The 300 bottles each of red and rosé burgundy that have just arrived from the Domaine Martin in Coulanges-la-Vineuse really are un unrepeatable bargain. Next year Michel and Maryline are retiring and the 2021 harvest was destroyed by late frosts. So the wines that have just arrived in HIghgate Wood, Parliament Hill Fields and Queens Park really are the last of a line. And we are selling them (to take away, there is a bit of a mark-up to drink in) at an amazing price of 11.50 a bottle. So what is special about them? The first point is a negative one: Pinot Noir has been called the ‘Heartbreak Grape’ but despite its price the Martin’s wine avoids being a bit ‘meh’ — the charge made against much red burgundy. In both red and pink forms this is a fruity juicy summertime wine best drunk a bit cold. This is partly because the soil and climate of Coulanges favour this sort of wine (as distinct to the styles of wines from the neighbouring villages of Irancy, Tonnerre and Épineuil that we also import); but it is also the style of winemaking. All Coulanges growers use mechanical rather than hand harvesting, which is prohibited by the modest prices they can charge. However the grapes arrive sufficiently intact to be left in a watercooled tank for a week before pressing. This creates conditions quite similar to those in freshly harvested Beaujolais grapes with carbon dioxide released as the crushed grapes ferment. Grapes that ferment in an anaerobic environment have a particular character and the Martin’s wine is a bit beaujolais like, though also with a bit of structure from the ageing of 20% of the wine in used oak barrels. Mme Martin finds notes of lychee, grapefruit and violet in her wines. The rosé is a blend of wine that’s half pressed right away, and so has no colour, and half that has been left overnight. It might sound as if it would be ultra pale but rosé burgundy wines are deeper coloured and more ‘serious’ than a typical ultra pale south of France version. They are quite similar to the most celebrated Pinot Noir pink wine, Rosé des Riceys, which comes from a village less than an hour’s drive from the Auxerrois region.
