2020 Marchand-Tawse Beaune Beaune 1er Cru Le Clos du Roi

Pascal Marchand, Canadian by birth and from Quebec, became known as a 'flying winemaker' in Australia and Chile, but because of his passion for Bougogne and the advice of the legendary Henri Jayer  he came to France in 1983 to actually become a winemaker in his favorite region . He was directly inspired by the young generation of pioneers, who started using organic and biodynamic methods.

The story of the Maison Marchand-Tawse in Burgundy begins with the extraordinary story of Pascal Marchand, the French-Canadian boy prodigy, who took over the reins of the Clos des Epeneaux in Pommard in 1985 at the age of 22. He became an overnight sensation, and is certainly one of the founders of modern Burgundy. But the Clos des Epeneaux is small. And for a young, talented and ambitious winemaker, 15 years was enough. He needed a new challenge. And he found one!

Pascal was approached by Jean-Charles Boisset, scion of the family that controls the third largest French wine group, who wanted to create a domain that would be the showcase for the family's other companies. So with the 1999 vintage, the Domaine de la Vougeraie was launched, giving Pascal the management of more than 90 hectares of Burgundy vineyards, from simple regional appellations to Grand Crus. It was the largest creation of a single estate in Burgundy since the end of World War II. And it quickly became a reference for modern Burgundian production. Pascal took the entire domain into organic farming, with a biodynamic approach. It was revolutionary. During the seven years he was there, Pascal also participated in the development of several other projects in the Boisset group outside Burgundy and abroad. At the same time, he worked as a consultant for wineries around the world, becoming one of the most famous "flying winemakers".

Marchand  developed his own wine estate and established himself with his financial partner Moray Tawse as a micro-negociant under the name Marchand-Tawse. In addition, in 2011 this partnership acquired the former and important Domaine Maume, now labeled as Maume-Marchand-Tawse and since then positive reforms have been implemented. Despite the expansions, Marchand deliberately wants to keep it small-scale on the domain. His wines offer great drinking pleasure at a young age, but are vinified in such a way that they can ripen beautifully with confidence and appear to develop well. Each produced wine is approached individually in order to optimally show its own character and terroir origin. The use of wood is therefore highly differentiated and biodynamic methods are becoming increasingly noticeable.