2022 Didier Fornerol, Cote de Nuits-Villages

I can’t think of a better, every day drinker in Burgundy than Fornerol’s Cote de Nuits Villages. Didier Fornerol was the vineyard manager and cellar master at Domaine de l’Arlot (a highly reputed Nuits Saint Georges estate) from 1982 to 1998. Didier has had an incredible career, and in 1999 he left Domaine de l’Arlot to take over his family’s estate. Didier believes there are no shortcuts in crafting fine wine, and he is constantly tending his family’s precious vines alongside his staff; he’s also a firm believer in whole-cluster fermentations. Didier makes a couple of different wines, but his Côte de Nuits Villages rouge is the star of the show in our opinion. This wine punches way above its weight and delivers all the magic and soul of great red Burgundy - it is surely a testament to Didier’s special talent. That sense of weightlessness, tension, and saline acidity are all here in spades. This is a wine you should try to buy year in and year out. Fun to drink young, but even more special if you can resist them and lay them down for a few years. Frankly, there are very few red Burgundies in the entire region that compete with Didier Fornerol on a price-to-value basis.