Follow up: “Bargain” Grand Crus

Lots of great responses in a recent thread I started “1er Crus it Grand Cru Quality”. It brought up a few follow up questions, that I wanted to post separately. That way the info wouldn’t get buried in thread drift that went all over the place. Hope you all don’t mind. So here is my next follow up question:

Another follow up: a few people felt that more “bargains” for great wine are to be found hunting around the less expensive Grand Crus than among the best 1er crus. I imagine that might be the case only when being very careful about producer and vintage. Where might those bargains be? Again your thoughts about red and whites both welcome. Thanks!!

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Well, question is if these “bargain” GCs are of real GC quality?
You can find a Chapelle-Chambertin, a Corton, a Batard for roughly 100, even some Echezeaux, but Trapet, Tremblay, Ponsot, DRC … Rouget, Ramonet will be much more …

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My post didn’t show up for some reason, but generally the answer would be:

CdV
Corton (both colors)
Echezeaux
Hyphenated Chambertin

CdV is probably the best place to find value because there are some great CdV and some very bad CdV. There are some relative values like Laurent Roumier and coquard loison fleurot.

Echezeaux is sort of similar. There are few really great wines, but some good ones and lot of bad ones. Millot wines are good values.

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Having done this recently (2019 a milestone year for us, budget apparently MUCH tighter than many here), I decided to focus on Corton reds, and in particular three relatively available options at $120 or less:

Jadot Pougets
Corton Clos du Roi (pousse d’or)
Corton Bressandes (dubreuil-fontaine)

These seemed to be the consensus wines and lieux dits or climats (still not sure the exact difference) that best made the case for Corton’s grand cru status, seemed to be reliably good producers, and again were available and affordable. Many also suggested Chandon Brialles for both of the clos du Roi/bressandes sites, but those wines are double the price of the producers I ended up choosing and thus out of my more modest budget. YMMV.

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Prince Florent de Merode Corton from before the DRC acquisition was rather good the last time I had it, and a bargain. Also I’ve enjoyed Forey Echezeaux

Mongeard Mugneret Echezeaux is one that comes to mind.

Just needs forever to be ready

Dujac CSD and CdlR is a relative bargain grand cru. Almost everything remotely close in terms of quality is priced much higher.

I like Bocquenet Echezeaux. It’s not for everybody.

mugneret-gibourg ruchottes chambertin

H Lignier cdlr is the same price and arguably better.

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I have no idea what an allocation of Lignier goes for but I think the secondary market has those wines priced correctly, with Dujac being a lot more expensive than Lignier.

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The 17s are about 475 for either on WSP. I’d rather drink the Lignier.

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In the “relative bargain” grand cru category I’ve had some great experiences with Bouchard Le Corton in good years. If you like the style it can offer excellent depth and spicy complexity in the best vintages. The 2005 and 2009 were spectacular for my palate. I don’t play in the top class of Burgundy like Rousseau, etc and I assume it’s nowhere near that level, but these are some very substantial and pleasurable wines in my experience, with nice balance and complexity. At a bit over $100 they strike me as a relative bargain at a time when village wines are often $70+

Yup. There are definitely two stores where the 2017 lignier goes for just a little bit less than the 2017 dujac. In every other store, and in every other vintage, it looks like dujac is priced much higher.

We’re getting into stylistic preferences here; I’d rather drink current vintages of Lignier Clos de la Roche rather than Dujac irrespective of price.
EDIT: I understand Alex’s point: if Dujac’s Cdlr is the best, at current pricing it’s a bargain. I don’t think it is the best, but that’s a matter of opinion. (Which is why these discussions are so subjective, of course).

  1. Lignier makes two cuvées of cdlr. The more limited cuvée is much more expensive than the dujac.

  2. I’d still rather drink the standard cuvée than the dujac.

Rousseau also makes a cdlr I’d rather drink than dujac, although it’s getting expensive now.

You could also argue that ponsot cdlr (and csd) is better if you like the style. I think the ponsot is more expensive, though.