Bizarre Bizot

Just finished an amazing trip in Montreal, I may expand on meals and wines later if people are interested, but I had one sour note during my whole trip, mostly of my own doing. Been really wanting to try all these benchmark French wines I see spoke about here and due to my geographical location they’re either unavailable or I’d have to go through the expensive grey market. Montreal really was a great place to do it and everything blew me away, except this one wine. I ordered a 2014 Bizot “Le Chapitre” off a wine list trying to expand my burgundy horizons as my experience is very limited and I recognize the name as someone commanding crazy prices, much higher than on said list. Upon opening, all I can get is new oak and I figure ok we’ll just let it evolve in the glass. After 20 minutes it’s fairly unchanged but if I really try I can sense some terrific fruit trapped behind these oak bars. I swirl and try to like this wine for another 20 to 30 minutes, my girlfriend said I barely spoke a word We ate 3 courses I was hoping would pair with this wine, enjoyed every bite, but couldn’t for the life of me enjoy the wine. The restaurant was very busy and my server was swamped so I flagged down a woman who was cruising around overseeing everything who turned out to be the owner, to ask if she would taste it and educate me on what’s going on. She said the wine was sound and typical but if I didn’t like it she would gladly get me something else. I felt super awkward, and said it’s my fault if I don’t like the wine I just wanted to make sure this was a typical bottle, she told me she wanted me to drink something I like and politely but fairly briskly swept up the bottle and our half full glasses and took it away. Now we only have one dinner course left before dessert, so I’m not thinking we need a whole bottle so I order the nicest Burg they have by the glass 2017 Rateau something and compared to the Bizot it almost felt too fruity haha, but was fine. I felt so guilty for our server I did find a bottle to order and we enjoyed that while we delayed dessert. The restaurant was super professional and polite about it all, but I still felt like a real knob having a wine sent back, especially a sound one. Anyone want to cheer me up with a similar story or have experience with this bottle and can tell me what was going on? Or just set me straight on how I should behave next time, all criticism considered constructive. Cheers!

There’s enough margin in wine that the next bottle sale likely made the restaurant whole.

I usually have some prior experience with a wine I order off a list. I leave the experimentation to glasses.

If I am ordering off a list that I am not familiar with at all, I ask what is drinking well in my budget range of $X. They usually ask what I ordered for food and I have never been steered wrong with a bottle recommendation.

A lot of 14s are shut down, which sounds like what was going on with this wine.

Agree with the 14 possibility. The only one I had recently, roumier cras, needed a half day in a decanter to show well. Was super austere and okay on opening.

Thanks Michael, I was hoping to get an answer like this.

I don’t have a ton of Bizot experience and it’s all from before the $$$ went crazy so I can’t speak to this particular wine. But, I doubt “shut down wine” is the issue. Burgundies that shut down don’t taste like all new oak. Wines that are too oaky taste like all new oak. And I believe Bizot is heavily or exclusively new oak, and that just may have been too much for a lighter vintage like 2014. Bizot also eschews sulfur which at the very least puts a question mark over how long it can be kept safely. Maybe they’re one of those producers who’ve aced the process of making wines this way that age soundly… or maybe they’re not. In either event an unsulfured or low-sulfured AOC Bourgogne in all new oak from 2014 just isn’t a lock to be good, no matter how high the wine-searcher price tags. Sounds like the restaurant handled the situation admirably though. Many places would have let you sit there stewing and sent over a somm to sniff it and make a passive-aggressive O-face with a snide comment like, “woah, if you don’t want it I’ll drink it all!”

I was very pleased with how the restaurant handled it and thanked them profusely.

i doubt the wine was shut down as well. in my experience, even after a decade in bottle the village wines can still show quite a bit of wood especially on the finish (everything is always aged in 100% new). another point to consider is bizot bottles everything barrel by barrel with no blending…this means there can be quite a bit of variation between bottles depending which barrel they come from. the chapitre has consistently been my least favorite bizot wine. the pataille version is much better for my taste, easier to find, and costs a whole lot less.

