Winemaker Notes
Deep ruby color with an expressive nose of red berries like cherries along with spicy notes pepper of and vanilla. On the palate, it's an explosion of flavors supported by very elegant tannins an a long and saline finish.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
This monopole is spread over three distinct parcels in the stony, iron-bearing clay at mid-slope, facing south. The vines average 55 years of age and, in 2020, produced a wine with lovely cassis fruit and an edge of mint on the nose. Initially quite approachable, with time the body and tannins make themselves known, and one sees the depth of which this wine is capable.
Barrel Sample: 93 -
Wine Enthusiast
This is a powerful expression, with prominent oak spice that enrobes black-fruit aromas. With a few swirls, a juicy plum layer emerges on the palate, marked by an abundance of clove. Mouthquenching acidity helps cut through the wine’s power and body.
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Wine Spectator
A sleek red, bordering on racy, this evokes blackberry, black cherry, clove and chocolate flavors. Vivid acidity keeps it all focused, while this remains balanced and persistent. Best from 2026 through 2037. 1,400 cases made, 120 cases imported.
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.”
Beloved for its deep and flavorful reds made of Pinot Noir, Mercurey is the largest and most important village in the Côte Chalonnaise of Burgundy with most of its vineyards tucked away in hillsides or stretched along the aptly-named “Golden Valley.” This valley, sheltered from the moist and cool air that funnels along at lower elevations, is ideal for ripening Pinot noir.
Mercurey follows strict yield laws, similar to those at the Côte d’Or village level, promoting the development of deep, full, concentrated and age-worthy Pinot noirs. In their youth, a chewy and rich structure supports flavors of ripe strawberry, raspberry and cherry. Age brings notes of underbrush, tobacco and cocoa.
While Pinot Noir claims the majority of Mercurey vineyard acreage, Chardonnay does grow here and produces uniqely floral and spicey scented white wines.