Domaine Francois Mikulski Bourgogne 2021

Domaine François Mikulski is one of the great addresses of Meursault — a name known primarily for its profound whites, but whose red Bourgogne quietly punches well above its appellation. The Pinot Noir vines are farmed organically without certification, spread across 1.30 hectares of lower slope, with the oldest parcel planted in 1929 and a second in 1980. After around ten months in oak barrel, the wine is drawn off into tank for a further two months before bottling, and the domaine recommends cellaring for four to five years to show its best. François's father was a Polish resistance officer who fled to England in 1939, where he met his Burgundian wife — François was born in Brussels but spent his formative summers in Burgundy, where the pull of the land proved irresistible. 

Bright cherry-jam red and luminous in the glass, the nose is an aromatic layering of cherry, raspberry, chocolate, bay leaf and sweet spices — cinnamon, nutmeg, a trace of soot — building to something that one Parisian retailer described as "purity of fruit and light from within; brilliant sensuality." Full-bodied yet silky and tender, it is easy to drink with discreet tannins and good fresh fruit tinged with spice, the finish both energetic and taut. For a Bourgogne rouge, it shows a depth of character and seriousness of purpose that speaks directly to the quality of the source — this is a domaine where even the entry level reflects decades of accumulated understanding of what Pinot Noir can do on Meursault's slopes.