What’s up winos,

Feels like every week I’m telling you about a cracking new producer that we’ve added to our list of direct imports. What can I say? We luv 2 shop. And this was a very judicious purchase, if I say so myself.

The latest producer to join the Parched ranks is Maxime Crotet, Burgundy up and comer and all around gr8 guy. We met Maxime at La Dive last month and as soon as we tasted the wines, we knew we had to pounce (before another circling importer got their hands on him).

Maxime spent eight years working alongside Cossard, rising through the ranks from cellar rat to right hand man before striking out on his own in 2021. He could have picked a better year. While he’d always planned to work negoce, he had hoped to do said negoce within Burgundy, but ‘21 made that impossible, so instead he sourced fruit from Beaujolais, Alsace and the Jura, all of which he harvested himself and then vinified in his cellar in Beaune. His vibrant first vintage was a smash success. Like his mentor Cossard, Maxime vinifies as naturally as humanly possible, with no additives unless absolutely necessary. Fermentation takes place in small tanks before the juice is transferred to neutral barrels for 8-10 months. He’s a proper talent, and we’re so excited to be bringing his wines into the UK. And guess what? For good Burgundy, the price point is pretty impossible to beat.

Three whites to start. Old-vine Aligote from Pernand-Vergelesses, planted on limestone rich soils. Precise, mineral and aromatic, it’s a singing example of that oft-overlooked grape. Then onto his Macon Peronne Chardonnay, a fresh, lively and chalky bottling that drinks velvety-smooth. Finishing up the whites is his Jura Chardy - steely and flinty like we expect from the region, but with an elegant roundness more often found in Burgundy.

Now for the reds - starting off with his Passe-Tout-Grains, aka a Pinot and Gamay blend, interestingly all sourced from the same vineyard, which is 65 years old at that. 15 days’ whole bunch maceration is followed by a year in barrel for a great entry point into Maxime’s style: fresh, lifted and tonic-like. His cuvee ‘Elegance’ does what it says on the tin. Elegant! Duh! Supple and silky, it’s full of delicate red fruit and tea-like spice. Rounding out the range is the Hautes Cotes Vieilles Vignes, perfumed, aromatic and structured.

Now onto another young upstart - we just got a fresh load of Thibaud Boudignon, one of the rising stars in Anjou, producer of bold, exciting Chenins from exceptional vineyards. Start off with the humbly-named but not humbly-natured Anjou Blanc, crystalline and pure, before moving on to the Cuvée à François(e), dedicated to both of his parents (one named François, one named Françoise - meant 2 b!) and which truly stuns with its electrifying energy and balance of citrus and tropical fruit. Head for the Clos de Fremine for a beautifully floral expression, full of concentrated stone fruit and minerality, then the Vigne Cendrée, a super rare wine due to the fact that it comes from a plot that measures a measly 0.5 hectares - a salty, briney, focused bottling that’s got years ahead of it yet. The comforting, moreish Clos de la Hutte is a textured, ripe-fruited dream. Then the finale: the Franc de Pied, proper hen’s teeth, unicorn, Loch Ness monster levels of rare. Planted without rootstocks, which is a game for only the bravest vignerons (Chidaine and Dagueneau among them), the idea is to showcase the original terroir of the site before American rootstocks got involved. Just…dazzling, desert island drinking.

Enough of France (is there such a thing?) and over to Austria - our next tasting will be on the 9th of April with Weingut Heinrich, pioneers of biodynamics in Austria and makers of excellent (and excellently priced) natural wines. One to get around immediately, which you can conveniently do by clicking here.

That’s all! Love u!

xoxo

Megan