Today we’re thrilled to roll out the red companion to the “favorite pair of jeans” white Burgundy we offered last month, courtesy of micro-négociant Jean-Baptiste Jessiaume. This wine may carry the “catch-all” Bourgogne moniker, but don’t let the $29 price tag fool you into thinking it’s a mass-market shelf-stacker. Jessiaume, a sixth-generation vintner in Santenay, runs a truly boutique-scale operation, drawing on a mere 4.65 hectares of vineyards—most of them in Santenay, where the Jessiaume family is legend—for this pitch-perfect Bourgogne Pinot Noir.

As with Jessiaume’s Bourgogne Chardonnay, which met with a predictably enthusiastic response from our subscribers, his Bourgogne Pinot Noir is the ultimate pantry-staple Pinot Noir for French wine lovers. Anyone who drinks Burgundy with any regularity knows that a $29 red with real depth and character is a rarity, and if you are the kind of person who insists on drinking well even when serving on a larger, more economical scale—weddings, holiday gatherings, etc.—then this is the wine for you. My motto? Never settle!

As many of you know, we’ve done our best to keep direct-importing wines (and passing along the savings) wherever possible, even in the throes of COVID. And I must say, the arrival of two pallets from Jean-Baptiste Jessiaume was especially satisfying, given all the difficulties and delays of international shipping. We may just be the middlemen in all this, but I’m still excited to get these wines in your hands. We’ve got a lot of avid Burgundy lovers among our subscribers, and I’m sure the name Jessiaume resonates: The family has roots in the Côte de Beaune village of Santenay dating to the 1830s. 

Jean-Baptiste Jessiaume, representing the sixth generation, grew up watching his father, Marc, make wine, and the two continued to run Jessiaume for several years after selling the estate in 2006. The pair later moved down to Bouzeron in the Côte Chalonnaise to take over Domaine Chanzy, and following that, Jean-Baptiste—who received “Young Winemaker of the Year” honors from Burghound’s Allen Meadows in 2012—set up his own micro-négociant shop back in Santenay. Blessed with impeccable vineyard sources in the Côte de Beaune and Chalonnaise both, the Jean-Baptiste Jessiaume lineup has grown quite large—as in, a large number of tiny-production bottlings, not a large production of bottles overall.

Today’s Bourgogne Pinot Noir displays all the early-drinking generosity of the 2019 vintage, expressed with very little adornment: The wine was matured mostly in tank (70%), with only a portion in barrels. There’s a fine-grained quality to the tannins and a bright, lilting quality to the wine overall, both of which are qualities I associate with wines from Santenay. In the glass, it has a deep ruby core moving to a pink rim, with aromas of black cherry, wild red and black berries, plum skin, black tea, violets, and underbrush. It is medium-bodied and plush, with lots of freshness keeping it lively and tangy all the way through the long, smoky finish. It’s ready to drink now and over the next three years, and to me, it’s like hitting the “reset” button during a long tasting of different wines from around the world. “This,” I say to myself, “is quintessential red Burgundy.” It’s like coming home! Enjoy!