Château du Cray Clos du Château Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2021

Light and lovely with an enticing aroma of red fruits, currants, and peonies, the 2021 Château du Cray Clos du Château Bourgogne Pinot Noir makes a strong case for itself from the first sniff. The wine’s olfactory follows through in the mouth where floral and red berry fruit flavors are subsumed with a hint of grenadine and a pleasant touch of earthy vinosity for which Burgundy is renowned. All is as it should be in this Côte Chalonnaise Pinot Noir, as fresh acidity carries the wine to a graceful finish and welcome curtain call. Although ready to please now, the 2021 Château du Cray Clos du Château Bourgogne Pinot Noir should continue to improve in bottle and offer superb drinking for several years. For optimal enjoyment, we suggest 20-30 minutes of aeration before serving at cool room temperature (58º-62º F). Anticipated maturity: 2024-2027. Enjoy!

A fine red burgundy such as the 2021 Château du Cray Clos du Château Bourgogne Pinot Noir begs to be served at table, and Burgundy’s classic dishes, each of which makes a wonderful tableau upon which to craft a successful dinner party, provide the ideal accompaniments. Coq au Vin immediately springs to mind. Yet, for our taste, fine cuts of beef and almost any chicken or turkey dish prepared with mushrooms or stuffing will pair superbly with this savory Bourgogne Pinot Noir. Breast of Chicken in a savory white sauce and Sautéed Veal Medallions with mushrooms and cream are two additional tried and true classics, which are sure to shine in the company of Château du Cray’s Pinot Noir. The savory aspects inherent in the wine and the food play beautifully off one another, which will no doubt cause the contents of the bottle to disappear quickly. An Herb Crusted Pork Tenderloin makes for another splendid dinner companion. Serve the pork with a dried cherry sauce and sides of roasted shallot mashed potatoes and haricot verts for additional gastronomic pleasure. And, if good old-fashioned sipping is more to your liking, this Côte Chalonnaise Bourgogne Pinot Noir provides plenty of pleasure with nary a morsel. Bon appétit!

Château du Cray is a historic 22-hectare estate in Burgundy’s fabled Côte Chalonnaise. The Goichot family, longtime Burgundian winegrowers, took over this renowned property and its medieval castle in 2016 from the Perret du Cray family who had acquired the property in 1798. Three generations of the Goichot family now tend Château du Cray’s vineyards. The estate’s vines wind around the castle, which is located in the middle of a hillside, all with east to south-east exposure.

Château du Cray produces a number of enviable Côte Chalonnaise red and white burgundies from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines respectively, including this month’s feature (the 2021 Château du Cray Clos du Château Bourgogne Pinot Noir). The domaine’s vineyards grow on the Côte Chalonnaise’s unique limestone-clay soils. The resulting wines constitute an enviable number of Burgundy’s most traditional and affordable treasures.

The Côte Chalonnaise remains the least known of Burgundy’s wine regions, but this sequestered set of low hills and tiny villages has begun to garner considerable attention and great acclaim for its wines. In the last two decades, the Côte Chalonnaise has become the source of many unexpected pleasures and a veritable treasure trove of beautiful wines at prices below those of its Burgundian neighbors. Situated to the east of the sleepy little town of Chalon-sur-Saône from which the region inherits its name, the Côte Chalonnaise is for all intents and purposes a continuation of the fabled Côte de Beaune that lies just to the north.

As is the case throughout Burgundy, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir comprise the predominant grape varieties on the Côte Chalonnaise, with allowance made for small amounts of Pinot Blanc for the region’s white wines and Pinot Liebault and Pinot Beurot for its reds. The latter two Pinots are nearly identical to Pinot Noir. Four important communes dominate the region: Givry, Mercurey, Montagny, and Rully – all bona fide Burgundy appellations in their own right. In Givry and Mercurey, the emphasis is on the production of good to excellent red wines, as Pinot Noir reigns supreme in their vineyards. Meanwhile, Rully and Montagny specialize in fashioning elegant, delicious white burgundies from Chardonnay grapes. The tiny town of Buxy is part of the Montagny appellation, which fashions wines that compete with many of the more renowned white burgundies of the Côte de Beaune, where wines of comparable quality cost two, three, and four times the price. The wines of the Côte Chalonnaise that are grown just outside the boundaries of the four major communes or exceed the legal production for their respective communes are sold as Bourgogne Blanc and Bourgogne Rouge, yet they, too, constitute many of Burgundy’s best values and unexpected pleasures. Enjoy!