How to set off a perfect meal with friends? With some of the best apertif wines in the world. Former Krug cellarmaster Eric Rodez makes a decadent, structured Champagne from Ambonnay’s best fruit. Prager makes some of the most crystalline, extreme hi-def and penetrating dry Riesling in the world and Moreau Naudet is the chef’s kiss of fresh, mouthwatering Chablis. Texture, salinity, pure mouthwatering fruit. All personal favorites, selected by me for the purpose of revealing the world’s wine treasures!

Rodez acclaim:

• 92Jeb Dunnuck

  The nose of the NV Champagne Blanc de Noirs Brut is generous with ripe black cherry, dried rosemary, shitake mushroom, and chalk. The plate is concentrated without weight and has a rounded and balanced mousse, with ripe berries, raspberry liqueur, and a chalky mineral texture with fine grained structure. It has an elegance within its structure that is quite compelling. A fantastic gastronomic wine, to carry through an entire meal or have on its own. Best after 2022.

• 91Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

  Disgorged in April 2020 with four grams per liter dosage, the latest release of Rodez' NV Brut Blanc de Noirs is already quite expressive, offering up aromas of mirabelle plum, raspberries, toasted almonds, honeycomb and white flowers. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and gourmand, with ripe but racy acids and an enveloping core of fruit that's complemented by a pillowy mousse, it's extroverted but precise. What's more, it will be even better with a year or two on cork.

Prager acclaim:

• 98James Suckling

  What a stunning example of cool climate riesling. It’s full-bodied and deep, but so cool and delicate, packing in sleek layers of honeysuckle, apricots, lemons and grapefruit married to thyme and crushed rock. So long and seamless, with tension and focus that just keeps going.

• 94Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

  The 2022 Ried Klaus Riesling Smaragd opens with a dense, spicy Riesling nose that is slightly overripe yet precise, with notes of raisins and grapefruit. Dense and powerful on the palate, it's very intense, spicy and tangy, with good concentration and juiciness. This is a complex, well-supplied Riesling with very good length.

Moreau Naudet acclaim:

92-94pts

Wine Advocate

Review Date: 03/2025

Sourced from 60- to 77-year-old vines in four of this premier cru's climats, including Séchet, Moreau-Naudet’s 2023 Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons is vinified 70% in tank, with the remainder in oak (old 228-liter barrels and a few 600-liter foudres). Opening from the glass with an expressive bouquet of tangerine zest, white flowers, pear and oyster shell, it’s followed by a medium to full-bodied palate with ample chalky extract and a saline finish. It’s broader than Beauregard but simultaneously racier than Montmains. This estate has seen no less than five generations, but it only marketed its first bottles in 1991. Today, Virginie Moreau presides over this 25-hectare domaine following the premature passing of Stéphane Moreau in 2016. The order of the day is organic (though not certified) farming, harvesting ripe yet clean fruit cropped at modest yields and extended maturation—18 months on the lees in a combination of used oak barrels (mostly 228-liter, averaging 10 years old) and stainless steel, with final settling in tank for two to four weeks. After a series of sunny vintages, Virginie has started to vinify more wine in tank (Montmains and Valmur are now matured entirely in stainless steel), as she believes this helps retain more of the classically Chablisien signatures. These wines are always concentrated and textural, among the most characterful to be found in Chablis. The range of premier cru bottlings is the focus at this address, typically attaining its apogee(KK)