Reviews — Terroir

Champagne is often discussed through familiar oppositions: Chardonnay or Pinot Noir, Blanc de Blancs or Blanc de Noirs, Côte des Blancs or Montagne de Reims. Yet the most revealing comparison is not always between regions or grape varieties. Sometimes it is between two producers who use the language of precision, place, and individuality in entirely different ways.

It is one of the pleasures of serious Beaujolais that the answer is rarely as simple as “it is all Gamay.” At Domaine de la Grand’Cour, Jean‑Louis Dutraive makes Fleurie from old vines, granite soils and a deliberately restrained cellar philosophy. Yet the wines from Champagne and Le Clos are never interchangeable. They share a producer, a grape and an appellation, but they are shaped by different positions, soils, vine material and élevage choices—and the differences become very clear once the bottles are side by side. For anyone who thinks Fleurie is merely floral, light and easygoing, this is exactly...

For more than four centuries, the Béru family has been the custodian of this historic Chablis estate. Once entirely sustained by its vineyards, the property suffered a devastating blow in the early 1900s when phylloxera destroyed all its vines, forcing wine production to cease for decades.