POVs on Mazis

I’d be curious to hear from folks with more experience with the vineyard, do you have favorite producers of Mazis/Mazy-Chambertin? Do you have thoughts on which producers/their holdings tend to perform better in certain style vintages over another? I have particular interest in the '14s and am appreciate of any thoughts on which bottles may be my best bet for this site over the long-run.

I too wish I knew this vineyard better. I have found it to be one of the more wild, untamed of the Gevrey grand crus (in contrast, for example, to Griotte-Chambertin), often with quite a smoky signature, and in the Dugat Py Mazis almost always graphite-like mineral aromas. The Dugat Py example I like very much, and Bernard Dugat prefers it to all but his Chambertin. (While his wines are often described as modernist, presumably because he doesn’t stint on extraction and is generous with the new wood, it’s worth noting that he picks at moderate ripeness and uses quite a lot of whole cluster, so I’m not sure the hat is really a good fit). Roty’s rendition is fabulous. I don’t know the Rousseau Mazis very well alas.

Looking forward to hearing what others have to say.

Surely there must be a few folks on this board with some helpful knowledge to share around the various producers who bottle Mazis-Chambertin? A little bump here, chance to talk about something other than PC…

Not much exposure to Mazis. Faively is a good bet. Rousseau is nice too.

A friend from my wine group will be organising a Mazis based theme later this year. I am looking forward to it.

Looking at the bottles logged in CT, the most famous producer is probably Rousseau… and the wines are undoubtedly quite good.

I’ve a soft spot for the Faiveley as well, and while I’ve not had the wine, Charlopin makes a Mazis I’d love to try.

Alan, try and get hold of the F. Esmonin Mazy. Very true expression of vineyard IMHO and should be well priced.

Rousseau has always been my favorite. Outside of that, Jadot has been very solid with a couple stellar bottles…I think you had one of those 2006s I opened, too.

The version from Roty is my favorite. Sauvage. Intense. Delicious.

Maume in the mid 90s and early 2000 were quite delicious. Funky, complex and meaty. Still pops up at reasonable pricing from time to time

Maume’s were, in the '80s and '90s made in a pretty rustic style. Dominique Laurent bought some of that from Maume and made a more polished version at times, labeling it with a letter, “A” or “B”, as he bought/made more than one Mazis.

I have a good deal of experience with the Rousseau Mazy (how they spell it there). I think, not surprisingly, it is the best one made …that I’ve had (I’ve liked a Roty on occasion a lot). Wild (for Rousseau), very deep and dark…and long…and terrific in every vintage I’ve had it (most from mid-80s- 2005). After the two Chambertins, it is my favorite wine there and, by a fair margin, the QPR champ at Rousseau, IMO.

Had a '90 in the last two months…and was wowed.

No idea about recent (post 2006) Burgundy vintages…as I don’t really follow them.

I stayed at a hotel over New Year’s that had the '96 Rousseau on the list for less than current retail/auction. My wife and I tried to drink their entire remaining supply before we left, but we ran out of time! It was a truly delicious wine, even beyond the (relative) QPR.

Opened a 93 rousseau mazi/y last month and it was delicious and still quite young.

Mazism a terrible period in Germany. But, many Rieslings now are terrific.

I like the Mazis-Chambertin from Harmand-Geoffroy, which is also quite affordable. I found the Mazis-Chambertin of Domaine Maume after Pascal Marchand took over the winemaking to be quite terrible.

I am slowly consuming a case of '96 Maume Mazis Chambertin, decent wine but will never win any finesse contest.

