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

• 

  Colin Talcroft

  Still young and a little distant at first, mostly with dusty, earthy notes on the nose but also surprisingly concentrated ripe fruit scents, a hint of floral perfume, and suggestions of wood. Comparatively light in body, but exhibiting rich fruit flavors balanced by brisk acidity on the attack before a rush of renewed fruit on the mid-palate and then an extended, slightly tart finish with a hint of cola spiciness. Approachable now, but likely to improve in bottle through around 2016. Excellent value. An excellent example of the appellation.

  Food pairing: Duck; lamb; roasted chicken; earthy, mushroom-scented dishes

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

• 

  Cheryl Bringuez

  This bright, youthful Pinot Noir has great acidity on the finish and very nice cherry fruit. Light and refreshing, serve with light fare.

  Food pairing: Chevre

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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  Colin Talcroft

  A rich, fruity, evolving nose makes this wine immediately appealing. Scents of dark cherries and herbs rise out of the glass, the herbal scents gradually tending toward anise. On the palate, displays vibrant fruit with well-balanced acidity and healthy tannins. Very nicely balanced, with a structure that suggests good things to come.

  More open now than its stable mate (the 2012 Aloxe-Corton Les Chaillots), but, like that wine, likely to reward cellaring. The kind of wine I like to buy by the case and try at intervals over several years.

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

• 

  Cheryl Bringuez

  The nose on this pretty, red-violet Pinot Noir is subdued—making the wine seem like a rose whose petals have not yet opened. Offers spicy black cherry on the palate, with good structure and plenty of acidity. If you open this wine in the next year or two (2015–2016), be sure to decant it and/or pair it with rich food.

  Food pairing: Porcetta

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!

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  Deborah Adeyanju

  Pungent petrol, mineral, earth, coffee grounds, and medicinal aromas characterize a complex nose. The full-bore palate suggests wet stone and other earthy, mineral elements but it also has a powerful truffle component. Overall, rich and expansive, growing in intensity in the glass, gradually offering up more truffles, dark fruit, baking spices, and licorice. Great complexity and fruit concentration. A richly elegant, sumptuous wine suggestive of power and glamour, but managing to seem refined at the same time.

  Food pairing: Meats in truffle sauce; duck in pepper 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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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