I sometimes have young burgundies (eg 2015) that present a very strong earthy note on the nose or palate. Off memory, a sensation on the nose would be 2012 meo boudots or 2016 heitz lochardet pommard rugien; on the palate was a just consumed 2015 duroche lavaux st jacques.
What causes such a strong earthy note in young burgundy? Is this brett, or is there another known technique or chemical that causes these earthy notes? And can brett present itself more on the palate than nose in certain wines?
Sometimes it is reduction, it tends to blow off. Sometimes its brett, wont blow off and the finish is clipped. Sometimes its Gevrey âsauvageâ character. It wont blow off.
But it really depends on the specific notes youâre getting and the specific wine. âEarthyâ can come from yeasts, brett, TCA, lots of things. Itâs a broad descriptor that can cover lots of things.
I think geosmin and beet root are two entirely different things.
Beet root seems to be quite typical of cooler climate Pinot Noirs, because I seem to find it in Pinots from Burgundy, Alsace, Switzerland and Germany most often. It is often drier and more of the root vegetable kind in younger wines, but can turn into sweeter cooked beet root aroma in Pinots with some age.
Geosmin, on the other hand, reminds very much of freshly tilled damp soil - this kind of earthy, somewhat not entirely mouldy and slightly green aroma. One can find it easily by sniffing unwashed carrots that still have some dirt to them. I can understand how beet and geosmin can be confused, since one can smell it also in unwashed beet roots that still have some dirt. However, itâs the dirt smelling there, not the beet root.
I like earthiness for complexity and interest but brett takes it too far (baynyard) for me. If your not sure about identifying if itâs brett, go buy a purposefully brett infect lambic to get a feel for the taste.
Brings up an interesting sub question - How often have you tasted brett in Burgundy?
I donât usually mind a little bit in Rhones, but I donât recall having a bretty red burgundy.
My cellar is over 42% red burg, so while I donât open one daily or even weekly at some points of the year, I do drink a good bit.
Iâm also of the school of thought there is a trait commonly found but unique to Red Burgundy that makes me think of freshly tilled damp soil (which I suppose is geosmin) and I donât think itâs brett.
To answer the question above I think Iâve had a very small number of bretty burgs. Like well under 1%. No idea why brett is so prevalent in other places but not in burgundy.
To me, brett continues to be one of the most misunderstood âqualitiesâ in wine - and I donât think thatâs going to change much. It used to be that folks understood that âband aidâ, i.e. 4-ethyl-phenol, was one form of brett, but I see this not discussed much at all these days.
And the challenge with 4-ethyl-guiacol, i.e. 4EG, is that it expresses itself so differently depending upon strain of brett, how âbadâ the infection is, and the composition of the wine itself.
Therefore, without a bunch of folks sitting down with the same exact bottle to discuss, itâs almost impossible to ensure that we are discussing the same thing. Add to that the fact that bottle variation in Burgundy or elsewhere can be great and this makes it even that much more difficult to do . . .
I dislike beet root, so Iâm not one able to make that distinction. I take the âbeet rootâ description of that dirty flavor from other writers. One thing I do know is that the dirty smell/flavor is different than any of the manifestations of brett.
Describing a wine as âearthyâ is an awfully broad term. I admit that I do it, but try to be more descriptive when I can. In a young burgundy (since thatâs what the OP mentioned), my guess is that most of the time those notes (as Jeremy said) are coming from brett, perhaps some sulfur compounds, maybe oak, but most likely stems. In my experience, itâs rare to find actual spoilage of some kind in quality Burgundy, particularly young. Geosmin (at least that I can detect outright) is very rare in my experience.
Beetroot is not Bret (imho) but typical for Pinot noir and some sites in Burgundy in particular. Boudots is one, Brulees another, Cazetiers, Grand Maupertuis, Feusselottes âŚ
I can totally relate to this. I dislike new oak, so I take the âluxurious oakâ description as an euphemism for âundrinkable spoofulated plonkâ.
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