They say that with great power comes great responsibility. I seem to find myself in the unusual position of having great responsibility, but very little power (apart from on ‘bin day’, when I’m told I really come into my own). The responsibility that weighs so heavily upon these shoulders is finding the perfect Pinot Noir for your Christmas table. It’s the one day of the year when everyone should splash out on a really good one and I take the quest very seriously indeed, racking up hundreds of tasting miles in its pursuit. I really want you to have that incredible ‘Vosne-Romanee’ experience, where you feel like you are drinking molten rubies poured through a stained-glass window while choirs of angels sing from above. As a bare minimum.

As you can probably guess, I am not writing this to let you know that I have failed in my mission. Last week I tasted a Pinot Noir from Burgundy, which made me go so weak at the knees that I needed to be helped up. I was at a swanky Burgundy tasting at Simpson’s in the Strand, moving sequentially from Wine #1 to Wine #98 , but I kept breaking ranks and going back to Wine #20. If you were to look at a heat map of my movements, you would see a red-hot spike around this red Burgundy, like Erling Haaland in the six-yard box. I couldn’t get enough of it.

It comes from the village of Fixin [pronounced Fee San], which lies just to the north of its much more famous neighbour, Gevrey-Chambertin. Fixin isn’t one of those sexy appellations, which can trade on its label, and this wine was made by a young winemaker, Michel Naddef, whose name hasn’t hit the headlines yet, but is clearly a phenomenal talent, having honed his craft at the legendary Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé. And the wine itself? Highly expressive and perfumed, but not a frivolous ‘girlie’ fragrance, something layered and complex, as if made from hand-crushed cherries and blackcurrants, steeped in summer pudding juices and exotic barks, resins and dried orange peel, betel nut, hibiscus, kola and that molten ruby thing already mentioned. It’s deep in flavour, yet lithe and svelte in texture, cooled by a very fine mineral streak that reflects the clarity of the fruit like the silver backing of a mirror.

I have tried to find a review to back me up, but the domaine is clearly keeping itself to itself for the time being, because there are no write-ups to be found. So, I’m hoping you’ll trust in the idea that I don’t want anyone cursing my name on Christmas Day and wouldn’t recommend something I don’t have complete faith in. I’m confident you will love it.

It would appear that ‘Crais de Chene’ is a special ‘lieu-dit’, a vineyard within the village given special status. We have only sold one Fixin before and it was from exactly the same site, and Jancis Robinson MW tried a wine from the same site and from the same vintage, except made by Rene Bouvier, and said “Such drive! The first wine I was tempted to swallow! VGV”. I know a Gevrey-Chambertin or a Chambolle-Musigny might elicit more “oohs” and “aahs” when you put a bottle on the table, but I think this wine will give as much, if not more pleasure when poured into a wide-bowled glass and paired with a premium turkey.