Brilliance In The Wake Of Disaster

“You see here, these dimples in the vines, those are from the hail” Mark Fincham, winemaker at Marchand-Tawse, (for the reds anyway) standing with us in a recently purchased vineyard in Burgundy’s Cote de Beaune. I was there with importer Aline Thiebaut of Aliane Wine in the spring of 2014. Mark went on to tell us the Marchand-Tawse was able to acquire this vineyard because the ravaging hail in late July the year before had so devastated the vineyard and with no wine to sell and loans to be paid the owners decided to hang up their viticulture gloves. A couple of small vintages back to back and then the hail in 2013 hits leaving some vineyards reporting 50% less to zero yields? Well it caused many in the area to rethink their trade. 

2013 started out with late flowering do to a particularly frigid spring which caused problems with yield and uneven ripening. The summer was late to arrive and then that late July hail storm that tore through the Cote de Beaune like an alligator, ripping off and destroying fruit and chomping fiercely at the vines. The hardest hit were Beaune, Savigny, Volnay and Pommard, the latter seeing this kind of damage for the second year in a row. Those outside the hail zone struggled with very slow ripening and pushbacks of harvest until October, 2013 being the latest harvest since 1991 in fact.

All that said, with patience and meticulous triage, or sorting, especially with the reds, the end result was a tiny bit of extremely high quality Pinot Noir and beautifully focused and precise Chardonnays. We stood in the icy, slightly empty cellar art Marchand-Tawse in Nuits-Saint-Georges with Mark, discussing and tasting the very young 2013s from barrel, all of us remarking on the purity and absolute splendor of the aromatics they were exuding, and the lacy, regal way the wines entered the palate. It is precisely vintages like 2013 that show us the true mark of great winemaking, from vineyard to barrel is all about. The wines from Marchand-Tawse are truly thrilling and thankfully for us we were able to acquire a miniscule amount of those gorgeous 2013s and we can’t wait to share them with you.

Friday March 4^th, 7:30 PM we will be joined by very special guests Mark Fincham and Aline Thiebaut and silly old me of course, where will be featuring 10 wines from this hard fought for but gloriously triumphant 2013 vintage and hear from the winemaker himself what it took to give us these perfectly vintage and place accented wines. 

Wines Featured

2013 Marchand-Tawse Bourgogne Rouge $26.99

2013 Marchand-Tawse 47 N Bourgogne Pinot Noir $31.99

2013 Marchand-Tawse Beaune 1er Cru Tuvilains $51.99

2013 Marchand-Tawse Chambolle-Musigny $69.99

2013 Marchand Maume Gevrey-Chambertin $62.99

2013 Marchand-Tawse Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru Clos des Ormes $73.99

2013 Marchand-Tawse Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Perriere $83.99

2013 Marchand-Tawse Grand Cru Echezeaux $207.99

Whites

2013 Marchand-Tawse Meursault $57.99

2013 Marchand-Tawse 1er Cru Puligny-Montrachet Champ Gain $96.99

March 4^th

7:30 PM

$55 per person

Reservations are required 

So damn good to be back to work. 'Bout to splash about in my inspirations and junk.