Tasted in Cheilly-Les-Maranges with Elodie Roy, 24 June 2019.

Domaine Elodie Roy
1B rue du Glacis
71150 Cheilly-Les-Maranges
Tel: +33 6 87 16 27 32

Elodie’s father used to sell practically everything from the family domaine in bulk, but that’s about to change now that Elodie has returned home after a long excursion in the Côte de Nuits.

Elodie worked for 11 years in Vosne-Romanée for Anne Gros, but with Anne’s daughter, Julie, gradually taking on more and more work, Elodie decided that the time was right to return to her family’s domaine in Les Maranges.

“We are 5 people working in the vines, and I see my work as 90% in the vines” she says, though clearly she’s forgotten Disco, her dog, in that assessment! The domaine covers 10 hectares over 6 appellations in white, 4 in red, plus an old plot of aligote that has returned to the domaine in 2019. It was her grandfather who bought the parcels that form today’s domaine, so Elodie is the third generation of the family with these vines. Maranges blanc is the youngest plantation – in 2003 – but already some of that needs a little replanting, “The 2003 heat wasn’t kind to the new plantings, she says.

I asked Elodie about her 2019 to date:
“I lost maybe a third in Santenay to the frost, but the weather so far has been good enough to avoid maladies. Maranges was a little behind – as always – so had less frost damage. And the rain last week was really a blessing as I’ve 1,200 young plants in the vines that I don’t want to have to go out and water!”

And on 2018:
“I’m really happy with the 2018s. At harvest time I brought practically everything in at 13° or just a little more. I’m planning to bottle mid-October, but the harvest is looking later so I might have to push that back to the end of October.”

The wines…

Elodie Roy has found her feet very fast in Maranges. On the evidence of her first vintage, she has made great wines – but, that said, they should be great at most addresses in 2018! However, as a starting point, I came away from this tasting very impressed. The style here reminds me of David Moreau in Santenay – that’s a high compliment. Well done!

The Regionals of both colours use Nomacorc sugar cane seals. The Maranges red will be bottled in a blend of Nomacorc and DIAM, the Santenay with cork – onwards, there will be a number of tests running…

2018 Bourgogne Pinot Noir
Old vines from 1965-66. Here some barrel elevage and a little more extraction – there’s more millerandes here… one new barrel from 5.
A more concentrated nose, deep, rippling with fresh fruit. Plenty of volume, more composed than the Hautes Côtes, but a fine width and depth – super length…

2018 Santenay 1er Les Gravières
1952-53 planted, no replacements, so that’s the age. Vines between the windmill and the border with Chassagne
Lots of colour. Ooh, now that’s a great nose – there is some gravitas here. Large-scaled, concentrated but not dense – mobile, super texture, dark-fruited but still shaded to red. Long, but more modestly so than the. Maranges. – simply excellent!

The whites. There are three parcels in the Hautes Côtes and one in Maranges:

2018 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune Blanc
A hint of reduction – this was a long malo, rare in 2018. This reduction lifts quite quickly. Very nice volume in the mouth with good energy too. A little reduction staying here, but there’s intensity, complexity and a lovely balance in the finish – some riper fruit in the finish but always with a delicious balance, indeed tension! Excellent…

2018 Maranges Blanc
A mix of barrel and tank again.
This starts with a forward and quite floral aspect, slightly buttery. In the mouth, drive, more silk, only an insinuation of fat but certainly with a more concentrated and considered finish – longer with less overt personality today but excellent.