Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Maranges 1er Cru La Fussière is a particular success, wafting from the glass with aromas of red berries, plums, sweet soil tones and smoke. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and enveloping, it's generous but vibrant, with lively acids and refined structuring tannins. A notable value, this is well worth seeking out.
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Wine Spectator
Smoky, toasty oak is wrapped around ripe black cherry and raspberry in this supple, enticing red. Plenty of spice joins in, as this lingers on the black pepper-tinged finish. Shows fine balance and length. Drink now through 2033. 80 cases imported.
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.”
Forming a transition between the Côte d’Or and the Saône-et-Loire of the Côte Chalonnaise, Maranges is the southernmost village of the Côte de Beaune district of Burgundy and includes seven Premiers Crus. Wines grown in Maranges may claim the names of their respective communes, Cheilly-lès-Maranges, Dezize-lès-Maranges or Sampigny-lès-Maranges, or Côte de Beaune-Villages. Confusingly they may also be called Maranges or Maranges Côte de Beaune. Nevertheless, the village’s vineyards, primarily composed of limestone and pebbly soils, produce charming, medium-bodied, fleshy Pinot Noir, laden with red or purple fruit and a touch of spice. A small percentage of admirable and fresh whites come from Maranges, made of Chardonnay.