2020 Les Arbillons Le Clos Macon-Milly-Lamartine 750 ml

The most exciting part of Burgundy isn’t a stone’s throw from Beaune, Vosne, or Volnay. It doesn’t have any Grand Crus, or even Premier Crus.

It’s the Mâconnais, where small, conscientious producers are producing dynamic Burgundies from Gamay Noir at prices that put their cousins in Gevrey-Chambertin and Beaune to shame.

That’s where the dynamic, third-generation Les Arbillons calls home—specifically the village of Milly-Lamartine, which is the source of this bottling and one of the most exciting towns in the entire Mâcon. Blessed with clay-limestone soils that emulate the best terroirs of the Côte d’Or, it’s attracted Burgundian nobility like Dominique Lafon—who makes $4,000 bottles from Montrachet but chose Milly-Lamartine a the base for his outpost in southern Burgundy.

He was drawn not only by the soil, but by the village’s late-ripening nature—which is especially useful in the southerly Mâconnais and in a warm vintage like 2020, which Decanter’s Charles Curtis MW called “exceptional” and rated 4.5 out of five.

Les Arbillons is a dynamic, third-generation producer who is revolutionizing their domaine by eliminating herbicides in the vineyard and using plows instead, while focusing on quality in the cellar. In the glass, it bears the imprint of the quality-obsessed, but somehow, someway, still retains the humble pricing of the Mâconnais. 

This is Les Arbillons’ top red wine, sourced from a single vineyard and made from 100% Gamay Noir. This wine has been served at many French epicurean capitals, like Bourguignon du Marais in Paris, famous for its Burgundy list, and Restaurant Auberge Larochette in Burgundy—a temple of gastronomy where the late Président François Mitterrand used to go regularly.