Winemaker Notes
A high-altitude parcel, near the forest line, facing east. Soils mix brown limestone with lots of gravel. Hand-harvested. Partially destemmed; fermented on indigenous yeasts in tank. Aged in older French oak barrels. Unfined and unfiltered.
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2019 Frédéric Magnien Marsannay Saint-Jacques is bright and lively. TASTING NOTES: This wine showcases aromas and flavors of blueberries and other fresh fruits. Enjoy it with grilled lamb chops. (Tasted: September 15, 2021, 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.