Dusty red cherry, white mushroom, dried raspberry. Mirabelle plum, mossy forest floor, tart pomegranate. Anise and baking spice, crushed pine needle and tree bark. Bright cranberry fights its way through dense leaves and dried rose petals on top of broken limestone and iron. Perfect Burgundian rusticity frames gloriously dirty red fruit. This 2007 Nuits-Saint-Georges by Maison Joseph Drouhin is impressive Pinot Noir from Burgundy's Côte De Nuits.

The village of Nuits-Saint-Georges lies smack in the middle of the best Pinot Noir Vineyards in the world. While this village itself does no contain any Grand Cru vineyards it borders Vosne-Romanée to its north, which is home to what many consider the best individual vineyard sites on the planet. This bottling, crafted by famed negociant Maison Joseph Drouhin, is a completely convincing example of what this stretch of earth can produce. Despite being only a humble village level bottling this wine is absolutely singing right now. At 11 years from vintage it is entering its prime drinking window where it will continue to develop for some time. Expressive fruit still leads the charge while notes of forest and earth round out the profile. Tannin is observable but rather hidden and the acid has calmed to an approachable level. Animal tones are also present but not pronounced, although they will undoubtedly reveal themselves with more bottle age. There is nothing like Burgundy with a few years under its belt to remind you why this stuff is so highly coveted.