mark haisma - gevrey-Chambertin

There’s an old saying in the world of wine, “No matter what region one starts off their journey, they always end up in Burgundy”.

Mark Haisma spent over a decade as an assistant winemaker at one of Australia’s most iconic wineries, Yarra Yerring. In 2005, he visited Burgundy for the first time and immediately fell in love with the charm of the Côte D’Or. Thus, he decided to leave his native Australia behind in order to start making wine in Burgundy; an ambitious project to say the least. Gaining access to land in Burgundy is no simple task, if not impossible, unless one’s family has owned land there for centuries. It is also commonly known that buying land in this area can come at a hefty price. This, therefore, represents an important hurdle when one desires to start an estate from the ground up. However, Mark Haisma used the négociant route to carry out his vision.

The year 2007 marked the first vintage of micro-négociant project, Mark Haisma wines. As a micro-négociant, Haisma only produces 1000 cases of wine every vintage spread across a multitude of Burgundy’s appellations. Production is tiny, meaning that only a couple of barrels are made of each different cuvée. In some cases, like for the Échezeaux Grand Cru, only a single barrel is made.

Mark works tirelessly to forge strong connections with small growers. However, his goal is to slowly buy over the parcels of land he rents. As of vintage 2019, Mark is in the process of working with his growers to convert their vineyards into organic agriculture. A true terroirist, Mark describes his winemaking as “rather boring”. In his words, “once the juice is pressed, I just leave it alone in the cellar”. His non-interventionist approach coupled with his experience as a winemaker in Australia seem to aggregately produce something magical. His wines are so fruit-driven and pure.

In the words of famous wine critic and Master of wine Jancis Robinson, “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.”

Sticking true to his ambitious nature, Mark recently planted two hectares of vines in the Macon region of Southern Burgundy with which he plans to make more value-driven wines. Moreover, he looks forward to expanding his offerings from the Rhône Valley as well.

Mark Haisma is definitely a rising star in Burgundy, and we could not happier to be the exclusive importer of his wines in Quebec.