Julien Prelat is a producer that has recently become an absolute favorite. His single vineyard, single varietal bottlings create a perfect balance between profundity, depth of fruit and the mineral-laden tension that all the best Champagnes possess. He seeks perfection in his wines, yet remains humble in realizing that his vineyards will provide for him.

Julien Prelat

Don't miss Karine Prelat's bottlings!

"I am aware I am simply borrowing the lands I have inherited; I am faithful to this principle, cultivating my vines and developing my wines durably and sustainably. "- Julien Prelat

Such simple words yet filled with meaning, the inspired and talented Aube producer Julien Prelat's wines have clearly been imbued with this passion. The third generation of his family to tend the vines in Celles sur Ource, Julien and his wife Karine were the first of the Prelat surname to craft their own wines - the first vintage was 2010. Very much in the fashion of his friend Cedric Bouchard, Julien's vision is to not blend anything - one grape, one vineyard, one vintage.

Though he was born and raised in Champagne, it was in Julien's travels and education in Alsace & Beaujolais that largely informed his winemaking and embracing of a wealth of varietals. "I loved Burgundy in school," Julien admits, "But in Alsace I was impacted more by the grapes - Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Gewürztraminer - and wanted to find something between these two." Julien's early vintages, he sold as Vin Clair to a Maison, as Julien had no cellar, no winery left from his family. Within time, he began to accumulate enough equipment to bottle his own Champagne, starting with a humble 6000 bottles; today the Julien Prelat label will bear almost 30,000 bottles each year.

Julien's 7 hectares throughout the Aube have soils similar to what you'd see in Chablis - Kimmeridgian soils defined by the fossilized seashells throughout, all of which add a distinct minerality and pleasant salinity to the wines. As with a great Burgundy, the wines of the Aube broaden and become more vinous with air, and the same is true for Julien's wines. Presle may sound familiar as it is the same terroir as Cedric's wine of the same name, though Prelat's is entirely Chardonnay. La Lemblée consists of Pinot Blanc, and there is also a rare Pinot Gris called Les Côtes, from similarly-positioned terroirs to Presle. Les Vignes Basses is a Meunier-only cuvée, and two versions of Chantemerle are crafted - one a Blanc de Noirs, the other a Rosé, both of Pinot Noir. We are incredibly proud to bring to the market Julien's vintage wines - Les Reines (100% Chardonnay) and a Millesime, a tiny-production, barrel-fermented Pinot Noir.

Special attention should also be paid to the new wines of Karine Prelat, under whose label they have crafted three still wines from her family's vineyards in Riceys.

Viticulture & VInification

In the vineyard, Julien and Karine are ever-present, guiding the vines through each phase of the growing cycle. Only organic fertilizers are used, and the land is worked by hand, using small plows and tilling in between vines.

The wines are mostly vinified in stainless steel tanks to best control their temperatures, ensuring a more fine, complex wine. Beyond that, the elevage is done in the most natural way possible - the wines will age in fût de chêne, essentially Burgundy barrels, on their natural lees. The wines will be tasted throughout and sent to bottle for tirage when deemed ready.

In regards to the dosage for his wines, rarely will you see one with zero dosage - they do exist, but it is very much a crucial part of Julien & Karine's work to ensure the wine is framed perfectly, and if that means more or less sugar in the final wine, what's important is the taste and feel. "The number is not important," says Julien, "We taste 4-5 bottles blind, and will taste until it pops - 'Whoa! That's good!' - that's the feeling we want. Balance is most important, making it better and keeping freshness." There is no dogma, no rubric - just make good wine!

Guffens-Heynen

The year is 2020. Guffens-Heynen wines had been absent from the US market for over a decade; however, they remained one of the most sought-after domaines for true, ear-to-the-ground Burgundy collectors. We had enjoyed various vintages in Europe and Japan, but due to the 10 year gap of not having a US importer, we wanted to seek out the wines and understand them a bit more. A close friend in the know introduced us; arriving at the estate for the initial visit, we soon spent nearly 9 hours conversing about wine and life.

Coming away from this experience, we realize that we talk so much about focusing on young winemakers who are helping to re-define the future of winemaking - winemakers who are making bold, yet smart changes, and practicing healthy viticulture. It may not seem that Jean-Marie fits into this category, but he does in more ways than one! Jean-Marie and his wife Maine settled in Vergisson in 1976. Despite making wine since 1980, and quickly gaining attention with the banner 1982 vintage, so many of our best collectors had never heard of the estate. With the emphasis today on buzzwords of "sustainable" and "biodynamic" - words which we do feel so often can possess a true value in the right hands - we instead find Jean-Marie Guffens who cannot be defined by either a grape, region or method, and certainly not a region. He is a style unto himself.

After arriving in Vergisson from Belgium, they immediately immersed themselves into learning about winemaking and acquired their first plots of Pierreclos in 1979. Since the early 80s, Jean Marie has been pushing to prove that great Chardonnay doesn't solely come from the Côte de Beaune., nor does it have to have a Premier or Grand Cru designation on the label. His first official vintage was 1982, with the wines from Vergisson, followed by starting the negociant label Verget in 1990, which has in and of itself gained significant acclaim.

VITICULTURE | GUFFENS-HEYNEN

Guffens believes in making honest wines, and is propelled by the belief that his region of Macon can create wines of legendary quality; judging by some of the remarks of critics over the last few decades, few disagree with Guffens at all. Through his varied trials in the vineyards, Jean-Marie's methodologies were firmly in the camp of "less is more" - in fact, he coined the term "non-cultivation" to describe his approach. Whereas many a vigneron would have manicured the vine rows and ploughed regularly, Guffens would instead only plow once and very shallow, and continue to mow the cover crop throughout the year while allowing the vine to be "guided, not restrained." His argument is that maintaining the grass through the year, rather than ploughing it in will both reduce soil compaction and limit nitrogen; the resulting grapes are higher in acidity, smaller (leading to more concentration), and in conjunction with not de-leafing or hedging (which stimulates growth), promotes the vine churning all of its energy into the fruit.

