Your Chartreuse Substitute

It’s a familiar problem in the wine and spirits industry. The world discovers an artisanal producer, goes crazy for it, gobbles up all the supply, and then leaves retailers and customers with a shortage.

The latest craze has been Chartreuse, the long-standing French herbal liqueur that has been made by Benedictine monks in small batches for centuries. And that, of course, is the issue—these monks can’t work fast enough to keep up with supply!

In the meantime, cocktail fans who rely on Chartreuse for a number of insanely-popular drinks (like The Last Word, along with others) have been left without one of their key ingredients and forced to pay scalper prices for what little Chartreuse they can find.

Here at Mission, we’d like to introduce you to another historic French herbal liqueur that can take over in the meantime and we’d hardly call it settling. Fontbonne has been produced in France’s Burgundy region since 1874, a Dijonaisse delicacy that dates back 150 years. Maison Fontbonne, the sole producer, distills 26 plants, roots and spices in Dijon to create this unique liqueur whose production process has remained a secret since its inception.

The recipe includes: estragon, fennel, pine bud, liquorice, rosemary, cardamom, lavender, elderflower, gentian, basil, cinnamon, thyme, chamomile, sage, laurel, caraway, cumin, coriander, maniguette, orange peel, juniper, angelica, iris, lemon peel, and black tea in quantities that will remain a secret.

However, for those of you who are in dire need of a Last Word substitute, we’ve got you covered. Check out Fontbonne for all your mixology needs in the new era of contraband Chartreuse!

Fontbonne Herbal Liqueur $56.99

Bordeaux Bargains Are Back

They say the cool kids don’t drink Bordeaux anymore, opting instead for non-interventionist Beaujolais or natural wines from around the world.

Here at Mission, we say: FANTASTIC! Or as Neal Martin writes in his Vinous review about the following wine: “SUPERB!”

The fewer people drinking our beloved Bordeaux right now, the lesser the demand and the lower the prices. Look at the 2019 Château Fonreaud as a shining example, one of the esteemed properties of the Listrac whose wines continually achieve higher-than-expected standards of quality. We’ve just scooped up a chunk of cases from France for one of the best Bordeaux values we’ve sourced in over a year and we couldn’t be more excited to tell you about it.

Bordeaux has hit a string of great vintages for the last few years running, starting with 2019 and moving into 2022. With all the great wines being made year after year, and with prices inching higher and higher due to the great press (and some greed, of course), things had to adjust at some point—and now we’re seeing that great correction.

Over the past few months, a number of the top châteaux began slashing their prices, allowing us here at Mission to snatch up back vintages of top wines at fantastic prices, and then pass those savings along to you. We’re always keeping our eye out for Bordeaux discounts and this one really delivers.

Let’s look at the key points:

• Château Fonreaud is located in the Listrac appellation along Bordeaux’s left bank, one of the most important regions up until the economic crisis of the 1930s. While the other Médoc appellations—St. Julien, Margaux, Pauillac, St. Estèphe—get all the fanfare, Listrac has the highest elevation on the left bank and gets the best drainage, which is important and often completely overlooked in today’s cult Cabernet climate.

• Building on that last point, the highest elevation vineyards in Listrac are at Château Fonreaud. Planted in gravel over limestone soils, the reds tend to be split somewhat evenly between Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot with just a touch of Petit Verdot, but all three varietals have a beautiful balance of fruit and minerality due to their fantastic vineyards.

• The wines at Fonreaud were somewhat inconsistent between 1988 and 2001, but really began to hit their stride in 2005. A decade after that, with new investment and vineyard management, the potential of these prime vineyards was unlocked and the reviews began pouring in.

The best part about the 2019 Fonreaud is that it already has a few years of bottle age and is ready to drink tonight. Decanting helps, and of course a finely cooked steak unlocks one of the most magical flavor combinations in the entire world (beef + Bordeaux), but you don’t need to be a meat eater to appreciate what’s going on in this bottle. Check out the glowing reviews for more information and grab your bottles tonight!

