Tasted in Gevrey-Chambertin with Bernard Bouvier, Isabelle Collotte, Laurent Fournier, Sylvain Pataille and Jean-François Guyard.
For me, and for a long time, Marsannay was more about producers and just a few lieu-dits (apparently there are 69 producers of Marsannay) and that’s because it’s a big and complicated network of climats that are, individually, not well-known – as you can see in my village profile.
So when my friend Jean-François Guyard (of www.vinifera-mundi.ch) told me that he was thinking of arranging a Marsannay tasting, and would I like to join – well, the answer was an easy ‘yes’ – A great chance to try a wider range of producers. I suggested a few names and JF went ahead with organising!
The wines…
All the wines were tasted blind – the makers and the vintages were given only in groups of 10 after the wines were tasted – to allow us small tasting, if not typing pauses!
There were 8 whites to start. And mainly we were looking at the 2014 vintage as so many reds from 2015s are not yet bottled. New names for me to learn more about were Domaine Collotte, Domaine de Vieux College and Domaine Bart:
2014 Bruno Clair, Marsannay Source des Roches
Wide, faintly oaky, faintly sulfured. Nice volume in mouth-weight too. The texture has a hint of fat and a slowly mouth-watering, citrus acidity. A wine that becomes ever more attractive in the glass. Very tasty wine! Excellent
2014 Fougeray de Beauclair, Marsannay Les Aiges Pruniers
A little higher toned, some faint and fresh apple. A more direct acidity, a good line of flavour, the acidity is a little apple in style too. Despite the extra freshness and certainly tastiness, I prefer the first. Yum though! Great length!
2014 Domaine de Vieux College, Marsannay Vignes Maries
Again a different nose – ripe fruit but with freshness. Wide, fresh, layered, good texture with a faint fat. Hmm I like very much the intensity here. The first wine remains more delicious, but here seems a super wine.
2014 René Bouvier, Marsannay Les Clos
More like the first, a little guarded, perhaps with a hint of sulfur but almost textured with an attractive depth of fruit. Seemingly mineral and fresh with a lovely acidity and melting flavour. This is a super wine of both intensity and complexity – a little more energy than the Bruno Clair but also less heft. Excellent and another great finish
Hmm, this has a bright and attractive nose, faintly oaked but really the best so far. Great volume, complex, wide, growing intensity, a faint fat, and layers of flavour – bravo! Great finish too!
2014 Olivier Guyot, Marsannay La Montagne
Some freshness, some depth, but also a little tight. Another wine with fine volume, and a great line of flavour – similar to the last but a little smaller in most directions – but excellent all the same! A nice stony length here – very persistent!
Hmm, excellent – fresh, fine citrus, a really super nose. Fine line, beautiful texture, layers of mouth-watering flavour. Mineral too, long, great persistence – another really great wine.
2015 Sylvain Pataille, Marsannay Charmes au Pretre
Different – a faint lactic, but some freshness too. Different again, good texture nice line though a very different style of wine to all the others – a higher- toned flavour profile. Also in the finish quite herby. (Mr Pataille’s low sulfur regime it seems…)
The reds:
2014 Faiveley, Marsannay
I expect all is negoce here
Good volume of aroma – pretty sweet fruits too. Fresh, nice energy and good flavour. Not a massive wine but one of purity and complexity – lovely. The finish has a nice, wide, slowly moving wave of flavour…
2014 Bruno Clair, Marsannay Les Vaudenelles
A little more intensity a little less aromatic width – more cherry stone fruit. Nice and fresh in the mouth, a line of flavour, narrow at the start and broadening slowly – less overt flavour than the last but its a nice wine that slowly delivers its attractive flavour.
2014 Collotte, Marsannay Champs Salomon
Ooh that’s quite an intense redcurrant nose – pure and attractive. Weight, good volume, textured but fresh. Nice layers of flavour in the mid-palate. A very red-berry style of wine and a very tasty wine too. Yum! The finish is super!
2014 Fougeray de Beauclair, Marsannay Grasses Têtes
A little warmer red fruit – very attractive and slightly sweet. Direct, a little astringent, complex though quite herby. Old style wine to wait for but the finish is attractively tasty and mouth-watering – a great start and finish but the middle needs time.
2014 Domaine Huguenot, Marsannay Charmes au Pretres
Dark fruit, a hint of dark oak, narrow but it’s a nice depth of aroma. An oaky wine for sure, but there is flavour and decent concentration here – layers of flavour, nicely delivered. Medium concentration. Will be tasty wine – it’s already quite good in its style.
A big and open, fresh-fruited nose – nice. Lots of volume – really filling the mouth. Great fruit, layered and fresh. Always quite large-scaled with great energy. Long, mouth-watering, with a modest coat of tannin. Super wine!
