The New Wine Review Weekly: March 8, 2024 (copy 04)

YOUR SELOSSE IS (PROBABLY) UNDER SURVEILLANCE

Praise for legendary and pioneering grower Champagne producer Selosse, writes Alexandra McInnis, “would have us believe that we’re not dealing with Champagne at all” but something singular and almost mystical instead. Its rarity and splendor has inspired rafts of acolytes-slash-imitators. Its prices are stratospheric. Many fortunate enough to score allocations flip their bottles on the secondary market for quick, and significant, profits. Spurred by this, concerns over counterfeiting—and the unsolved theft of thousands of Selosse bottles and labels in 2013—in 2022 the estate began embedding NFC chips under the label. These give buyers an assurance of authenticity, provide information once scanned—and also permit Selosse to spot, and cut off, those who are scoring big profits from flipping bottles. That’s why, reports McInnis, some Selosse buyers now find “a hole on the back label where the NFC chip once was,” as resellers dispose of the chips to foil attempts to track them down. Read her fascinating dive into a very high-tech solution for a determinedly low-tech producer, how other producers are eying similar technologies—and above all how, as with much else in wine, “the smaller growers cracked the code first.”

RED BURGUNDY: THE STATE OF THE MARKET

“Calling it now,” declares major Burgundy fan Christy Canterbury MW. “The market bubble for expensive red Burgundy is deflating.” She points out that “prices are largely out of line with what they deliver. Only a few domaines have earned the right to breathe the rarefied air of such lofty altitudes.” Read her outstanding piece to hear more from the industry experts—among them the legendary somm and La Paulée founder Daniel Johnnes—she tapped to inform us about the latest market dynamics for the world’s greatest red wine.  

THE BEST DAMN WINE BAR IN . . . MAPLE SHADE, NEW JERSEY?

Believe it, writes senior correspondent Jason Wilson in the first installment of our recurring Off The Beaten Path series. Maple Shade’s Versi Vino is “one of the best wine bars in New Jersey” with a wine list that’s “deep, diverse, and of the moment” and thick with great bottles from all the cool-kid appellations: Loire, Canary Islands, Alto Aldige, Sierra de Gredos, Austria—you get the picture. And said wine list changes entirely every 60 days. Don’t miss owner Christine Zubris’ story of how her state’s long-standing byzantine booze laws played a role in Versi Vino’s location. Also major props to her for building a legit great place for wine nerds in a region that sorely needs it—and check out Jason’s top picks from Versi Vino’s current wine list.

THE NEW WINE REVIEW GUIDE TO SANTA BARBARA

“It’s hard to think of Santa Barbara without conjuring Paul Giamatti’s Miles” from Sideways, writes Sheila Yasmin Marikar, “cruising up the 101 in that cherry-red Saab, en route to prime Pinot Noir and a whole host of personal problems that do not need to be rehashed here.” She does not. Instead, she elicits the latest hottest recommendations from that dreamy coastal city, and gateway to the Santa Rita Hills. Check out her recommendations for tacos, bars, tasting rooms, museums, and restaurants—and call us old-fashioned, but we are already obsessing about the old school steakhouse that still proudly sports a salad bar.

HOT TOPICS ON OUR SUBSCRIBER-ONLY SLACK

A subscriber’s dispatch from what must be the only combination yoga studio/wine bar; whether or not it’s ill-advised to declare you dislike a grape of wine style and then challenge someone to change your mind; and, of course, the crazy bottles that everyone has been drinking..

WINE DEAL OF THE WEEK*

As obsessed as we are with Gonon’s appellation-defining Saint-Joseph, sometimes we think we like the estate’s Les Iles Feray Vins de Pays de l’Ardèche—and its open and readily accessible expression of Gonon’s mastery of Syrah–even better. As with the Saint-Joseph, its prices continue to head skyward, but we found places selling the 2020 or 2021 vintage for $80.

*NWR is not compensated for the links in this section.  

AROUND THE WINE (AND WHISKEY) WORLD

😡This story of convicted wine fraudster Rudy Kurwanian “leaning into his criminal celebrity” is far crazier and far more annoying/depressing than you could imagine.

🇺🇦Despite everything, they’re still making wine.

🥷  Turns out thieves aren’t just stealing Selosse.

❓We’re dying to know why, too.

As always, thanks for reading! See you next week for much more.

Santé!

The NWR Editors

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