Winemaker Notes
Serve with roasted poultry, grilled meats and soft cheeses, such as Reblochon or Brie.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Cote de Beaune was picked between September 20 and 28, and as well as Cote de Beaune fruit, the blend includes declassified barrels of village and premier cru. It has a simple dark cherry, red currant and pomegranate bouquet with crisp delineation and fine clarity for such a modest wine. The palate is medium-bodied with grippy, red currant and pomegranate fruit with a touch of spice on the brittle finish. Fine – what you might call a “breezy” entry-level Pinot.
Barrel Sample: 88-90
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.