so far
Dugat-Py
Dujac
MG
L’Arlot
MM
Ramonet
Marc Roy
CdV
based on my 2017 list, will definitely also buy
Bouchard
DRC
Rousseau
Grivot
Prieur
TLB
Any idea what happened to the 2013 Bourgogne. Completely thin, acidic and undrinkable.
Not really buying for myself but it is my grand-niece’s birth year so I had to buy a little burg for her cellar. So an assortment of Mugneret-Gibourg (vosne, columbiere, bourgogne, vigne ronde, echezeaux) and Hudelot-Noellat (vosne, vosne beaux monts, murgers, clos vougeot, chambolle, les petits vougeot). Oh and faiveley lsg and clos du cortons. That will most likely be it.
Bought the producers I normally buy at the beginning of this year. Whilst I am sure some will have done better than others in a riper year, I am generally pretty happy across the board in most vintages and would likely lose the ability to keep buying if I sat out for a year.
Like others have mentioned, I’ll happily buy my allocations this year and maybe one or two more things, but I’m reaching the point where I’m starting to look more closely at the size of my cellar, drinking windows and my age, and thus wondering when I need to pull back?
Haven’t tried it but would say sounds like marginally mature grapes. The 2014s, Bertrand’s first vintage, were also pretty tangy, even a little tart, especially the lower appellations, but from '15 on he has been on a roll. His tendency is to pick quite early, and he stopped chaptalizing which would be a way to bring a bit more mid-palate generosity to leaner years… This works very well in years such as '15, '18, '19 and now '20. Ironically, given how everyone stereotypes the Dugat wines (both sides of the family, for that matter), he has made more wines below 12% alcohol than he has > 13.5%!
Jancis says that more modest terroirs will show well due to the warm vintage.
I have only been dabbling but found the 2018 Raphet Bourgogne absolutely great at the level as a PnP. Loaded up on a case of that to see how it develops and to drink along the way. Thanks for the lists y’all have been posting. I need to keep an eye out for these.
Is this kind of like bordeaux futures buying?
There are 2018s available in the market now (US for me)
Rossignol-Trapet
Lafarge
Hudelot-Noellat
Fourrier
Chevillon
Xavier Monnot
Just received the Trapet Gevrey Chambertin, tempted to try a bottle to see if there’s an early drinking window here.
For people responding to this thread, I’d be curious to know how you make your decisions if you haven’t tasted the wines? Following the press, this forum, word of mouth, or simply trying to maintain allocations with sources?
My purchase of the 2018 Arnoux-Lachaux wines was largely based on your praise of them ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
That’s kind of you to say! I bought 3x Suchots, 3x Nuits Poisets, 3x Latricieres and 3x Echezeaux, so I have a reasonable amount of exposure myself—and I’m very pleased about it.
I am not a huge / major player in buying red Burgundy, but it is by far the largest percentage of my cellar. Buying for me is almost 100% based on reputation and tastings of previous vintages from the same producer. By the time I get offers via email, the wine I am buying is mostly pre-arrival, there is no way for me to taste it. I do not buy heavy hitters like DRC, Roumier, etc. but the producers I buy do still sell out pretty quickly. La Paulee is not useful as well as by the time you taste those wines, most of it has been sold already and what is left are a lot more expensive after market prices (if any). This is especially true of good vintages, bad vintages like 2004 will of course linger, but in recent vintages (starting from 2015 vintage), things tend to sell out a lot more quickly (at least the ones with decent pricing).
In short, I do not get to taste what I am buying, but made my decisions by a mix of tasting previous vintages (75%) from that producer (I was part of 2 monthly tasting groups, one solely focused on Burgundy, for a good number of years, pre-COVID of course), plus this forum (25%), 0% allocation based (I guess I do not buy heavy enough?).
