Fantastic Burgundian Wines From Maison Champy

Last Friday I was fortunate enough to have lunch with Pierre Meurgey, the owner of Maison Champy who acquired the winery with his father in 1990. Maison Champy was the first ever Burgundian necogiant and up until the late 1900’s it had been entirely family owned. However, Pierre himself comes from a long tradition of Burgundian family winemaking so settling in and ringing the changes was purely second nature to the family.

They started by acquiring the winery first and set themselves the task of buying small, unique plots of land in the Beaune region, ones that would “show off the true character of the wines and the regions from which they come”. The winery now owns 27 hectares, all purchased since 1990 and from these hectares in the Cote de Beaune many of their top quality wines are vinified. They also buy hand selected grapes from the Cote de Nuits from growers with which they have had long term relationships and contracts.

Shrewd buying of the vineyards has allowed Pierre to acquire some Grand Cru vineyards, notably in Chablis (Les Preuses) and in Corton Charlemagne – for the whites – and their seven Grand Cru red vineyards include names such as Echezeaux, Clos Vougeot and Charmes-Chambertain. They also have a number of Premier Cru sites such as Mersault and Chassagne-Montrachet for their whites (amongst others) and the Cote de Beaune for their reds.

“It’s all about the magic of terroir in Burgundy”, says Pierre. “Many people find it hard to understand how a wine from across the other side of the road can be so fundamentally different from the wines from this side of the road. You have to come and witness it for yourself to see just how terroir driven Burgundy’s wines really are”.

Traditionally, Burgundy has always been split into small lots, primarily due to laws on inheritance for diving up the land, but this division has also allowed for extreme diversity in the wines and the ability to make many different styles of wines from the different styles of terroir in the area.

“Our major focus is quality”, says Pierre. “Our wines reflect the regionality of Burgundian wines and we try to make to very best wines possible” – something I believe they have endeavored to achieve after having tried a number of his wines, especially the older wines, which have aged beautifully (am thinking especially of the whites we tried which were fantastic).

The wines themselves are made up of the traditional grapes that Burgundy is associated with; Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and the winery produces approximately 40 per cent white wines and 60 per cent red wines. I was fortunate enough to try the 2006 Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru Les Chalumaux which had aged fantastically, had a deep golden colour and left a long, lingering fruity finish on the palate (and was a really enjoyable and complex wine).

This was preceded by their 2009 Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru and 2009 Mersault Premier Cru from Blagny – both wines showing excellent character and a great potential for a good few years aging.

As for the reds, we stuck mainly to the 2006 vintage (some of which is still in stock in Hong Kong but in very limited quantities). The Charmes-Chambertain 2006 Grand Cru was drinking fantastically well, as was the Corton Grand Cru 2006 and, after a good bit of decanting, the Hospices de Beaune Volnay 2009 opened up and showed the true qualities of the 2009 vintage, a vintage that in itself was very good indeed.

“Our Grand and Premier Cru wines are made to be approachable early but with the potential to age”, says Pierre. “We like to think that we have achieved what we set out to do and show off the unique combination of quality, balance, elegance and purity of the fruit”.

Maison Champy wines are available from Fine Vintage in Hong Kong. For more information contact Fine Vintage by telephone on (+852) 2896 6108 or by e-mail on h.palmes@finevintage.com.hk (Howard) or nicolas@finevintage.com.hk (Nicolas).