The four that immediately came to mind have all been mentioned! All are underpriced values and great buys, all around $100 very roughly, values because it’s better than what you’d expect for a Mazis for that producer at that price:

Laurent (rich and lush; gets a little wild with age in a good way; but I’m biased and I cut Laurent wines a lot of slack, it takes me at least three sips to admit a Laurent wine is just not good if that is the case)
F. Esmonin (really racy tannins, really like it, leaner, has class behind the tannins; my expectation for any Esmonin wine other than Ruchottes was low; will buy again once I get my Premier Cru wine and re-sell some of it but there’s been some sort of delay)
Faiveley (sauvage which Mazis should be, but it feels like prices just went up on their older Mazis, enough to give me pause, the 2006 was $85 and that was a good buy)
Maume (have not tried it, this board before this thread began recommends it, they need a lot of aging; the only Maume wine I’ve heard universal praises for)

Non-bargains:

What Stuart said. When I first learned about Rousseau, which was recently, their Mazy could be found under $200. The 2007 was one of those wines where once you have a sip, you wish (1) you could have a magnum for yourself for tonight, it’s that easy and fun to drink and (2) there would be no repercussions from drinking a magnum in one night. A happy, fresh, yet complex and high class in every way, wine. But price then went up into the not-worth-it range for me. For $199 now in an OK vintage (not 2004, maybe just about any other pre-2011), I’d pull up the truck.

Leroy makes a good one apparently LOL $$$$$$$$$$

Exactly. Also love the Roty Griottes.

RT

I know it is not a board darling but my experience with the Perrot Minot Mazis has been very good indeed.

Pascal himself was never in charge of vinifying the Maume wines.
Mark Fincham is.
And I do indeed feel differently than you, Steven, about the regime change.
It is certainly not Bertrand’s style (not as rustic/bretty/dirty/volatile/variable).
However, the style is not at all overwrought, favoring infusion over extraction, and is quite “serious”.
Here are some thoughts from Neil Martin’s recent 2014 report:
"“The 2014 vintage is our third here in Gevrey. It wasn’t a super easy year in terms of the farming. There were some issues with rot. We picked around the middle of September with reasonably good yields, more than 2012 and 2013 however 2014 was not a year with exceptional maturity like 2015. I like 2014 a lot. We had a lot of people on the sorting table and picked in seven days, quite a short period of time even if there are only 4.8 hectares. We finished with the Mazis-Chambertin. It’s a fairly classic Burgundy vintage: nice acidities, just a bit of rot in some vineyards but generally healthy grapes. One thing that we have done is to reduce sulfur to two to three grams per hectoliter, compared to six or seven grams per hectoliter on average in Burgundy. This was after I spoke to François Millet [winemaker at de Vogüé]. He has three barrels with no sulfur in 2015. The 2014s don’t have massive maturity and they are more driven by acidity with low pH. Also, the malolactic were fairly slow. Some did not finish until the following July. There are no wines over 13% in 2014 and with the exception of the Mazis-Chambertin, we did a tiny bit of chaptalization on everything, but just to move them up to 12.5% rather than 13%.”

This was a good crop of 2014s and as Mark mentioned, though there are constant grumblings about the forsaking of Bertrand Maume’s style of wine, which emphasized freshness, 100% stem addition and what you might call old fashioned Pinot Noir, it is wrong to presume that overnight they have made modern-style, fruit-driven wines and said bye-bye to those stems. Speaking to Mark, to me I feel that they are seeking that midway point, adopting the best facets of Bertrand’s style of winemaking and applying them to the 21st century. I suppose you could say they want the wines to be less “Marmite”. Perhaps I would like to see more stem addition. The Mazis-Chambertin and Gevrey Etelois were the two labels to welcome a few stems in 2014, but I suspect they will throw a few more in the vat in a ripe vintage like 2015. They certainly have the fruit to subsume that. Overall, I have to commend the purity of these wines, their freshness and brightness. They have retained elegance in barrel that I hope will be translated in bottle and they speak of their terroirs, partly because of biodynamic farming that means they must be constantly amongst the vines. "

Time will tell.
:0

And while I stopped working with him because I don’t care for the spirit of the endeavor, Bernstein makes a monstrously intense Mazis that one has to recognize in qualitative merit, if the powerhouse style may not be everyone’s cup of tea, not to mention the big price tag.