Wine of the week: a Burgundy with rakish swagger

published 20 November 2020

2014 Maranges, 1er Cru La Fussière Rouge, Domaine Bachelet-Monnot, Burgundy, France

Marc and Alexandre Bachelet made their first wines in the 2005 vintage and I have bought and also written up their wines every year since. Their modern outlook and boundless energy coupled with their innate respect for their special terroirs have meant that, from a standing start, they are now regarded as one of the most accomplished domaines in the region. Their wines usually sell out during en primeur season each year (this wine was sold as a “future” in January 2016) and so it is very exciting to find this parcel of brilliant wine at a highly advantageous price.

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The 2014s were slow to emerge from their shells and, without the sweet fruit associated with a warmer vintage, many were quick to dismiss them as rigid and blunt, and Maranges is, perhaps, the least fashionable of all Côte d’Or villages. But it is home to a killer pair of Bachelet-Monnot wines, which both come from the Premier Cru vineyard La Fussière. If you are unfamiliar with this wine, think of a smart Volnay and add some rakish swagger. Given half an hour to breathe, this pinot blossoms into a stunner and I cannot think of a finer value red Burgundy on the shelves today. Just to prove that the J&B 2014 trick is not a one-off, 2014 Les Tourelles de Longueville, Château Pichon-Baron, Pauillac (£32.69) is the claret equivalent of this Burgundy – utterly delicious and perfectly priced.

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Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’. He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.