Charlopin-Tissier Marsannay Les Longeroies 2014

Reviews

90NM

"The 2014 Marsannay les Longeroies comes from 0.16-hectares of vine, though that will be expanded with the addition of Justine's (Yann's wife) holdings from 2016. It has a very detailed bouquet with red plum and wild strawberry scents, fine mineralité here and better intensity than the Marsannay La Montagne. The palate is very well balanced with chalky tannin, crisp and quite bright red berry fruit, fine structure towards the chalky, tensile finish. Maybe a little angular at the moment, though a few months in bottle should knit this together. Readers are probably already aware of winemaker Philippe Charlopin, a grower whose wines have a far larger Stateside presence than in Europe. I still need to catch up with Philippe to taste his 2014s, but during my brief foray to Burgundy at the beginning of March, I called in at the new domaine of his son Yann Charlopin. Together with his wife Justine Tissier, they have nested in the former winery of David Clark in Morey-Saint-Denis, which they purchased along with David’s small cluster of holdings. Of course, you need a few holdings to make a living and thankfully Justine’s has augmented her own family’s vineyard so that they presently can offer eight or nine different crus. Thirty-four-year old Yann Charlopin greeted me in the courtyard. I first noticed his shock of curly black hair borrowed from his father. He has an ursine appearance, bear-like, the kind of young man who would beat you in an arm wrestle (though I would not go as far as to compare him with Benny from Crossroads, as his UK importers affectionately do). He was sporting what seems to be his trademark black working dungarees, the kind that I am sure are banned in Bordeaux, where proprietors are attired in Armani and even the vineyard laborers have to wear a tie. Yann studied at the university in Beaune before apprenticing in Tasmania, Sancerre and Chablis, and of course, with his father in Gevrey-Chambertin. “We moved into these premises in 2013,” Yann told me as we settled to taste his sophomore 2014s in his makeshift tasting room, his children’s toys scattered hither and thither. “I’ve been working with my father [Philippe Charlopin] for 14 years.” I asked whether he has a different approach to Charolopin père? “I am still working with him. I guess we have a more artisan approach. We want to make as natural wine as possible. We are organic in the vineyard. We will expand the holdings to four-hectares from next year over four appellations. We harvest in the morning and do a cold maceration, for example, 18 days with respect to the 2014s. We do a little pigeage and everything is destemmed. We do a relatively short alcoholic fermentation. For the barrel aging, we look for one-year-old barrels that we have bought from the likes of Dujac and Mortet, all François Frères. These 2014s were all bottled 15 days ago.” At this point, I notice that the labels all sport a cockerel. I asked if there is any reason for the motif? “Our son’s first word was cockerel. We have a blue one for the white, and a red one for the reds.” As I mentioned, this was the first time that I had met Yann properly, our initial exchange when I could not locate Philippe’s winery and Yann kindly yelled down directions from the upstairs window of their abode. I like what I tasted here. It is true that Yann has a different take on Burgundy to Philippe and this is reflected in the wines that are lighter in style, fresh and tensile, very terroir-specific and full of energy. They do not possess the density and weight of Philippe’s wines, partly due to his approach and partly because unlike his father, the Charlopin-Tissier portfolio does not include a raft of grand crus. It is clear than Yann has the winemaking gift and with a small but crucial expansion in their holdings, this new arrival in Morey-Saint-Denis has a bright future."