2017 Pommard Clos des Arvelets 1er Cru

The irrepressible Australian winemaker/bogan was typically animated when I visited his winery in Gilly. The significant change in 2022 is the division of his Domaine and négoce cuvées, the former signified by green text and the latter red. Farming his own vines has been a long ambition since arriving in the region. Navigating the headwinds that outsiders inevitably face when trying to establish themselves, Haisma’s fluent French must greatly help. Finally, he has his own vines in Gevrey-Chambertin, Pernand-Vergelesses, Bourgogne Rouge and planted on fallow land in the Mâconnais, probably raising the ire of locals by cultivating a few rows of Syrah in Mancey. He’s not being recalcitrant; if global warming is destined to reconfigure what can be grown in Burgundy, surely winemakers must start experimenting now? Haisma is “maturing” as a winemaker vintage by vintage, and there are some very fine 2022s, many sold directly to consumers.

“I was nervous with the Gevrey vineyards,” explains Australian-born Mark Haisma at his winery in Gilly. It’s far removed from the Xanadus sprouting across the Côte d’Or, ostensibly a functional dual-purpose ‘tin shed’ that turns grapes into wine and provides a roof over his head. “In previous vintages, we balanced the wines with sucrosity. But in 2021, we can play with the pH to create that balance, and that’s far more interesting for me as a winemaker. Here, it is about allowing the sensuality to come through by picking at the point where the pH softens the perception of acidity. I was very careful with extraction as I felt we didn’t have the weight of the fruit.” Haisma’s deep well of experience working with stems pays off in a strong set of 2021s that demonstrate assiduous use of whole bunches to enhance his wines and render them far more complex than they might have been. These are wines that I just want to drink, even at this premature stage, which is their raison d’être. Over several years, Haisma has toiled away to build a loyal customer base, especially in the UK, and they will surely lap up these delicious wines.

I have followed the progress of Australian and former Yarra Yering winemaker Mark Haisma since the early days of his Burgundy adventure. As an outsider, it has not been an easy ride, but certainly since he has nested in his newly built winery next to the fromagerie in Gilly, there is a sense of a permanency that was much needed. Like other who rely on varying degrees on contracted fruit, there is a bit of shuffling of the pack in terms of cuvées offered, to the frustration of Haisma himself. “For me the most significant one is the security of sourcing fruit,” he wrote in a recent message to subscribers. “For Gevrey Chambertin I do not need to rely on the whims of the grower, which can change from one day to the next.” Haisma also purchased a parcel en friche in north Mâconnais and now that he has cleared the boulders and planted vines, I look forward to tasting that in three or four year’s time.

Back to the 2019s and during a joint antipodean tasting with Jane Eyre, Haisma told me: “Everything is aged in around 10-20% new oak as I need new barrels to have good old wood. I started picking on 25 August with Fremiet and finished the second week of September. All my wines are around 13.5° in alcohol. One change is that I am moving from stainless steel into wood fermenters.” Asking his opinion on the vintage he did not beat about the bush. “The 2019 [vintage] leaves 2018 for dust. There is much more precision, focus and energy. The 2018 does not have as good acidity as 2019 on the reds.”

There is a lot of discussion about some Burgundy winemakers wanting to break away from the system of distributing their wines through agents and importers to sell directly to consumers. Part of the reason is that some middlemen are making a tidy profit by flipping their allocations, most often to the Far East, instead of selling those wines to the markets where they are intended to go. Well, Burgundy winemakers should study Mark Haisma since that is his business model. Perhaps they will understand the work involved, the importance of communication, the need to get out of your winery and promote your wines to consumers, face-to-face if possible. Haisma has been successful because over the long-term he has built a loyal fan base that buy his wines year-on-year and also, most important of all, the wines are bloody good. In fact, his 2019s are perhaps the best that I have encountered, the case of a very talented and dedicated winemaker eking the maximum potential from vineyards that in other hands might be ordinary.

My visit to Mark Haisma’s winery, located in a newly built industrial complex just outside Gilly, one that he designed and constructed himself, landed on a Sunday. Producers are not inclined to give up their Sundays for visits, so I am grateful for his time. And it is one that I wanted to do because he always offers a frank perspective of the growing season (plus a heap of unpublishable gossip.) Having commenced picking on 24 August, he was typically forthcoming on the timing of the growing season. “The north wind came on the 12 September and sucked out any remaining elegance and finesse. The berries became shriveled and I could that they went from 13.5% potential alcohol with a pH of around 3.4 or 3.5 to within 24 hours, 15.5% potential alcohol and a pH of 3.6. The vines were finished. They began to lose their leaves. There was nothing left for them to do." These were are an excellent set of wines from Haisma, perhaps only the Volnay that could have benefitted from some whole bunch addition, something he concurred with when I asked him about it. Fortunately there are plenty of others, including a delicious Gevrey-Chambertin Village and a deeply impressive Echézeaux amongst others, that offer quality and value.