2016 Gevrey-Chambertin Village

“I was born on September 4,” Pascale Marchand told me. “I never thought we would finish a harvest before my birthday.” It came to pass as this Nuit-Saint-Georges-based producer/négociant commenced picking on August 25 in Gevrey-Chambertin and Pommard and finished the day before Marchand's big day. “I think Covid expedited things a little. People just wanted to get the harvest done. The paradox of the vintage is that 2020 does not seem like a hot growing season,” continued head winemaker Mark Fincham. “I don’t think the vineyard ever closed down because there was a lot of rain earlier in the year. In 2018 the heat blocked the growth cycle. You never got that blockage in 2020, and there weren’t the same high temperatures. The fruit was very good, so the vinification was easy. I think there was quite a bit of acidification going on around Burgundy. We did a little. We’ll probably bottle the racked wines in January, others in March and April, the whites in December.” It is good to see Tawse starting to get the kudos they deserve. Their diaspora of holdings between their domaine and négociant range can be a bit disorienting, but there are always exceptionally fine wines to be found, this year crowned by a brilliant Mazoyères-Chambertin that had the audacity to surpass the Musigny. There is plenty on offer down the hierarchy in various appellations, and the wines remain well-priced compared with others.

Nowadays I reserve an entire morning to taste through the complete range of Domaine Tawse and their wide range of négociant wines under Marchand-Tawse. That is not only because of the sheer number of wines, but also because discussing the vintage with winemakers Pascal Marchand and Mark Fincham is always an illuminating exercise. “In 2019 we started late, which was different to 2018 and 2020,” Fincham told me. “It was especially late in terms of flowering. It was a cold spring and then we had a hot summer, though not as warm as 2018 or 2003. The growing season developed differently because of the lateness. It was very dry and in summer, some places where people regularly go fishing, had completely dried up and this reduced yields further and enhanced concentration. Fortunately we had small showers just at the right point. What we learned from 2018 was that we had to be very reactive in the vineyard, even though a couple of cuvées like the Longecourt reached 15.0°. But, most of the cuvées reached 13.5° to 14.0°. In 2018 people had more problems with stuck fermentation but in 2019, despite the higher alcohol, the fermentations were smoother. In 2018 the proportion of skin to juice was much higher. In 2019 there was two-thirds juice to one-third solid matter, which is a bigger proportion than normal and this lead to more concentration. In 2018 it was around one-quarter solid to three-quarters juice. We started the picking on 12 September in Beaune and finished with the Musigny on 26 September. In 2018 and 2020 you had to jump around between vineyards whereas in 2019 it was a classic order of picking. We couldn’t give the pickers a break. Since 2018 we have a world full of surprises. We used to be able to read the vintage more easily. Things are less predictable these days, though the surprises are on the good side.”

In recent years I have been consistently impressed with the wines on both the Domaine and négociant side of this ever-expanding enterprise. As is customary, the inward investment of a wealthy entrepreneur, in this case Murray Tawse, upset the Burgundy purists that believe a Burgundy proprietor should been toiling out in their vines from dawn to dusk making sure their hands are as calloused as possible. But in vino veritas – these wines prove themselves time and again where it counts – in the wine glass. Their miniscule holdings in Musigny managed to produce a sublime 2019, whilst both their Clos Saint-Denis and Clos de la Roche are outstanding, the former just edging it at the moment. Also the Charmes-Chambertin is one of the best you will find. Away from the Grand Crus there is plenty to savour, especially in the Gevrey appellation, evidenced by wonderful showing of Lavaux Saint-Jacques and Les Champeaux. I also appreciated strong performances in the Beaune appellation, not least a superb Teurons with lip-smacking salinity.

Back in the day, Maume was the bastion of “traditional Burgundy”. When perceived wisdom was towards lacquering new oak on sensitive Pinot Noir and producers dogmatically adopted Henri Jayer’s principles of complete de-stemming, Maume was one of a handful that stuck to their principles of using whole bunches. The wines were inconsistent as testified by a memorable vertical of Mazis-Chambertin in London a few years ago, but for every wine that they got wrong and tasted vegetal, when they got it right and given requisite bottle age, the wines could be profound. In many ways Maume was ahead of their time, as nowadays numerous producers now proselytize the same tenets. The original holdings were almost entirely bought out by Canadian entrepreneur Murray Tawse to create Domaine Tawse, whose wines can be found in this report.

