Tasted mainly with Thomas Dinel in Nuits St.Georges, 01 December 2016.
Marchand-Tawse
9 Rue Julie Godemet
21700 Nuits-Saint-Georges
Tel: +33 3 80 20 37 32
www.marchand-tawse.com
The label transition here began in 2014 and 2015 with ‘Maume by Domaine Tawse’ replacing the Domaine Maume labels. In 2016 all the wines (So Marchand-Tawse and Domaine Tawse) will be in the Nuits cellars and the former Domaine Maume will then be called Domaine Tawse – though visually the labels are similar.
All the Domaine 1er and grand cru vineyards are ploughed by horse and farmed biodynamically.
Thomas on 2015:
The key in this vintage, as clearly the ripeness was there, was to keep the freshness. Some wines are above 14% but when you retain the freshness they are incredible wines.
The wines…
2015 Bourgogne Pinot Noir
In tank, 90% Côte de Nuits, mainly Premeaux – Grand Chaillots. 100% destemmed, 12 months in oak.
Wide, really fine perfume – a beauty. Fine fruit, faintly strict structure. Bright and strong finishing. Long too…. tastily long…
Mainly Côte de Nuits – Marsannay, and also some Savigny.
Deeper, vibrant dark fruit. More supple structure, quite some power, mouth-watering flavour. A big fresh burst of flavour in the mid-palate too. Simply a top bourgogne!
2015 Chambolle-Musigny
2 growers, 3 parcels, one new barrel from 5 – 40% wc
A large nose but vibrant and pure. Again quite large but wonderfully textured. Almost a creamy old vine impression in the finish. A masculine Chambolle but a super one!
A deep nose but of beautiful pure fruit. Big in the mouth, nicely textured, really lovely waves of fruit-forward, slightly saline flavour excellent and really to keep!
2015 Marsannay
Higher toned fruit, fresh with a floral twist – bright and lovely. Fresh. But concentrated red fruit. Growing points of complexity. Really bright almost piercing finishing flavour. Yum.
2015 Nuits St.Georges
Half north of Nuits, half south, all blended together.
Beautiful perfume over a tighter, deeper base. Clearly some structure but mouth-melting flavour too. Fresh, divine flavour – this will need more time, but the fruit is worth it.
Just below Les St.Georges, neighbour above is Thibault Liger-Belair. Old vine, lots of millerandes, 40% wc
A beautiful whole-cluster perfume of roses. Intense, but cushioned, a wonderful shape, freshness and fine fruit – who would have guessed 14.2? Not me. Bravo! Great finish.
2015 Gevrey-Chambertin
All from the bottom of Gevrey.
A deep, almost tight liqueur type fruit nose. Round, mouth-filling, great mid-palate growth of lovely flavour. A more narrow line of finishing flavour, but no less long…
2015 Gevrey En champs
3 barrels, 2 new. All destemmed.
Very aromatic, soft and inviting. Wow! Big, weighty but never heavy, layers of fruit, just wonderfully intense. Beauty and the beast (small caps) in one wine. Oof!
Now a quick change of cellar…
2015 Pommard
A fresh but rather tight nose. Round, beautiful red fruit with flowers too – violets. The tannin is very modest on this finely textured wine. Long finishing too. Super.
2015 Morey St.Denis 1er Clos des Ormes
Ooh that has the very characteristic almost almond aroma of this cuvée – fresh and nice. Mouth filling, good texture despite a little tannin, fine complexity and really great length. Always a very fine bottle here.
2015 Morey St.Denis 1er Les Millandes
A deeper more vibrant red fruit, darker red. More volume and freshness in the mouth – mouth-wateringly fine flavour. Long through a little tannin, faintly creamy in the end. I like this even more…
A wider and almost textured width of similarly dark red fruit. Really a super invitation. More structure, but the flavour is slowly melting from every corner of the mouth. Bright and beautiful flavour!
