2015 Domaine Talmard Macon Uchizy 750 ml

2015 White Burgundy: Greatest Vintage in Decades?

We first tasted Paul Talmard’s Mâcon-Uchizy in the early 1980s. About once every three years, we returned to Uchizy to taste with Talmard. The Mâcons were painstakingly chiseled, seemingly kissed with sweetness — even if each vintage was bone-dry.

Despite a price tag of less than $8/bottle (those were the days!), we bought Paul Talmard’s Chardonnay by the case, drinking a few bottles in the months following release. The rest we laid down for up to a decade, waiting for the bitter honey and beeswax to steal center stage.

Over the years, we slowly lost touch with the Talmard estate. Paul had retired, leaving the reigns to his daughter Mallory and her husband Benjamin. Based on all we’d heard from other vignerons in the Mâconnais, the apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree. Quality had apparently improved, largely due to a significant investment in a new state-of-the art cellar. As Mallory insisted on increasing prices gingerly, sales had gone through the roof. Little of what many in the region believe to be white Burgundy’s most compelling bargain made it stateside. What did was allocated well before bottling.

Then, a couple of years ago, we returned to Uchizy on a tip from Gilles Corsin, our winemaker friend in Davayé. Gilles had heard through the Burgundian grapevine that Mallory’s relationship with her American importer “had become strained.” As we pulled into the familiar driveway where we’d spent so many summer afternoons with her father, Mallory and Benjamin greeted us warmly. Then they treated us to a Mâcon-Uchizy tasting that began in 2014 and ended with Mallory’s dad’s unforgettable 1985.

Then we got a hint of what was to come. Mallory Talmard explained that there was really “no winter” in 2015. The spring too was mild, making for a near perfect fruit set. Then came “les grosses chaleurs” (torrid heat) of June and July.

“The vines were really beginning to struggle at the end of July,” her husband Benjamin told us. “There had hardly been any rain. Had the dry heat continued, we could never have made a Chardonnay like this one. August saved us. Cool temperatures. Perfectly timed showers. We harvested in the first week of September under perfect conditions. We had reasonable quantity — but UNBELIEVABLE quality!”

The 2015 Domaine Talmard Mâcon-Uchizy is green-straw to the rim. Mouthwatering aromas of ripe apple, pear, apricot, and a slight touch of anise. Rich, broad, juicy, and unusually weighty for the appellation. An impression of sweetness, though perfectly dry. Filled with a voluptuous mix of apple, pear, and beeswax, finishing with bracing acidity and persistence. Drink now-2022.

$23 on release. $17 today on WineAccess for a brilliant white from what may well go down as the finest vintage in decades in Burgundy.