2019 Chateau Fonreaud Listrac-Medoc (Elsewhere $20+) $16.99

93 POINTS: DECANTER - Rustic on the nose, bramble fruits and a touch of herbaceousness. The palate is well textured, good grip from the tannins but the fruit is coming across a little dry at this point. Good initial juiciness - bright and vivid cherry - and great acidity which is lively. I like the chalky, almost mineral aspect to it once the tannins have subsided with an enjoyable cooling finish. Lots of excellent potential. Drink 2023-2035.

92 POINTS: VINOUS - The 2019 Fonréaud has a well-defined, focused bouquet offering blackberry, bilberry, cedar and light minerally aromas. The palate is medium-bodied with finely chiseled tannins, great depth and poise, and good density and definition on the cedary finish. What a great Listrac we have here! Superb. Drink 2025-2042.

The Most Anticipated Cognac Release of 2024

Remember when the Scotch world was limited to Johnnie Walker, Dewar’s, Chivas, and Cutty Sark?

That wasn’t because dozens of single malt distilleries didn’t exist all across Scotland fifty years ago, but rather because each distillery sold its whisky to a blending house rather than releasing its own individual single malt brand. As a category, single malt whisky is a relatively new phenomenon!

The same situation has been at work in France’s Cognac region for the last century, with brands like Hennessy, Remy, Martell, and Courvoisier purchasing various brandies from smaller distillers in the area, and blending them into the products we know and love.

Only recently have smaller distillers begun venturing out on their own, releasing their self-distilled Cognacs under their brand labels, just like we’ve seen with single malt Scotch whisky over the last thirty years. Perhaps the most anticipated of those brands is the heralded Martingale Cognac, which launched recently in America to huge fanfare.

Developed by the Thomas family, a generations-deep distiller that has been producing Cognac for more than 100 years, Martingale is the first stand-alone release from the storied label. Historically, the Thomas family’s Cognac has been sold to the aforementioned blending houses, but with times (and tastes) changing, the younger generation thought it was time for Martingale Cognac to market itself on its own merit.

Free of any additional caramel coloring, sweeteners, or boisé, Martingale allows its heavy Borderies component (the sub-region known for fuller, fruitier Cognacs, as opposed to Grand Champagne and Petit Champagne) to shine through. That freshness and unbridled vibrancy stands in stark contrast to the overly-sweet and cloying characteristics we see in mass market Cognacs today. The Thomas family’s 600 hectare property spans between four of the main Cognac regions, giving it depth and differentiation within the blend from the various terroir-driven characteristics.

This first release of Martingale is brimming with white flower blossoms, vanilla, stone fruits, a distinctive nuttiness, and a vivacious lift of spice that leaves you wanting more with every sip. With its beautiful bottle and sleek, modern design, it’s clear that the Thomas family is going after a completely new generation of Cognac lover. We think they’re on the right track, as the clean, unadulterated flavors of Martingale are a far cry from the heavier, more wood-driven (and dare we say “artificially-enhanced”) elements from the big brands.

We think it’s one of the best new Cognac releases we’ve tasted in the last decade.

And…while other stores are selling the new Martingale for $120+, we’ve got it here at Mission for just $99.95 for a limited time only (price good through 6/11/24).

Buy your bottle of Martingale Cognac here!

Title X + Mister Cartoon Presale

Legendary Los Angeles-based artist Mister Cartoon—a longtime collaborator with the likes of Eminiem, Dr. Dre, Travis Barker, Louis Vuitton, Nike, and Supreme—recently teamed up with Matt and Mark Suroff from Title X Wines to create what is by far the most modern, and perhaps the coolest, wine release of 2024 with this incredibly rare bottle limited to just 385 magnums in total!

