Handpicked Selections Day 3: A Pinot Noir So Good It’s Almost Rude
This bottle is an absolute stunner. When Jacques brought this bottle, we were tasting as a group, and a lot of eyebrows were raised and a chorus of ‘this costs how much?!?’ was heard mumbled over and over again. I love Jeff Carrel for his Grenache-driven ‘Les Darons’, but this was an eye opener for us. It turns out Jeff can work with Pinot Noir too.
Sourced from just north of Limoux in the Languedoc, a historically cool pocket tucked into the French Pyrenees, this is Pinot Noir that actually tastes like Pinot Noir. Honest stuff. No makeup crew. No industrial wizardry. No syrupy “Pinot-ish” additives you’d quietly expect from domestic Pinot at this price point. Instead, you get exactly what you want: good acid, crunchy red fruit, earthy nuance, and real energy in the glass.
Think wild strawberries, tart cherries, a little spice, a little forest floor, and that bright snap that keeps you reaching for another sip before you realize the bottle is mysteriously empty.
Even better, the vineyards are practicing organic farming with no pesticides, because apparently overachieving wasn’t enough. This wine really overdelivers for the money. If you’re buying domestic Pinot Noir at this price, you’re getting mass produced, industrially farmed wine that is full of additives and food coloring. Yes, really. This is a single site on a steep hillside facing North that is hard to farm but produces great juice.
This is the rare, glorious intersection of:
-actual terroir
-serious drinkability
-enough complexity for Pinot obsessives
-and pricing that practically begs for irresponsible quantities
Translation: this is a case buy. No hesitation. No overthinking. Future You will be deeply grateful when random Tuesday night rolls around and there are still six bottles hiding in the basement.
Roast chicken? Perfect. Salmon? Absolutely. Mushroom anything? Ridiculous. Standing in the kitchen saying “just one glass tonight”? I believe in you. Sort of. I’ll have the same ‘one glass tonight’ too.
