2008 Mazis Chambertin

Marchand’s 2008 Mazy-Chambertin – an addition to this portfolio this vintage – leads with rather volatile overtones of fruit distillates and resinous oakiness that are initially a bit off-putting. Lightly-cooked yet still tart red raspberry and rhubarb are allied with brown spices and resin on a juicy but prominently tannic palate. This finishes persistently, but is surprisingly disappointing overall in the present context. It certainly deserves re-tasting. Quebec-born Burgundy veteran Pascal Marchand (for notes on more of whose handiwork see my report in this issue on the wines of Jean Fery) emerged to prominence as the winemaker at Comte Armand in Pommard (where I met him in his first year, 1985); worked for more than a half dozen years as head oenologist for the Boisset group; and started his own negociant operation in 2006. He works temporarily out of a facility in Nuits-St.-Georges that in his words “is not equipped exactly the way I want,” as a result of which he watches over the early barrel evolution of some of his wines while they still reside in the cellars of their trusted growers, while others are vinified in his facility from purchased fruit, occasionally even picked by a crew he assembles. He is, in short, the prototypical emerging micro-negociant, and if the quality of the 2008s I tasted is indicative of what’s to come, Marchand will soon be even better-known! None of the 2008s I tasted (representing the majority of Marchand’s lots) were due to have been bottled before late May, and most were vinified entirely or majority vendange entier. A Jeanne Marie de Champs Selection (various importers), Domaines et Saveurs, Beaune; fax 011-33-3-80-25-04-81.