2016 Albert Bichot Fixin Cote De Nuits Burgundy France 750 ml

“The Alternative to Gevrey-Chambertin”

The winding country lanes of Burgundy, which twist and turn amongst undulating hillsides responsible for the world’s most coveted wines, don’t give any secrets away. As clouds roll over the sky casting shadows across densely-planted rows of grapevines, there are no flashing signs or tour buses—just rough-hewn stone walls made by the monks who first toiled on this hallowed ground, moving stones and charting the best sites for ethereal Pinot Noirs.

Today’s 2016 Albert Bichot Fixin is one of those wines, the type of red where one swirl transports us back to Burgundy with its aromas—-black cherry, raspberry, forest floor—and a sip sends us zooming down the narrow lanes of Fixin, where tension and tannin define the village’s signature Pinot Noirs. By the time the finish on the 2016 Albert Bichot Fixin wanes—with stony minerality, dusty earth, and firm tannins—returning to reality feels like punishment.

As a result, we’re ordering this wine by the case, and suggest you do the same.

Maybe you’ve heard: in recent years, affordable red Burgundy has been exponentially harder to find. The low-yielding 2016 vintage may have been “hauntingly beautiful” in the words of Vinous, but it had a fittingly ghostly presence on shelves as some producers produced no wines at all in top communes. Prices, in some cases, were up 50%. 

Until market forces and bigger harvests balance things out, one way out of the conundrum may lie in a small AOC on the northern end of the Côte de Nuits called Fixin, pronounced fission. The name references the erupted soil and rock of the region’s combes, small east-west valleys that define Burgundy’s microclimates and soil diversity. Clay-limestone soils layered with marl and gentle slopes have helped make this village a quiet contender for the best value reds in Burgundy. “Fixin could and should be competing with Marsannay as the ‘alternative’ to Gevrey-Chambertin,” argues Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate.

Along with critically acclaimed producers like Domaine Berthaut-Gerbet, Albert Bichot has been a leader in Fixin and this fine-boned, mineral-rich release, made with partner-growers who employ lutte raisonnée farming techniques, is a prime example of the powerful structure and depth of flavor that make these wines Gevrey-Chambertin lookalikes. In spite of the vintage’s low quantities, Bichot couldn’t stop raving about quality of the 2016s, open-knit and characterized by luscious red fruit.

Burghound echoed his assessment, attesting to the “several excellent wines” from Bichot in 2016. Aged 100% in oak barrels, 25% new, the 2016 Fixin drinks beautifully now, and its grace and balance will only improve with 3-5 years of cellaring.