This Pinot Noir features beautiful, concentrated fruit. An amazing value, we find it a great everyday wine. Ready to drink!

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  Deborah Adeyanju

  Sweet spice, oak, truffles and concentrated red fruit aromas play on the nose. Medium body, with slightly tart red fruit and spice on the palate. Also with a violet note. Moderate but refreshing acidity. Attractively dry, spicy finish of moderate length. Easy to drink. Approachable now. Light enough to serve with white meat or substantial fish dishes.

  Food pairing: white meat or heavy fish dishes

This Pinot Noir features beautiful, concentrated fruit. An amazing value, we find it a great everyday wine. Ready to drink!

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  Colin Talcroft

  A youthful pink-red color. Light and pretty on the nose with cherries, herbs, and a touch of resin. Later, hints of toast and cinnamon develop. Good fruit, bright tannins, and a solid finish make the wine immediately appealing, but with the structure to suggest it will evolve with a little time in the cellar. An excellent example of the Côte de Nuits Villages appellation.

  Food pairing: Duck; roasted chicken dishes; squab; rabbit or other light game; mushroom or lentil dishes

A particularly fine example of this small and little-known Burgundy appellation, this Pinot Noir is a must for the value seeker looking for off-the-beaten-track wines.

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  Cheryl Bringuez

  This is an earthy wine that is just starting to come out of its shell. Nice cherry, mushroom and herbal notes. Put this bottle in your cellar for a few years and it will continue to develop nicely.

  Food pairing: Mushroom risotto

Xavier Durand calls it his best keeping wine. Made from grapes grown on the Corton hill, this Pinot Noir displays animal and robust qualities that reflect the marly clay and thick heavy soil of the lieu-dit.

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  Colin Talcroft

  Less forthcoming at first than the 2011 Les Chaillots from the same producer, but with similar earthy scents and something evocative of wet clay or paper, but also with spice (nutmeg), meaty scents, and later cherries. Bright acidity and the slightly rustic tannins of youth balance intense, concentrated fruit on the palate. The tannins makes the fruit seem a trifle distant, but, with a little air contact, richer, sweeter flavors develop, suggestive of a more opulent, expansive future. Will need time, but likely to be well worth the wait.

  Food pairing: Coq au Vin, venison, duck or other game birds, rabbit

Xavier Durand calls it his best keeping wine. Made from grapes grown on the Corton hill, this Pinot Noir displays animal and robust qualities that reflect the marly clay and thick heavy soil of the lieu-dit.

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  Cheryl Bringuez

  Recommendation: open this bottle about 30 minutes before consuming. The nose was subdued at first, but developed as the bottle was open longer. Dusty cherry, fresh-cut flowers and a bit of mushroom come out on the nose and the mid-palate has great tart cherry that lasts through to the finish.

  Food pairing: Truffle parmesan french fries

Grown in light and sandy soil, Les Charmois is a softer and more supple Pinot Noir than most Nuits-Saint-Georges. It also stands in stark contrast to the harsher, clay-grown, Aloxe-Cortons from Domaine Durand. Ready to drink now!

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  Colin Talcroft

  Bright, clean, and appetizing with a nose of citrus, flowers, red fruit, and a hint of cocoa. Vibrant acidity combines with rich, round, red fruit flavors tending toward cherries but also something suggestive of chocolate and—after a little air contact—some very appealing ripe, grapey flavors. Much more approachable than many 2011 wines from this appellation, yet with good structure. Delicious now, but likely to improve with age.

  Food pairing: Duck; venison; other game or fowl; roasted chicken; earthy, mushroom-scented dishes

Grown in light and sandy soil, Les Charmois is a softer and more supple Pinot Noir than most Nuits-Saint-Georges. It also stands in stark contrast to the harsher, clay-grown, Aloxe-Cortons from Domaine Durand. Ready to drink now!

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  Colin Talcroft

  Initially somewhat closed on the nose, but swirl the glass and you’ll find resiny scents with hints of citrus, mineral, a whiff of new leather, and, eventually, some fruit as well — suggestive of dark cherries. Palate offers veiled fruit overlaid with light tannins. Fairly soft and round at the present, but with increasing acidity on the finish. A light, delicate, quiet wine that will need time to come out of its shell.

