26 Shades of Macon

10 June 2015: I was very privileged to be invited back to Bourgogne by BIVB for Level 2 of the Official Bourgogne Wine Instructor Accreditation Seminar. Our first exercise, after a brief refreshment of gaufrettes mâconnaises and coffee at the end of an hour-long transfer to BIVB's Maison des Vins at Mâcon from Beaune, was a tasting of the 26 villages of Mâcon wines, with quality situated between Mâcon-Villages and the 5 villages of the Mâcon (namely Pouilly-Fuissé, Pouilly Vinzelles, Puilly Loché, Saint Véran and Viré-Clessé) in the hierarchy, albeit still forming part of the regional appellation.

 

Les gauffrettes maconnaises

AOC Mâcon (including Mâcon-Villages and Mâcon + village name) consists of around 3,340 ha of white wine production and 520 ha of red wine production planted in a variety of soils including clay, limestone, sand and granite. (cf Pouilly-Fuissé 757 ha; Saint-Véran 680 ha; Viré-Clessé 390 ha; Pouilly-Vinzelles 52 ha and Pouilly-Loché 32 ha). The wines are made by 400 domaines and 9 co-operatives. 27 villages (26 for white and 1 for red) have been recognized as higher quality than the rest and are allowed to have the village name suffixed to Macon, such as Mâcon-Lugny or Mâcon-Azé. The one village for red is Serrières. Making up 40% production of the Mâcon AOC, the 27 villages were the result of a consolidation exercise that took place about 10 years ago when around 44 villages could lay claim to this regional AOC title (ie Mâcon + village name). Long been in the shadow of the 5 more prestigious village appellations, the reputation of these 27 villages has received a boost by the interest shown by some top winemakers from the Côte d’Or, such as Dominique Lafon (with his Les Heritiers du Comte Lafon wines, example Mâcon-Milly-Lamartine) and the late Anne-Claude Leflaive with her Mâcon-Verzé. Currently, the 5 villages with the highest production are: Lugny, Igé, La Roche Vineuse, Vinzelles and Peronne. Chardonnay is also a significant producer. Mâcon + village offers a very interesting quality-price ratio, compared with the more village appellations. Ex-cellars per bottle price for a Mâcon + village is around EUR 4 – 6 (c.f. Mâcon-Villages at EUR 3 – 4, Saint-Véran at EUR 6 – 8 and Pouilly-Fuissé at EUR 10 – 12).


This was the first time that the Ecole des Vins had organised a tasting like this to compare the quality of the wines from the 26 villages (not including the red village). All 26 wines were by different producers (with some representing more than one village such as Cave de Lugny). All wines were chosen for their expression of the terroirs, with very clear differentiation between the cooler and warmer regions. Comparing our notes, we discovered that there seemed to be a consensus that those wines deemed to be of higher quality were from villages rather close to the village appellations – in my mind, they were quasi-village level. Those that did not seem to quite deliver on the same level of ripeness, balance and finesse, were situated further away from the village appellation areas.


Joining the educator group were 3 winemakers from the region, including Jean-Philippe Baptista, Isabelle Meunier and Olivier Fichet. They are all members of the union of the producers of the wine of Mâcon (UPVM).

 

The following villages represented by the following domaines particularly stood out for me in terms of balance, harmony, finesse, and showcased high quality winemaking:

Mâcon-Vergisson La Roche, Domaine Thierry Drouin 2014: clear minerality on palate, well-knit, harmonious

Mâcon-Montbellet La Bergerie, Domaine Talmard Mallory 2014: linear structure, finesse, clean balanced finish

Mâcon-Uchizy, Domaine Talmard Mallory 2014: careful winemaking, rounded mouthfeel, savoury complexity

Mâcon-Peronne, Cave d’Aze 2014: good intensity, savoury complexity

Mâcon-Azé, Domaine de La Garenne 2013: balanced ripeness and freshness, harmonious, above its class

Mâcon-La Roche Vineuse, Domaine Merlin 2013: linear, great energy, precise winemaking, plenty of detail

Mâcon-Prissé, Domaine de La Pierre des Dames 2014: lovely floral character, clean crisp finish, with perfect ripeness

Mâcon-Loché, Domaine Clos des Rocs (Olivier Giroud) 2014: rounded mouthfeel, well-managed oak, well-structured

Mâcon-Vinzelles, Cave des Grands Crus Blancs 2014: cool minerality, great balance despite the youthful austerity

Mâcon-Solutré-Pouilly Les Condemines, Domaine Carrette 2014: lovely intensity, without being over-ripe

Mâcon-Pierreclos, Domaine Lapalus 2014: depth, well-managed, high quality winemaking, precise minerality

We asked why we hadn't been seeing more of these wines in the export markets? A few challenges were identified: limited production volume (leading to majority of production sold by independents/cavistes and on-trade (ie restaurants) in France), weak Euros to US dollars (the Euro has fallen roughly from 1.4 to 1.13 in the past 5 years), threats of frost and hail leading to some upward price adjustments and the higher cost of production for export markets (according to the winemakers present, export markets tend to favour oak and this could significantly increase the cost of production at this level).


Do consumers find it confusing that there are so many village names? Yes and No. If left on the shelves of supermarkets, this is certainly the case…..but if sold at cavistes and restaurants where proper guidance is given to the consumer, these villages could be much better represented and their stories much better told. I see the geographical proximity to the village appellations as a strong marketing point for these villages and it proves that terroir matters and we as educators and trade professionals should work harder at promoting this rather than suppressing it under the generalization of Macon.


With the poignant perception of its limited production threatened by increasing demand and the throes of inclement weather, the future of Bourgogne lies in its diversity and communication of this message. We need to encourage consumers and those who influence them to discover these gems that provide excellent quality-price ratio and a sense of place. I certainly would love to see more on our shelves and on restaurant wine lists in Hong Kong! (And what's more....the Mâcon offers extraordinary landscape marked by the two famous rocks of Vergisson and Solutré, with plenty of history to discover and Abbey of Cluny not to be missed!)