASSIEST acid profile of any of my Burg producers. I loved the first sip and haven't looked back.
2) Juiciness. The wines must also be juicy. Man these are juicy. Electric. The only word is electric.
3) Fruit. These wines have glorious fruit of the sweet tart kind but they have their moments of opulence as well.
4) Complexity. I love delicious fruity, juicy wines as much as the next guy but what really gets me going is a wine that has the complexity that I can really sit back and contemplate.
5) Punch Above their Weight. I love wines that taste like a level or two above what they are (e.g. village wines that taste like 1er crus). I can confidently say this about everything that JanotBos bottles.
6) SUPER Small Production!
Richard Bos of the new Fass Selection estate, Domaine JanotsBos is an outsider who came, he saw, and by my tasting in his cellars in March, he conquered. Richard is from the Netherlands and still commutes back and forth between the winery in Meursault and his home in the Netherlands where he still has friends and family. Richard's partner is Thierry Janots. Janots was the part time winemaker for a number of years at Comte Lafon. Both have been killing the game since 2005. They don't own their vineyards like many outsiders in Burgundy but have connections to them and visit often and have great relationships with the land owners who they coordinate with to get the grapes the way that they want them.
I've tasted tons of white Burgundies from top producers and I am even more convinced that the JanotBos wines are in that tier and offer brilliant value to boot. These are top top values as they have the insane depth of the top guys but are not priced like that. 12 years is a small nugget in time for a winery in Burgundy. One second on the Doomsday clock. And in that time they have raised waves. For high quality Burgundy these are a must.
2014 Domaine JanotBos Bourgogne Blanc -
$26.99 ($99.96 4-pack, $287.88 12-pack) (LIMITED)
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