Winemaker Notes
Deep ruby color with velvety aspects, expressive nose of small red fruits with notes of pepper and clove. The palate is ample with a silky texture, long and fresh finish. The wine is supple, deep and fruity with dominating red fruit aromas.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
This wine is produced from four parcels that total 3ha on the east-facing slopes of this premier cru. After a brief cold soak, the wine is fermented using native yeasts with a high proportion of whole clusters. The fermenting wine is punched down fairly vigorously before ageing in cask for 15 months (25% new). Despite the vigorous extraction, the wine is notably silky and generous; the red and black berry fruit has a pleasant mineral cast, and the wine is notable for its freshness. Tannins are well managed, but firm at the end.
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Wine Spectator
A ripe and persistent style, offering blackberry and blueberry fruit shaded by iron, chocolate and oak spice notes. Supple yet powerful, with solid, muscular tannins on the finish. Best from 2025 through 2033.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of plums, violets and high tones of cranberry fill the nose, creating a sophisticated bouquet. The palate is round and ripe, with juicy blackberry, black-cherry skin, cardamom and clove. Delicate tannins coat the mouth and intensify the wine’s dark-fruited profile. This wine should pair well with quail in plum sauce.
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.