Interesting. Why are you not influenced by La Paulee tastings? You definitely get the style of the producer and the general way they go about producing their wines. They are often there in person to talk to directly and you can get questions answered about the vintages. Perhaps the particular wines you taste may be more expensive, but it is always helpful to verify if you like the wines style directly before making a buying decision. I found out at the last Paulee (seems like a 1,000 years ago) that if I get any Lafarge wines I need to bury them really deep in the cellar as I don’t care for the early rustic nature of the wines and the obvious tannic structure. On the other hand I could drink most of the Mugneret Gibourg wines immediately and get a lot of pleasure. Found it helpful, but clearly a bit hard to separate wines after awhile in those mass events.
I generally buy the same things every year. It’s not so much to maintain allocations as it is that at this point I just know what producers I like and part of the fun for me is following producers and wines from year to year. In 20 years of buying red burgundy I’ve found a single outlier vintage - 2004 - where I wish I’d bought nothing. Outside of that, I’m happy to have the wines. And I haven’t found contemporaneous critical vintage assessments to offer a ton of value in the long run - 2005 may still turn out as predicted but I don’t know many people who now think they bought too few. I still think 2010 is the best vintage of my buying life. Maybe climate change will alter things but I’ve been pretty happy so far.
In answer to your question William, it’s a combination of all the things you mention. Out here in New Zealand, there are not the opportunities to try the majority of the wines, so one is reliant on past history/track record, critical appraisal such as yours, Jasper Morris, Jancis Robinson, Steen Öhman and so on, and relationships with importers. I’m getting just a few bottles of Ghislaine Barthod, Cecile Tremblay, Domaine Fourrier and Comte Georges de Vogue for example so even if I did broach one, there would be none more available to buy. Mind you, my budget probably wouldn’t allow me to buy much more even if it were accessible? I feel that these are producers who are going to make good wines regardless of vintage and am a bit ‘old school’ in liking to support a producer year in year out (unless of course, it would appear that they have really lost the plot).
Lafarge
Mugnier
Rousseau
Comte Liger-Belair
Angerville
des Croix
Barthod
Marc Roy
Better question, who decided to buy 2013 Mugnier Musigny??
I might have not explained it to well, yes if you attend La Paulee you get a better sense of the producers, their style and vintage characteristics (assuming you only got for the grand tasting). However, it’s a timing thing for me, for example, by the time La Paulee rolls over, most of the wine I am tasting for that vintage have already been offered (and sold out) months prior. It can be useful for the following vintage (not the one being poured at La Paulee), but as strictly being useful for buying in the “current” vintage, it is not useful for me for reasons just explained. There are exceptions of course and this is just a personal preference for me. If one has deep enough pockets, one can surely buy almost anything in the secondary market, unfortunately due to limited resources, I have to go in blind when buying current vintages and only rely on prior experiences with the producer and board posts as a guide especially since Burgundy prices have gone up quite a lot since I started buying.
For example, Mugneret Gibourg Vosne Romanee started out as $60 when I started buying, was easier to pop one before for testing but now at $160+, it is much harder to pop one for the sake of tasting (especially since I can only afford to buy 2-3 bottles max nowadays). I just have faith that the excellence of these current vintages follow the wines of M-G that I had before.
I buy the vast majority of my Burgundy en primeur so actually made most of my buying decisions in December 2019/ January 2020 for the 2018s before most reviews had been released. When you have allocations of things you can’t wait for the reviews to come out. Even if I could wait for reviews, if I use Barthod as an example, I typically can’t cherry pick which premier crus I get based on what outperformed that year - I get the ones I’ve been buying every year. Sometimes the ones I buy outperform versus her other wines and sometimes they don’t.
I follow your and other Burgundy critics’ views and will buy wines that are available at reasonable prices on the secondary market that have been well reviewed - I just picked up a 6 pack of 2017 Vougeraie Clos de Vougeot for a reasonable price off the back of a nice note from you (and a corresponding one from Allen). However, typically I’ll use professional reviews (and comments from contributors here) of wines from the previous 3-5 vintages to inform views of what to buy in the next vintage. It’s not perfect but it definitely gives an idea of what producers are substantially improving the quality of wines they make and what I should try to buy for the next vintage.