2015 Michel Sarrazin Bourgogne Rouge Les Vieilles Vignes

2015 Michel Sarrazin — The Savvy Collector’s Dream

Some vintages play favorites, smiling down on one appellation with pitch-perfect conditions, while an unlucky village a few miles up the road is blasted with hail and frost. Other vintages — a tad rarer — spread the love around from corner to corner, raising the quality of nearly every cellar to new heights. By all accounts, the brilliant 2015 vintage in Burgundy is of the latter category, a rising-tide-floats-all-boats growing season that critics are calling one of the best in decades, rivaling 2010 and 2005. Our first pick from the 2015 Burgundies — a silky-soft, beautifully perfumed, under-$25 marvel — is the Bourgogne Rouge Les Vieilles Vignes from Domaine Michel Sarrazin et Fils.

In his Vinous vintage report at the start of this year, entitled “The 2015 Burgundies: You Are So Going To Want Them,” Stephen Tanzer broke down what he called “one of the half-dozen top vintages for red Burgundy of the past generation.”

“The vintage’s standout wines — and there are a lot of them in 2015 — offer a rare combination of succulent deep fruit, mouth-filling density of texture, ripe fine-grained tannins, and enough energy to ensure at least mid-term ageability,” Tanzer wrote. “In terms of their consistent quality and broad appeal, 2015 will be a difficult vintage to top.”

In the heart of Côte Chalonnaise, on high-altitude, pure limestone slopes, Domaine Michel Sarrazin et Fils produced a stunning Bourgogne Rouge Les Vieilles Vignes. Here in the foggy hamlet of Jambles (pop. 50), Sarrazin family members have been making wine since the 17th century. The 50-year-old vines are tended sustainably, guided by lutte raisonée principles to avoid the use of herbicides and pesticides. The result is velvety, elegant reds bursting with spice and energy.

Let the heavyweights snap up the Grand Cru Musignys and Chambertins for a king’s ransom. 

• ABV 12.50%
• Enjoy right away
• % Pinot Noir