2014 Domaine de Vieux College, Marsannay Les Recielles
High-toned, dark red fruit. Fresh, lots of energy and growing intensity. Not a wine of fat, a wine of intensity and great flavour – another excellent wine more of line than overt volume. Excellent. Cherry stone finishing
2014 Fougeray de Beauclair, Marsannay Les Favières
Red fruit and creamy oak. Fresh, direct, with volume too. Some astringence plenty of complexity though much of that is creamy oak today. For various reasons a wine to wait for but one with good length and some potential.
2014 Domaine Bart, Marsannay Champs Salomon
Modest volume but attractive red, fresh fruit. Supple, concentrated, modest volume but layers of tasty flavour. A wine that will probably open more, but there is very nice and indeed delicious material here – very tasty!
A bright, indeed vivid, red fruited nose with dark oak in attendance too – bringing a faint reduction. Nice volume, plenty of complexity and freshness – layers of flavour. There’s plenty of oak here but a wine that will take it – wait another 3 years. Delicious, indeed excellent in its own style – long too….
A concentrated nose of good volume – it’s a mix of fruit and herbs. Big in the mouth too – lots of concentration and really plenty of intensity too. Big wine but with flavour slowly melting over the palate. This is excellent stuff and despite its size not a bit over extracted! Bravo – it’s long too.
2014 René Bouvier, Marsannay Clos du Roi
A little roasted red fruit and some depth of aroma. Fresh in the mouth, the roast red fruit style here too, but this has nice intensity and is perfectly put together, indeed even a little floral component in the finish – the first – long and modestly mouth-watering. Really a good wine with a slightly divergent fruit profile…
A deep, dark-red fruited nose – a little tighter above. Lithe, fresh, good intensity and volume too – a little saline , modestly mineral – a wine of freshness and with good energy. I find this excellent. There are layers of finishing flavour too. Bravo!
A nice deep red berry nose. Lots of volume, perhaps a hint of gas. Very fresh, complex, with a whole-cluster roses flavour. Long and very, very tasty… a lovely wine of super complexity…
Hmm – a little dark oak and red berry. Hmm (again) lovely intensity and concentration in the mid-palate – there’s freshness and a dark potentially reductive potentially toasted oak augmentation. But this is excellent. Bravo!
Here is a concentration of aroma. In the mouth its a little more open and really with a lovely intensity – long, long. The nose could be better but the palate is really excellent – bravo!
A deeply aromatic, whole cluster accented nose. Great volume, with a massively complex whole cluster panorama, really tasty wine. Top!
2014 Oliver Guyot, Marsannay La Montagne
A purer red fruit, dark-red fruit. Fresh, intense, direct, good concentration. This has super mouth-watering flavour with just a little hardness – this needs time, wait for it to relax, but it’s excellent.
2014 René Bouvier, Marsannay En Ouzeloy
A little more simmering red fruit – a nice herby complexity too. Fresh, wide, really good volume. Slowly leaching flavour. Long too. This is excellent but also to wait for a little.
Another wine of good aromatic volume – pure and fresh – nice. Fresh in the mouth too, more volume than line, concentrated red fruit. Long, long in flavour. Another really fine wine – super!
2014 Jean Fournier, Marsannay Trois Terres
A deep, dark red nose, of freshness and faint salinity. Sucrosity, freshness and really plenty of energy. Good concentration and a long finish. Nice!
2014 Pierre Naigeon, Marsannay Vieilles-Vignes
Also a dark and fresh red fruit – good aromatic energy here. Line, but width too – melting flavour of freshness energy and tasty sweetness. This excellent, and nicely textured wine too. Very fine!
2014 Collotte, Marsannay Clos de Jeu
Another wine of dark red fruit – becoming ever-more attractive. Plenty of mouth-filling volume – freshness and growing intensity. A long line of finishing flavour. Really excellent!
Again dark red fruit – this time augmented with a little reduction, but also there are some floral notes trying to escape the glass. Lots of volume again, melting flavour on the palate, yes a faint reduction but at this level it’s just a little extra complexity – fine texture and very modest tannin. Waves of finishing flavour. Really super wine.
2014 Fougeray de Beauclair, Marsannay Saint Jacques
More modest colour. Clearly a little whole clusters on the nose(?) – very faint oak too. Hmm, very fresh, lots of complex and bubbling intensity – red berry fruit here. Lingering flavour – again a really fine wine, here with a little tannic texture in the finish.
A more vibrant and fresh, purer fruit nose. In the mouth lots of volume a hint less concentration but really lots and lots of energy and fine complexity. This is a very lovely wine. What a great series of wines we have here – again with a small touch of tannin in the finish.
