Pascal Marchand – 2012s

12.3.2014billn

DSC02959Tasted with Pascal Marchand in Nuits St.Georges 30 Jan, 2014.

I use Pascal’s name to head this list because everyone will know exactly who and what I mean. There were some wines previously described as Marchand-Tawse and now Pascal mentions only Domaine Tawes (but where does that put the bulk of these négoce wines). So for now I’ll stick with ‘Pascal Marchand’ until I see some labels. I noted that Pascal was having some work done on a building on the periphique of Beaune – under the name ‘SCI Morgeot’ he explained that name came from the fact that was the first plot of vines that they bought. But now the name is Domaine Tawse.

Marchand on 2012: The vintage wasn’t all bad, despite poor yields the quality is very good.

Marchand on 2013: This will be more difficult because there is more variability in quality and grape prices went up despite that – “we had to be very careful to look for value versus the prices asked.”

Marchand on prices:“There’s no way to avoid it – we have to increase prices – there’s no other choice. Because of what we saw in the cellar with yields (for 2012) we preempted our prices a little more than needed with our 2011s, but it won’t offset the fact that we can’t increase the prices of 12s more than 10-15%, which is less than we really need. If the 2013 crop had been of normal size, we might have found the excuse to avoid increasing 12s so much, but it wasn’t to be…”

Only reds
When I visited, nothing was in bottle yet, but some of the wines had been assembled. The reds won’t be all in bottle before May, starting depending on the phase of the moon. Despite it ‘not being a great lunar day’ I thought most of the wines tasted fine, and even made some orders 😉 All from barrel except the last 4 from tank:

2012 Bourgogne Pinot Noir
The grapes come from near the villages of Pommard and Nuits St.Georges plus a smaller chunk from near Gevrey.
A deep core of fruit on this nose. Good guts to the palate too – tannin but not too obvious. Finishes on a mineral key. Good stuff.

2012 Maranges
Made with 40% whole clusters.
The nose has a lovely perfume, yet not obviously from stems. Serious, well-structured and has lots of interest and complexity. Excellent! Long finishing too.

2012 Côte de Nuits Villages
I need to swirl plenty to remove a little reduction, never quite completing the job – but getting close. Round in the mouth with plenty of concentration – impressively so. I think this should turn out very, very well.

2012 Marsannay
Also a hint of reduction but there are flowers too on the nose. Round and rather velvety in the mouth. It’s modest but very pretty and there a long finish that majors on sweet fruit.

2012 Chassagne-Montrachet
This is round and quite powerful, yet with a soft edge. It’s more structured than the Marsannay, with good depth of flavour and length. An unsung but excellent wine – the last drops offer a gorgeous aromatic.

2012 Fixin
A hint of reduction fades to allow pretty dark-red (destemmed) fruits to show themselves. Vibrant and concentrated, there’s a very good line of flavour here. I find real flavour authority – really excellent Fixin!

2012 Pernand-Vergelesses
Here is a very pretty dark-red note – vibrant aromatics. A depth of pretty fruit and good velvet tannin. Another wine with a winning personality.

2012 Pommard
Not yet racked.
Very dark berries on the nose and some mineral tones too. Very concentrated, plenty of tannin too but with enough energy to avoid ‘heaviness.’ It remains a burly if charcterful wine.

2012 Nuits St.Georges
The nose is a bit shy, yet lets slip a few mineral and high tones. The flavour is also a little shy to start with, but the texture and finishing flavours are lovely.

2012 Vosne-Romanée
High-toned and floral nose augmented with dark fruits and spice – gorgeous! Lots of concentration, fresh enough and plenty of structure too. Despite the gorgeously attractive nose, this is a very serious wine indeed – great quality.

2012 Chambolle-Musigny
The nose has plenty of high-tones and is very pretty indeed – but modestly proportioned. There’s a little more comforting sweetness versus the larger-scaled Vosne. Still, there is structure here. I think this will become a very pretty wine.

2012 Morey St.Denis Pierre Virant
Hints of reduction actual blend nicely with floral elements. Here is a palate that’s borne on minerality and a fine boned structure. Another wine of classy character.

2012 Morey St.Denis En la Rue de Vergy
Pascal: “I spent a lot of time in this vineyard when I first came to Burgundy, when I was working for Bruno Clair – it means a lot to me.”
Vivid dark-red fruit – lovely. Some padding to the palate and a lovely extension of flavour into a super length, perhaps a little salty tang too at the end. A simply captivation wine – which I could resist ordering – in mags!

2012 Gevrey-Chambertin
Medium-plus colour. Here is aromatic depth and minerality too – that character word again! The palate is wide with the texture of velvet – good flavour too. A fresh and more than interesting wine.

2012 Fixin 1er Clos de la Chapitre
Wow – dynamic aromas – really interesting. Round, softly textured yet plenty of structure. The fruit is red, close to strawberry. Just a super wine.

2012 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cazetiers
Starts reductive but cleans-up in the glass – still rather shy though. Here is a plush and beautifully flavoured wine. Long, layered and complex. Just a little more contemplative than many here. Yum!

2012 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Fontenys
Medium-plus colour. High-toned aromas with a dark, mineral aspect. It’s similar in the mouth, fresh and detailed too. A lithe quite dynamic wine. Great personality.

2012 Morey St.Denis 1er Monts Luisants
A beautiful floral nose – really! Round, yet somehow without much weight. Fine acidity and very pretty flavours – yum! Yum!

2012 Morey St.Denis 1er Faconnières
The nose is a little floral but seems textured whilst showing dar fruit too. A hint of tannin but this is a lithe, muscular and ‘fit’ wine. Dark-fruited and good length. Bit of a beauty.

2012 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Perrières
Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose is high-toned, detailed and rather pretty. Fresh, red fruited and shows a growing intensity and concentration. Fine, detailed yet still concentrated finish.

2012 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Vaucrains
Deeper coloured. Just a little reduced and the palate is shy too, if concentrated. Come back another day…

2012 Charmes-Chambertin
The nose is fresh, deep and darkly mineral – this is very impressive. Concentrated and structured but with focus too. This is a serious, rather than charming Charmes – Excellent!

2012 Chambertin
Wow! Very, very complex; minerals, spices, black and red fruits – and that’s in a 12°C cellar! – there’s even depth and texture to this nose. Fabulous. Very mineral, lithe and powerful wine – a sprinter but not a power-lifter. Brilliant.

2012 Bonnes-Mares
More from the Morey side.
Some flowers and a beautiful depth of red fruit. Here there’s more obvious structure than the Chambertin – lots – but it drinks fine. Oof!

Then a quick tour od a few wines from tank:

2012 Morey St.Denis 1er Clos des Ormes
Medium colour. A little gooseberry on the nose (Like 2010 de Vogüés…)

2012 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Les Perrières
A really interesting (nice!) aromatic. Super depth of flavour.

2012 Pommard 1er Epenots
The nose is tight. Power, energy and a nice texture to the tannin. Lovely finish – very, very good!

2012 Musigny
The nose is super-wide, with flowers and a to-die-for depth. Just a bit of CO2 but “Gentle and powerful at the same time” says Pascal. I can see that! It seems to become ever-more massive in the glass. Super, of-course!

Agree? Disagree? Anything you'd like to add?

Burgundy Report

Translate »

You are using an outdated browser. Please update your browser to view this website correctly: https://browsehappy.com/;