Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
What an enticing nose of red fruits with only a whiff of toasty oak. Charming and filigree with super-silky tannins and an underlying firmness supporting the medium- to full-bodied palate. You could easily mistake this for a Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru from a leading producer, particularly in the very long and precise, minerally finish. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold.
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Vinous
The 2022 Marsannay Clos du Roy has admirable transparency on the nose with nicely focused, vibrant scents of red cherry and crushed strawberry. The palate is medium-bodied with pliant tannins, very good concentration and lightly spiced darker fruit toward the Gevrey-like finish. Bravo. This is a great Clos du Roy. Tasted at merchants' 2022 Burgundy tastings in London.
Barrel Sample: 91-93 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Offering up aromas of cherries, raspberries, rose petals and dark chocolate, Audoin's 2022 Marsannay Clos du Roy is medium to full-bodied, ample and satiny, with bright acids and a succulent, charming profile.
Barrel Sample: 90-92
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.