2021 Domaine Pillot Laurent & Romain Pinot Noir Bourgogne France 750 ml

Laurent and Romain Pillot’s Pinot Noir is the type of off-the-beaten-path value we live to track down—and our members love to drink—because it offers an authentic Burgundian personality at an outrageously un-Burgundian price.

A complex, carefully crafted wine from impeccable vineyards in and around the village of Mercurey, this is a need-to-know-someone find that rarely escapes from Burgundy’s wine-savvy locals.

It only ended up in our glasses because our wine-writer friend Lucas brought a bottle back from France and poured it at a dinner at San Francisco’s Saison—and our group of Burgundy buffs at the table heaped on the praise. Even as bottles from icons like Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey and Hubert Lamy made the rounds, the Pillot impressed with its intricate aromas of dark fruit, lush florals, and forest-floor earthiness.

Pinot Noir from the Côte d’Or is excellent, and certainly worth the region’s soaring prices. But ear-to-the-ground buyers know the Côte Chalonnaise, just to the south, is the spot for exceptional Pinot at great value. Eric Asimov of The New York Times said Côte Chalonnaise reds convey “what makes Burgundy the promised land for Pinot Noir wines,” and Wine Enthusiast said Mercurey produces “some of Burgundy’s most attractive, cushioned and vibrant Pinot Noirs.” 

The father-and-son team of Laurent and Romain represent the fifth and sixth generations to make wine at Domaine Pillot, and they’re intimately acquainted with the land around Mercurey. They hand-harvest all the grapes, ferment them in concrete vats, then age the wine for 10 months in stainless-steel vats to preserve pure-fruit flavors—just one of the traits that so impressed the Pinot-fanatics at Saison that night.