We love "the Edges of Burgundy" for delicious, exciting wines at great prices. And no village is a better example than Savigny-lès-Beaune. It may be the ultimate under-appreciated Burgundy.

Long maligned for light red wines (sometimes... Read More

We love "the Edges of Burgundy" for delicious, exciting wines at great prices. And no village is a better example than Savigny-lès-Beaune. It may be the ultimate under-appreciated Burgundy.

Long maligned for light red wines (sometimes even lightened with white wine varieties, a practice long-since stopped), it has great terroir, top producers and, for generations, has made delicious wines of depth and complexity. And the prices haven't moved up nearly as much as in the more famous villages.

Sure, you might say Savigny-lès-Beaune is great for tasty red-fruited Pinot that you can drink young, but that it just isn't serious. Wrong! Savigny is great to drink young—that's one of its virtues! But good examples also age beautifully. When we had the pleasure of visiting Domaine Pierre Guillemot, the family generously shared a 1978 Serpentières. It was the greatest red Burgundy we tasted on that trip, complete with the peacock finish you normally associate with something like a Richebourg.

Guillemot's Savigny-lès-Beaunes seem particularly ageworthy. Kermit Lynch, who imports the wines, even issues this challenge on his web site: "We challenge anyone to find a better deal on Burgundies that are built to last like these!" We spend a lot of time trying to find just that, and we haven't called Kermit yet. Guillemot's wines are just too good.

In addition to beautiful drinkability in youth and supreme complexity and elegance with age, the best Savigny-lès-Beaunes are precise expressions of unique terroirs, with the subtle distinctions between crus that make Burgundy so endlessly riveting.