2018 Domaine de l'Etoile Little Star Pinot Noir 750 ml

We were at Le Coucou, one of the top French restaurants in New York. It was pouring outside, but the dining room glistened with the lights reflecting off the wine glasses at every white tablecloth-covered table. Everyone seemed to be drinking Pinot that night, and the crowd was doing so in style: The couple to our right was sharing a bottle of Chapelle-Chambertin, and the four-top to our left was halfway through a magnum of Volnay.

But the bean counters had capped our expense account, and so we were scanning the wine list for a bargain—something that’s tough to find on Le Coucou’s 44-page list. Looking around the room, our guest that night, a well-known importer of French wines, got a mischievous look in his eyes. “Want to start off with a new discovery of mine?” he asked.

The answer was a no-brainer. Brian, as we’ll call him for short, is one of the most highly respected importers of French wine in New York City, with a portfolio that includes names that make sommeliers break into cold sweats. Domaine Chevalier and Albert Morot in Burgundy. Ausone and Calon-Ségur in Bordeaux. Champagne Rodez.

He took the bottle from his bag, gave it to our server, and asked her to open it up for us.

“Even with the astronomical $95 corkage fee,” he said, “this’ll be a steal.”

Aromas of fresh strawberries and cherries cascaded from the glass, all of it edged with wisps of smoke and thyme. Each sip of the 2018 Domaine de l'Étoile Little Star Pinot Noir was silky and fresh, the gobs of cherries framed by elegant tannins. Knowing Brian’s sources, it could have been a million-dollar bottle from a half-acre plot that no one has known about since the Middle Ages. 

It fooled us into assuming that, until Brian told us it was the opposite: A Pinot Noir that just tasted like $100. 

Fans of French Pinot will adore this wine, and so will wine-lovers with New World tastes. It’s a ripe, generous red full of the same juicy energy that the top Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast producers are so beloved for. But unlike the best of California’s most famous Pinot appellations, the 2018 Domaine de l'Étoile Little Star delivers the same opulence and pleasure for 1/5th of the price.

Brian discovered this wine during a recent trip to the Languedoc, the region that arcs along the Mediterranean from Provence to the Pyrenees, and that’s increasingly home to some of the most exciting French wines being produced today. The 2018 Domaine de l'Étoile Little Star Pinot Noir over-delivers for the money, and is perfect for everything from high-end French restaurants like Le Coucou to Tuesday-night hamburgers.

It’s grown by the Union des Caves de Cébazan, whose 3,700 acres of vines represent one of the most diverse plantings in the region. Among them are a handful of pockets where the cool air rolling over the Pyrenees Mountains acts as a counter to the famously warm weather of Southern France, and where the breezes from the Mediterranean allow Pinot’s all-important acidity to be retained. These vineyards coax Pinot Noir to perfect maturity without sacrificing one iota of freshness. A huge diversity of soils, from calcareous and clay to sandstone, means that the best producers have countless tools to work with in crafting their wines. This one is a beautiful example.

That night at Le Coucou, after we’d finished that first bottle, Brian asked what we wanted next. The decision was unanimous and immediate: One more bottle of 2018 Domaine de l'Étoile Little Star Pinot Noir before moving on to Cabernet. Wine this good—no matter the corkage fee—was a steal. And a delicious one, too.