The Wines of Francois Mitjavile, with Mark Savage MW
Handford Wines, London
Tasted September 20, 2017 by Papies with 460 views
Introduction
Mark Savage MW, a friend and importer of FM's wines (Probably the only one who can pronounce his name too) presented a flight across the production of FM's wines and tried to offer an insight into the man and his philosophy. His own philosophy in wine is actually not far from FM's
( MS: Likes wines with originality, expression, and the fruit needs to deserve the wood. Oak is there to civilize the wine through oxidation and the winemaker needs to try and refine the product not force it in a new direction)
On Mitjavile's philosophy his view was:
His wines have character, not conformist or consensus
Uses very classical methods and makes wine in no unusual way or practice. He is just a very intuitive winemaker, with extremely profound knowledge of his vineyards and is among the winemakers who put the most man hours per vine.
1985 for Mark Savage is the beginning of the "proper" at Tertre Rotoboeuf ad since then the use of oak has increased to 100% that is now.
For us we always assume this is a wine we buy from off vintages and we have had beautiful 97s and 99s. This tasting in a way confirmed it! The new key point for us is how nice his wines taste young.
Flight 1 (9 notes)
Savory wine, well evolved and in secondary phase. Very much still alive of course, smooth and round nice dark fruit edge. A good wine and a solid 90-91 but just lacked a bit of va va voom.
Nice nose, floral, dark fruited and although it has quite a bit of wood still evident with light mocha notes it complements the wine. A touch new-worldy but expected to have that feel given the youth. Young but very drinkable and the tannin is big but round. Opulent and fresh like it should be this will only improve and gain complexity with time. 92 for now. We liked it more than the 2009...
Richer nose, less herby more fruit , light oaky touches, light mocha feel. The fruit feels heavy at times as if the ripeness of the 2009 vintage was not managed well or is not a t a good stage now at least. Very approachable now and quite pleasant to drink but the heavier fruit does take away from the charming side and felt a bit lacking. We definitely expected more here. 90-92 score range from both of us.
Well evolved, savory, full of charm and elegance. Floral and a touch of a feminine wine. Good ripe fruit in perfect harmony with the wine, herbal touch, very expressive nose. Softer on the palate and every so elegant. 93-94
Well Secondary, savory wine, light herby touches, soft fruit touches, elegant and well aged. Very pleasant wine to enjoy now and we would suggest one does not wait much longer. 92