INSIDER'S PICK: 2015 DOMAINE JEANNOT BOURGOGNE PINOT NOIR

One of our first looks at the 2015 vintage in Burgundy, a year of high potential quality but still fraught with pitfalls, especially those looking for relative values. The good news is that after several straight years of battling wildly inconsistent weather that brought cooling rains and warming trends at exactly the wrong time and several of the worst hailstorms in decades, 2015 was relatively positive all the way through. Most wineries were able to make the wines they WANTED to make, not just deal with what they HAD to make. Unfortunately, the years of weather issues before did have cumulative effects on the vines that limited the number of grape clusters, and overall the volume produced was lower than usual. Sadly, 2016 is looking to be a borderline disaster with massive frost and mildew damage in the Spring, so most wineries may be forced to raise prices on 2015 wines in case they have little worth selling next year. Long story short, when you find an actual value like this from a 2015 Burgundy, grab onto it with both hands.

Our first time with this producer, brought in by one of our favorite local importers, with fruit sourced primarily from smaller sites at the southern end of the Cote de Beaune, one of the few places where values still exist. Only 500 cases were made of this little beauty from vines around 50 years of age that see the same treatment as their Pommard and Santenay wines, but just a shorter time in mostly new barrels to allow more of the fruit to show through. Surprisingly deep color in the glass and loads of elegant dark cherry aromas on the nose with hints of more tart red fruit in the background, this already starts with more intensity than most of what has come through Burgundy over the last few years. Lots of plummy dark fruit continues on the palate, but good acidity brings out the complimentary tart cranberry tones through the finish. Perhaps a bit straightforward, but not lacking for flavor and impact which has been hard to find over the past few vintages, this is definitely a producer to get behind.

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