Stephen Tanzer 85-87

Medium red. Slightly diffuse aromas of red berries and cherry. Juicy, spicy and easygoing, showing an essentially supple texture to its flavors of red fruits and underbrush. [Stephen Tanzer, 01/01/2016]

Wine Advocate 84-86?

The 2014 Marsannay les Vaudenelles has such a pretty blueberry and violet-scented bouquet. The palate is medium-bodied with a rather tinny entry. It has a moderate depth and a rather attenuated finish that needs more substance. I wonder how representative this is. Mon. Clair was absent when I visited his Marsannay domaine. I was told he was off abroad in Shanghai no less. I almost fainted hearing this news. Burgundy producers rarely travel further than Dijon. Then again, it is good to see winemakers flying long-haul to meet wine lovers. Fortunately, the congenial Philippe Brun, Bruno’s right-hand man, was on hand to guide me through the wines (as an aside, during our conversation I found out that Philippe was a classmate of Frederic Lafarge). He told me that they just suffered acid rot from the drosophila suzukii on the borders of Marsannay vineyard, but that it was not too serious. The pickers sprawled into the vineyards from September 13 and packed their secateurs away from another year on September 26, yields coming in at a not too shabby 40 hectoliters per hectare for the villages crus and 35 hectoliters per hectare for the premier crus. Philippe told me that an average of 15% whole cluster fruit was used and that the wines were racked in October. "I am very happy with 2014," he remarked. "The terroirs are very marked and they are wines of finesse. They are vins de plaisir." One interesting move is that the domaine has divided their Marsannay Blanc: one cuvee from vineyards lower down the incline and another further up on steeper slopes entitled Marsannay Coteaux Blanc. There was a huge difference between the two and I far preferred those on the steeper slopes. I am not totally sold on this idea, but I saw barrels with Marsannay Coteaux chalked on them, so obviously they intend to do the same henceforth. Apart from this, it was business as usual with some exemplary 2014s. For sure, I felt that some of the Village Crus were compromised by the cool and overcast August, though cuvees such as the Gevrey-Chambertin Clos de Fonteny and the Savigny-les-Beaune la Dominode prove that you do not have to splash out for the Grand Crus to enjoy Bruno and Philippe’s fermented grape juice. The Grand Crus are superb, my preference for the Bonnes-Mares over the Clos-de-Beze, the Clos Saint-Jacques displaying more nuance than the Cazetiers, but the wine that I would make a berth for in my cellar would be the exquisite Gevrey-Chambertin la Petite Chapelle — not one of the domaine’s most well-known cuvees and yet exuding elegance and poise here out of barrel. [Neal Martin, 28/09/2017]

Anticipated maturity: 2015-2015