2014 Domaine Bart, Marsannay Les Echézeaux
Another pretty and vibrant dark red fruited nose. This is the first with a little CO2 – so not surprisingly a fresh wine, pretty red fruit. And slowly the nice texture starts to show itself. Fresh, medium weight and tasty wine.
2014 Vieux College, Marsannay Longeroies
Deep, accented with reduction. Fine volume in the mouth, super freshness, layers of flavour, this is excellent – it will be better when it loses the accent of reduction, but this is a lovely wine – layered in the finish. Excellent though with a little tannin in the finish you might be better waiting for that to resolve.
A little tighter nose, red fruited but also faintly spicy. Hmm, fresh and delicious in the mouth, yes still spiced but with energy and width of flavour. Simply delicious wine. Bravo!
2014 René Bouvier, Marsannay Champs Salomon
Here is some concentration of aroma – sweet medium red fruit but very attractive fruit! The fruit had a candied style in the mouth – but of course deliciously so – a modest drag of tannin. Wide, tasty, finishing with a point of tannin. Again excellent!
A nice, almost muscular but fresh and pure dark red fruit – a faint herb coating too. Ooh – intense, delicious, dark red fruit, perhaps a faint pyrazine complexity too – but really intense delicious wine. Bravo!
2014 René Bouvier, Marsannay Longeroies
Hmm – a wider aromatic, faint oak, faint cushioning but still very attractive red fruit. Some structure, quite direct and mouth-watering but with great flavour too. A little structure in the finish but this is excellent wine!
Ooh! Now that’s very attractive red fruit with freshness and apparent deliciousnes. Also in the mouth, despite a little tannin and structure it’s really a delicious fruit. Long and lingering. A wine to have a little patience with, but really excellent wine!
Hmm, fresh and dark red fruit but with the extra complexity of whole cluster – a beauty! A little gas here still, but bright red and complex with a growing intensity of fruit. A wide flavour panorama. Lingering, mouth-watering finish. Bravo! But patience!
Deeper colour, also a deeper red fruit nose – almost roasting fruit. Fresh, good volume and really lots of depth of flavour – there is certainly a little help from the barrel here, but this is really super stuff. Bravo!
A much narrower nose – some depth and attractive complexity tough. Plenty of volume and freshness but at the same time there’s a depth of attractive flavour too – this is a super wine. It just gets better and better in the mouth – bravo
2014 Sylvain Pataille, Marsannay Clémongeot
Another wine with the typical pretty and precise dark red berry fruit, though here with a modest pyrazine complexity. Plenty of fresh volume on the mouth – fine intensity with wide and complex flavour. This is very good and has an extra fineness of fruit in the finish.
2014 Laurent Pataille, Marsannay Echezeaux
A little more profound depth of aroma – red fruited again a but just a little different in style. Fresh, lots of energy – a growing intensity, again a slightly different style of red fruit – but long and very attractive. Really lovely wine. A little different but excellent all the same!
Some different, older vintages:
“In ten years there’s really been a revolution in Marsannay – working the vines and soil, triage, reception of the grapes – it’s been an enormous evolution.”
Sylvain Pataille
2005 René Bouvier, Marsannay Clos du Roi
Deep open and with volume – a little volatile but really interesting. Intense, also a hint volatile in the flavours but this is really concentrated and tasty wine. Long, long, long..
2005 Jean Fournier, Marsannay Trois Terres
A little more attractively savoury, almost tending to sous bois. Also good volume in the mouth, a hint sous bois and spice here – quite a big wine, the tannin is still present –
1999 Olivier Guyot, Marsannay
Ooh! Deep, faint sous bois, less faint mushroom – but inviting! Blood fruit, plenty of tannin, but still some nice fruit in the middle. This might require more patience than the wine has the quality to eventually/actually deliver – but enjoy it for what it is!
Hmm. This has a lovely top note over slightly older fruit – still very interesting. Fresh, complex, wide, really very interesting wine – I find this really lovely. There is some complexity here. Excellent and still young! Bravo!
Plenty of colour here. Some sous bois, really in a perfect state to drink, fabulous old fruit. Multi dimensional, wide, complex. Great wine and still with plenty of tannin in the finish! Fabulous! One of my favourite wines so far this year it just gets better and better in the glass!
2007 Jean Fournier, Marsannay Trois Terres
Also a ton of complexity – a little cooler nose – super depth though. Still young in the mouth too – but really complex. Intense and young but really engaging… super wine, with plenty of finishing tannin, still…
2002 Bruno Clair, Marsannay Longeroies
Hmm. Very nice width of pretty red fruit – faintly accented with spice. Wide, high-toned fruit, freshness and intensity. Less delicious today than some – yet, delicious!