Winemaker Notes
A very pleasant wine. Bright, clear red color. Aromas are surprising in their intensity and fruit. On the palate, a tender, supple, graceful, round body. Very flavorful in the aftertaste, with a hint of blackberry jam. When the wine gets older, wild blackberry is the dominant aroma. After three or five years, the wine takes on a distinctive smell of truffle and undergrowth evolving towards notes of venison.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
A delicious, approachable introduction to village-level red Burgundy. Its fresh, plummy fruit is straightforward and uncomplicated, and the texture is light in body and approachable; still, it is a wine of balance and reliably great value. It is aged in 500-litre casks to maintain the purity of the fruit. In 2023 it ended up at 13.2% alcohol. According to Véronique Drouhin: 'We have to keep it easy to drink.' Drink this on release or over the next several years.
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James Suckling
A lovely touch of spice and cherry character to this, with crushed stones in both the nose and palate. Medium- to light-bodied, crisp and delicious. Drink and enjoy.
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 source of some of the most delightful Pinot Noir in Beaune, Chorey-les-Beaune is a great place to start exploring red Burgundies that do not command a great deal of cellar time. In style, they are akin to the reds of Aloxe-Corton but more fruit forward and approachable in their youth.