From £138 for six bottles
Purple Pagers have already been exposed to my enthusiasm for this new producer of fine burgundy. Back in 2010 in Mark Haisma's burgundies, I wrote, Here is a new name, not an easy one to pronounce ('Highsssma') in any language except his father's native Dutch (or, rather, Frisian), Mark Haisma. His mother may be French but his accent and formation are loudly Australian. He was the right-hand man of the late Dr Bailey Carrodus of Yarra Yering in the Yarra Valley for 10 years from 1999. Mark Haisma has caught the burgundy bug in no uncertain fashion and is now making more than 12,000 bottles a year of really rather accomplished red burgundy camping out in cellars in Gevrey-Chambertin. He buys the grapes from local growers, 'old boys who sell mainly to the négociants', as he describes them.
'Dr Carrodus taught me not just to make wine', says Haisma, 'he taught me about the beauty of food, wine and cooking. He was a great art lover. He took me to museums. Made me look at pictures. I use the word "beauty" a lot. That's his lasting legacy. Up to village level the wine needs to be beautiful but not necessarily overtly powerful. Mind you, we used to clash over Pinot Noir all the time. I always found Yarra Yering Pinots too heavy. I was always looking for lightness.'
He seems to have struck gold. His wines have an excellent balance between fruit, expression and refreshment without being in any way wimpish. The wines are also, appetisingly, bone dry. There is none of the sometimes slightly gratuitous sweetness to be found in some Pinots, especially New World ones.
His first vintage was 2007. For the last two years he has made his wines in a strange small industrial unit pictured in The glamour of Burgundy but is planning to move to more pristine conditions near Gevrey in time for the 2012 vintage.
Like the Purple Pagers who reported on this thread in our Members' forum, I've now tasted barrel samples of his 2010s here in London and was mightily impressed – so much so that I have committed quite a bit of my own money to them. Like me, he is a big fan of this vintage, both in Burgundy and the Rhône. While his 2010s will eventually be bottled and sold through his importers, he is offering limited quantities en primeur to private individuals.
He is offering the following, for delivery this July or August, all prices per six bottles, UK duty paid:
St-Romain, Le Jarron 2010 £84
Bourgogne Rouge 2010 £72
Gevrey Chambertin, Croix de Champs 2010 £138
Bonnes Mares, Grand Cru 2010 £570
Cornas, Les Combes 2010 £108
He is also offering a mixed case of the following for £335
2 x Bonnes Mares, Grand Cru 2010
3 x Gevrey Chambertin, Croix des Champs 2010
3 x Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2010
2 x St Romain, Le Jarron 2010
2 x Cornas, Les Combes 2010
Limited to one case per person.
I'll be publishing my tasting notes on these wines very soon on Purple Pages but I can recommend all the reds wholeheartedly and the St-Romain three-quarter-heartedly. And the Mark Haisma, Croix des Champs 2010 Gevrey-Chambertin is a lovely expression of this magnificent village in Burgundy, Haisma's fourth shot at vinifying grapes from a plot he know feels he understands. The sorting table was absolutely essential in 2010 but the result is a beautifully nuanced wine that is really quite sophisticated without being in the least manipulated. Great fresh fruit, broad palate impact and an appetising dry finish. I plan to drink mine between 2014 and 2020.
These wines can be ordered only from markhaisma.co.uk which seems to assume that all orders will come from the UK.
