Jean-Marc Pillot, Santenay, "Les Champs Claude"

When a sommelier or collector tells you that her/his heart belongs to red Burgundy, it’s a declaration of true love - but it’s also kind of a cop out. Why? Because each red Burgundy terroir is defined by its own distinct character, such as the perfumed elegance of Volnay or the muscular intensity of Gevrey-Chambertin. And then, every year you multiply those characteristics by hundreds of unique vintages and microclimates, and thousands of different winemaking “interpretations” - and in the end, we’re all blessed with a practically infinite diversity of wine drinking experiences, all from just one grape variety grown in one valley! So, what does it mean to love red Burgundy? For me, the answer is: appreciating that many of this region’s most exciting  wines - like today’s 2021 Pillot Santenay -  are often the exceptions to rigid classicist “rules” and lazy assumptions.

If you ask ChatGPT or a novice sommelier to summarize the character of red Burgundy from the southern Côte de Beaune village of Santenay, you’ll most like be told that this terroir is characterized by rustic, deeply colored, and structured Pinot Noir that offers a powerful, earthy alternative to many of its more refined neighbors to the north. But the beauty of Burgundy is: all of that can be completely inverted depending on when fruit is harvested, who’s in the cellar and how they choose to interpret the year’s harvest. And today, we’re experiencing Santenay’s 2021 vintage in the hands of Chassagne-Montrachet (i.e. white Burgundy) master Jean-Marc Pillot, which means dispensing with much of the village’s characteristically brutish muscle, and reinterpreting the terroir as a prismatically aromatic, brilliantly forest fruited, and mood lifting Burgundian Pinot Noir.

For Pillot’s 2021 Santenay Rouge Les Champs Claude, he utilizes 100% whole clusters during fermentation to emphasize the wine's aromatic lift. He employs a particularly gentle extraction process that relies primarily on delicate pump-overs rather than aggressive punching down. The wine then undergoes gentle aging in neutral French oak barrels, preserving the natural juicy red fruit flavors and vibrant acidity. Finally, after spending 12 months in barrel and an additional 6 months in stainless steel for natural settling, the wine is bottled with no filtration or fining.

In the glass, today’s wine displays a clear, brilliant ruby core with soft pink highlights at the rim and moderate tearing. On the nose, it is extraordinarily aromatic and full of youthful exuberance, showing brilliant red cherry, forest berries, wild flowers, and damp earth, accented by a distinctly lifted, stemmy spice from whole-cluster inclusion. The palate is dry and medium-bodied, featuring fine-grained, crunchy tannins that frame flavors of wild strawberry, cherry and crushed minerals. A clean, saline finish lingers with notes of rose petals and a touch of savory herbaceousness. To best highlight these delicate floral aromatics and high-toned acidity, serve this wine in a large-bowled, thin-rimmed Burgundy glass at 62 degrees, and contrast it against the richness of a herb and mustard crusted rack of lamb. Today’s wine is delicious and ready-to-drink today, but rest assured it will only assume more refinement, detail and savor over the next 6-7 years. This is not a “hide in the cellar for 20 years” red Burgundy, but it will absolutely continue to evolve and deliver exciting surprises until 2033.