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Our first shipment of direct import Red Burgundies is finally arriving at the store, after weeks of shipping strikes and customs delays. We tasted these wines last February with importer Jeanne-Marie de Champs and were extremely impressed with the high quality at these estates. They all exhibit the lush but well-balanced fruit of this great Burgundy vintage and despite the falling dollar we are still able to offer these delicious wines at reasonable prices!

The Domaine Gabriel Billard is a tiny (4.5 hectare) estate run by two sisters, Mireille Desmonet and Lawrence Jobard. The first 2005 from them is the Bourgogne Pinot Noir, regular cuvée, which is showing lovely, slightly spicy cherry and floral aromas. It's a perfect Pinot for the summer while we wait for their old-vine Cuvée Milliane which won't be ready till the fall. (Photo; The cellar at Domaine Billard)

Domaine Roland Rapet, currently run by Vincent, is turning out lovely wines. Returning to CSW is their delicious Bourgogne "En Bully" from a small vineyard on the hill above Pernand. It's very pretty, and, like the Billard Bourgogne, a great wine for the summer, served cool. A very serious wine and one of the best values in Burgundy, is their Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru Ile des Vergelesses. This has intense and complex fruit with an elegant structure bulit for 10 to 15 years of cellaring. This great vineyard is often overlooked but deserves to be in your cellar. (Highly recommended by Burghound)

Young Martin Bart is doing great work at the family domaine in Marsannay. His 2005's are uniformly beautiful, offering lush, balanced fruit and soft tannins. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, these wines really are great values. The first to arrive is the Marsannay Les Finottes. Grown in sandy gravel soil towards the bottom of the slope, it's the best of his wines to drink young, showing dark, ripe cherry fruit and a very supple palate.

Domaine Nudant Bourgogne Rouge La Chapelle Notre Dame, is from a small vineyard between Ladoix and Aloxe-Corton. It has lovely, spicy fruit and a medium-bodied, quite mineral palate. A great value for those who want some earth with their fruit!

The Bourgogne Rouge from Domaine René Leclerc is another great value in a ready to drink Burgundy. Perhaps the most elegant of the Bourgogne Rouges in this group, it has more Cote de Nuits character, showing more raspberry/strawberry than cherry, with great balance and some nice minerality.

Arriving with this group, finally, are the great Auxey-Duresses 1er Cru wines of the Domaine Lafouge. If you missed our earlier email about these wines, we urge you to try them - the Les Duresses to drink young and the La Chapelle and Climat du Val for cellaring. They are outstanding wines and represent superb value from this expensive vintage!

Stay tuned for Parts Two and Three of our direct import Big Value Burgundies (is that an oxymoron?), arriving soon!