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Domaine du Penlois, “Les Bonnerues” Pinot Noir

Burgundy, France 2016 (750mL)
$24.00
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Fruit
Earth
Body
Tannin
Acid
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Domaine du Penlois, “Les Bonnerues” Pinot Noir

Although disguised as a Vin de France, this wildly delicious bottle from Domaine du Penlois is bursting with authenticity and site-specificity—in other words, it’s red Burgundy royalty through and through! By now, many of you know Penlois for their delicious Gamay bottlings, but today’s special offer is a 100% barrel-aged Pinot Noir that hails from a small, incognito vineyard in Lancié, a village wedged between the famed Crus of Morgon and Fleurie. Because of its obscurity and ridiculously small production, it has never seen the light of day in America to our knowledge. And still, even if you could find this bottle elsewhere, it’d be hard to top our provenance and quality: this batch is coming directly from Penlois' cold cellar!
One thing I always do when traveling is ask top local producers which wines they drink outside of their own. There is no better way to unearth exciting new finds, and it’s how I discovered Sébastien Besson of Domaine du Penlois two years ago. Since that day, I’ve kept in close touch with Sébastien, and have tasted with him whenever in France. Without these encounters, today’s vibrant, refreshingly crunchy, terroir-imprinted Pinot Noir wouldn’t be in front of you. If you ask me, it’s well worth the time and effort if the results yield a distinctive and totally exclusive $24 gem. 
The Bessons are no novices when it comes to Beaujolais: It all started when patriarch Benoît Besson arrived in the small hamlet of Lancié (located roughly between Morgon and Fleurie) during the advent of the Roaring Twenties, where his brother Paul was already tending family-owned vines. After four generations of handing off this grape growing and winemaking enterprise father to son, the Bessons are now nearing 30 hectares of vines most notably spread throughout the villages of Lancié, Morgon, Juliénas, and Moulin-à-Vent. Now coming up on the century mark, Domaine du Penlois is a staple of traditional Burgundy, and their wines reflect that to their very core. 

The Bessons farm with lutte raisonnée (“reasoned struggle”) principles and harvest is always carried out by hand. The Pinot Noir grapes in today’s 2016 were picked on September 29th and immediately shuttled to nearby Domaine du Penlois winery in small baskets. A 20% whole-cluster fermentation occurred in stainless steel tanks and the wine matured for one year in neutral French barrels prior to bottling with a light filtration. This batch then rested in his cellar until late 2019, when it was shipped directly to our temperature-controlled warehouse. 

To be enjoyed now and over the coming few years, this is an extremely pleasurable, pop-and-pour red Burgundy that reads like a masterful blend of Mâcon Pinot Noir and Cru Beaujolais. But again, this is all barrel-aged Pinot from a single granitic site in Lancié, which just goes to show you that terroir influences everything! After allowing 15-30 minutes of air, muddled strawberry, black raspberry, forest floor, Bing cherries, red and black plums, pomegranate seeds, rose petals, and a touch of warm baking spice make up the aromatic vortex that funnels out of the glass upon swirling. On the palate, a vibrant wine with an underlying firm crunchiness is revealed alongside a youthful core of red forest fruit and finely crushed minerals. It’s not going to outmatch or outclass your village-level Côte de Nuits, but that’s not the goal here. This $24 Pinot Noir is a lesson on how Burgundy is much more than an outlet for exorbitantly priced, age-worthy wines that are brimming with nobility (and pomposity, at times). Buy a handful, enjoy abundantly, and relax. This is a steal for the price and provenance!
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Country
France
Region
Burgundy
Sub-Region
FranceBeaujolais
Soil
Granite & Clay
Farming
Lutte Raisonnée
Blend
Pinot Noir 100%
Alcohol
13.0
OAK
Neutral French Barriques
TEMP.
60
Glassware
Burgundy Stem
Drinking
Now-2024
Decanting
15-30 Minutes
Pairing
Cedar Plank Salmon

France

Bourgogne

Beaujolais

Enjoying the greatest wines of Beaujolais starts, as it usually does, with the lay of the land. In Beaujolais, 10 localities have been given their own AOC (Appellation of Controlled Origin) designation. They are: Saint Amour; Juliénas; Chénas; Moulin-à Vent; Fleurie; Chiroubles; Morgon; Régnié; Côte de Brouilly; and Brouilly.

Southwestern France

Bordeaux

Bordeaux surrounds two rivers, the Dordogne and Garonne, which intersect north of the city of Bordeaux to form the Gironde Estuary, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The region is at the 45th parallel (California’s Napa Valley is at the38th), with a mild, Atlantic-influenced climate enabling the maturation of late-ripening varieties.

Central France

Loire Valley

The Loire is France’s longest river (634 miles), originating in the southerly Cévennes Mountains, flowing north towards Paris, then curving westward and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean near Nantes. The Loire and its tributaries cover a huge swath of central France, with most of the wine appellations on an east-west stretch at47 degrees north (the same latitude as Burgundy).

Northeastern France

Alsace

Alsace, in Northeastern France, is one of the most geologically diverse wine regions in the world, with vineyards running from the foothills of theVosges Mountains down to the Rhine River Valley below.

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