Olivier Merlin Macon La Roche Vineuse 2006
Dear friends,
I fell off the face of the earth for awhile — but have decided that life takes work, so I’m back to writing the wine newsletter. Actually I’ve quite missed reaching out, and so I hope you will welcome these well-researched missives.
Have spent the last several weeks in Australia, seeing my best friend get married and trekking across Tasmania — flopped around in wine country and in fun Aussie spots including young, robust Melbourne just before the fires broke out (no, I didn’t start any, but I want to express my solidarity with those people who are unduly suffering). I will bring you some great wines from Australia in notes to come, but today I’m back in Beaune and happily back to drinking Burgundy.
Olivier Merlin, a humble and focused Maconnais winemaker, brings to the world wines I have loved since I started this wine trail a decade ago. I’ve talked about the great work going on in the Macon from others such as the Bret Brothers, and Merlin is right within that realm of being one of the few vignerons who aim to bring the wines of Pouilly-Fuisse and surroundings into the connoisseur level.
And happily it has been working; Allen Meadows has given Merlin wines scores upwards of 92 points. For quality to price ratio, if your budget doesn’t call for Chassagne-Montrachet this month, here is your man. I find that the majority of Chardonnays at this price tend to have a lot of make up – it is easy to find a fair bit of manufactured ripe, burst-y sweetness and heaviness. By contrast, this Chardonnay is completely mineral driven — almost a golden-flecked color, with depth, but not manipulatively dense, earthy and vigorous — a charming hint of oak (15% is used); a most pure example of a ready-to-drink white Burgundy.
Olivier and his wife Corinne took over this old domain just over 20 years ago. They have since had the advantage of understanding the individual terroir and exactly how to express each plot by way of gentle, natural winemaking. Everything is hand done, from picking and trimming to careful lees management. No herbicides or fertilizers are used. There is a light racking and gentle filtration, though never any fining. True attention to these small individual vineyards is considered the true aim here. 2006 was a complicated yes, but this appellation shows freshness and focus and should be delightful to drink immediately.
So, voila.
Olivier Merlin Macon La Roche Vineuse 2006
$18.50 per bottle
3-bottle minimum
No sales tax for out-of-state shipments; otherwise NY tax applies. Delivery and shipping not included.
Slainte,
Mary Taylor
Thoreau Wine Society
Comments
By Mary Taylor
Mary Taylor, a Bostonian who has been involved the New York wine trade forever, recently moved full-time to Burgundy to send dispatches from the trenches: “It’s dirty work, but someone has to do it.” Mary is known for her love for elegant and nuanced European wines. She works for the Thoreau Wine Society, where members receive weekly wine offerings along with musings about life, love and travel (ThoreauWineSociety.com).
About The Humble Gourmand
The Humble Gourmand is published the first Friday of each month, edited by Alison L. McConnell, a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and writer. It is designed to offer straightforward lessons and advice to aspiring cooks, oenophiles, and all other eaters and drinkers.
The Humble Gourmand encourages users to comment on any and all of its features, but reserves the right to remove any material deemed inappropriate.
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