Having already sold out their allocation at a huge LA event a few weeks back (with Mister Cartoon in attendance and lowriders abound), we were lucky enough to secure 12 of these soon-to-be museum pieces, for both serious wine and art collectors.

Mister Cartoon drew his inspiration for the instantly-iconic bottle from pinup tattoos and the tradition of lowrider artwork, then entrusted the team from Title X to turn that vision into a 3D designer art piece. Deemed impossible by over thirty glass companies, and taking over five years to eventually realize, the team at Title X ultimately teamed with a third-generation glass company in Mexico City willing to take on the challenge!

The “Lady Impala” bottles are filled with fantastic wine, to boot. A finely-tuned Bordeaux blend from California’s Happy Canyon AVA lines the inside of each magnum, a blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Petit Verdot, and 10% Merlot from three different vineyard sites aged in 80% new oak and vinified in a classic Central Coast style by esteemed winemaker Tyler Russell.

This allocated, sculptural bottle marks the first release from Title X and is the first custom mold of its kind created for wine. We got to sit down with Matt Suroff recently, who told us: “The custom molds we craft are a true canvas for each artist, with their work seamlessly integrated into the glass itself. We don't merely see the bottles as vessels, but as unique pieces of art that shatter the paradigm of conventionality in the world of wine.”

We have secured just 12 bottles from the Mister Cartoon + Title X “Lady Impala” launch at $1250 per bottle, each encased in a custom-designed box. 

Given the demand we saw at the Los Angeles launch a few weeks back, we’re assuming serious collectors for art will be gobbling these up just to own a physical piece created by Mister Cartoon himself! Grab your piece of LA history while we still have them.

Title X Mister Cartoon “Lady Impala” Bordeaux Blend 1.5L $1249.99

These bottles are being sold on a pre-order basis and orders will be fulfilled before July 31st.

A Taste of Campania

The Campi Flegrei region just north of Naples along the coast of Campania is world-renowned for its incredible cuisine. With capers, black olives, fresh seafood, spicy chilies, and food so full of flavor that your taste buds practically explode, the wines from this region are made to pair with a wide variety of dishes and accompany just about anything.

That’s why we LOVE both the whites and reds from La Sibilla, part of the always-inspired Oliver McCrum import portfolio here in California. 

Specializing in Falanghina for the whites and Piedirosso for the reds, these indigenous grapes speak to more than just the food of Campania. They speak for the generations of growers and winemakers before them who have been tending these vineyard sites for more than a century. 

La Sibilla’s winemaker Luigi di Meo sums it up perfectly: “Our viticultural tradition is the story of our family, and can be represented by the roots of a vine that combine with the soil over the years, going ever deeper in search of minerals. We are like those roots, and for at least five generations we have worked this fascinating and mysterious little outcropping of earth called the Campi Flegrei."

With their original, ungrafted vines and low alcohol levels, the flavor that Luigi packs into every bottle has to be tasted to be believed. If you’ve been curious to taste more of Italy’s incredible variety of indigenous varietals and rustic wine beauty, we can’t think of a better place to start than here. 

And check out the great press!

2022 La Sibilla Campi Flegrei Falanghina $18.99 

91 POINTS: VINOUS - The 2022 Falanghina mixes savory and sweet with a rich blend of young peaches and mint complemented by hints of raw almond and custard. This splashes across the palate, juicy and spry, showing ripe yellow pits fruits complicated by salty mineral tones that mount toward the close. The 2022 seems to crackle and reverberate with saline tension through the close, as it cleans up beautifully and leaves the senses fully refreshed.

2022 La Sibilla Campi Flegrei Piedirosso $19.99

92 POINTS: VINOUS - The 2022 Piedirosso opens with a wild bouquet of spiced blood orange, white pepper, nectarines and cloves. It’s soft and silky in texture with spicy raspberry fruits and hints of sour citrus complemented by a cascade of tropical inner florals. This unique and beautiful beast finishes lightly structured yet teeming with residual energy, leaving the mouth-watering as hints of tangerine fade. While I can’t imagine aging this for too long in the cellar, the 2022 overdelivers and should continue to do so for at least the next three to five years.

