One Wall from La Tâche

Some vineyards are best explained with a map rather than a paragraph. Les Malconsorts is one of them. Its southern boundary is the northern edge of La Tâche. One wall, and the classification changes.

That fact has followed the vineyard for a very long time. Malconsorts is the premier cru people keep arguing should be a grand cru, and the argument never quite ends, and the label never quite changes.

The bottle here comes from Domaine du Clos Frantin, which sits inside Albert Bichot. Bichot is a large name in Burgundy and owns several domaines across the region — Chablis in the north, the Côte de Beaune, and Clos Frantin for the Côte de Nuits. The label puts the domaine ahead of the company, which tells you how the house wants this wine read.

Clos Frantin holds 1.76 hectares of Malconsorts, a substantial share by the standards of a vineyard with many owners. Even so the annual figure lands around eight and a half thousand bottles. Burgundy arithmetic rarely flatters anyone.

Then there is the year. 2010 in the Côte de Nuits was a small crop with acidity left high — not a vintage that dazzles young, but one built on frame. Wines like this begin to make their case around the fifteen-year mark, which is roughly where this bottle stands.

In the glass the rim has already gone pale. Cherry and raspberry come first, a thread of cassis behind them, and the oak stays out of the aromatics entirely, showing up as a spice inflection rather than as wood.

On the palate it does not push with flesh. It draws a line. The tannins are fine and closely woven, the acidity of the vintage holds the wine upright all the way through, and minerality lingers after the fruit has gone.

It is drinking well. With that frame, it would also be no loss to wait. The difficulty, as always, is not the waiting — it is leaving the bottle unopened while you do.