Marechal Chorey Les Beaune 2021

100% Pinot Noir from Chorey-lès-Beaune, made the Maréchal way: ploughed vineyards with no herbicides, severe pruning for low yields, total destemming, natural-yeast fermentation in open wooden vats, and only a small proportion of new barrels each year. The 2021 runs to tea, cranberry, cherry pit and moist earth, with vibrant acidity and an enticing suppleness — density sitting next to sheer elegance, with lovely persistence and freshness.

The Maréchals' Chorey vines sit on the gravelly side of the appellation. They blend three parcels, about two hectares of old vines in all. One is Les Crais at the southern end of the village, where the soil is mostly gravel. The stones get thicker the further east you go. That drainage is where the freshness and the cranberry edge come from.

The domaine is a few kilometres away at Bligny-lès-Beaune, on the plain between Beaune and Pommard. Claude started around 1980 with four hectares and has grown it to 12.5, with his son Antoine now alongside. The pruning is hard, seven or eight bunches per vine, and the reds get a cool soak before fermentation.

Serve it cool, around 15 degrees, with roast chicken, duck, or a mushroom risotto.