2018 Louis Latour Marsannay Burgundy France 750 ml

When the only red Burgundy on Wine Enthusiast’s 2020 Top 100 list is priced like this, you can almost hear the clock ticking before it disappears from shelves and into the glasses of savvy Burgundy lovers.

An elegant, pale ruby Pinot Noir with electric flashes of fuchsia, the glass brims with energy even before the wine’s aromatic layers begin cascading out of it. Youthful strawberry and raspberry entwine with sophisticated notes of flint, dried porcini, violet, forest floor, and a hint of star anise.

The palate is equally engaging, as the ripe red fruit, earth, and spice gain textural complexity against a bright backbone of refreshing acidity and firm-grained tannins. Aged twelve months in stainless steel to maintain its pristine freshness, this is a gorgeous wine that’s almost impossible to put down once it’s in the glass—it’s easy to see how this Pinot landed among the Top 100 wines of the year. 

Over 250 years of experience have made Louis Latour the largest landholder of Grand Cru vineyards in Burgundy, making its most prestigious wines off world-famous plots like Bâtard-Montrachet and Corton-Charlemagne—bottles of exquisite mineral sophistication that can easily run up to $400. But Latour head winemaker Jean-Charles Thomas is canny enough to also tend grapes in quieter subregions like Marsannay, the “Golden Gate to the Côte de Nuits,” where fantastic small-production Pinot like this can be had for a song.

Marsannay is the northernmost appellation of the Côte d’Or, just a few kilometers above the illustrious slopes of Gevrey-Chambertin. Winemaking here dates back to the seventh century, and the wines of the region were favorites of bishops and royalty like Louis XIV and Louis XVI. Higher elevations, cooler temperatures, and chalky limestone soils make for Pinot Noirs like this 2018, with an elegance and energy of riveting wines that cost twice as much.

Marsannay performed like never before in 2018, a warm vintage with a dry growing season whose concentrated wines have drawn comparisons with the legendary 1947s. Wine Enthusiast hailed Burgundy’s 2018s for their ability to “provide lots of pleasure at various price points,” where “village appellations shine, and the villages that struggled to ripen grapes reliably in the past are now treasure troves for value.”