Contractually, Maume retained a few morsels of vine and to be honest, since then I have not paid them much attention. However, I did return on this trip, back to their rather dishevelled winery on the RN74. Bertrand’s Maume’s father, Bernard, answered the door. Don’t be deceived by his advancing years. Maume Senior is as sharp as a pin. He spoke eloquently about the terroir of Gevrey and had lost none of his faculties that served him during an illustrious career as a professor at the University of Dijon. Bertrand has had more than his fair share of demons. Despite life’s battle scars when we met, I could not help recall some of the amazing bottles he helped create, as well as observing the bond between father and son. Tasting their 2019s that were picked from 14 September from barrel, it was patently clear that Maume never lost the knack of producing what you might call “fermented wonderment”. I tasted few Village Crus as spellbinding as their 2019 Gevrey-Chambertin En Pallud or a generic red as fine as their 2019 Bourgogne Rouge from the lieu-dit of Les Vignes Blanches, grown on white limestone soils as its name implies. Maume retained a cult following, especially here in the UK, evidenced by the pallets ready to be picked by their transporter. Tasting these 2018s and 2019s I can understand why they continue to have a loyal following.

Given the wide range of wines under Domaine Tawse and their négociant arm "Marchand-Tawse", I needed two or three hours to go through the entirety of their range with the ever-garrulous Pascal Marchand and Mark Fincham. “The 2018 was a lot about picking dates," Fincham told me. "We picked early, for example, the Beaunes picked the first week of September and the Gevrey crus around 8 September and the Gevrey Lavaux on the 9 September. There was beautiful phenolic ripeness. The malic and tartaric acid was low, so you had to be careful as there was a lot of ripeness, so it was important to pick before phenolic ripeness. By picking it fractionally early we kept very good acidity. By the Monday or Tuesday the alcohol had gone up to around 14° whereas at the weekend it was 13.4°. We finished the picking on 11 September." Fincham offered a useful and interesting view upon why it is vital to maintain acidity. "If you lose the acidity then you lose part of the information. You can acidify but there is nothing better than natural tartaric acid. The only time I acidify is if I am doing a cold fermentation and want to protect it against bacterial infection."

For a few years, this Nuits Saint-Georges–based domaine/négociant rapidly expanded and changed names, to the confusion of some consumers. Fortunately, things seem to have settled down now: Domaine Tawse and Marchand-Tawse are domaine and négociant, respectively. But there are still complications, as readers might glean from reading my tasting note for the 2017 Gevrey-Chambertin En Palud. They arose when Bertrand Maume, who had sold Domaine Maume to Domaine Tawse, took back some of the parcels after an agreed contractual period – parcels that winemaker Mark Fincham was hoping to continue farming. Consequently, in 2017 you will see some cuvées reappearing under the Domaine Maume label. Nevertheless, Tawse continues to oversee an impressive and wide-ranging portfolio and in Fincham and right-hand man Thomas Dinel, they have two talented winemakers. Both led me through their 2017s, but first I asked Fincham about his perception of the vintage.

“In some ways, after the problems in 2016, everyone was very nervous. There was a lot of burning of straw and one morning where it blackened the sky. It was a close shave. It was exactly the same date as the previous year. We escaped and then it started getting warm. It was a fairly easy season with little disease stress. It rained a lot in May but not excessively, and the heat was not like it has been in 2018. Some of the vineyards that suffered in 2016 wanted to overproduce in 2017 – for example, Beaune and Savigny-lès-Beaune – whereas in Morey-Saint-Denis it was less. We pruned and de-budded to manage the crop; but then again, the old vines never produce excessively. We started the harvest in Beaune Clos du Roi and Savigny-lès-Beaune Les Vergelesses around September 8, finishing around September 15 in Gevrey. The yield in Gevrey is very stable, whereas in Beaune and Savigny-lès-Beaune it is much more variable, around 40hl/ha. The whites were not chaptalised, as the alcohol came in between 12.8° and 13.5°, but the reds were chaptalised a little.”

When Maume sold to Canadian businessman Moray Tawse, there was a bit of an outcry that one of the archetypal traditional domaines was being lost to someone not born and bred in the region. However, as I have written many times, there is much to admire under the direction of Fincham, and those complaining about the modern style of winemaking really need to taste the wines, preferably in blind conditions as I have done. Fincham manages to embrace both classic and modern winemaking. The Gevrey-Chambertin Lavaux Saint-Jacques is one of the best you will find, and the Aux Etelois is worth seeking out if Pierre Duroché’s is sold out. The Mazoyères-Chambertin might be my pick of the Grand Crus, but don’t overlook gems like the Volnay Fremiets or a splendid Vosne-Romanée Village under Marchand-Tawse. Given so many crus scattered across various appellations, not everything hits the spot, but generally these wines feel fresh and lively, and most are respectful of their terroirs.

