Sunday, December 27, 2015

Domaine Maume (Gevrey-Chambertin) -- 2014s Tasted from Cask

The estate was sold to Canadian Moray Tawse in 2012. Mark Fincham now takes care of the estate and no doubt consults closely with Pascal Marchand, Tawse’s partner in the Marchand-Tawse wines that I will later review. There have been some major changes. The estate is now organic and biodynamic in operation and there has been substantial replanting in the vineyards. Horses are now used in the grand cru vineyards, and in others a small tractor in order to avoid soil compaction. In the cellar, the most immediately noticeable aspect is the use of cleaner barrels. But more than that, there is a clearer, lighter style, one that mirrors the change in style at the mother producer, Marchand-Tawse. Although old bottles of Maume can be utterly profound, the quality of the 2014s is such that one can hardly complain.


Harvesting began on 18 September. Natural alcohols were in the range of 11.8º-12.2º. There was some rot that had to be sorted out – two sorting tables were used and about 6% of what was harvested was discarded. The grands crus had yields in the low 30hl/ha range, the village vineyards in the 40-42 hl/ha range. Malolactic fermentations finished in July – relatively early compared to the Bertrand Maume regime, when this cellar often had wines in malo when I visited in October and November. Bottling is not foreseen before May 2016. (Continue reading here.)