Winemaker Notes
The nose is subtle with slightly smoky notes and very ripe red fruits. The palate is supple, full, and well balanced with spicy aromas.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
I love the balance in the 2016 Marsannay, which has a solid bouquet of passion fruits, wild strawberries, violets, and leafy herbs. It's fresh, medium-bodied, beautifully balanced, and has integrated acidity, all pointing to an outstanding Marsannay to enjoy over the coming 7-8 years.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2016 Château de Marsannay is a racy and well-balanced wine. TASTING NOTES: This wine shows bright fruit and pleasing mineral notes. Pair its elegant structure with lamb kebabs. (Tasted: December 23, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Perched up in the northernmost position in the Côte de Nuits, Marsannay is the only appellation village of Burgundy to produce classified wines of all three colors: red, white— and rosé. The official Rosé de Marsannay earned its high reputation in the early 1900s.
Its reds, made of Pinot Noir, burst with red and black fruit and are consistently long on the palate. Chardonnays from Marsannay are charming, floral and full of citrus fruit and mineral. Top Marsannay vineyards include Clos du Roy and Les Longeroies.