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a few of pascal marchand’s 2010s

Tasted Monday evening with Pascal and courtesy of www.realwines.ch (a really eclectic range of wines). The majority of these wines have been assembled in tank for the last two or three weeks, awaiting their turn for bottling – the exceptions are noted. The two whites were bottled two weeks ago. Pascal certainly has his own signature on the reds; fine bone china structure and plenty of oak-derived flavours padding out the palates. The oak can be a bit distracting but it certainly doesn’t leave a bad taste in the mouth – and of-course it will fade.
I have to say – Bravo!

2009 Pascal Marchand, Bourgogne Pinot Noir ‘Avalon’
Obviously bottled for some time! The nose seems rather mineral but with a clear waft of pinot perfume too. The flavours are wide, and, perhaps relatively light but everything is supported by an understated and supple tannin. The flavour slowly grows, filling all the nooks and crannies in your mouth. Very tasty wine!

2010 Pascal Marchand, Bourgogne Pinot Noir ‘Avalon’
This 2010 is a blend of Savigny, Chassagne (even some 1er cru), Pernand, Monthélie, Côte de Nuits Villages and even Morey!
Again quite elegantly proportioned, though there’s clearly an extra structural buffer. I just love the additional clarity and precision on display here – lovely wine.

2010 Pascal Marchand, Chambolle-Musigny
A lovely nose with a waxy impression and aromatic depth – very fine and pretty. The flavours are mineral and elegant – structure like fine bone china. There’s a little coconut oak in the finish – I’d be looking for that to fade, but this is a little beauty.

2010 Pascal Marchand, Morey St.Denis En la Rue de Vergy
The nose offers up a depth of creamed red fruit, darker than the Chambolle but also rather refined. The acidity is a little more obvious but it’s cemented to good intensity, smooth tannin and a mineral length. Love it!

2010 Pascal Marchand, Volnay 1er
A blend of Angles and Champans which is already bottled.
I love the high-toned fruit aromas, but there are also some quite obvious barrel notes padding out the ‘whole’ – they need to fade a bit. There is more tannin than any of the previous wines, but the flavour is also much longer. Currently it’s a shade less elegant than the previous wines, but it has more of everything and has only just been assembled in tank so that might be playing a role.

2010 Pascal Marchand, Corton
I stocked up on the 2008 when there was just 1 barrel, this time there’s 3
The nose has a wonderful depth, certainly quite the cuisinière though with coffee, chocolate, hints of coconut – fortunately I also find fruit. As the previous wines, Pascal has delivered a super-fine structure that delivers excellence without sacrificing intensity of flavour. Gorgeous clarity and super length.

2010 Pascal Marchand, Echézeaux
Just two barrels this time.
Here the nose is more obviously complex – a clear Vosne vernacular – but for all that it’s less precise and focused than the Corton – but with width and depth, a wine of scale. In the mouth it’s rounder, more visible tannin than the Corton but like all these wines the structure shows restraint even though there’s a faint hint of ‘grab’. Super.

2010 Pascal Marchand, Clos de Vougeot
The nose here gives the impression of a bit more muscle and in shape shows more width than depth. Clearly another level of structure on the palate, but those tannins are polished and the flavour is more overtly mineral than fruity. Impressive stuff – the last drops in the glass now show a super-classy red berry note. Despite the polish, proper CV!

2010 Pascal Marchand, Meursault
Just 2 weeks in bottle
Wide, pungent aromas. The texture is padded but very well balanced and supports plenty of mid-palate flavour that follows through perfectly into the finish too. Excellent villages and less overtly oak flavoured than the reds.

2010 Pascal Marchand, Chassagne-Montrachet 1et La Grande Ruchotte
Very different aromas – more depth and with a ripe fruit note at the core. The flavours are far more mineral than the Meursault, texturally this is more about silk than padding. Slowly growing mid-palate flavour eventually shows some creamy inflections in the finish. Yum.

Domaine Maume (RIP), Pascal Marchand and a few 2010s…

I was lucky enough to catch up with Pascal Marchand yesterday in quite sunny Zürich, mainly presenting his 2010s – it was a good chance to learn more about his new rôle with the former Domaine Maume.

We knew already last year that the family Maume wanted to extract the equity in the domaine which had been run so well by Bertrand Maume – sad for him, for sure – it was a source of wines with a lot of personality, but who would come next? There was plenty of speculation, there always is, but it seemed to centre around various large négoce, so it was a bit of surprise when we learned a few weeks back that it was the backer of Pascal Marchand’s operation in Nuits St.Georges – Moray Tawse – who had scooped the four hectare domaine from ‘the usual suspects’. The eventual label may be branded ‘Domaine Tawse, by Pascal Marchand’ or something similar, let’s see. (The linked press release makes for some confusion versus my interpretation of the discussion – I’ll try to contact Bertrand…)

Bertrand had managed his vines with a ‘lutte raisonée‘ approach, but Pascal, still working with his old number two, Bernard Zito, has already started the conversion to Biodynamics “Actually, it wasn’t that easy to start doing anything” joked Pascal yesterday, “We’ve had so much rain since the early Spring that we can hardly get into the vines because of the mud!“. Meanwhile Pascal continues to oversee the ongoing conversion work of the part of the old Moillard cuverie/cellars where he will transfer everything in it’s current Nuits home”hopefully before the next harvest!

[Notes on Pascal's wines, later...]

