Tasted with Marc Bachelet in Dezize-lès-Maranges, 15 November 2021.
Domaine Bachelet-Monnot
15 Grande Rue
71150 Dezize-lès-Maranges
Tel: +33 3 85 91 16 82
More reports with Domaine Bachelet-Monnot
Marc on 2021:
“In 2021 it was the hillsides where we lost the most but we pruned late and had plenty of candles in the Chassagne and Puligny so certainly saved a lot – but still, half a harvest in terms of value.”
Marc on 2020:
“The wines are currently all ‘brut’ – no bottlings so far – nothing filtered or fined. Our harvest started 20th August and we were finished by the 30th, in fact by 14h00 each day we were finished and had put the last of the grapes in a refrigerated container for the next day. We had no problems with our fermentations, and that was with about 30% whole clusters in the reds. The volume was okay though not a lot – 35 hl/ha in the reds but the whites were okay.”
The wines…
The reds are excellent and delicious but the top-level action is mainly with the whites – multiple wines are worth searching for – I’d be taking the villages Puligny and the 1er Referts without hesitation!
2020 Bourgogne Pinot Noir
80% is from the Côte d’Or but there’s also a little Hautes Côtes in the blend
Airy and deep fruited – almost silky. Mouth-filling, mouth-watering, fine red fruit and good intensity and energy. Very good! Mineral at the last – persistent too…
2020 Maranges Vieilles-Vignes
A little narrower aromas but a nice airy style to this one – with quite elegant, slowly growing perfume. More incisive, mineral, a little structural too – more my style of wine than the easier Bourgogne – I think that’s excellent, quite chalky finishing!
2020 Maranges 1er Fussière
9 different parcels – one was 100% wc and blended with all the others
Wider, slightly darker fruit – nice focus. More mouth-filling, super energy, vibrantly flavoured. A super finishing depth of flavour. Excellent again.
2020 Maranges 1er Clos de la Boutière
90-year-old vines from lower on the slope so with more clay.
A slightly softer, silkier nose – very fine and focused red fruit. Incisive again, so juicy, really mouth-watering deliciously – this needs a little patience but it’s clearly great Maranges with wide waves of finishing flavour.
2020 Santenay Charmes
Always the wine with the highest acidity – but not young vines – in an old quarry with very red soil.
A faint reduction but there’s fine, silky fruit too – becoming ever more elegant as the reduction fades. A little narrower than the last but with a core of vibrant and mouth-watering clarity of fruit – that’s absolutely super again. Fuller finishing, very slowly fading. Super elegant, mouth-watering wine…
2020 Santenay Poirons
This on the Chassagne side near the 1er crus – the last near Maranges – 2/3rds older vines
A deeper red fruit again faintly reductive but less than the Charmes, faintly spiced with air. Vibrant again, a little more weight and sweetness of flavour – but open and mouth-watering, never dense. Slightly saline finishing. That’s more contemplative than the Charmes and absolutely delicious…
High up with a white soil, this the villages area – there’s no access here, so all is done by hand with always a small harvest volume – ‘we never see 30 hl/ha and more often 15!’
Vibrantly aromatic – the wc showing a little more for this one, some oak spice too – but such an attractive depth too to this nose. Really more complexity, mouth-filling and concentrated. This could be a 1er cru – bravo villages.
Les whites:
The whites are all assembled. The reds go to bottling from February. For the whites it’s not yet clear but: ‘They are tasting much better than 2 weeks ago. The fermentations were not too quick but all went through. It could be the end of March or into April before we start to bottle the whites:’
2020 Bourgogne Blanc
90% from the commune of Puligny plus a small parcel in Chassagne with lots of limestone. Elevage just like the 1er and gcs.
This nose is not fully open but here’s a nice agrume fruit that’s still very inviting – becoming more perfumed. Hmm, this is round but mobile and energising, the pretty fruit with a suggestion of grapefruit – that’s absolutely delicious – Simply excellent Bourgogne.
From two parcels, almost touching Fussière on a layer, a vein, of limestone. Higher altitude – 330m
A little more toasty depth of fruit here. Mouth-filling, pure, vibrant wine – ooh – that’s great! Faintly saline and addictive finishing.
The higher vines in the vineyard, in 4 parcels – 35-20 years old
The nose has plenty of depth, again a little agrume complexity. Oh yes! That is so citrus-infused with minerality, so mouth-watering too. Again addictive stuff – finishing so pure and wide!
2020 Chassagne-Montrachet
From 8 different lieu-dits, all with separate elevage ‘but I think the assembly is more interesting than the single cuvées – okay, a couple are really well placed!’
A blend of depth but with an airy elegant higher tone. Extra depth to this flavour, the salinity slightly more forward again with a vibrant and mouth-watering agrume fruit. A wine that’s so sinuous and beautifully proportioned – excellent villages!
The vines were not old but now pulled out as so many were dying. Will replant in another year or so…
Airy again but with even more class and complexity – that’s so good! Sappy, intense, wide, concentrated fresh waves of flavour – wow!
Again 5 different parcels assembled here.
This nose has a tiny touch of florals – again airy and beautifully classy – though not particularly large. Instantly cool-fruited and incisive – wide, pure a certain fluidity to balance the structure. The villages Chassagne was excellent but this villages Puligny is great. You could cut yourself with the edge of this wine!
2020 Meursault Clos du Cromin
One part of very old vines. ‘I get a reduction here each year but different to the other wines – maybe it’s the red soil here.’
I don’t note any reduction but the classy airy style of the domaine is apparent here with that accent of ginger-spiced Meursault. Super wide, mineral, mouth-watering with a growing citrus note – riper than previous wines though never too much – always a fresh wine – simply excellent.
Very old vines here
That’s a beauty – some ‘noble’ reduction but with such a clarity, almost a touch of smoke to the mineral side of this. Wow. A wall, a melting wall of pure, citrus-accented, minerality. Beautifully textured and mouth-watering. Oh that’s just so great!
High and towards Truffière and Garenne – ‘we’re really on the limestone rocks here, it’s the last parcel near Blagny on high, higher than Meursault Perrières with a view to Chevalier in the distance.’
A suggestion of the fumé of the last but on a much, much lower order – slowly adding some floral aspects – really a hyper-elegant wine. Mineral but with a little more cushion of fruit here vs the Referts. Concentrated, in this context more contemplative – though not in isolation. Wide and mineral with fine texture – and just so moreish. More complete wine perhaps and very long but that Referts really turned my eye – still a great wine but if I had to choose it would be the Referts.
Bâtard-Montrachet racked and not tasting…