Medium full immature cherry red color.  Buoyant, succulent, juicy nose:  floral black and red fruit, liquorice, a touch of oak (about 25% new here) and a nice stone – mineral character we do not find in most Marsannay rouge.  Medium-weight on the palate with impressive persistence: black and red cherry, cranberry and pomegranate.  Some tannin but with all that concentration of lush ’09 puppy fat you barely notice.  We could have used a bit more zip but that is the vintage; ’09 is first and foremost about its dynamic fruit character.  Good for what it is.  Now – 2019.

In the past we would have told you Marsannay is an agreeable, fresh and fruity red but it is not be taken too seriously; we found them to be a bit too excessively rounded and thus a touch too simple, a wine to be consumed it its youth.  That has been changing as a result of conscientious producers like Phillipe Collotte and particularly Sylvain Pataille, who are now producing a rouge with more sophistication, dimension and aging potential.