Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru "Les Chaffots" AOC 2022

A Pinot Noir of cool clarity: cherry, raspberry and redcurrant stand clearly drawn against a base note of violet and underbrush. The wine relies on line and length rather than fullness; the oak stays in the background.

Morey-Saint-Denis lies within the band of the Côte de Nuits, and the Lignier family has farmed Pinot Noir here since the 1880s. Jacques Lignier bought parcels at the time that phylloxera had devalued; his son Jules patiently replanted them. In 1959 Hubert Lignier took over the estate, and in 1973 decided to bottle the wines himself rather than sell them in bulk. Les Chaffots is one of the village's Premiers Crus.

Pure Pinot Noir, 13.5% vol., dry. Since 2007 the vineyards have been farmed without synthetic treatments. The cellar in Morey, acquired in 2008, relies solely on gravity — no pump moves the wine from must to bottling. Long, cool maceration periods precede fermentation; the proportion of whole clusters has grown over the years, while new oak has been deliberately scaled back and spread across four coopers, so that no single barrel imprints the wine.

Fine-grained tannin and juicy acidity carry a tautly drawn fruit; the finish stays clear and long.

Duck breast with cherries, rack of lamb in a herb crust or saddle of venison with mushrooms; a porcini risotto also works well.

Laurent Lignier runs the estate as the fifth generation; he returned to Morey in 2010 and had reunified the estate by 2013. In Les Chaffots, the house's signature style shows on a smaller scale.