The Burgundy (aka $100) Daily / Weekly Drinker

There are many threads (more than I could go through) which discuss daily (or weekly) drinkers and good QPR bottles. I couldn’t find a good topic that covered a situation I’ve run into when speaking with high-end Burg producers: they tend to drink their village wines regularly. Now, for me, for a wine to be a daily/weekly drinker (I know many have other definitions but for the purpose of this topic I want this definition to be given) it requires:

  1. Can source enough of it to drink it regularly (say 3-5 cases per year qualifies given that you might have a few daily drinkers in rotation)
  2. Be accessible when you open it (could mean consumable young but could also mean easy to get older bottles at quantity)
  3. The price needs to be at a level that can be stomached at that rate of consumption.

Take wines like Roumier CM, Liger Belair VR and Rousseau GC: putting aside the price (CLB is very high), it is hard to source at these quantities and, given the quality of these wines, other than maybe CLB, you probably don’t want to drink the latest release immediately (another very debatable point but something to think about).

Normally, the biggest constraint in these conversations in price. I want to put the price high enough (I am saying that is up to $100) that the other restrictions (ability to source, wine profile being a good candidate for simple service and frequent enjoyment, ideal cellar time) actually enter the conversation. To be clear, the goal of this question is to remove (in a reasonable way) the number one constraint on most people: price. I am curious, if price were really not the question, but you still had sourcing and cellaring issues, what would you go after?

I am interested in both white and red thoughts.

I expect the answers will be producers that are more white than red and, if red, more likely Cote de Beaune. Though it might be harder, I hope people try to name reds in the Cote de Nuits.

I hope this thread stays on the rails and doesn’t drive people down a path lamenting the prices of Burgundy. Let’s see!

You will get a bunch of answers, for sure. I am a recent convert to Francois Lumpp. Givry. Well under $100 and full of yum. Red and white.

Yup, I was reading the post and thinking Givry as well, mind you I grabbed some Marsannay from Audoin that fits the pricing but his wines normally need a few years to unwind

I need to do some exploring here. Thanks.

To give a few examples of wines I could imagine being on this list (curious what people think):

Reds (alphabetical order):

  • Bachelet GC VV
  • Boillot Caillerets
  • Dujac MSD
  • Duroche GC Champ
  • Heitz-Lochardet Pommard Les Rugiens
  • Lafon Volnay
  • Marc Roy GC Cuvee Alexandrine
  • Roty GC Les Champs-Chenys (takes too long to come around?)

Whites (alphabetical order):

  • Boillot Meursault Les Genevrières
  • Dauvissat Forest
  • Heitz-Lochardet MP
  • Lafon Meursault Clos de la Barre
  • Leflaive PM (its 140/bottle right now so a bit over the limit) – sub for PF?
  • Ramonet CM

If I could have several cases of Bachelet-Monnot la Fussiere (white) I’d be pretty happy. For reds, maybe Rossignol-Trapet Gevrey VV.

Lumpp is great.
Joseph Drouhin & Domaine Tollot-Beaut Chorey-Lés-Beaune(s)
Chanterêves Bourgogne Rouge & Blanc
Drouhin Montagny
De Villaine reds
Faiveley Mercurey Blanc
Prudhon Saint-Aubins

Like you said: most producers doing good work in the Côte Chalonnaise and Mâconnais.

Cuvee Alexandrine isn’t going to be easy to get in multi-case quantities. Marc Roy in general isn’t that easy to get in multi-case quantities. I think if any of their wines would quality it’d be the Clos Prieur or La Justice which are the sweet spots in her lineup. Duroche GC Champ is good, but also, not sure if you’re going to be able to buy 5 cases, maybe you can.

FWIW, this is very much my situation where I almost exclusively drink Burgundy and drink a bottle of wine in this category every 2 days or so.

Here’s my list:

No vintages, but 15-17 are obviously good.

