(2019) Even in this Bourgogne Pinot, the average vine age is 45 years. The wine had a "light barrel treatment." The colour is pale garnet, the nose offering briar and brushwood, some rose hip and delicate cherryish fruit. The pure, sweet, ripeness of the fruit as it strikes the palate is remarkable, a silky, almost confiture red berry fruit, but some more earthy and a savoury acid edge cuts through, tannin and a bit of spice too, in a very good and quite complex Bourgogne of high qualty.
(2019) Louis Jadot is one of the great names of Burgundy, producing wines from terroirs throughout the region, up to and including some of the best Grands Crus. This Pinot Noir is sourced from vineyards across Burgundy and a proportion is aged in barrel, whilst part is aged in tank to retain its fruity freshness and approachability. On the nose it is crammed with berry fruit, but also that authentic Burgundian earthiness, with hints of rhubarb and beetroot, as well as a gently smoky spice. In the mouth there's copious sweet fruit, but the elegant tannins and brisk acidity give it definition and energy. It's a lovely, less expensive red Burgundy, on sale quite widely at around £17, but with the retailer below at just £12. Watch the video for more information and food matching ideas.
Footnote: I chose this wine as my Wine of the Week because an online retailer was offering it at just £12 per bottle. However, one of my visitors ordered the wine immediately and a different vintage - the 2016 - arrived. I have not tasted the 2016, so cannot vouch for it.
(2017) Charton-Vachet is a new Burgundy name to me, based in Nuits-St-Georges and farming organically and using natural yeasts and minimal sulphur. This Bourgogne has a lovey tart/dry cherry nose, a briary background but really about the fruit that seems pert and clean, and most attractive. In the mouth it delivers cool, elegant Pinosity, the fruit alert and charming, orange and tart cherry, the tannins dry and fine and the whole picture balanced, elegant and delicious. The milk chocolate designed to match is flavoured with coffee, cherry and nibs of cacao. Though the acidity of this wine was a touch prominent in the opening seconds when tasting both together, the sweetness of the Pinot fruit against the coffee was then lovely, and the crunch of the nibs release more little counterbalancing bittersweet notes.
(2017) This is 100% Pinot Noir and comes from a small producer in the very south of the region, currently in conversion to organic certification. The colour is deep and the most striking aspect of the nose is the briary, truffly, lifted cherry floral character that is reminiscent of Cru Beaujolais in a way, the palate showing delightful red fruit ripeness and freshness - cherry and raspberry - before a drying, savoury tannin, nimble acidity and a little smoothing from its time in large oak 'foudres' eases the finish. Serve it a little cool and it is a sheer delight.
(2016) Relatively closed at this stage, with not a lot of fruit showing aromatically, but then it does open on the palate with juicy black fruits and a fairly liquoricy and dry finish.
(2016) A little reduced, opening with swirling to pretty cherry fruit. A touch of baked plum pastry. On the palate sweet and quite full, with a nuttiness and dry earthiness in the finish.
(2014) Dry, earthy and briary, like a bundle of twigs and bowl of cherries. The palate is all about the juicy, keen fruit: no apparent oak here, just that undeprpinning structure of the meaty, earthy, briary quality overlaid with sweet and ripe red fruits, making for a very pleasing glass of Pinot. Light and agile, if not fantastically deep or complex.
(2013) Herbs, dry twigs and a touch of creaminess on the nose, this Pinot has little hints of woodland bracken and truffle. The palate has a nice liquorice concentration, taut acidity and a dry cranberry fruit. Touches of spice too in a savoury, straightforward but appealing style. The offer price makes this attractive.
(2011) Cru Beaujolais from the 2009 vintage continues to excite with its very ripe, fruity but structured style. This certified organic Morgon is no exception with its relatively deep, solid colour and nose that adds a truffly, undergrowthy, quite Pinot Noirish quality to brightly-toned, juicy cherry and blackberry quality of Gamay fruit. On the palate it has real depth of flavour, the structure and verve of the fruit and tannin offset by little glimpses of herbs and aromatic, floral characters. This is powerful stuff though, with creaminess of texture and real concentration, and it is about as far removed from the average 'Nouveau' as it is possible to get.
