Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of tile, clay and dark fruits. Full body and firm tannins plus a tangy and earthy character. Long, persistent finish; long and flavorful.
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Wine Spectator
Starts out rich, with ripe cherry, raspberry, mineral and spice flavors, gathering intensity as this builds on the finish. Balanced, presenting a lingering aftertaste of fruit, mineral and spice. Best from 2018 through 2033. 125 cases imported.
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Wine & Spirits
Delicately sweet notes of fraises des bois introduce this dense, beefy Corton. It buzzes with warm, thick tannins and turmeric-like spice, and though the wine hasn’t yet found a secure footing, its structure is impressive, suggesting that it will with time. Henriot, NY
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
A classic source of exceptional Chardonnay as well as Pinot Noir, the Côte de Beaune makes up the southern half of the Côte d’Or. Its principal wine-producing villages are Pernand-Vergelesses, Aloxe-Corton, Beaune, Pommard, Volnay, Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet.
The area is named for its own important town of Beaune, which is essentially the center of the Burgundy wine business and where many negociants center their work. Hospices de Beaune, the annual wine auction, is based here as well.