Harmand Geoffrey Gevrey Chambertin
Duroche Champ
Herve Sigaut Chambolle Bussieres (or Sentiers, or Fuees, or Chatelots, or Noirots, really any of their wines)
Barthod Bourgogne
Hudelot Noellat Bourgogne, Vosne, or Chambolle
Marc Roy Gevrey VV or Clos Prieur
Lumpp A Vigne Rouge
Alain Michelot NSG Vaucrains
Chevillon NSG VV
Ramonet Chassagne Montrachet Rouge (or the 1ers)
Clerget Versueil (or Caillerets)
Gerard Mugneret VR Precolombiere
Jerome Chezeaux Suchots
Bruno Clavelier Combe Brulee
Lignier Morey St Denis Tres Girard

There’s 15 choices…

Drouhin Chambolle 1er

If I could have @ed you in my original post I would have. You are one of the few on the board who seems to be in this situation. The thing that becomes interesting is the access problem.

I think the wild card here is whether you like drinking young burgs. If you don’t, then it’s going to be a much more expensive proposition if you don’t already have a cellar of aged Bourgogne/village/1ers

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There is of course that problem as well. Different wines drink better younger than others so it’s the balance of both the wine as well as preferences.

To me the answer in most vintages is Fourrier Gevrey VV. I think there are some better wines listed above, but they’re north of $100 these days. (Chezeaux’s Suchots, for example, which is a fabulous wine).

Maybe the number needs to be $200? I was trying to mostly remove the price barrier for this thought experiment to see what people would reach for. As I started working through options I found a lot in the $150-$180 range.

$200 covers nearly all burgundy outside of the grand crus until the 18 tariffs, so it’s not a meaningful cut off to me.

For example, the Leflaive Puligny village at 150 to me is a badly overpriced wine; it’s crazy for me to even consider it in this discussion.

Many, many threads on value Burgundies. Here are two of the better ones.

A few of my favorites in reds up to $100 are:

Villages level and Bourgognes from producers like Hudelot-Noellat, Rossignol-Trapet, Trapet, Jouan (hard to get larger quantities) and Clerget; premier crus from Rossignol-Trapet, Clerget, Pierre Amiot, and Chandon des Briailles. I would include red Chassagne-Montrachet from Ramonet and Bernard Moreau but they are harder to find, at least in the US.

For whites less than $100, my favorite wine has been Bouchard Meursault Perrieres, but this could be a bit over $100 until the tariffs disappear (pre-tariff, I had been getting this for about $80). Others are villages and premier cru Chablis from Christian Moreau and Moreau-Naudet; villages wines from Bernard Moreau, Heitz-Lochardet, and Buisson-Charles, and wines from St. Aubin from Bernard Moreau, Lamy and Ramonet.

Look for wines from the Cotes Chalonnaise from Faiveley, Aubert de Villaine, Moirots and Juillot.

I doubt you will find many of these wines with age on them, except Amiot and Rossignol-Trapet, in both cases this is easier to do at the winery and have them shipped to you by Cote d’Or Imports.

You don’t need to raise your cost to $200. Try Glantenay wines: you can buy terrific premier cru Volnay and Pommard for between $60 and $80. They are organic, mineral driven and very tasty.

PM me for a place that still has some. I have not tasted any really old ones, but the 2010 Volnay Santenots and Clos de Chenes were amazing, and probably could have used another decade before they hit maturity.

It has been very rare for me to pay more than $200 for a bottle of Burgundy (very, very rare) and I have a whole bunch of Grand Crus.

Thanks everyone that has replied. I think I should have asked my question differently (I think everyone is assuming I am looking to go buy at this level which is not my intent). This was meant to be a thought experiment more than anything else.

Asked differently, imagine everyone village level wine were priced the same (say $50) and every 1er cru the same (say $100) but the real world constraints of sourcing and cellar time exist. What would everyone drink? Maybe everyone’s answers are exactly the same but I want to untangle QPR (which, sensibly, seems to dominate most real discussions as that is a big constraint for most of us) from desire.

Seconding the Fourrier Gevrey VV. I also love the Aux Echezeaux. Both toeing the line of $100 depending on your sources but they are delicious, complete wines that don’t shut down in the same way that a lot of burgundy does.