MCF Rare Wine Ltd.
 

Olivier Merlin Bourgogne 2015 $24
Gruhier Bourgogne Epineuil l'Ame des Dannots 2014 $35

SIX PACK (3 of each) $177
MIXED CASE (6 of each with 10% discount) $318.60
 
Bourgogne Two Ways

I'll start today with a little window on the life of a wine merchant.  

This is a little nuance of the job that nobody really talks about, but I bet is something that every wine buyer will tell you has happened to them at one point or another.  

You taste a wine you like, say a Chinon, and, having liked it, go in for a drop.  

Then, an hour later or a day later, a different rep comes in and pours you another Chinon that you like just as much (or, worse, even more) as the one you already bought.  

For really big stores or restaurants with shelves to pack or page after page of wine list to fill, it isn't a problem because you can gladly buy both and not worry as much about one cannibalizing the other's sales.  But when you have a small shop or wine list, and need to be dilligent with your curation, it can be a bit of a bummer.  

Normally, if the second wine is as good or better, then you have to wait until you sell the first one.  

That's, of course, not to say that you feel bad about selling the first wine because it was equally good in its own right, but you're always thinking about, and can't wait to stock, that second one.  

Sometimes, though, when the wines are both so good, and both so different, it works out to have them both on the shelf (or in your email offer).  

So, the reason I bring this all up is that, just yesterday, I tasted a wonderfully pure, impressively powerful, insanely mineral Bourgogne Rouge 2015 from Olivier Merlin with my 1:30 appointment that I knew I had to write about.  

Then, when my 3:30 appointment walked in, he too had an equally delicious, though comepletely different Bourgogne Rouge 2014 from Domaine Gruhier in his bag.  Where the first one was quite firm/pure/mineral, this one was so friendly, transparent and eloquent.  It showed a darker fruit that was almost weightless in its joyfully textured complexity.  

Rats!  This one was so good too.  

But, being that these wines were actually so different, I instantly knew that, together, they'd be a perfect lesson in contrast - a perfect illustration of how one grape from two different places in the same region and from vintages just one year apart, can produce two completely different wines.  

They're also another great pair of reds for your Summer table!

Both of these wines are scheduled to arrive in the 2nd week of July.  

Olivier Merlin Bourgogne 2015 $24
from a highly granitic plot in the Maconnais that literally abuts the Beaujolais, this is one of the most intensely mineral and red-fruited Bourgognes I've had in a long time.  Impressively structured, it's a great expression of the stellar 2015 vintage, and one that, for a mere $24, will also age wonderfully over the next few years.  

Gruhier Bourgogne Epineuil l'Ame des Dannots 2014 $35
from the opposite end of Burgundy, in the town of Epineuil which lies just ten minutes from Chablis, this is an impossibly delightful glass of Pinot Noir.  It's supremely elegant, with weightless dark fruits and all manner of spice and earth in a perfectly balanced package. The increbile freshness on the finish keeps you coming back for more.  If the Merlin Bourgogne is a serious, sports car of a wine, this is your rag top roadster - no frills, just pure joy.  


Matt Franco