Old World Palate

Finally some cool weather has arrived and I can already feel the urge to start into some fall reds.  Although I'll probably still cheat and drink whites all through the winter (I love white wine, what can I say?), I do enjoy the change of pace cold weather brings and the opportunity to dive into some hefty reds.  So right now I'm easing in with the Faiveley 2005 Mercurey Domaine de la Croix Jacquelet.  The esteemed Faiveley wines have just made it into my area, and I've been craving a light, subtle, complex red to wrap my mind around.  So this Pinot Noir from Mercurey in the Cote Chalonnaise region of Burgundy seemed like a potentially great fit.  By the way you can check J. Faiveley's obnoxiously flash-laden site here. Note to winemakers:  please stop cluttering up your sites with silly flash animations that make your site twice as slow to navigate through. -A. Blogger Anyways back to the wine. 

The Faiveley is delicious and certainly a testament that the Mercury region can be a great place to find affordable red Burgundy.  However, I would also say the high acidity combined with young tannins make this wine a good candidate for some short term aging.  Unless you're an acid-head, you may find the wine to be a bit cloying.  Right now all I can think about is pairing this with food.  The nose brings a healthy portion of underripe cherry and a very nice cinnamon-driven spice box component.  Both of which carry over to the palate. In terms of seasonal drinking, I think this wine stradles the summer and fall nicely.  I could see pairing this with a chicken and mardarin orange salad as easily as a tangy pork dish or even gamier meats like duck or rabbit.  This would not be an easy Pinot to overpower.