Domaine Taupenot-Merme

This domaine has its roots both in the Côte de Beaune and in the Côte de Nuits. When Jean Taupenot, from Saint-Romain, and Denise Merme from Morey-Saint-Denis got married in the early sixties they brought with them their respective family vineyards and thus Domaine Taupenot-Merme was born. 25 years later Romain Taupenot joined the family business, and today, as winemaker, he looks after almost 20 hectares, split fairly evenly between the two Côtes, following the recent addition of another five hectares of Auxey-Duresses and Saint-Romain.

Romain works alongside his sister, Virginie, and now has his two sons starting to learn the ropes in what is a true family affair. Over the past two decades Romain has gradually overseen the evolution of the estate into one of the village’s finest, and that is no mean feat given the quality of domaines in this great part of Burgundy.

One reason for the improvement is the age of vines. As Romain acknowledges wryly, when asked the age of many of his vines he still thinks of them as being young, as many of them are the same age as him! He has to remind himself that he is no longer in his twenties! On the plus side, being close to 50 himself now, the vines are also at an optimum age for producing great wines. Romain farms organically and destems all his fruit. The trend for whole-bunch is not his bag, but when the wines are this good, it’s hard to see the need to experiment.

New oak is very sensibly used and generally tends to be around 20% for village wines, 30-35% for 1ers Crus and a little more for Grands Crus, though the vintage and the individual Crus will have their say, too! Romain’s wines have been performing really well at the Burgfest retrospective tastings for a while now, always showing great intensity alongside a wonderful classicism.

There are some excellent parcels in the range, with the two personal favourites being the 1er Cru Combe d’Orveaux in Chambolle-Musigny, which sits just above the holy grail of Musigny, and 1er Cru Bel Air, which also sits atop another legendary plot in the mighty Chambertin Clos de Bèze. And, of course, Romain has both Chambertin and Mazoyères-Chambertin at Grand Cru level which make for a fascinating comparison of the two Crus, as well as a monopole defying patch of Clos des Lambrays.

The arrival of extra vineyards in the Côte de Beaune is well timed, too, as thanks to climate change, the once significantly colder appellation of Auxey-Duresses is becoming the new Meursault and Romain now has significant parcels of both colours within it.