2018 Marsannay Boivin

My mammoth tasting with Pierre-Jean Roty is always something to look forward to. This year it was a complete showing of his 2019s in barrel plus 2018s in bottle (and a plate of his mum’s gougeres, which are technically barred from my diet, though I did sneak in one.) “I started the harvest on 12 September and picked over the next eight days.” Pierre-Jean explained. “Flowering went well and uniform. There were three spells of heat that caused some stress on dry/clayey soils or young vines during the second wave of heat, but it was dryness instead of heat that caused stress. Yields were slightly down on 2018. The 2019s are very expressive aromatically - they could be like a more complex 2012. There is more elegance and finer texture across the portfolio in 2019. They are lace-like. The 2018s are heavier and more structured, whilst the 2019s are gentler and have more buvabilité.”

Over 40 bottles were regimented in two rows when I called in on a bitterly cold morning to taste through the 2017 and 2018 vintages with Pierre-Jean Roty. "I started the harvest on 8 September and finished eight days later," he told me, as maman placed a plate of her famous gougeres in front of me (sadly they are "interdict" under my strict new diet. "There are around 70 person during the harvest with around 50 people in the vineyard," Roty continued. He is adamant that waiting to pick was crucial and remarked how fellow winemakers were sounding the "harvest klaxon" (my term, not his) to expedite the harvest. He decided to sit tight as he did not feel the bunches had achieved the desired phenolic maturity. As usual, all the range is de-stemmed and indeed, we exchanged views on the pluses and minuses of whole bunch vinification. Personally, I would be quite interested to see how some of his Grand Crus would show with say, 20-30% stem addition. These are wines that are always distinctive in style, perhaps more modern in style for some palate with proportionately more black fruit compared to the likes of say, Rousseau or Duroché. In order words, these are not shy or retiring wallflowers! That said, I love the exuberance of Roty’s range of terroir-specific Marsannays that fly the flag for the appelation and his Grand Crus can be exceptional ONLY if they are given a decade to mature in bottle.