Tasted in Mercurey with Manuel Bautista, 05 November 2021.
Domaine Taupinier-Bautista
30 ter, Rue du Liard
71640 Mercurey
Tel: +33 3 85 45 26 38
www.domaine-tupinier-bautista.com
More reports with Domaine Tupinier-Bautista
All is new here. The last time I visited ‘Manu,’ it was in the small family cellar next to the church in the old, high part of Mercurey. Now they have a house and purpose-built cuverie on high, in the middle of the domaine’s 11 hectares with fabulous views over both the countryside and vines of Mercurey. “It was a dream that I always had,” says Manu, “I’m so happy to have his new, separate cellar for the whites but I don’t have much to put in there this year…”
Manuel on 2021:
“In 2021 we lost 80% of the whites – there will only be 2,000 bottles – and the reds had 40-50% losses depending on the location.”
Manuel on 2020:
“In 2020, only one white is bottled so far. All the reds were racked in the last two weeks but there’s nothing in bottle… I harvested about 13° – I don’t like the fruit so much once it gets to 13.5° so I had 15 pickers ready to attack as we followed the maturity. It’s a whole year’s work so I don’t understand those that waited and made more pruney wines over 14°…”
The wines…
I have been away too long from this domaine. There are simply great wines here for you in 2020!
The only wine bottled.
Wide, mineral, saline but with a sweet accent that invites. Mouth-filling but still airy, and beautifully mouth-watering, indeed vibrantly finishing with layers of lovely flavour. Thats a great mercurey…
An extra citrus freshness to this nose with a little lime included. Mouth-filling, so energetic, the last was elegance, this is about energy, and it’s vibrantly citrus finishing too – only in the last flavours a little oak too, but it won’t last long – super, excellent wine – I’d drink the Sazenay today but this is on the same level as the last just a different style.
Les Reds…
2020 Mercurey Clos de Touches
Now the garden of the new house and winery
Plenty of colour. Darker fruit but also crunchy, fresh fruit. Silky, concentrated – this is wide, finely mouth-watering – an elegant and delicious wine of fine definition. Lovely finishing too – delicious wine…
2020 Mercurey 1er en Sazenay
A little more mineral purity to this nose – clean, still of dark fruit. Wide, structural, faintly tannic but with no grain. Slowly mouth-watering in a more airy finishing style. A blend of structure but still elegant – slowly fading. This is very good.
2020 Mercurey 1er les Vellées
Extra higher-toned fruit, a little redder and floral too – that’s a lovely invitation. Structural again but with a little bit more of everything, beautiful freshness of fruit – a mouth-watering flavour that finishes very clean and slightly mineral – This is simply excellent, delicious wine – super!
Lots of colour – to be expected. Here the nose is tighter, less expressive but there’s clearly a depth of fruit here that’s waiting to get out. A little more direct, flighty, open-flavoured. So mouth-watering, practically juicy fruit, framed with the faintest grain of tannin but hardly any lick of dryness. Where there’s extra again is in the wide waves of finishing flavour – very impressive wine. Simply excellent, probably great Mercurey for the vintage – nothing in excess here – except, maybe the enjoyment today!