Anne and Hervé Sigaut are a low-key couple farming about seven hectares of vineyards and generally flying under the radar despite the ethereal excellence of their wines. They are most readily associated with Chambolle-Musigny, and while they don’t own any Grand Crus, they have a bevy of old-vine Premier Crus: “Fuées,” “Chatelots,” “Noirots” and “Sentiers” in Chambolle, as well as small parcels in the Morey Premier Crus “Millandes” and the source of today’s wine, “Charrières.”

The “Charrières” vineyard is a special site, situated just downslope from Morey’s celebrated Grand Cru “Clos de la Roche.” The Sigauts work it and their other vineyards according to ‘lutte raisonnée’ principles, farming completely organically unless an extreme emergency requires other intervention. Hand-harvested grapes are completely de-stemmed and fermented with indigenous yeasts, and aging typically takes place in mostly used French oak for 15-16 months. They are then “racked to tank”—decanted from the barrels and rested in stainless steel vats for a short period to settle, so they can be bottled without fining or filtration.

The Sigaut wines are incredibly pure, refined, elegant expressions of Burgundy Pinot Noir. In the glass, the 2016 is a deep ruby with garnet reflections at the rim, with aromatics that make you feel like you are picking wild berries in the forest: scents of blackberry, blueberry, raspberry mix with notes of wild mushroom, underbrush, black tea, and dried flowers. Medium-plus in body and supported by soft, fine-grained, perfectly ripe tannins, this is a very complete wine already, but will continue to improve and expand texturally over the next 10+ years and beyond. We’ve found the 2016 red Burgundies to be quite ripe and accessible when young (as in 2015), but with more focused structure and fresher acidity, and one of the things about this example is how much it improves in the glass with time open. If you’re enjoying a bottle now, decant it about 30 minutes before serving it in Burgundy stems at 60-65 degrees; it’s a wine that tastes much more expensive than it is (about the highest praise we could give it), and deserves something refined and quintessentially French as an accompaniment. The attached roast duck recipe incorporates a hint of sweetness that should highlight the exquisite red and black fruit sensations in the wine. Enjoy!