Gerard Raphet Bourgogne Rouge Les Grands Champs 2019

Not kidding. This drinks *WAY* over its price tag. Raphet is well-known as a “Burgundy lover's Burgundy”, making beautifully-crafted wines from old vines since 1920’s. Les Grands Champs Cuvee Unique is a dark, rich, brooding, deeply complex wine, and is unfined, unfiltered, and spent 18 months in used French oak. Location-wise, it’s important to know that the vineyard is downslope from the Grand Cru Chambertin-Clos de Bèze, and is also completely flanked by Gevrey-Chambertin vineyards. It would be a fascinating and illuminating exercise to put this up against a LOT of MUCH pricier Gevrey wines! In short? LOAD UP on this gem -- simply a stunning value.

You’ll get much more deep red/blue fruit than you expect, we promise. Wow. Sweet black cherry, plum compote, currants and savory minerality, wrapped in the perfect amount of clove and cinnamon, rose petal and rhubarb...a colossal overdeliverer at $28. Rich, long, and will continue to improve for a decade, easily! With free shipping on 6, get as much as you can if you love killer Burg at a price like this! As wine merchants, we LIVE for this kind of find!

PAIRING IDEAS: Do chicken, but in a red wine (pinot noir!) based sauce. Here’s a recipe. This calls for a breast, but c’mon, use a thigh (or 2, or 3) -- why wouldn’t you? So much more flavor and harder to mess up. Bon appetit...

MUSIC SUGGESTIONS: We like some old ska music for this easygoing wine. Can’t go wrong with The Specials, of course, or go a little more indie and try a band I grew up with -- The Untouchables.