The Tasting | Bichot Horizon Chardonnay & Pinot Noir | Aubrey Stout

​Bichot Horizon Chardonnay - Albert Bichot is a Burgundy house with roots stretching back to the 1500s. 

​In 1831 Bernard Bichot started his career as a wine merchant in Monthélie, just south of Beaune.  Now, nearly 200 years later, Albéric Bichot runs the show, conducting the elaborate symphony that is managing a Burgundy giant with a centuries' old reputation to uphold.  He focuses on the future, insisting on organic viticulture in his Côte-d'Or vineyards.  His focus on the innovation and forward motion took his gaze further south, to Limoux.  He wanted to make Pinot Noir and Chardonnay of the same exceptional quality as the Burgundy that practically runs through his veins, but in a more southerly terroir, and therefore more affordable.  By the time even entry level Burgundy makes it through the US import market and into shops, it's typically $25 a bottle or more.  Southern France is the promised land for conscientious producers to prove that the south is not just for cheap bulk wine.  There are exceptional terroirs to be found -- and no surprise, Bichot found some.  For Bichot's fresh and breezy Horizon wines, fruit from terroirs from around Limoux are blended to create harmonious, pleasurable wines perfect for everynight drinking.  The Autan is one of the areas that provides richness and approachability to the wines, with ripe, warm-climate fruit.  The hint of butter in this Chardonnay comes from the Autan grapes.  It's balanced by fruit from the Upper Valley, with cooler temps and leaner, mineral fruit with bracing acidity.  The result is a Chardonnay with notes of flowers, citrus zest, ripe peach, and toasted buttery hazelnuts.  Drink it with pasta with cream sauce laced with turmeric, heavy cream, and parmesan cheese, showered with crispy bits of roasted cauliflower, and showered with chopped parsley.  

(Click here for the recipe--just top it with one head of cauliflower, sliced thinly and roasted with olive oil and crunchy salt until crispy and golden.)

2.  Bichot Horizon Pinot Noir - A Pinot brimming with black fruit -- blackberry, blackcurrant, black cherry -- balanced with sour cherry and raspberry notes.  There is a hint of spice and cedar and an herbal, menthol note.  Like its sister Chardonnay, there is ripe, dense fruit balanced by the Upper Valley fruit for freshness and lift.  It is a playful, bright Pinot made by serious Burgundian winemakers who know how to coax a full flavor symphony out of this demure mysterious grape.  It's the perfect Pinot for cool autumn nights, for lamb sausages on the grill with garlicky yogurt, or salmon on a bed of fresh herbs.  

​Aubrey Stout (Aubrey is a talented wine specialist at Imbibe Chattanooga).