“Feet Buried in the Sand”

Another lovely piece of writing from Keith

Feet Buried in the Sand

waiter’s friend or wine thief?

A Frenchman and some arrogance does not turn an off licence into a wine merchant.

What a naughty boy – but, at the moment, some of the best writing around…

corton clos rognet 1981 maison clavelier

clavelier-1981-corton-clos-rognet

1981 Maison Clavelier, Corton Clos Rognet
Magnum. A good medium-plus colour. The aromas have some mature leaf and a depth of brown-sugared fruit – rather nice, whatever it sounds like! Rather anonymous entry but then there’s a nice acidity and all of a sudden an impressive expansion of flavour that slows into the finish – it could even be a grand cru! Tannin seems an after-thought, the finish being rather sweet. Can I honestly say this is Corton? Nope, but I can say it is tasty mature wine with no faults – this is (was) a hit!
Rebuy – No CHance (but lucky I have more!)

hospices de beaune 2009 meursault 1er charmes

hospices-beaune-drouhin-2009-meursault-charmes

2009 Hospices de Beaune, Meursault 1er Les Charmes
Cuvée Albert Grivault
Pale golden. A nose of depth, plenty of patisserie too. Slides across the tongue in a silky fashion with very understated acidity, but far from MIA. There is some extract in the mid-palate but it is a ‘slow grower’ rather than a wine of fireworks – seemingly the apogee of flavour is in the finish as the wine continues to widen. As noted, no fireworks, rather a wine for contemplation – and I did contemplate all of it!
Rebuy – Yes

hospices de nuits 81 corvées pagets – maison clavelier

An auction purchase; a few magnums of this and some Corton too. All the magnums are different shapes, sizes and even (glass) colours – oh, and none of them had capsules.

1981 Hospices de Nuits, Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Corvées Pagets
Cuvée Saint Laurent.
The wine is clear and bright – a good start. The nose is also rather good, there’s a little (not too much) mature leaf and a fainter undertow of ripe fruit – the last drops in the glass are that lovely acid red-cherry. Fine balancing acidity and still some tannin – the flavour is a little subdued before a nice and rather tasty lift in the mid-palate. Decent finishing. I wonder if that rather anonymous opening flavour is down to filtration? Whatever, it is clean and very, very drinkable – a good result – this bottle at least ;-)
Rebuy – No Chance

a double potel – collection bellenum plus clouding the waters…

It’s a late (only 4 days!) addition to the Spring 2012 Burgundy Report – but it doesn’t make sense to leave it in the drawer until (the Summer Report in) July/August to share with you: So here are the notes to a simply exquisite set of mature and maturing wines from Nicolas Potel. Read em and weep as they say ;-)

If the launch of these old wines is a thing to cheer the heart, some of the developments surrounding Nicolas’ old label – in the UK at least – are of less cheer. One retailer is now selling 2006 Maison Nicolas Potel wine, which would be fine, except for the fact the Nicolas says he didn’t make the wine that they are selling. To be clear, Nicolas made all the wines up to and including the 2007 vintage before being asked to leave the company wearing his name. It was then, completely clear to consumers, that anything 2008 onwards should be more carefully scrutinised before buying. The arrival of these ‘older’ wines seems to me depressing news, and that’s because it will now cast a shadow over the whole NP back catalogue – the line in the sand for choosing your bottles/vintages will be washed away by any tide of ‘new’ releases.

Of-course it’s all perfectly legal; the current owners run a négoce company and can, just like Nicolas is doing with his collection Bellenum (linked above), buy and sell older wines. What is ‘unfortunate’ is that they cloud the waters in such a way that you would assume the wines were made by Potel – i.e without differentiation – which, according to him, they were not. The Collection Bellenum, whilst wearing a Maison Roche de Bellene label, also has the Bellenum stamp on that label and a back label that explains that these are old wines backed by Potel, but not made by Potel – I think there is a great difference in approach, don’t you?

ha!

pousse d’or 1989 pommard jarollières

I just finished writing the visit report / profile for Pousse d’Or, so this seemed rather appropriate, particularly after yesterday’s wine – it almost seems planned!

1989 Pousse d’Or, Pommard 1er Jarollières
Medium, medium-plus colour – certainly there is a bit of age about the colour. The nose is an inviting blend of fresh brown sugar and a hard to pin down note – like a faint cabbage – but better than it sounds. In the mouth this is very round, still with a faint rasp of tannin. There’s a mineral flavour that grows in the mid-palate and eventually fades to something akin to the dark sugar note of the nose, but there’s something else too… Hmm, that cabbage note is now ‘cork’ and, yep, there it is in the finish.
To be honest, it’s on a low level. It’s distracting, but it’s on a level that would be a crime to pour a wine like this away: Drank through gritted teeth as it cycled between delighting and disappointing all evening – still, it seemed better than the 2000 from the night before…

Note: All four of my corked bottles came from the same mixed case from auction – all immaculately presented, but I wonder about the cellar they came from…

prescription glasses…

Prescription glasses – very good!

jean-marc boillot 2000 pommard jarollières

A wine that I bought on release, that has yo-yo’d between drinkable and not very tasty at all. Time to check in again – first time in 6 years.

2000 Jean-Marc Boillot, Pommard 1er Jarollières
Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose is as good as it has ever been; close to ripe fruit has a coating of musky/creamy-ness – it’s actually quite interesting. The acidity and associated tannin is tart and a little astringent, but if you swallow quickly, it seems quite okay. I probably needn’t add more…
Rebuy – No

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