I think you are being waaaaay too hard on yourself. I have no experience with Bizot but they can’t all be great (talking about expensive Burgundy in general). I suppose what you could have done is bring it up sooner with the owner to not have a dud bottle take away from an otherwise great experience.

Glad to hear the trip was a success Ryan!

What restaurant was this at?

Good service will have you go back so I wouldn’t be worried at all. It’s all good and I’m sure the restaurant did not suffer from your presence. They’ll be all smiles if you come back.

I’d love to hear about your trip if you have time to post the details.

Cheers!

Are you sure that it was oak or rather just a strong smoky smell from the stems - that would be my impression of 2014/2015s chez Bizot…

I’m with you here. Not that I don’t think Ryan is mis-stating his impressions, but Bizot has never struck me as an oaky producer. I also don’t think there would be a huge craze for a Burgundy producer that was showing heavy signs of new oak. (Perrot-Minot would never have changed his style if that was the case!)

Heavy stem usage (which is a trade mark of Bizot) can give a smoky profile in some vintages. Could be what happened here? Would also explain why it was not enjoyable to drink.

2014 Bizot wines do indeed show a lot of oak, and even a slightly oxidative edge to the aromas. The contrast couldn’t be greater with his very successful 15s, 16s, 17s. So Ryan’s experiences are totally in line with mine.

All Bizot’s wines see 100% new oak, and though it is very good quality new oak and very well chosen for his wines (2014 is the only recent vintage I’ve had where it doesn’t seem to have meshed), they are objectively very marked by élevage, even if its impact is, paradoxically, discrete. They would be very different wines without it—just as Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Leroy etc would be very different is they were matured in used rather than new barrels. So I don’t think one could say that new oak isn’t a defining component of the Bizot style.

That’s very surprising to hear.

I knew that he used new oak for sure, but I’ve never seen it in any noticeable way.

I would look for it in the clove note that inflects the whole-cluster cinnamon, as well as a lovely orange rind/bergamot quality that the best François Frères and a few other coopers (Bizot, IIRC, uses Rousseau) can impart, plus some back-end vanillin; and then to the wine’s vibrant hues and an element of their textural sumptuousness. Note that this is in no way intended as a criticism!

It’s obviously very difficult to reverse engineer wines like this, especially when they’re so seamlessly put together and when the various components are synergistic. But I think the helpful heuristic is to try to imagine how wines made with the same vinification would taste in older barrels. Obviously working with very different base material, one can maybe get a sense of that in tasting Bizot-alumnus Mark Soyard’s reds, for example. And it’s helpful also to get away from the idea of new oak as something “added” to a wine: whether a wine is barreled down in new or older barrels isn’t an inflection point in the wine’s evolution, it’s a crossroads: the two paths diverge, but both take the wine to a new destination, modulating every aspect of it. This is why I try to avoid talking about “neutral barrels” these days: no container is neutral.

Totally agree with your last point, and find it funny that people use it, especially when referring to oak.

I also agree with your point about the seamless integration that I’ve always been accustomed to, which is why this really surprises me to hear. My original reference point for Bizot was 96s, and I bought a lot of them early on. They were so transparent and elegant. I probably didn’t appreciate them enough at the time! When the prices got much higher, I had fewer experiences with them, but loved some 2013s that I had within a year of their release, and they had that same beauty and elegance, but with that extra level that he has discovered since.

Thanks for taking the time to explain it all.

Thanks everyone for their input, sounds like I just got the wrong vintage, the pursuit continues! Since everyone seems to agree this only shows the restaurant in a positive light I’ll out them as Bouillon Bilk. The restaurant has a modest, unassuming appearance, but the tasting menu was creative, beautiful and most importantly delicious.

Just my interpretation… thanks for taking the time to read.

If you manage to cross paths with a 2017 Jachées for a halfway reasonable price, don’t hesitate, it’s the best Bizot wine I ever drank!

just for the lolz. although i have been a great fan of these wines for their explosive aromatics, i have never found them to outclass their appellation. i can only imagine the disappointment the buyer is in for

Ya that’s insane, for the record it was listed for a fraction of that.