2016 Domaine Olivier Merlin Macon La Roche Vineuse Vieilles Vignes Blanc Burgundy 750 ml

Drink Really Well at an Old-school Burgundy Price

Let’s face it: once you find a real love for the treasures of Burgundy, there’s no going back. But for those of you who have been collecting red and white Burgundy since the 80s (or before), the sticker-shock these days is alarming. If you’re like us, now and then leafing through your collection and stumbling upon a bottle with a little white, but fading retail sticker on it from a good producer for “$24.99,” you probably chuckle as much as we do. Well, today, we have a great white Burgundy on offer for a chuckle-worthy Old School price—just $32 per bottle. Keep reading.  

It’s not often you find a silky, mouthwatering Mâconnais with the potential to age for nearly a decade—for $32. Yet, that’s exactly what Olivier Merlin delivered with this stunning 2016 Mâcon La Roche Vineuse Vieilles Vignes. Merlin, frequently cited as one of the region’s top producers, has done more than almost anyone to raise the reputation of Mâcon wines. As Burgundy authority Jasper Morris MW has said, his whites “are frequently taken for Côte d’Or wines if tasted blind.” One of Merlin’s oldest cuvées, the single-vineyard Vieilles Vignes comes from 60-year-old Chardonnay vines planted on the chalky, limestone commune of La Roche-Vineuse. “As I have suggested repeatedly in these pages, if you're not familiar with the Merlin wines, you owe it to yourself to try a few,” says Burghound’s Allen Meadows. In a throw-back to the no-frills, bygone days of finding a stunning Burgundy bargain, here’s your shot—56 cases.

Oliver Merlin had racked up harvests in Napa Valley and Jura by the time he and his wife settled in the rocky village of La Roche-Vineuse in 1987. At the time, Mâconnais was not a region that got anyone’s heart racing—it was known primarily for picnic wines. Merlin was convinced it could be more. He rented 11 acres of vineyards from René Gaillard of Domaine du Vieux Saint-Sorlin and set to work, applying the same rigorous techniques and viticultural approaches that were employed on Burgundy’s finest plots. Notching his 30th harvest with the 2016 vintage, it’s fair to say he’s proved his point, producing bottles that are favorites among white Burgundy collectors. Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate has called him “one of the Mâconnais’ success stories,” producing wines of “indisputable pedigree.”

The principles he established back in the late ’80s are the same ones he abides by today. He believes superior wine is the product of hard manual labor and rigorous attention and care. His control freak tendencies have been noted even by Stephen Tanzer. Vineyards are plowed, often by horse. Yields are kept low, the vines debudded. No herbicides or fertilizers are used, relying on compost, and some parts of the land are always kept wild and uncultivated. He favors separate vinification of plots, long, slow pressing of grapes to achieve the necessary phenolics for long-lived wines, and aging and fermentation in oak barrels.

The La Roche Vineuse Vieilles Vignes is one of his most famous cuvées and an extraordinary example of the aging potential of Merlin’s wines. The quarternary clay-limestone soils invest the wines with mineral purity while the south to southwestern exposure aids in the old vines in reaching full, rich ripening.

Merlin has recently announced that he will begin trusting the care of his vineyards to the capable hands of his sons. Which means this bottle could mark one of the legend’s last vintages. Don’t miss out on this landmark Mâconnais.