Domaine Bruno Clair Marsannay Les Grasses Tetes, Cote de Nuits, France

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The 2016 Marsannay Les Grasses Têtes has a tightly wound, smoky bouquet that would benefit from more fruit coming through. The palate is tight and missing some flesh, attenuating toward a hard finish. To be honest, there appears to be far more promise with respect to its stablemate in Longeroies.

The 2015 Marsannay Les Grasses Têtes had quite an earthy, backward bouquet, just a little smudged by some reduction at the moment. The palate has a grainy texture, perhaps more backbone than the Marsannay Vaudenelle with a hint of licorice towards the finish. There is plenty of character here, if not quite the class of say, some of Roty's Marsannays this vintage. Enjoy this over 4-6 years.

The 2014 Marsannay Les Grasses Têtes has a well-defined, pretty bouquet with raspberry and blackcurrant scents, hints of rose petal in the background. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, quite strict and linear with good acidity, and a little too serious on the finish for my liking, but hopefully it will forage a little more charm by the time of bottling. A bit "bolshie" at the moment.

The 2012 Marsannay Les Grasses Tetes has a similar color to the Les Vaudenelles, but the aromatics are more elegant and understated with pure dark cherry and blueberry fruit. The palate is supple and fleshy on the entry with good concentration and a linear, quite serious, structured, minerally finish. This is utterly delicious. It was a balmy, sunny June morning when I last visited Domaine Bruno Clair to take a peek at their 2011s, but it was different arriving to taste their 2012s, the mercury struggling above zero, snow draped over vines. It was a pleasure to meet Bruno and Philippe Brun again, the “Batman and Robin” of Marsannay, Bruno sporting his favorite lumberjack jacket ready to cut down a few trees. At least he was warm. After some reminiscing about his good friend Patrick Bize, we set about the new arrivals. The 2012s were picked between 20 September and 1 October. His village crus are raised in new oak until racking in early September and then transferred into 15-hectolitre foudres to moderate the impact of the wood. Usually they de-stem the entire crop, but the ripeness of the stems meant that his top crus include 20% whole cluster this year. They both seemed enthusiastic about the vintage and rightly so – this is a domaine that shifted up a gear and vies for the village’s leading domaine (even though their Gevrey holdings make the synonymous with the village further south.) Bruno and Philippe just appear to have found the knack of creating wines with finesse and character, a more prudent approach that has fostered more terroir-driven Pinot Noirs. Their Clos Saint Jacques was once and “also ran”. Now it is up there with the likes of Fourrier and Rousseau. Importer: A Becky Wasserman Selection, Le Serbet, various American importers, including: Martin Scott Wines, Little Neck, NY; tel. (516) 327-0808, Fine Vines, Melrose Park, IL; tel. (708) 343-6702, The Source, San Francisco, CA; tel. (415) 621-6151. Also through Justerini & Brooks and other merchants in the UK.