WINES FROM DOMAINE MAUME

ABOUT DOMAINE MAUME
Kermit Lynch says, "When I began working with Maume—his great 1979 vintage—Bernard made the wines. He was also a professor of biology at the University of Dijon. None of the scholar rubbed off on his son, Bertrand, who early on made a beeline for the cellar and the vineyards. He is 100% vigneron.  

Have the wines changed since Bertrand took over (with Dad often at his side, of course)? Yes. I think the wines show their charms years or even decades before his father’s creations did. For those of you who fear that Maume wines might lose their wild and woolly side, I’d say that while they are more consistent, they are only slightly more civilized. They make their wines to fit their rather noir-influenced vision of Gevrey-Chambertin. They don’t make them for me, for Robert Parker, or for The Wine Spectator. They are not dedicated followers of fashion. If you believe in facility and stability at any cost, Maume is probably not for you, but oh my, you should have tasted the 1995 Lavaux Saint-Jacques I uncorked the other night. It occurred to me that a wine world without Gevrey-Chambertin in it . . . well, there would be a void."  

“The big secret in Burgundy is that with all the high profile producers in Gevrey, none, except possibly Domaine Armand Rousseau, can lay claim to producing better wines of Gevrey than Bertrand Maume.  How do they do it? They seem hopelessly disorganized when one visits their tumble-down house on the nationale. Well, for starters, vines are mostly old (going on 70 years in Mazis) in part because vines are replanted only as they die, and correspondingly, yields are very low, among the lowest in Gevrey. At harvest, great care is taken to select only ripe grapes, with three passes in the vineyard. Cuvaison is a healthy four weeks. Once in the cellar, use of wood is moderate, racking is held to a bare minimum, and the wines are bottled unfitered. The result is some of the purest wine in Burgundy, so pure, that it is difficult for many who look for a flashier, shallower wine to appreciate them.    The wines are very successful in 1997. Maume’s Bourgogne shows lovely cherry and blackberry fruit with good liveliness and balance. The Gevrey has very pure Pinot aromas, followed by cherry and blackberry fruit on the palate, good length, and nice finesse. It should provide excellent early and medium-term dinking. Maume’s Gevrey, En Pallud is from 60 year-old vines and normally is premier cru quality, despite the village classification. The wine is gamier in the nose than the previous one, and shows excellent, deep, spiced, concentrated blackberry fruit and some cassis. There is fine purity here, and some tannin on the finish. Although from vines that are still relatively young (17 years), Maume’s Gevrey-Champeaux is very successful in 1997. The nose is a fascinating combination of cherry, blackberry, and tobacco. Those elements continue on the palate, which is dense and lively, with finesse and purity quite evident. The Gevrey 1er cru, from a combination of the Cherbaudes and Perrières vineyards, shows a wilder, stonier side of Gevrey. The wine appears to have less acid and tannin, though, and probably will have a shorter maturation period. The Gevrey-Lavaux St-Jacques is simply sensational. The wine shows expressive strawberry and cherry fruit in perfect balance. This is a joyous, Mozart of a wine. Alas that Maume’s Charmes-Chambertin is such a rarity, because it is such a great success. The wine shows truffle and strawberry aromas, and beautiful strawberry fruit of great purity and perfect balance on the palate. Finally, the Mazis-Chambertin is very deep with black fruits in the nose. On the palate, this is a heavy, dense, deep wine with blackberry, cocoa, and licorice flavors. Clearly, it is the deepest and richest of the cellar, but it is less spicy and exotic than usual. The wine is tannic on the finish and is one 1997 that will require proper aging.”                - The Fine Wine Review
Website: http://kermitlynch.com/our_wines/