The Best New Bourbon of 2024

There is a litany of great things that we can say about the new Leopold Bros 8 year old cask strength Bourbon finished in Three Chamber rye barrels, so we’ll list them here right off the bat:

• It’s the oldest whiskey ever released from the revered Leopold Bros at 8 years of age.

• It’s also the highest proof whiskey they’ve ever released at 55% ABV.

• It may be the most transparent whiskey ever released by any American distillery, with its proof-it bottle tag. Simply hold any smart phone near the tag on the bottle’s neck and a window pops up with an 11 minute video from Todd Leopold and a chemistry book’s worth of stats and specs.

• It’s the most fairly-priced limited edition Bourbon this year at a more than reasonable $59.99

• Finally, it’s easily the best whiskey that Leopold Bros has ever released and the best Bourbon we’ve tasted so far in 2024.

Leopold Bros 8 Year Old Cask Strength Bourbon $59.99 (Limit of 1 bottle)

What makes this whiskey so special, you ask?

It’s the finishing in the Leopold Bros own Three Chamber rye whiskey casks that puts this release over the top. For those who don’t know the story, Todd Leopold resurrected the Three Chamber still from its pre-Prohibition roots almost a decade ago (this video from Eater with over 580,000 views already is worth a watch).

This one-of-a-kind still creates a whiskey so oily and thick on the palate that even the whiskey’s residue inside the barrel once emptied is enough to beef up a standard Bourbon. And that’s exactly what the Leopolds did. They took their new 8 year pot-distilled Bourbon—which after 7 years is finally starting to evaporate and go up in proof from their barrel entry ABV of 50%—and decanted it into freshly-emptied Three Chamber rye whiskey casks for a finishing period of a few additional months.

The sweet and supple texture that those casks added to this Bourbon is simply phenomenal.

It’s a rich, round, mouth-coating Bourbon, loaded with brown sugar and caramel with plenty of sweet spices and just enough pop at 55% ABV. It’s not only the best new Bourbon we’ve tasted this year, it’s the Bourbon we’ve been waiting for Todd Leopold to make since we first fell in love with him and his Denver distillery.

The only problem is we’ve got a limited amount and the California allocation is already backordered for the next few months. For that reason, we’re limiting the Bourbon to just 1 bottle per customer until more supplies arrive later this summer.

As an additional incentive, we’ve been told that some of these bottles are from the Bourbon’s initial batch or “first edition,” but you’ll need to scan the bottle’s tag and register it to find out which edition you received!

We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

And for those who want to try the heralded Three Chamber rye whiskey on its own, or the standard pot-still Bourbon before it’s finished in Three Chamber rye casks we still have a very limited amount of those whiskies available as well.

Overachievers in Margaux

We’ve been focusing on our growing Burgundy selection for the last few weeks, but we don’t want anyone thinking we’ve forgotten about Bordeaux! France’s Cabernet king has been running a string of fantastic vintages in a row, starting with 2019, and as many of you already know: there are few meals more satisfying in the world than a finely cooked steak with a glass of properly aged Margaux.

With a few years of bottle age already, the ripe 2019 Bordeaux Cabernets are already singing, especially the more delicate offerings from Margaux. While a bottle of 2019 Château Margaux will run you at least $800 per bottle in the current market, we think one of its neighboring properties—Château d’Issan—is making some of the best “value” Bordeaux wines in the entire Médoc right now.

The critics agree.

If you’re unfamiliar with Château d’Issan, it's an overachieving third-growth estate that has been one of the premier Margaux properties since its original classification back in 1855 (when all the top Médoc properties were ranked by quality). On the whole, there’s not a lot of bad wine made in Margaux, but there are plenty of estates that are charging waaaaaaay too much. Château d’Issan isn’t one of those properties, thank goodness.

