With the new year right around the corner, I’d like to suggest one wine resolution for the months ahead: Do not let 2024 go by without embracing Alsatian Pinot Noir every chance you get. All four of our Alsace producers make red wines from the grape and, in recent years, some of their bottlings have counted among the most exciting Pinot Noirs in our entire portfolio—even compared to many stellar bottles of red Burgundy.
     A great place to begin is with Kuentz-Bas, who produces an all-purpose, value-driven cuvée perfect for your weeknight dinner table or backyard barbecue. While the domaine has built its reputation on the more famous Alsatian white grapes over the last several decades, vigneron Olivier Raffin is justifiably enthusiastic about the potential of Pinot Noir in his region. “Historically,” he says, “Alsatian Pinot Noir was harvested at high yields and vinified to be light and clear. But the complexity of Alsatian soils is quite similar to that of Burgundy. The two regions are in a geological continuity. The main difference is in the latitude—we are further north and probably benefit from a more intense acid structure. Apart, maybe, from the rare and greatest sites identified by monks in Burgundy centuries ago, I think that with the same yield, we can do as well as they do in Burgundy.”
     This may sound like a lofty claim, but with the 2019 vintage of this cuvée, he’s earned it. Sourced from decades-old vines and aged in large foudres in the domaine’s centuries-old cellar, this is classic old-world, unadorned Pinot Noir at its best: ethereal, but not lightweight; ripe, but not rich or overly extracted. Evoking delicate, crunchy berries, spices, and black tea, this is a versatile red that is as well-suited to a vegetable-forward dish as it is to seared tuna or your favorite roast fowl, not unlike top-notch Bourgogne rouge. Don’t miss one of the best Pinot Noir values in the world.

No novelty or “international-style” Pinot here; this terroir-driven, (very) high-altitude wine is from grapes fermented in large, open fermenters to capture all the native ambient yeasts of this cool, forgotten corner of Tuscany. Violets mix with balsamic notes and exotic spice here. 

This bottling features forest floor and spice box scents, with dark fruit and a long, elegant finish. Quite showy now, yet certain to continue to develop over the next decade.