I’m pretty new here, so I don’t know this board’s history with Louis Latour. Why do people throw rocks? I’ve always been curious why/how Louis Latour manages to offer wine from many top vineyards at such low prices.
They don’t think the wine is stony enough?
I would bet Ex-cellar price isn’t much lower than any other producer but the market doesn’t value Latour like it does many others, so markup to consumer is less.
They pasteurize their reds…which doesn’t bode well with most collectors.
If I look at my notes of all the BBM’s I tasted , the 3 best BBM’s I ever had were the Ramonet 1983 and 2008 and ( surprisingly ) the Faiveley 2010 . Closely followed by Jacques Carillon ( also 1983 and 2008 ) , Girardin’s 08 , JC bachelet 08 .
2008 seems to be a very good year for BBM .
I did not taste any young PYCM’s , the ones I had ( i.e. 08 ) were good but tight .
08 PYCM BBM was the wine that woke me up to Colin. Amazing.
Interesting Herwig. I actually found the '08 Carillon BBM relatively weaker in the line up (cf Referts and Perrieres that year) than surrounding vintages. There are certainly a lot of great white burgs in 2008, with a number of producers making better wines for my tastes than their '07s and '09s (et al), so no surprise you enjoyed a lot of '08s 
! I think it’s the Girardin holding that is now being made by Vougeraie, so hopefully that’s only an improvement. I’ve found the Faiveley a bit blockish from a very small sample size ('10 and '12). Would love to try other versions such as Sauzet and Bachelet regularly, but availability isn’t great (no surprise).
If you compare the viticulture of Maison Vincent Girardin (the connection with Vincent Girardin being entirely historic at this stage) with that of Vougeraie, I would say that the former don’t need to be ashamed!
Do tell please William! I do think Girardin was on an upswing for quality whites (really good '10s) but that sort of seemed to stall and I found several wines just a bit boring. Are you suggesting viticulture at Vougeraie has been a bit of a challenge since they expanded their parcels and range?
I think there’s an element of that, given the scale of the operation and the fact that they’re organic, which is very labor intensive. But it was more a compliment to the Girardin farming, which is top notch (and also organic, biodynamic).
Obviously, some cuvées chez Girardin are quite a bit bigger production than others, but try a 2017 Narvaux or La Romanée or Meursault Charmes for example, and I think you will find that they are very exciting bottles indeed. Eric Germain is very respected along the Côte for a reason. I buy for my own cellar which I think is the highest praise I can give. Of course, there’s so much baggage attached to the label that it’s hard to get people to approach them without preconceived ideas…
I bought a parcel of unlabeled Girardin a few years ago for a very good price. There was some '06, '09 and '12 BBM as part of the parcel. Every bottle has been quite delicious.
Friends,
it amazes me that hardly anyone mentions ETIENNE SAUZET. I have been a client there since the 1991 vintage. The oldes vines of the domaine are in BBM and the wine is IMHO always delicious and sometimes the standout in their portfolio. Unfortunately I can only buy 2 bottels a year.
SINCERELY JOHAN
I like Carillon and Ramonet and have drunk many vintages.
At Ramonet we had a very interesting tasting, first out of casks, then from bottle(s), of BM and BBM - and Joel asked the group which they prefer … most voted for BM, but I was for BBM … but the difference in character is huge and astonishing, like male and female … the latter much more open, lush, floral and multidimensional, the former structured and minerally, but partially closed. Two wines were 12+ years old.
The one bottle of (Domaine) Leflaive I had was almost completely closed, so not much fun, and I had good (but not great) bottles from Bachelet-Ramonet, Pernot and Girardin.
A producer I enjoyed 2004/05 was Guillemard-Clerc, slightly heavy in oak initially, but after a few years it was very good, and a bargain.