I love the elegance of the 2017 La Savante Pinot Noir, a pure Pinot Noir from Gualtallary, from the vineyard informally called El Mirador, in the monastery part of the appellation. I love the flinty reduction and the Chambolle-like elegance of the wine. The palate reveals tons of chalky minerality and comes through as tasty, salty, elegant, insinuating and harmonious. I love the nuance and subtleness here. Awesome. 2,750 bottles were filled in October 2018.

Medium red with moderate saturation. Tighter and less expressive on the nose than the Histoire d'A, conveying an impression of iron. Then denser and ultimately sweeter on the palate but at the same more linear and focused than the Histoire d'A, with its strawberry and crushed-rock flavors coming across as less silky and more backward. This very promising wine, made from vines planted in 1994, really deserves a couple more years of cellaring. (from higher- altitude clone 115 and 777 vines than the Histoire d'A--almost 5,000 feet--on limestone- rich soil with afternoon shade)