2018 Domaine de la Bressande Mercurey Premier Cru En Sazenay Pinot Noir was our first bottle from this vintage. Some say 2018 is history in the making and might turn out to be as legendary as 1947.
It was another warm season with the second-largest harvest on record. On the contrary to Burgundy’s usual problem of not enough sun and warmth, this season had too much of it. By the time harvest came, every vineyard and winemaker had to make a hard decision should I pick grapes now or wait longer. In a regular season, it’s September or October question when grapes are not ready yet, and rain rolls in. They were facing quite an unusual problem for the region: the same question came up in August!
The magic of Pinot Noir is in its balance between ripeness, sugar, and acidity. Typically, Burgundy has no issue with acidity. Other things are more of a challenge. That’s why the most expensive Burgundian wines come from the sites in the middle slope with the best sun exposure.
Well, 2018 was a sun equalizer. Almost everyone got too much sun and definitely enough sugar in the grapes. The acidity and proper ripeness became a challenge because berries matured in 80 days instead of the usual 100. Think of it as Pinot Noir on steroids.
As a result, many winemakers resorted to adding acidity to balance the wine, a practice frowned upon in Burgundy. So while 2018 vintage might have been legendary, the results may vary.
Naturally, we were curious how it turned out but waited a bit for wines to mature before tasting this vintage.
Wine House
This bottle comes from the international merchant wine House based in Mercurey, founded by Antonin Rodet in 1875. Mercurey is one of the oldest terroirs which has always enjoyed an excellent reputation. Mercurey is also the native village of Maison Antonin Rodet.
2018 Domaine de la Bressande Mercurey Premier Cru En Sazenay Tasting Notes
In the bottle
As you may know, Premier Cru on the bottle means that it’s a prestigious village-level wine and is just one step below Grand Cru. En Sazenay, at the bottom of the label, is the name of the village where the fruit came from. En Sazenay vineyard is just 4 acres estate, so production under this label is limited.
In the glass
The color of Domaine de la Bressande is bright ruby and a bit deeper than usual Bourgogne indicating the riper vintage.
Aromas
The aromas of black cherry and morello cherry, wet stone and forest floor, bay leaf, and touch of barnyard build up our anticipation for the flavors.
Flavors
The flavor profile wasn’t as enticing as aromas have promised. We searched and searched for it, but we could only taste dark cherry fruit, acidity, and a touch of tannin. We let it open up for a couple of hours, and while it helped the nose, it did nothing for the palate.
Finish
As we sipped 2018 Domaine de la Bressande, we were trying to understand the disconnect between aromas and flavors. Why it smells like the ripe fruit but tastes so acidic? What’s going on with this wine?
The funny commercial came to mind: It smells like bacon! It tastes like bacon! But it’s not bacon!
Since our sense of smell pretty much determines what we taste, we followed the nose. It led us to one possible explanation. Winemakers were trying to compensate the sugar in grape and acidified the wine. Maybe they were trying to achieve a better balance or were in pursuit of stylistically typical Burgundian wine. Who knows?!
In any case, we wonder what would this wine taste like if they just accepted the card nature dealt them with? What if they made the wine as nature intended and not the way they wanted it to come out?
It very well may have been the wine they don’t like or want to make. Or it may have been mediocre wine. But so is this, if not less.
As wine lovers, we prefer to react with that’s unusual for this region and wonder why versus I suspect winemaker manipulated the wine.
As wine lovers, we prefer to feel surprised rather than cheated.
We seldom write reviews about the wines we don’t like. We just ignore them, but Premier Cru cannot be ignored whether we like it or not.
To summarize, it’s not that 2018 Domaine de la Bressande is terrible wine, it’s unimpressive for Premier Cru and for sure overpriced at $40.
We look forward to finding 2018 Bourgogne that might make us think of this vintage as legendary and do it cautiously going forward.
What is your impression of 2018 Bourgogne? Any great finds?