Tasted in Curtil-Vergy with Axelle Machard de Gramont, 28 November, 2016.
Domaine Bertrand Machard de Gramont
13 Rue de Vergy
21700 Nuits-Saint-Georges
Tel: +33 3 80 61 16 96
www.bertrand-macharddegramont.fr
Axelle on 2016:
“In 2016 we didn’t abandon our bio approach. Of course it was a terrible attack of mildew, but it’s a way of working, a style, and I don’t have too many salaries to pay, so… I fully understand a producer with many employees having to take a different route. ”
Axelle on 2015:
“In 2015 we started our harvest about 3-4 September, finishing on the 9th.”
The wines…
This is a vintage here that I would wait to open but not because of the tannin, rather I’d be looking for the dark, ripe fruit to relax – these wines are delicious, but not classic looking or smelling – until you put them in the mouth – here they are delicious! Notwithstanding their very dark colours and aromatic ripeness of fruit (versus what they usually produce) these wines have very fine freshness and line of delivery. Super stuff!
Vines under Nuits with deep soil and some clay; iron stones that help drainage. Frosted in 2009 so partly replanted afterwards.
Deeply impressive ripe red cherry fruit – unctuous and super inviting. Wide, great volume, lots of dark red fruit, beautifully mouth-watering and very long. Excellent Bourgogne!
2015 Nuits St.Georges Les Terrasses
‘2 hectares and really it’s a unique parcel – it wasn’t planted with vines before, so never chemically treated.’
Also a certain ripeness, but a little more freshness to this gelée fruit. Very bright, intense wine, beautifully ingraining. Again very ripe fruit, despite the freshness. Excellent length – again yum!
2015 Nuits St.Georges Les Vallerots
0.5 hectares. Gets the rising but not the setting sun. Above Vaucrains but really opposite Poulets
Another dark deeply opulent fruit – yet still retaining its freshness. Wide and with super weight and a delivery of beautifully fresh flavour, just a little floral – excellent. Really interesting how the dark ripeness of aromatic remains so fresh and engaging in the mouth.
Deeply coloured. Beautiful ripe dark fruit and flowers. Supple, bright, really intense, a little extra texture from the tannin. Top wine in a ripe but fresh style! Last drops on the glass have a gorgeous freshness of aroma.
Next to Grandes Vignes in northern Nuits, touching Vosne. 0.92 hectares of multiple vine ages up to 100 years-old.
Dark colour. A nose that starts with a suggestion of pyrazine but blossoms into flowers. Beautiful in the mouth, fresh, dynamic, a little tannin. Mouth-watering through some of that tannin. This is delicious – bravo!
2015 Vosne-Romanée
0.60 hectares over 4 parcels; Champs Boudin, Aux Ormes below, the Bas Mazières heading towards the Clos de Vougeot, plus Barreaux near Cros Parentoux.
Also deep colour. Dark cordial nose. More mineral, a very different shape, super mouth-watering flavour – this is a beauty. Still with plenty of tannin. Modestly intense but long finishing. The last drops in the glass are very classic spicy Vosne.