TN: Two Baby Burgundies from 2005

Last night with roast chicken, the last of this season’s green beans and a simple salad of lettuces/japanese cucumbers/radishes/pickled red onion we decided to look in on two lower level burgundies from 2005. I actually meant to pull the A&L Lignier bourgogne, but got the villages wine by mistake. Oh well. Both wines were decanted about 45 minutes before dinner and served in Riedel vinum burgundy stems, then consumed over the evening. Frankly, opening two bottles at once is the only way a wine makes it past dinner in our house. :slight_smile:

2005 Lucie & Auguste Lignier Morey St. Denis and 2005 Domaine Denis Bachelet Bourgogne
Very similar colors, but totally different noses. Lots of kirsch and spice on the Lignier, more dark fruit, some smoke and herbs on the Bachelet. Both opened up nicely in the glass, but the Lignier proved the more expressive, elegant and appealing with very good balance and nice lift. Loved the strawberry fruit that came out after dinner. This was a very cuddly wine, a lap cat in every way. The Bachelet waddled around in circles for an hour or so, at one point smelling a bit like the tip of magic marker, but eventually got on track. A little brooding, it did start to show some layers and class later in the evening. I very much liked its weight and structure, both quite impressive for a bourgogne. I don’t think there’s much upside from here, though I suspect it will hold for a while and might smooth out. Exciting for both these wines to be showing so well at 15 years old, even in a stacked vintage like 2005.

While no one would mistake either of these wines for 1er or grand crus, they were delightful. I purchased both of these on release - just goes to show the value of cellaring entry level wines from great producers.

Great note! And I think you are right on the money about cellaring entry level wines from great producers. Especially in the highly regarded vintages.

I feel like the relatively few bourgogne and to a lesser extent village wines just end up getting drank for me too soon to cellar for any length of time. Maybe I should just stick a few in a corner. I usually do cellar some barthod and HN bourgogne, though, especially HN because its our house red so I have many cases of each vintage.

Yes, that’s exactly my advice. Stick them in the back of the cellar or storage or whatever. They don’t get drunk too soon by accident, they get drunk too soon because you didn’t put them away somewhere! :wink:

I recently mentioned on another thread a case of 1978 Drouhin Chorey-les-Beaune that I bought at auction and drank between 2012 and 2015. Almost all showed as beautiful mature burgundy, with haunting aromatics. Now Drouhin’s Chorey isn’t your typical village wine, and the case came from a great cellar, so that particular trick might not be possible for every wine to pull off. But I have never once regretted cellaring an entry level wine.

my biggest wine collection regret is not cellaring more lower level wines. The distance between premier cru and grand cru burgundies fades at 25+ years. Much more fun opening an amazing $30 wine than an expected epiphany $250 bottle.

Yeah I’m going to try to put some away, the issue is I don’t have infinite ready to drink burgundy, so it gets consumed…

Also I find the village wines to be relatively bad values. Lignier lieu dits are probably ~60% of the cost of the msd vv; I’d rather have two bottles of the msd vv than say, 3 bottles of trilogie.

It’s definitely a first world problem but the majority of my burgs are 1er or GC with a smattering of Bourgogne that’s mostly barthod and HN. I’ve put away a few village wines from Tawse and others but like I said, it gets drank. I don’t have too many regrets in drinking 15 or 17 village wines though, they are great atm.

I totally understand. That’s one of the big problems for the first 10 years or so of wine collecting! Unless you have the wherewithal to back fill from auction.

I’ve come to fill the gap with things like Monthelie, Irancy or Savigny, though the best of those often need some time as well. Also wines from Alto Piemonte, which can be had for a song and often in library releases, and are a similar tool when it comes to food pairing. But there are certainly times when only Burgundy will do. Like with roast chicken.

Nice report, Sarah. Good point about cellaring these wines. I actually try to treat my bourgognes the same way that I treat my village wines and even some of the PC’s. Many estates vinify all of their wines in a similar way, aside form % of oak, so the bourgognes age somewhat like village wines anyway. Plus I personally tend to enjoy the aged pinot profile much more than I do the newborn profile, for the most part.

(One sideline on the 2005 A & L Lignier–I could be wrong, but my understanding is that the wines were made by Hubert. This was the time after his son’s death when many things about the estate were up in the air.)

I have it in my notes that by this 2005, Kellen was making the wines, but I could be wrong. I know there are some library releases she did, from inherited stock, that were under the L&A label, but the same wine as Hubert. So if you ever find L&A Clos de la Roche 2002, for instance, it’s the same wine as Hubert.

I recently had a '05 Jean Tardy Vosne-Romanée Vigneux and it took about 30 mins to open up and was perfect the next day. Exactly what you want on the nose and just entering the beginning it’s drinking window for my preference.

About once a year my Burgundy tasting group has as a theme villages level wines. Each and every year, I (and think most members of the group) come away amazed at how good the wines are. You would think we would have learned by now.

I think I drink red burg a higher percentage of the time than most people here; it’s probably 80% of the nights, even with red meat. It is what it is, I guess.

Kellen did a great job with her 2005 wines. Her higher end wines were so inexpensive and are so good. This one sounds great. I have some 2005 Gevrey village from Bachelet. Looks like I might need to take a peek.

I have the 2005 Bachelet CdN Villages and was thinking the same thing.

Doesn’t stop you from putting some away. Buy one fewer bottle of grand cru and an extra case of villages to cellar. As Alan cautioned - you may regret it otherwise.

I have been favorably impressed with the second label and village level burgundies from 2005. The year was so good that it seemed to carry over to what would normally be lesser wines. The top labels, though, seem to young to drink to me. Hopefully can hold for another 5 years.

Agree 100% with you and Sarah. (And somewhat unfortunately, Roumier Chambolle used to be the $30 wine and is now the $250 wine.)

I tried to get some of the NY crew to do a 1999 village red Burg tasting a couple years back when it seemed they were ready to open but higher level was dicier. But it turned out almost nobody had any except the few random bottles I had randomly squirreled away.

I also pay close attention to village level wines at auction as you can sometimes find good buys.

Hmm. My read of Tanzer’s notes is that Hubert vinified the wines in 2004 and 2005, and that Kellen vinified on her own in 2006 with the help of an enologist. One of the reasons I happily bought the 2005’s (which were very affordable) was the understanding that Hubert had vinified (not knowing Kellen).

after Romain died, Hubert did come out of retirement and made 2005. I don’t think Kellen made any wine till 2006, with help of others. Then an ugly court battle . . .

I would caution against it, or at least recommend you give it sufficient air – a bottle a couple months ago (of the Gevrey VV) was closed and unyielding.