Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
This is a textbook Mercurey red from this much-improved Nuits-St-Georges-based négociant, and it's usually widely available. Sourced from a 10ha monopole, it's fermented with 20% whole bunches and aged in 20% new wood. It's a commendably reliable wine, sweet and appealing with a good underlying focus, showing some clove spice with red cherry and raspberry fruit.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: When friends ask me: What is the best value in (red) Burgundy? My response is always: Mercurey! The 2017 Domaine Faiveley Mercurey La Framboisière is one of the finest Pinot Noirs in the $40 price range. TASTING NOTES: This wine shows bright red fruits and a zesty palate disposition. Its bright aromas and flavors of red fruit and mineral accents should pair it deliciously with lightly grilled lamb chops. (Tasted: February 12, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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James Suckling
A very successful vintage of this charming Mercurey. Lots of raspberries, wild strawberries and hints of wild blackberries. Sleek and elegant with crisp acidity and very focused on the long, clean finish. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
There are fully 40,000 bottles of the delightful 2017 Mercurey La Framboisière, a pure and expressive wine that bursts with aromas of cassis, raspberries, candied peel, spices and licorice. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, satiny and succulent, with a lavish attack, melting tannins and a nicely concentrated core of fruit. The combination of quality and quantity is rare in Burgundy, so this cuvée is a gift to wine lovers.
Founded in 1825, Bourgognes Faiveley has been handed down from father to son for over 175 years. As the sixth generation to take the reins, François Faiveley manages, with equal amounts passion and competence, the largest family domaine in Burgundy. Methodically reconstructing vineyards fractured by French inheritance laws, Bourgognes Faiveley today owns more appellations in their entirety (monopoles) than any other domaine in Burgundy.
"Faiveley’s wines are... supremely clean and elegant: definitive examples of Pinot Noir... above all they have richness and breed, the thumbprint of a master winemaker."
-Clive Coates M.W.
Côte d’Or, A Celebration of the Great Wines of Burgundy
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.”
Beloved for its deep and flavorful reds made of Pinot Noir, Mercurey is the largest and most important village in the Côte Chalonnaise of Burgundy with most of its vineyards tucked away in hillsides or stretched along the aptly-named “Golden Valley.” This valley, sheltered from the moist and cool air that funnels along at lower elevations, is ideal for ripening Pinot noir.
Mercurey follows strict yield laws, similar to those at the Côte d’Or village level, promoting the development of deep, full, concentrated and age-worthy Pinot noirs. In their youth, a chewy and rich structure supports flavors of ripe strawberry, raspberry and cherry. Age brings notes of underbrush, tobacco and cocoa.
While Pinot Noir claims the majority of Mercurey vineyard acreage, Chardonnay does grow here and produces uniqely floral and spicey scented white wines.