From vines planted in 1945 by his grandfather, Cyril Audoin’s 2008 Marsannay Champ Salomon delivers tart red raspberry and red currant suffused with chalk, salt, and fine, tea-like tannins. Brightly fruited and transparent to mineral nuances, it never lets you forget its structure, yet also carries satisfying sheer juiciness into a persistently engaging finish. This will take a few years to unfold, I suspect, and I doubt it can ever approach the charm or effortless elegance that already in tank marks the corresponding Favieres or the sweet savor of the Clos du Roy. But it will be well worth attending to over the next seven or more years. Cyril Audoin – who joined his mother and father (the domaine’s namesake) in 2000 – is impassioned about demonstrating what he believes is the largely unrecognized potential of Marsannay, and now that I have caught up with his wines, I can confidently state that I know of no one other than Philippe Roty who is more deliciously or profoundly succeeding in that demonstration, which means that given the modest prices asked for them, these wines represent some of Burgundy’s better values. Furthermore, this estate’s nearly 40 acres of largely old vines (or vines grafted over to selections massales) from a smorgasbord of distinctive sites makes possible striking demonstrations of terroir in action (though that very abundance also meant I was not able to taste quite the entire range in the time available to me.) “I’m lucky,” says the younger Audoin, “that my parents set a model for making very classic wines,” which for him means inter alia no fining or filtration, a single racking, and an elevage of 18 months, the last 6 normally in tank, from which I tasted the 2008s early this year. (The Audoin whites, too – on which I’ll report later – are impressive.)Importer: Martine’s Wines. Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-040
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