The result? Guffens' clusters are wildly small with tiny grapes; yields are routinely around 37-38 hectoliters per hectare, and the small grapes lend a higher ratio of solids-to-juice; this means more dry extract, or, in more everyday terms, a less dilute and more concentrated flavor. Ripeness is always desired, and so there will be repeated "tries" through the vineyard over multiple weeks to ensure the clusters are picked at ideal times. In total, the Domaine wines’ now consist of 5.65 hectares in Vergisson, Pierreclos, and Davaye.

VINIFICATION | GUFFENS-HEYNEN

As important as picking ripe grapes is in the vineyard, pressing may be one of the most crucial parts of winemaking to Jean-Marie. The grapes are lightly crushed before being pressed. In the winery a modified Coquard press is used; this is also uncommon in Burgundy but more common in Champagne where delicacy is the name of the game. Much like Champagne, where the press cycles are intended to be separated by the regional laws, Jean-Marie will separate his free-run juice - the juice provided only by the weight of the grapes themselves - and the different cycles of the press; by doing so, he will be able to create his wild array of wines that are kaleidoscopic in flavors by virtue of varying levels of density via the pressure under which the grapes were squeezed.

For the most prized vineyards, the free-run and first-press juice is of utmost importance as it is both delicate and low in pH - meaning high-acidity which is hugely important for wines of such ripeness as the Guffens wines are. In short, sorting, fermenting and blending are performed intuitively, which is mirrored by the creative labeling that knows no bounds. Certain vineyards and wines are routinely repeated - Croux et Petits Croux, Juliette et les Vieilles de Chavigne, etc. - but there are no limits to what Guffens and his winemaker, Julien, can create in any given vintage. The top wines routinely are fermented in barrel, while the young-vine plots will be fermented in concrete. A varying amount of new oak is used, while batonnage is performed multiple times throughout to stimulate a healthy culture in the wine. Ultimately, as Guffens says, each wine "began with an idea." To translate that, no wine is formulaic; the signature here is that of vibrancy, feeling and a true sense of spirit, if not place.

We should note that, as with the wines of Guffens and Verget , there is not a formula by which either the winemakers or we as the importers can provide a simple, bulleted list for each wine. Thus, we have made each and every wine's description a bit of a conversation, and include bits of Jean-Marie's notes from his yearly letter which we are happy to share below:/b>

JEAN-MARIE GUFFENS' NOTES ON THE 2024 VINTAGE

"The harvests were very small at all three estates. At Domaine Guffens-Heynen, Julien has been in charge of the day-to-day management for the past year and assists me during the winemaking process. Our collaboration couldn't have been better, as the vintage was very complicated. Thanks to the improvements he proposed and organized in harvest reception, we were able to harvest each plot on the right day. This allowed us to double the daily harvest while reducing the workload, all without changing our philosophy. The result is astounding. The few people who have tasted these wines have all been dazzled by the precision on the nose, the fruity attack, and the length on the palate. I thought we could do as well as in 2014, but I'm sure we'll surpass it."

JEAN-MARIE GUFFENS' NOTES ON THE 2023 VINTAGE

Dear friends,
I'm not going to repeat Julien's comments on the climate from last year. Ultimately 2023 is in every way similar to 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022. It gets complicated and boring. The 2023s had a lot of water in the spring which avoided some water stress. For the rest, we once again went from a large harvest to a normal harvest due to the extreme heat which once again caused a blockage of ripeness. The vintage is, however, less marked by these conditions and is more similar to the 2020s than the 2022s. We can therefore speak more of a year of terroir than of heat. And so much the better.

As one of the forces behind the wines that Thatcher's brings you, Courtney gets to drink "A lot of wines that are affordable daily drinkers, and they are lovely. But I look for emotion in wine. Chiara Condello's Sangiovese's does just that." "It can bring similar emotion and pleasure as some of the top bottles I drink," Courtney admits. "It is incredible to drink a wine that retails at $22, (cheaper than a smoothie in Brentwood) and finding yourself wanting to open the same bottle a few days later.

Chiara Condello

In between the Apennine mountains and the Adriatic Sea, Romagna has been getting a new reputation, thanks to Chiara. The news is spreading quickly, and her wines are moving in and out of some of the top restaurants and retail shops, globally. In the foothills of the Apennine mountains, Chiara farms 10ha of Sangiovese organically. 2015 was her first vintage after working with her father for years at the family Domaine. Predappio’s unique soils are rich in marine fossils, giving Sangiovese grown here a luminous, suave and spiced character, coupled with the smaller berries with thicker skin, traditional to the region. Grapes are hand-harvested with some cuvees being de-stemmed and others not. Fermentation is in stainless steel tanks and open-top wood fermenters or larger tonneaux. The wines are aged in botti.

The Predappio is a blend of three different parcels of the estate all between 450 and 1,050 feet above sea level with an average age of 40 years. The soils vary from red clay and limestone to the local spungone. Predappio is destemmed, fermented on indigenous yeasts in temperature-controlled, stainless steel tanks, as well as upright, open-top wooden fermentation tanks and tonneaux. Aged for 12 months in used, 3.5HL Slavonian oak botti.

Le Lucciole is Chiara's Riserva. It's 100% Sangiovese sourced from a parcel of 0.8 hectares planted at a density of 5,500 vines at about 750m elevation. Planted on the local spungone soils. The wine is partially destemmed and fermented in open-top wooden tanks and tonneaux. The wine is aged for 2 years in botti and a year in the bottle.