What red Burgundy under $150 ...

…Can I buy that will give me a glimpse into whether I should be going down the path that all roads lead to?

Ive started putting away some Burgundy only In the last 2 years really. My thought is though that as a wine drinker in my mid forties, it’s now or never if I might want to enjoy these wines in retirement.

I’ve never had an even moderately well aged Red Burg, so I need a properly aged Mid tier burg that can show me what I’m doing this for. I pick the $150 line because that’s kind of my cut off for what I might buy to cellar for the future.

I do realize that I may have to buy three or six examples to get just one that is showing well on the day I open it, but let’s go for it anyways. Show me some wines available on WS that might show me what aged Burgundy has to offer.

Mugneret Gibourg NSG Chaignots and Chambolle Feusselottes
Barthod Chambolle les Cras, Fuees, Veroilles to only name a few of a long list.

A. & P. de Villaine Digoine, pretty much any vintage. It is charming and while never an earth shattering revelation, if you don’t like it, you don’t like Burgundy. I think they’re usually best 10-12 years from the vintage. You’ll get a lot of responses with recommendations for good 1er crus but it’s also useful to have a case of this every few years to just enjoy without thinking about price.

Just yesterday I bought a few bottles of '93 Drouhin Beaune 1er ‘Clos de Mouches’ Rouge for $149/per. From Benchmark and I think they still have a few. It won’t be a grand wine or any sort of showstopper, but obviously I thought it a good enough deal to make the purchase. This would fit what you’re looking for: a well-aged wine at your price-point. And Drouhin’s Mouches is usually pretty good, although I will say (as you recognize) that going back 20-30+ years–particularly with a strict budget–is always going to be a bit of a roll of the dice.

You’re not getting these for under $150 (M-G Feuselottes in particular!). Also, these are quite different wines; Barthod is very structured, M-G is quite giving.

(OK, you MIGHT be able to find Barthod’s 2011s for @150. Don’t buy her 2011s.)

If you want aged wines, you might be able to get some older Volnays (not Clos de Ducs and the like, but Lafarge’s Cailleret, d’Angervilles’s Champans, etc. Another way to go is Jadot’s grand crus (or top 1ers like Clos St. Jacques); I find them unspectacular, but they’re often very good, and not all that expensive with age on them.

Ryan’s suggestion of Drouhin is also a good one.

Not currently available but I’ve recently had experiences that match your criteria with a 2001 Lignier Morey Saint Denis Villages and 1980 Drouhin Clos de Mouches. I have also bought some 2007 Lafarge Beaune-Greves 1er from Verve wine in NYC and am hopeful it will do as you say.

I’m in the same position, adding several dozen burgs to my cellar each year hoping they’ll be enjoyable in the decades ahead. I drink them young and see huge potential, but really prefer the profile of aged wine. So I still need to source back vintages to remind me of what I’m doing this for.

this is probably the best advice there is

You could even go with a straight up village wine from a good producer–should be south of $100–with some nice age. The sisters, Mugneret-Gibourg, Vosne-Romanee, is a good suggestion, Barthod’s Chambolle in a good year, as also is Burguet, Alain, Mes Favorites. If you want something more old school look for Henri Gouge in Nuits St George, or, always classic, Robert Chevillon. Also definitely some nice Volnay out there, Voillot immediately comes to mind, Nicolas Rossignol, a touch more modern–Lafon and D’Angerville probably too expensive now.
You’ll want vintages such as 2012, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2002, 2001, or 1999 (or '96, '93, or even '90), and trade off cellar time with vineyard status; you may get some lieux-dits or 1’er’s within your price point, depending on producer. (As others know, often the older vintages are cheaper than current release for the same wines.)

In addition to Volnay, Pommard is also a good call. With some looking, you can still find Courcel, Montille et al Rugiens or Epenots in top vintages for the pricepoint you’re looking at. Comte Armand too. Even Jadot’s Rugiens is superb. And while the top Pommard crus can be dense and structured (a la Gouges), they are also brilliant wines.

In today’s market, if you restrict yourself to a price of $150, you’ll come away from your experiment thinking that all Burgundy aficionados are lunatics [which they are, but for different reasons than that].

You’d probably need to up your budget by at least a factor of ten in order to have a strong shot at getting smacked upside the head by an “Oh, okay, I understand now” experience.

$150… six examples…

In particular, don’t spend 6 x $150 = $900 on a random six-pack of Burgundy - you’d just be flushing your money down the urinal.

Spend 1 x $900 on something which has a strong shot at being moderately interesting.

This is silly!

The best advice I can give is to ignore anything Nathan says, here or elsewhere. And you don’t have to pay me $150.

You should be able to find almost any of the Henri Gouges NSG Burgundies with age for well under $150. Gouges handles ripe years very well, so vintages like 2003 that aren’t chased by collectors could be very reasonably priced.

Hudelot-Nöellat is another producer to look at. They have some very nice Chambolle-Musigny wines, and for the dosh you want to spend you might be able to source a Les Charmes Premier Cru. If not, there’s no shame in buying their Village level.