2015 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Les Cazetiers
A deep aroma of tight, ripe dark fruit – slowly augments with more transparency – it just gets better and better. It’s big and structured in the mouth, but with all the flavour you could wish. Just a spicy addition to the finishing flavour. Long, long, super wine…
2015 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Corvées Pagets
All wc. Touching the Clos St.Marc and Prieuré-Roch’s Clos des Corvées. Old vines
A fine floral wc nose, almost vibrant in its depth. Big, very well structured, there is plenty of tannin, but ripe tannin, extra mid-palate complexity too. This is so good…
From the top part of Suchots. All whole bunch. 70% new oak.
Less overt than the Nuits, but a fine and vibrant fruit – less obviously wc. Great scale, great weight of complex fruit, a shit-load of tannin but all is ripe and it melts away leaving an appealing and ultra long finish. Bravo!
The grand crus…
From Poulardières again.
Not the biggest nose, but fabulously complex. Super texture, really packaging the tongue, slowly leaching multiple flavours, just fabulous stuff!
2015 Clos de Vougeot
50% new oak from middle to bottom of the Clos.
Super perfumed CV. Structured but not specially so, freshness of flavour, great finishing flavour. In the context of many here, rather refined and less massive – but really big in any other context.
2015 Clos St.Denis
25% wc, 50% new barrels.
A very modest nose – the wines are very cold – despite that, most are really open. Deep, and ultra concentrated – almost confiture fruit. Not my style this, but remarkable wine all the same… incredibly long…
Again 25% wc, 50% new barrels.
Vibrant and gorgeous half mineral the rest fabulous dark transparent fruit. Wide, fine structured, melting flavour. Massive but balanced and mouth-watering. Great (long) wine…
From Le Rognets et Corton
Ooh! – A brilliant wide and deep, dynamic fruity nose. Round, layered, melting layers of fruit. Another Corton winner from Pascal. Long. Just a great Corton – even if tasted after the CDR!
2015 Charmes-Chambertin
Actually from Mazoyères, next to Maume, so decided it was confusing to have two Mazoyères, so chose to label as Charmes.
Good aromatic depth, tighter above. Really lovely complexity and a fine growing intensity – but generally a little smaller wine than what preceded it – only a mater of context, it’s super wine…
A vibrant nose, the aroma almost reminiscent of the almonds of Clos des Ormes. Big volume, plenty of very fine tannin. Really a brilliant if modest intensity. Great line of fine flavour – just so long…. really. Special stuff
Les Blancs…
2015 Bourgogne Chardonnay
Recently bottled.
Bright and big. Round, tasty, juicy wine. Not the most fabulous definition but it’s Bourgogne and it tastes great.
2015 Meursault
In tank and ready for bottling. Mostly form Vireuils
What a great nose, vibrant very faintly reduced. Fresh and with some melting flavour on the palate – just a little too much gas today, but really great flavour. Long, long. A lovely Meursault…
2015 Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Vergelesses (Domaine Tawse)
Estate vines now. Second vintage. Organic in 2014, started to do some biodynamic preparation in 2015
Not wide, but fresh deep and citrus. Supple, great texture, more complexity – really excellent – clarity and purity with nice vigour. Super!
2015 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Terres Blanches
100% chardonnay.
Deep round aromatics. Round in the mouth too, with a nice line of flavour. Decently fresh and really tasty finishing not usually my favourite wine but this year it’s lovely…
2015 Puligny-Montrachet 1er La Graenne
Fresh, perhaps, a hint of sulfur, fine intensity, agrumey flavour – really lovely. Fine and bright finishing. Really yum in the finish. Really lovely…
2015 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Champs Gains (Domaine Tawse)
Some hydric stress – lost some leaves.
A deep tight but ripe core of aroma. Really lots of complexity here, great freshness and some oak in the mix of flavours too. Dry extract to finish. Not really together today but the parts are super.
Also deep and a little tight this nose. Big, round, lots of energy, lots of complexity – really a beautifully dynamic wine with a modest minerality and not so modest delicious flavour – bravo! Long on a more mineral register…
2015 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Caillerets
Relatively modest nose again. Mineral for sure, growing intensity, a little salinity too. Such a great line of flavour into the finish. Really super-tasty. Sweet and long – but I still wouldn’t guess Caillerets…
Mow here is an open nose – freshness and real dynamism – yes! Big, melting flavour, modestly energetic but far from contemplative – there is complexity and length to die for. Just a great wine!