I have not tasted the Fevres but I would imagine that Chablis would have been less affected than the Cote de Beaune if ladybugs were the cause. They hate cooler weather. It kills them.
It is interesting that you guys have picked it up in the whites. I guess I am not very sensitive to it. (Although I sold/traded some 04 Leroy Gevrey because of this issue.)
Why would Chablis be affected more than say Meursault? I have had more than a few 04 Roulots from 04. All are brilliant.
BTW, if climate change was responsible here we should have tons of vintages of Southern French wines that would be tainted.
I can’t imagine that ladybugs only live in Burgundy.
That is perfect climate down there. A lot like our nice climate here in the hot Southeastern US. (We are loaded up with the boogers. In the fall here they are all over.)
Are the wines just more extracted?
Seems that the leaner years in Chateauneuf du Pape don’t show this at all also. 2004 is a spectacular year in Chateauneuf du Pape.
Is this something exclusive to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir? The 04 Roussanne wines don’t seem to show this character in Chateauneuf du Pape.
It would be awesome if one of the chemists with a mass spec could run a sample of a 2004 with GM taint and compare it to a sample of wine with crushed ladybug in it to see if it does indeed have the same chemical taint…
There were definitely problems with some white Cote de Beaunes. I remember an '04 Bouchard Meursault Perrieres was quite pronounced. Oddly, the '04 Bouchard reds were some of the less affected wines from the vintage. I wonder if their vibrating sorting table (which would only be used for reds) made a difference.
Chapoutier cultivates ladybugs specifically so that he can be “bio” everywhere.
He probably has significant problems with GM’s? Hermitage should be very sensitive to this problem?
I don’t have a lot of experience with Chapoutier. I went to a big tasting of older wines and didn’t notice this problem but I have
zero recent experience.
Ecosystem dynamics are typically complex, Don, and this sort of simple reasoning may serve as a starting point for an examination of the situation in Burgundy, but has no power as an argument, unless buttressed by quite a lot of close study, evidence, and analysis. If the weather in the south of France has been reliably in a warmer temperature zone for a long time, for example, it’s plausible that the ecosystem there includes predators or diseases that govern and moderate ladybug populations. Climate change, if real, will change conditions at the margins of previously stable climate zones, creating opportunities for individual species within one system to migrate - or ‘break out’ - to another, without immediate accompaniment by other species in the home zone.
It’s therefore quite plausible that a modest warming trend in Burgundy could broaden the present niche for ladybugs, without immediately drawing in species that limit the growth of ladybug populations in the south. If this is the case, the good news is that, if climate change leads to long-term, stable warming in Burgundy, the biota now controlling ladybug populations in southern France will probably eventually migrate north, too, forestalling any need for human intervention. The bad news is that, in this case, Burgundy vineyards may eventually be planted to Grenache.
You may be right, or my conjecture may be closer to the mark; more study and evidence would be necessary to form a reliable opinion. In any event, there are carefully-studied precedents for the pattern of change I’ve suggested. Your cursory dismissal doesn’t begin to come to grips with the complexity of biological processes (which play out on the macro scale as ecology).
You should think up a reason to come to central Virginia and drink some good wine here, so we can have this argument face-to-face for a change.
As a curveball, Marie-Christine Mugneret believes that the pyrazine element in the 04s is due to leftover stress from '03’s extremity; the vines were unable to regulate sap, causing pronounced herbaceous and under ripeness in plants to varying degree due to both placement and vine age.
I haven’t heard many people refer to the heat stress of '03 when discussing the character and origin of the '04s GM; did I just miss it?
It seems that growers do indeed think of the big picture, yearly health and energy level of their vines; more so, at least, than it seems the geek community does. Olivier Lamy was telling me how there are signs in the plant of what it is planning to bud the FOLLOWING spring, and that the '13s have a fuller yield potential already programmed into them. I’m not a plant scientist WHATSOEVER, but in a caveman intuitive way it makes sense to me that if the overall energy delivery mechanism of the plant is damaged, like in '03, that the following year it will still be healing. And if in 2012 the plants had to expend far less energy because there literally weren’t grapes on the vines, they’re geared up to give in 2013.
I may be a simplistic idiot. Please throw me some science if you’ve got it.
Fwiw, I tasted at 35ish domaines in June and November. Pretty much an all-star lineup. For the 2011s, I had ZERO sense of pyrazine driven flavors, neither green underripe phenol aromas/flavors NOR the metallic tinged rot of ‘04 GM (they’re all pyrazines). This is my 7th year tasting in Burgundy, usually 3-4 times per year. I’m not some kind of wine tasting flawless demi god, thank god, but i’m a young dude who has tasted Burgundy out of barrel a good bit.
Additionally, I harvested in 2011 at 8 different domaines at different places on the Cote. The concentration of ladybugs was not at all noteworthy; in fact, there were more pincher bugs.
I feel that it is important to promote tasting experience concretely. Specters and rumors of bug taint on an entire vintage is dangerous and irresponsible without concrete examples.
I could and should address more on this, but its freakin’ Xmas, and i’ve got to cook dinner for the fam!
More later…
This is an awesome experiment Kevin. Thanks for doing this.
I once read that a source of these ladybugs was people trying to introduce a predator into vineyards so to minimize pesticides. IIRC it was a foreign type of ladybug. If this is true then it would explain why GM seems to be a new phenomenon.
The heat stress rationale would indeed justify why this phenomenon hasn’t happened before, as the heat of '03 was biblically intense, the greatest in 100 years (correct me if I’m wrong). Whereas the ladybug idea doesn’t make historical sense, as there have always been ladybugs. Why ALL OF A SUDDEN a bug problem?? Occam’s razor comes to mind…
Here might be an explanation as to the recent origin of the problem if it is due to ladybugs. The Asian bug wasn’t introduced until the early 1990’s in France. They were fighting aphids. All of the explosion in biodynamic farming etc. It appears that this variety of bug eats everything including the innocuous European variety. It also has a very powerful defense system of pyrazines.
“Introduction of Asian Ladybugs Into Europe Serious Mistake, Experts Say”
“July 30, 2012 — In retrospect, introducing the Asian ladybird into Europe was a serious mistake. The insect was introduced some twenty years ago in a conscious attempt to combat aphids. But research carried out at Wageningen UR (University & Research centre) into the invasion of this foreign insect has shown that the disadvantages far outweigh this single advantage. The Asian species is displacing the native European ladybird and has become a pest that can contaminate homes and spoil the taste of wine.”
I’m with you, Berry. I’m not into all or nothing rationales in general. I suppose i’m simply trying to introduce some socratic questioning of what seems at times like hysterics, especially when the ghost of this monster is being whispered about the '11s, which strongly clashes with my direct experience.
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