I’ve recently had several red Burgs from good producers that were over-the-top with high alcohol (14%) and jammy fruit.
Now, I am no lover of austere, cerebral wines. I like me some fruit in the glass, but these were too much-no particular structure, vintage or “place-ness” detectable. (Talkin’ to you, 16’ and 18’ Mugnier Clos de Marechale, 18’ Le Moine Chambolle 1er Baudes, 19’ Sigaut Morey 1er Millandes) To paraphrase a cogent CellarTracker comment “tastes like a hot mess of Merlot-dominant something-or-other.” Some of this is vintage, and some is the hand of the winemaker sure, but still…
My question is this: “Is there any reasonable hope that with time, these jam bombs are going to dry out/grow up, shed some baby fat and reveal some tannin/acid or at least become tasty/recognizable as Burgundy?”
Is this a stage that big-ass young Burgs wines go through?
I know that with time puckering tannins will mellow, acid will balance fruit, leather and earth can emerge but…from jam? From something apparently lacking in balancing acid and tannin?
If this is what climate change bodes for Burgundy, it ain’t good.
Much thanks Mark, that was my thought too, unfortunately.
A couple friends here have suggested I post this as a Wine Talk forum, where other Burgnicks may lurk…
There is a spectrum and thus I’d be wary of a definitive statement. Let’s also put aside for the moment, that our palate / tastes will differ.
If you think a wine tastes ‘on the fruit forward / ripe side’, then yes that can indeed fade / transform over time. However if it’s tasting hot and jammy with low acid, then it’s extremely doubtful you’ll enjoy it after extended cellaring.
If you yourself taste the wine young, then it’s easier to make a guess as to whether it has hope for the future. If relying on a critic, then your palate may well differ significantly, so you’d want a rough feel for their palate preferences to put their views in context.
Agree with Ian. Depends what you perceive to be jam. Some big, ripe fruit will fade significantly, so what seems like a big jammy wine on release can age into really nice balanced wine. The big-ness could be overwhelming the acid, making it seem less acidic than it is, so it could be the right amount to nicely balance when it’s actually ready to drink. 14% ABV isn’t that high. The old school benchmark for a Grand Cru in a great vintage is around 13.5%.
Red flags would be heat, raisin-y component to the fruit, real sweetness*. You wouldn’t expect those in a Burg. (*Sometimes people’s senses trick them into thinking a wine is sweet when it isn’t. A tip-off would be if it smells sweet. You can’t smell sweet. That’s an associative thing, where the fruity esters create that illusion.)
A warm year isn’t really an excuse to make a riper wine. We have some warm regions and sites in California (with good soil) that have long track records of making great, age-worthy Pinot. They farm appropriately, so the grapes develop properly by their early pick dates. The Chalone AVA is a prime example.
Sometimes, like in some warm vintages, picking seemingly a little late is actually to achieve balance. If you think they’re good producers whose styles you align with, then it’s a good bet they knew what they were doing. If “ripe” is a house style, you might want to avoid them in riper vintages. If there was a heat spike, that can really shoot up sugars in Pinot Noir, so you’d be looking at a factor that wasn’t a winemaking choice.
Good points. Puts me in mind of Chanin’s Sanford and Benedict. Never in a million years did I expect such good, balanced Pinot from outside Sta Barbara, California. Thanks much.
Thanks Mark. I have to agree. In my experience, the tart acids that make a wine unapproachable in early years are vital to sustaining a welcome freshness with age.
I’ve had some high alcohol (15%+) big fruited pinot noirs from Brewer Clifton that with 15 or more years past vintage have turned into lovely bottles. I mention this because conventional wisdom is that high alcohol Pinot will never improve with age, but this is not uniformly true.