2018 Domaine François Lumpp La Brûlée Givry Premier Cru Rouge 750 ml

Compare this Burgundy to its peers in the high-priced Côte de Nuits: The 2018 Domaine François Lumpp La Brûlée Givry Premier Cru is undeniably delicious, overdelivering, and exactly the kind of off-the-beaten path red for which importer Kermit Lynch is known. In fact, of Lynch’s carefully curated portfolio of European producers, this Pinot Noir is the wine that importer (and the founder’s son) Anthony Lynch chose to be featured on Wine Access. 

“As far as Burgundy goes, we obsess over the same appellations and wines,” Anthony said, speaking of the Côte d’Or and the Côte de Nuits. “But other parts of Burgundy are making fantastic wine, and it’s a great value in comparison.” 

François Lumpp embodies that idea, as well as the Lynches’ desire to find vignerons rooted in a specific village. Unlike the producers that pick and choose from appellations all over Burgundy, Lumpp is steeped in the Côte Chalonnaise, the region just below the Côte de Beaune. He makes ten wines from his home village of Givry, most of them from plots smaller than 2.5 acres. 

La Brûlée comes from a two-acre plot with the east-southeast exposure that’s prized all over Burgundy. Named “The Burnt” (think of Creme Brûlée), the soils of this Premier Cru are red clay, and they give the Pinot a beautiful iron quality—one that shines through Lumpp’s low-intervention methods.

“This is not gonna be the Côte d’Or,” Anthony said, about the wine from the similar but warmer Côte Chalonnais. “It’s a little riper and rounder, a little more forward, old-school and earthy, accessible right away. It’s got a lot of fruit, and is lovely and open, but with a gamy, bloody quality.”

Anthony grew up splitting his time between US and Provence, and he’s keenly attuned to what it will take to keep Kermit Lynch as one of the top importers in the country. “Now more than ever, it’s maintaining close relationships with the producers, visiting each year, curating the portfolio. I think it’s unusual for importers to have such close relationships, but we’re connected as a part of a big family.”

That closeness has earned Anthony and his family a pipeline to Europe’s greatest wines for more than four decades. Hand-picked for Wine Access, this is their whole ethos in one delicious bottle of Burgundy.