Incorporating grapes from two sources, Marchand’s 2008 Chambertin Clos de Beze exhibits the site-typical scents and flavors of dark cherry, licorice, and rose petal, allied to Latakia tobacco-like smokiness, soy-like savor, and subtle suggestions of humus and peat. Rich and already texturally caressing yet at the same time buoyant, it finishes with palate-staining, mandible-tugging, vibratory intensity. As with a number of Marchand’s wines, my only misgiving here is a slightly detached overlay of caramel and resin notes from the barrel to which I would have thought that a wine of such strong natural personality and high pedigree might be more resistant. But in the present quite glorious context, that is practically a quibble. I would anticipate a good 15 years of satisfaction here. Quebec-born Burgundy veteran Pascal Marchand (for notes on more of whose handiwork see my report in this issue on the wines of Jean Fery) emerged to prominence as the winemaker at Comte Armand in Pommard (where I met him in his first year, 1985); worked for more than a half dozen years as head oenologist for the Boisset group; and started his own negociant operation in 2006. He works temporarily out of a facility in Nuits-St.-Georges that in his words “is not equipped exactly the way I want,” as a result of which he watches over the early barrel evolution of some of his wines while they still reside in the cellars of their trusted growers, while others are vinified in his facility from purchased fruit, occasionally even picked by a crew he assembles. He is, in short, the prototypical emerging micro-negociant, and if the quality of the 2008s I tasted is indicative of what’s to come, Marchand will soon be even better-known! None of the 2008s I tasted (representing the majority of Marchand’s lots) were due to have been bottled before late May, and most were vinified entirely or majority vendange entier.A Jeanne Marie de Champs Selection (various importers), Domaines et Saveurs, Beaune; fax 011-33-3-80-25-04-81.
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