July looks to be a hot one here in KC and we want to keep both the lovers of red and lovers of white wine happy and satisfied this blistery summer season. With that focus in mind we went to Burgundy for your wines of the month. With a crisp, bright and personable Chablis (Chardonnay) for your white and an elegant, layered but light bodied Marsannay (Pinot Noir) for your red selection. Both of these wines conjure thoughts and memories (albeit vicarious for some of us) of the French countryside right before harvest. As  the vines start to get weighty with the density of their fruit which basks blissfully in the sun getting plumper by the day and eager vintners watch and wait on baited breath their growth anticipating what is sure to be another fruitful vintage among the glazed and colored tiled roofs of Burgundy and her vineyards.

 2007 Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis PREMIER CRU Quintessence de l’Aval du Serein, Burgundy, France

 Sadly some boxed wine companies, who will go unnamed, (Franzia), have given Chablis a bad rap. They are not the generic white blends that come in bladders surrounded by cardboard and bright splashes of color and bold writing. What they are in fact, are delicious ripe, complex wines made from Chardonnay that are as much a part of the history of French winemaking as great the Bordeauxs and sparkling miracles of Champagne.
A native to the Cote d’Or, Jean Marc came to Chablis over twenty years ago when he married a vine grower’s daughter. As part of a gift to the newly married couple, the father turned over a hectare (close to 2.5 acres) of vines in the small village of St. Bris-le-Vineux. The couple put out there first wine in 1973. Since then that single hectare has become the base of an estate reaching over 80 hectares. His relative newness to winemaking afforded Jean Marc to be both experimental and still embrace the time tested methods traditional to Chablis.  Many others in the region have followed his progressive, but traditionally sensitive, methods to increase both quality and consistency.

Jean Marc has said that his wines take their character from the soil and so to preserve the integrity of that character he has made his Chablis with no oak treatment. The rich minerals of the earth these vines grow in is evident in the playful seabed and limestone aromas as well as the slight chalky acidity in the finish making this wine ideal with seafood and crisp salads this summer.  Bright yellow in color with hints of honey, Myer lemon, green and yellow apple, green pear and quince with a slight herb quality along with white pepper and flowers of acacia, tree fruit blossoms, white lily and orchid.  
 
 

2005 Domaine Charles Audoin, Au Champ Salomon Marsannay, Burgundy, France

Just south of the City of Dijon, sitting blissfully at the northern part of the famous Cote de Nuits St. Georges, the gatekeeper of the Cote d’Or (The Golden Hillside) which is arguably the best Pinot Noir producing region in the world, sits Marsanny.  Bringing to the thirsty seekers of great Burgundies a rich, endearing and age-worthy wine without the price tags of those a mere few miles south.   
In 1972, Charles Audoin, representing his families fourth generation, took over at the Estate.  Charles and his oenologist (winemaking) wife, Francoise, work together harmonious to use their 30 acres of property to make beautiful red Burgundy.  Where he looks for structure and backbone in a wine, she looks for fruit and fineness, creating a perfect marriage for Pinot Noir in a bottle and at our dinner table.
It’s beautifully alluring red color pleases the eye while our senses of smell are enraptured in aromas of rose petal, orange peel , dried cranberry, stewed strawberries and raspberries, wild mushroom, vanilla, anise, cinnamon, clove and slight herbs de province with dominant lavender aromas.  The taste is a sensation with more cooking spice flavors, and dried black cherries with strong acids and firm tannins giving the Pinot Noir a long and pleasant finish. Best with food, this wine with age well for many years but has very approachable character now. Enjoy this wine with some of your heavier cedar plank grilled fish or lighter grilled meats such as pork chops.