Meo-Camuzet’s Vosne-Romanée is another good choice that falls under that price limit.

Here’s a 4 pack from Benchmark around your average dollar amount. That’d be a pretty good variety of aged red burgundy from village to Grand Cru. You could add a Mugneret Gibourg VR village and an Angerville Champans from a vintage like 2007 to round out a 6 pack for around $900 that would hit most of the high points except Chambolle and NSG.

2001 Jadot Chambertin Clos de Beze Grand Cru $290
2007 Lignier Morey St Denis AC $99
1999 Bouchard Beaune Clos de la Mousse $69
2007 Bruno Clair Gevrey Chambertin 1er Clos St. Jacques $197
Total: $655 (164/btl)

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These days it seems like it’s hard to find even a Village Burg under $100. And don’t get me wrong, there’s some very drinkable Villages, but that quality of grape is unlikely to wow you the way you’re hoping.

My recommendation would be try to find something from 2005 or 2009/2010. One I really thought was a great value was 2010 Dupont-Tisserandot Charmes-Chambertin ($145). Soft and supple, smooth finish, really shines after about 2 hours to open up.

I recently picked up a 2014 Olivier Bernstein Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Lavrottes for $131. Personally I think it still needs time to develop, but it was lovely, balanced and quite drinkable with a classic Burg feel.

See if you can find village level wines from Hudelot-Noellat (Chambolle-Musigny or Vosne Romanee) or Jouan (Morey St. Denis or Gevrey Chambertin) from 2012 or 2014. Or, look for 2007s from Rossignol-Trapet or Jadot. If you can find a 2005 village level Gevrey Chambertin from Rossignol-Trapet, that also should be quite good.

Another excellent value is Beaune Blanche Fleur from Domaine Dublere. Dublere also made excellent Volnays that were reasonably priced. The best Volnays are from d’Angerville, Lafarge and Lafon. You probably can find some of their wines for under $150. An up and coming producer in Yvon Clerget. Wines made by the newest generation of this winery (Thibaud Clerget) are not at all mature - he just started in 2015 - but they are promising (see below).

For vintages, if you can find 2001s or 2002s they should give you an idea of what a mature Burgundy tastes like. 2005 is likely a great vintage but is taking forever to mature and I would not recommend buying one unless you have a specific recommendation, like the RT GC, from someone who has tasted it. 2007 is not a great vintage but it is a good one and the wines most of the wines are ready to drink. 2010 IMHO is a great vintage. I have not tasted any that are really closed but I am only drinking my lesser ones for the most part so far. My wine tasting group usually does a 10 year retrospective of a vintage in the fall and so if we can get out I will be drinking several 2010s later this year. I have found some 2012s and 2014s to be drinking well but I would not buy most better 2015s and 2016s (both excellent vintages) to drink now. 2017 seems like a very fun vintage and the wines are full of fruit right now (or at least were the first week in March). Try 2017s from Hudelot-Noellat or Yvon Clerget. They won’t show you what a mature Burgundy tastes like but they seemed pretty open right now, esp. the village level wines (which should cost much less than your budget).

I hate to sound like graying Deadhead, but hey I am one!

You can’t buy one bottle and hope for the magic to happen. It’s like the Grateful Dead.

Back in the day you would have to buy ticket for each concert in a three-night stand.

You knew one show would be excellent and sublime, one good and one kinda flat. The problem was you didn’t know which night so you had to buy them all!

If you just bought a ticket at random to the one mediocre show as a noobie, you’d scratch your head and think “what’s all the fuss about? These people are nuts!”

Same with Burgundy. Gotta sit through some crappy shows to finally attain godhead/epiphany/transendence etc. But when you do, watch out. All bets are off.

If I were you I would buy basic village wine from best producers in slightly less hyped year, e.g 2014 and see what floats your boat and then set sail toward the village or producer you like. You can then dip into more expensive 1er crus if you really are enchanted.

Here’s a brief and highly subjective shopping list:

Morey St Denis and Dujac
Chambolle and Bertheau
Vosne-Romanée and Gibourg
Gevrey-Chambertin and Fourrier
Nuits st Georges and Chevillon
Volnay and d’Angerville
Beaune and Bouchard
Chassagne rouge and Ramonet

I wish most of those were <$150

All of these will get you plenty of change back from $150 and if you can’t find something to like here, you don’t like Burgundy

Courcel Epenots
Billard-Gonnet Rugiens
Jadot Rugiens
Clos des Epeneaux
Boussey Taillepieds
Bitouzet-Prieur Clos des Chenes
Pousse d’Or Clos des 60 Ouvrees
Clair Dominode
Guillemot Serpentieres
Jadot Corton-Pougets
Bouchard Le Corton
Mugnier Clos de la Marechale
Lucien Boillot Pruliers
Gouges Chaignots
Chauvenet Vaucrains
Arnoux Clos des Corvees Pagets
Chezeaux Boudots
Grivot Bossieres
Desaunay-Bissey Combe d’Orveau
Drouhin Chambolle 1er Cru
Jadot Fuees
Lignier-Michelot Faconnieres
Dujac Morey
Geantet-Pansiot Champs

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