friend had the wine recently and couldn’t get over how good it was. He’s right. Great acidity that is integrated well, ripe dark cherry fruit, creamy texture. Very sauvage. The fruit is very intense, cherry essence and the nose is powerful and also intense–just like the wine. No mushrooms, but there is a little sous bois. Would have called it 93 or 96, really good middle age red Burgundy. I like it. Rated 1 on the Zanotti binary system, meaning worth drinking.
The 88 Maume Mazi a couple weeks ago was also in a good spot. Still dark in color with the savage of Mazi but the tannins of 88 had mostly integrated. Definitely an old school producer. I’ve got 83, 85, and 88 left.
Sounds good, Alan. If that is one from the case that you got from me, it was a library release from the domaine in 2010. Pre-2012, Maume’s Mazis is the Gevrey-Chambertin one reads about. I don’t know what has happened after the sale.
I bought some Maume '83 Mazis on some auction site recently (or a friend did it for me). I’ve never bought from auction before, but '83 is my wedding year…and Maume told me a great story about the '83 when he visited Philadelphia in the mid-'90s.
He was apparently hiking in the Vosges when people decided to harvest the '83s, and was out of touch (pre-cellphone) and couldn’t get back in time to make the wines…so he instructed his wife to do so…step by step…and she did. They were all made by the time he arrived. We tasted one with him and her that night…
I have some older Maume…and like the style…but…candidly, they are never the best examples of what they say on the labels. A bit too rustic to be great. Not surprising given the lack of technology during Bernard’s reign…But, always a treat to drink. Still won’t touch a '90 or '88 from him…until they are 30, based on interim experiences with them.
I know there were rains around harvest time in '83, but I’ve never heard of a winemaker taking a vacation around harvest time, or to allow someone else to make the critical picking decisions. Who was making the picking decisions? Maume owned all his vineyards, right?
And the picking usually doesn’t all take place in a couple of days (vineyards mature at different times, shortage of labor). How long was he away?
At least up through the 80s, they could have a certain sauvage quality. Finesse and elegance were not the words that came to mind. And the cellar was quite primitive, even by Burgundy standards in those days.
Twenty years or so ago, shortly after visiting Maume, I happened to end up in a discussion with Kermit Lynch in which I said that I thought I “understood” Maume’s wines, even though they were unusual.
“Understood? You think you understand those wines?” Kermit responded with evident annoyance at my presumption.
I don’t think I’d associate sauvage as rustic. Even in the 90s and the 01 have a wild character to them. Doesn’t scream burgundy but certainly doesn’t scream rustic
sauvage, or “wild,” is a Gevrey feature I don’t get in Vosne or Chambolle. Happens with Mazis most often, sometimes for me w Charmes. Skewed a little away from elegance, sauvage is different. Rusticity is a crudeness, usually in handling the oak treatment, a tannic backward wine sometimes a little out of balance. Maybe a winemaker can elaborate.