Characterized by supple red fruits, fine and elegant tannins, along with a flurry of spices on the finish, the house style of Issan has always been charming, and we think the 2019 expression is the perfect entry into high-end Bordeaux for those of you looking to learn more about the category. Unlike many California Cabs with their big fruit flavor and smooth mouthfeel, French Cabernet Sauvignon—especially Bordeaux— is much more in balance between fruit, earth, minerality, and structure.

Grab a bottle. Open and decant it. Cook yourself a fine meal. And enjoy this incredible wine from one of Margaux’s top châteaux. The only issue is there’s not much available, especially at our very attractive price.

2019 Château d’Issan Margaux $64.95 (Elsewhere $80+)

97 POINTS: JAMES SUCKLING - Fresh currants and raspberries pop out of the glass, together with oranges and cedar. Such purity of fruit in the nose. Full-bodied, yet so refined and vertical. It goes deep and long with tight, compressed tannins that are pure and exciting. Really tight and focused. Precise.

96 POINTS: ROBERT PARKER’S WINE ADVOCATE - Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2019 D'Issan soars out of the glass with expressive scents of baked red currants, warm cassis and black cherry compote with hints of powdered cinnamon, potpourri, Provence herbs and aniseed plus a waft of fallen leaves. The medium-bodied palate is elegantly played with bags of fresh, vibrant black and red berry flavors and a firm line of ripe, grainy tannins, finishing with an invigorating lift.

95 POINTS: VINOUS - The 2019 d'Issan was picked from September 25 to October 11 and matured in 50% new oak. This clearly has more dimension on the nose, offering well-defined blackberry and raspberry fruit; pencil shavings and undergrowth scents emerge with time. The harmonious palate is very well balanced, with pliant tannins, perfectly judged acidity, and an engaging build in the mouth. Yes, this has put on a bit of weight during its time in barrel, and it should give 30 to 40 years of drinking pleasure. Excellent.

Pouilly-Fuissé Premier Cru Wines Are Here

As we discussed in our last post about Burgundy, you’ve got to understand the vineyards in order to understand the wines. 

In fact, some might argue your curiosity about the vineyard should be the reason you want to try the wine!

Vineyard rankings in Burgundy make all the difference when it comes to price, and the sites marked as Grand Cru or Premier Cru are the most expensive of all due to their unique geographical climates—the terroir—that lends the wines their unique character. 

In the Fall of 2020, one of Burgundy’s smaller Chardonnay appellations—Pouilly Fuissé—saw the addition of 22 new Premier Cru vineyard sites to a region known for quality wines, making them the first newly-ranked parcels added since the 1940s. For Burgundy lovers in the know, it was a distinction long overdue as some of these famous sites have created impeccable wines of precision and grace for decades. 

For others, the accolades brought the end of a carefully-guarded secret: some of the best French Chardonnays that could still be had for a reasonable price!

That being said, just because you know the region doesn’t mean you know the vineyards, and that’s where we come in at Mission! As fans of Domaine Carrette for years, we’re well aware of their vineyard locations, pretty much at the foot of the famous rock of Solutré (pictured above) in the heart of the region—and the best wine from the newly-crowned Premier Cru vineyard of “Pouilly.” 

For those who want to understand fine Burgundian Chardonnay without spending $100+ per bottle, we’ve got the bottle for you.

2022 Domaine Carrette 1er Cru “Pouilly” Pouilly-Fuisse $41.99

The 2022 vintage of Domaine Carrette 1er Cru “Pouilly” marks the first we’ve seen with the new classification and it’s one of the best we’ve tasted. The richness of the older vines comes through on the palate with buttered bread and baked apples imparting their presence from just a touch of oak maturation. The body of the wine is imposing and it’s well-suited for those who like a more powerful Chardonnay. It’s a clear distinction from the standard Pouilly-Fuissé and a big win for those who understood the greater potential of this vineyard site.