Domaine Taupenot-Merme

Siblings Romain and Virginie Taupenot are 7th generation of winemaker in the Taupenot family. The estate owns 13.5 hectares of vineyard between Chambolle Musigny, Gevrey Chambertin, Morey St Denis and Nuits St Georges, with 21 appellations in Cote de Beaune such as Corton, St Romain and Auxey Duresses.

One of the most prestigious vineyards of Taupenot Merme is certainly the Clos des Lambrays. (with an area of 0.18 acres) which is the last miniscule parcel that prevents the 8.86ha owned by Clos des Lambrays (LVMH) from declaring it a monopole. Romain actually finds it funny, kind of like a David vs Goliath situation. Plus their plot of land is located in the Meix Rentier part of Clos des Lambrays which is just behind the house of Taupenot Merme.

Another interesting vineyard is probably the Gevrey Chambertin 1er Cru Bel Air, one of Romain’s favorites. With an average of 35 years old, the vines are rather young compared to other vineyard of the estate. The parcel is located above the Clos de Beze and next to Clos des Ruchottes. It is the only parcel that surround Clos de Beze which does not enjoy the status of Grand Cru. For Romain it’s actually difficult to understand why Bel Air is not a grand cru knowing that shares the same soil structure and elevation as Clos des Ruchottes,

In order to extract color, the process starts with cold maceration at 10ºC going up progressively to a maximum of 32ºC to extract the tannins. When the wine is balanced, racking and pressing are followed. To avoid extraction of any bitterness, Romain presses the grapes at various pressures, which could go up to 1.5/1.6 bar a press, depending on the vintage characteristics and the ripeness of the fruit. Wine will be then aged in barrels for at least 12 months, after which Romain racks the wine back to tank and leave it for 3-4months before bottling.

A close relationship with coopers is really important for Romain as he usually chooses the wood after the alcoholic fermentation, leaving only 10 days for the coopers to make the barrels. He chooses a light toast with minimal oak influence for most of the barrels in order to keep the authenticity of the terroir. Normally Romain uses no more than 50% new oak for grand cru, 30% for 1er cru, 25% for the village and 20% for Beaune.

After malolactic fermentation, Romain likes to invite the 5 different coopers he works with for a blind tasting of more than 20 samples from new barrels to judge their quality and influence on the wine.

The estate has a policy that to hold back a certain amount of the production every year and release them after a period of time in order to be able to provide a good supply of back vintages to customer. This is very challenging for Burgundy producers like Taupenot Merme as quantity is simply very scarce!