Pascal Marchand did not start harvesting in 2014 at this estate until September 19, as the massale selection planted in these Gevrey vineyards ripens late. Grape sugars were in the moderate 12. 3% to 12. 5% range and the Mazis-Chambertin will be the only wine that will be bottled with as much as 13% alcohol. Marchand carried out a very gentle extraction here and described the wines as delicate. Since purchasing this estate in 2011 owner Moray Tawse has sold off the parcel of Gevrey-Chambertin La Perrière. And the line-up has been streamlined by the introduction of a Premier Cru bottling made from the estate's holdings in Cherbaudes plus part of its Champeaux and Lavaux-Saint-Jacques. Incidentally, 2015 will be the last vintage made in the Maume cellars in Gevrey; with 2016, the wines will be made in the large Marchand-Tawse facility in Nuits-Saint-Georges.

Pascal Marchand did not start harvesting in 2014 at this estate until September 19, as the massale selection planted in these Gevrey vineyards ripens late. Grape sugars were in the moderate 12. 3% to 12. 5% range and the Mazis-Chambertin will be the only wine that will be bottled with as much as 13% alcohol. Marchand carried out a very gentle extraction here and described the wines as delicate. Since purchasing this estate in 2011 owner Moray Tawse has sold off the parcel of Gevrey-Chambertin La Perrière. And the line-up has been streamlined by the introduction of a Premier Cru bottling made from the estate's holdings in Cherbaudes plus part of its Champeaux and Lavaux-Saint-Jacques. Incidentally, 2015 will be the last vintage made in the Maume cellars in Gevrey; with 2016, the wines will be made in the large Marchand-Tawse facility in Nuits-Saint-Georges.

Under the direction of Pascal Marchand, this estate was a late harvester in 2012, bringing in its top four crus during the first days of October. According to Marchand, who was making the Maume wines for the first time, the estate's older vines are from a specific massale selection that seems to be a later ripener.

Canadian banker and vineyard owner Moray Tawse purchased this renowned domain in January of 2012 and his winemaker Pascal Marchand took over winemaking here with the '12 vintage.The estate had been performing erratically in recent years but owns numerous excellent parcels of old selection massale vines in Gevrey-Chambertin, including a prize piece of Mazis-Chambertin.The new owners immediately began to clean out the cellar, starting by eliminating all wood surfaces (except for the barrels, of course).Marchand only began harvesting here on September 25 and 26, then waited until the beginning of October to bring in the four top vineyards.The malos finished in July and nothing had yet been racked at the time of my visit.The plan was to rack the wines for the first time in February or March and to bottle two months later.It's quite possible that in the future these wines will be made in the large Marchand-Tawse facility in Nuits-Saint-Georges.

Canadian banker and vineyard owner Moray Tawse purchased this renowned domain in January of 2012 and his winemaker Pascal Marchand took over winemaking here with the '12 vintage.The estate had been performing erratically in recent years but owns numerous excellent parcels of old selection massale vines in Gevrey-Chambertin, including a prize piece of Mazis-Chambertin.The new owners immediately began to clean out the cellar, starting by eliminating all wood surfaces (except for the barrels, of course).Marchand only began harvesting here on September 25 and 26, then waited until the beginning of October to bring in the four top vineyards.The malos finished in July and nothing had yet been racked at the time of my visit.The plan was to rack the wines for the first time in February or March and to bottle two months later.It's quite possible that in the future these wines will be made in the large Marchand-Tawse facility in Nuits-Saint-Georges.

Bertrand Maume, who started vinifying in the late '80s, carries out a full 30 days of cuvaison including extended maceration after the fermentation of sugars finishes. Even the crus here are aged in a relatively low one-third new oak. Maume told me the 2001s were still quite green and difficult to taste in the spring of 2002 at the beginning of their malos, but had been transformed during the secondary fermentations. If you prefer to drink your red Burgundies after 15 years, then 2001 is the better vintage," he told me, "but if you like your Burgundies after 5 years, then 2000 is better." Maume compared 2001 to 1998: Both offer sweetness with spice and good tannic spine for aging; in comparison, the 2000s are more facile wines."