Life is a funny old thing. We do change in small ways over time and our tastes develop too. During my early years in wine – 32 years ago now – the industry was much more prone to platitudes than it is now and wine knowledge was much more about generalisations and announcements from on high. Well, one of the things that the great and the good would say was that people develop a taste for red Burgundy and Pinot Noir as they get older. And wouldn’t you know that has happened to me.
In all honesty it has been coming for a long time. For many years I have liked and appreciated Pinot Noir without loving it, while at some point over the last eight years I seem to have almost developed a passion for it.
Unfortunately I do not have a Burgundy income, so I am always keen to find better value examples. Wines that offer real Burgundy character, but at good price are relatively few and far between, so they must be cherished and recently I tasted a very good example and I was so pleased with it that I have made it my Wine of the Week.
At least I know where I took the photo.
Mercurey surrounded by vines. En Sazenay is just above the village on the far left on and forms the slope between the 2 groups of trees – if I remember correctly!
Map of Burgundy – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement
2011 Mercurey 1er Cru En Sazenay
PDO / AOC Mercurey 1er Cru
Domaine Jean-Michel et Laurent Pillot
Mercurey
Côte Chalonnaise
Bourgogne / Burgundy
France
Mercurey is one of the most famous wine villages of the Côte Chalonnaise, indeed the whole place is sometimes informally known as the Region de Mercuey and Mercurey is one of the most famous wines – I always like to remark that it is very user friendly as it is the only wine that if you spill it, you can pick it up with your fingers.
The Côte Chalonnaise is sort of a continuation of the Côte de Beaune, in that it is mainly the same limestone soil. However, the En Sazenay vineyard – which is just to the south of the village – has heavier clay soils that produce a slightly richer style of wine. A bit like Santenay in the Côte de Beaune, you would swear you could smell the clay. The vineyard is at 250-280 metres above sea level, a little higher than the village and faces south-east – which helps with ripening of course.
The domaine is run by Jean-Michel and his brother Laurent Pillot out of several small beautiful vaulted 13th and 17th century cellars. Their family have been making wine for generations and their expertise shows. As for winemaking they are very traditional, only using indigenous yeasts for the fermentation and ageing the wine for 18 months in oak barrels, only 25% of which are new as they want good integration of oak with the delicate characters of the Pinot.
The palate is concentrated, although the wine is delicate with a lithe, fresh vitality to it. The fruit is an interesting combination of deep fresh raspberry and the intense sweetness of dried raspberry – although of course the wine is dry. There is also the richer character of cherry, a little spice and a lovely kiss of rich texture to the palate. That Pinot mushroomy savouriness is there too, underscoring the fruit and giving more complexity. The tannins are there, but they are very supple, ripe and nicely integrated with the fruit, as is the oak indeed. This is a delicious bottle of Burgundy with enough fruit to charm anybody and enough complexity to please the most diehard Burgundy obsessive – 90/100 points
Utterly delicious with such Burgundian specialities as boeuf bourguignon and Coq au vin, but I enjoyed it with a rather fabulous steak and kidney pie.
Available in the UK at £14.68 per bottle from 3D Wines – other buying options are available from 3D which make the wine even better value.
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