  Food pairing: Duck; roasted chicken dishes; rabbit or other game; mushroom or lentil dishes

Grown like Boutières on the Corton hill, but on redder soils that elicit more substance and finer tannins from the Pinot Noir grapes, Les Chaillots is the more feminine and subtle of Domaine Durand’s two Aloxe-Cortons.

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  Deborah Adeyanju

  Talc, floral scents, and mushroom aromas shape the nose. Offers red fruit flavors—both tart and ripe—with light spice notes on a delicate frame. Medium body. Likely to be more approachable in 2016–2017.

  Food pairing: Heavier (red) meats

Grown like Boutières on the Corton hill, but on redder soils that elicit more substance and finer tannins from the Pinot Noir grapes, Les Chaillots is the more feminine and subtle of Domaine Durand’s two Aloxe-Cortons.

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  Colin Talcroft

  Delicate fruit and floral scents with just a hint of spice in the background, evolving after time in the glass toward toast, wood, and dark cherry mixed with mineral and herbal scents. Somewhat closed on the palate at first but with an attractive mouthfeel and a veiled but noticeable richness. Light tannins. Moderately long finish, marked by fuller fruit flavors and more apparent acidity, promises significant improvement after some cellar time. Likely to reward patience.

  Food pairing: Duck; roasted chicken dishes; rabbit or other game; mushroom or lentil dishes

Grown on the northernmost part of the Corton Hill, this Grand Cru Pinot Noir comes from old vines bought by Durand’s father in 1985. It represents the best terroir and best wine of the Durand domaine. Requires cellaring.

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  Colin Talcroft

  Deeply extracted, deeply colored, powerfully and exotically scented. A floral perfume overlaid with citrus rind, juniper, lemon balm, and other botanicals (think fine artisan gin), dark red fruit, leather, meat, and other animal scents, including formic acid. An immensely sexy glass of wine just to smell, but the palate overflows with astonishingly concentrated fruit, with citrus, animal musk, and resiny pine flavors. How Xavier Durand manages to pack such an array of scents and flavors into this wine is a mystery to me—but a beautiful mystery. Truly memorable. Hard to resist now, but a long keeper with an excellent balance of fruit, acid, and tannin. Perhaps not for everyone, but if you’re at all adventurous, don’t miss this one.

  Food pairing: So uniquely flavored, that it seems a shame to draw any attention away from this wine, but likely to be delicious with duck; venison with juniper berries; or other game dishes with a pungent sauce.

Grown on the northernmost part of the Corton Hill, this Grand Cru Pinot Noir comes from old vines bought by Durand’s father in 1985. It represents the best terroir and best wine of the Durand domaine. Requires cellaring.

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  Colin Talcroft

  Not quite the wild animal that the 2010 seems to be, but with a distinctive nose of earth, wet terracotta, celery, chalk, flint, leather, and red fruit that is nearly as complex and interesting. More restrained than the 2010 also on the palate with soft but prominent tannins masking earthy flavors and hints of highly extracted, rich, fruit with overtones of leather and musk, the leathery component being especially prominent on a protracted finish marked also by lingering, fine-grained, tooth-coating tannins. Will need time to develop, but a veiled beauty with great promise.

  Food pairing: Duck; venison; rabbit; other game or fowl

Grown on the northernmost part of the Corton Hill, this Grand Cru Pinot Noir comes from old vines bought by Durand’s father in 1985. It represents the best terroir and best wine of the Durand domaine. Requires cellaring.

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  Colin Talcroft

  Not quite the blockbuster the 2010 was, but nevertheless complex and highly distinctive.

  Countless scents on the nose: herbs, mineral, toast, juniper, leather, wood, pine resin, dried meat, cola, nutmeg, barnyard, and grapefruit rind, to name a few. Wonderfully complex. Rich, sweet fruit on the palate, offset by delicate but solid tannins and brisk acidity. Nicely balanced and approachable now, but will need time to show its full potential.

  The kind of wine to buy by the case and try at intervals over years—if you can resist the temptation to drink it all immediately!

  Food pairing: Duck; roasted chicken dishes; rabbit, venison, or other game; lamb; mushroom or lentil dishes; or savor this wine on its own