2017 Louis Latour Beaune Vignes Franches 1er Cru 750 ml

“Even today, Beaune is frequently underrated despite being within Burgundy. And this wine shows what nonsense that is.” Those were James Suckling’s words on Louis Latour’s Vignes Franches Premier Cru, a wine that consistently dazzles us each vintage with its Pommard-like opulence and lively fruit-driven character that’s just as thrilling to enjoy young as it is over the course of its long cellar life.

From one of the best Premier Cru vineyards in Burgundy’s medieval wine capital of Beaune, this 2017 Louis Latour is an absolute steal for collectors and Pinot Noir lovers alike.

We always look forward to our biannual sojourn to Louis Latour’s stateside HQ to taste through some of Burgundy’s greatest Grand Cru and Premier Cru Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. So when Louis Latour mastermind Bernard Retornaz held off on showing us the Vignes Franches until we could spend more time with it over lunch, we could tell he had developed a bit of a crush on this bottle.  

The best Burgundies quicken the pulse and flush the cheeks as they gently seduce the senses. This was one of those.  

In his charmingly thick French accent, Bernard winked as he joked, “I like my wine younger, like a lot of things…” trailing off mischievously as he poured the 2017 Vignes Franches into our Riedels. We laughed, but the youthful appeal was immediate, as the wine’s playfully vibrant, pale ruby color reflected its beautifully fresh bouquet, balancing English strawberry and red cherry aromas with violet and lavender flourishes and hints of cedar and star anise.

The firmly structured palate is where the charms of youth belie this Pinot Noir’s more serious ambitions, with silky, fine-grained tannins suspending the spiced cherry, raspberry, and earthy forest floor notes while foreshadowing their intriguing evolution over the next decade. “Hard not to drink now,” as James Suckling wrote in his glowing review of this 2017, but this Premier Cru Louis Latour will also reward the patient.

The Premier Cru Vignes Franches vineyard is one of the prized parcels of Domaine Louis Latour. Neighboring Pommard, these 35-year-old vines are situated mid-slope on clay soils that are scattered with small pebbles, allowing for easy water drainage, producing more concentrated grapes that are always packed with flavor and spice.

When we asked Bernard what makes this wine so special year after year, he paused, pensively swirling the wine around in the glass before draining it and shrugging, “When you only have one name, you have to be careful about what goes in the bottle.”

He was, of course, referring to the Louis Latour name. Founded in 1797, the domaine is (impressively) still a family business—it is run by Louis-Fabrice Latour, the eleventh generation to head the domaine. While he’s snapped up properties like Simonnet-Febvre in Chablis and Henry Fessy in Beaujolais, the domaine’s 119 acres of Burgundy vines is still nearest to his family’s soul. Traditional vinification methods have thus been painstakingly maintained for over two centuries, from hand-picked grapes to gravity-fed wineries, to even the barrels, which are made in-house to guarantee every factor that ultimately defines the final wine.

That attention to detail is especially palpable when the vintage also cooperates. Especially in great years like 2017, which Suckling declared “nuanced and terroir-driven,” thanks to a drama-free grape growing season—resulting in what the French call “a good restaurant vintage…where the wines are exuberantly drinkable on release,” like this Vignes Franches.

With only 350 cases imported to the U.S. each year, Louis Latour’s Vignes Franches Premier Cru is as difficult to source as it is easy to fall in love with.