Not even excess supply can burst the Burgundy bubble

Next week, the 2023 Burgundy vintage will be showcased at multiple tastings in London. It is launched into a world in which wine lovers have complained loudly about the excessively high prices asked for Burgundy in recent vintages. Prices for mature Burgundy wine on the secondary market have weakened considerably. Given that 2023 produced the largest harvest ever seen in Burgundy, one would expect a drop in prices, right?

No. With a few exceptions, the prices of these embryonic 2023s, most of them still in barrel, are very similar to those of the very high 2022s (another generous vintage).

The latest in Burgundy production in the heart of the Côte d’Or, wines carrying a simple village appellation (as opposed to those from a vineyard rated Premier Cru or Grand Cru) can cost hundreds of pounds per bottle if they are made by a famous producer. And the bottles of their Grands Crus have four-digit price tags. Producers accuse those further up the distribution chain, especially restaurant owners, of fraud. Merchants insist that their prices reflect what the winegrowers charge.

Graham Gardner, who has been importing Burgundy into the UK for decades and boasted that prices for Domaine de Bellene’s 2023 wines had dropped to 2019 levels, observed grimly as he tasted some of the new wines: “The producers “They have to be aware of the market.” conditions, but the Burgundians do not seem to be.”

Part of the excuse for continued high prices through the 2023s is that 2024 was a truly terrible growing season: gray and so soggy that vintners sprayed fungicides up to 20 times instead of the usual handful. In some vineyards the harvest was so poor or rotten that the vines were not cut. Red wine grapes suffered even more than white wines and, although official figures have yet to be confirmed, the 2024 harvest in Burgundy may be the smallest ever.

Two more factors can be used to support these high prices for very young Burgundies. Although almost all wine lovers complain about them, those who can afford them seem willing to buy them. And the most sought-after wines are made in quantities that represent a small fraction of the typical production of Bordeaux chateaux, which are currently finding it much more difficult to sell their wines.

There may still be demand for the most lauded names, especially the holy trinity of Rs: Roumier, Rousseau and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. But it is far from a general rule. According to Master of Wine Peter Mitchell, who buys wine for the Jeroboams group in London, “many village Burgundies now seem overpriced compared to their global competition and we are seeing this in what is sold in our stores.”

Like most professional Burgundy buyers, Mitchell spent some time tasting at Côte d’Or wineries last fall. According to him, the 2023 yields were very high, sometimes higher than the official maximums established in the detailed rules for each designation of origin, so grapes with the slightest lack of perfection had to be rejected at the selection table, at least in theory. Excess grapes during the summer had also been widely, though not universally, trimmed to meet standards.

Unlike 2024 and 2021, but like 2019, 2020, and 2022, the 2023 growing season was hot. And 2023 also saw a dangerous heat spike at the end of August that threatened to send the grapes’ levels of refreshing acidity plummeting.

According to Greg Patriat, who has produced an excellent 2023 harvest for Jean-Claude Boisset, “the key point with the whites was to harvest before September 10”, when excess ripeness arrived, along with the rain. Many, if not most, producers began harvesting their white wine grapes in late August.

Wealthy growers, presumably those benefiting from sky-high prices, could only afford to harvest early in the morning, and one or two even rented refrigerated containers to chill the newly harvested grapes and preserve every ounce of flavor and freshness.

Although Patriat and his team do much of the farming and there are long-term contracts, the vineyards it purchases are not owned by Jean-Claude Boisset, making the company a negotiator, rather than a domaine that makes wine. just grapes. from their own vineyards.

The good news for Burgundy lovers is the relatively recent proliferation of so-called micro-dealers: enthusiastic winemakers, usually younger, who set up shop in premises that they often rent. They may even be able to afford to buy some vines with a less glorious designation of origin. A notable example is Camille Thiriet, who concentrates on carefully selected vineyards around the village of Comblanchien in the Côte d’Or, “no man’s land”, between Aloxe-Corton and Nuits-St-Georges.

But more often than not, these newcomers make grapes from vines grown by others, and to be financially successful they need very close relationships with their suppliers. Mirroring finished wine prices, grape prices in the general market have risen so much that larger dealers have found it difficult to buy enough for their established lines.

Having tasted a limited range of 2023 Burgundies so far, I can report that the wines are generally quite good: lovely, with signs of dilution only in a few cases and, perhaps surprisingly, with enough acidity to suggest a reasonably long life as well.

The 2023 vintages I tried did not seem to suffer from the flaws of the two recent heatwave vintages, 2019 and 2020, when distinctions in quality and style between village wines and Premiers and Grands Crus seemed to blur and all the reds were so mature that it was even possible to recommend those that carry the most humble designation of origin: Burgundy.

A UK trader who has been visiting Burgundy for 35 years and has a reliable palate for its wines reckons that since the colder 2021 vintage, the distinction between quality levels and different terroirs has been re-established. He maintains that it is not only that producers have become accustomed to working with grapes from hotter summers, but that the vines themselves have gone through some adaptation process.

With the 2023s, and indeed in general, the wisest advice for those trying to extract value from the Côte d’Or is to look for a combination of the less famous appellations of origin and the producers most expert in them. It is too early to identify the latter in 2023, but obvious examples of the former are the Hautes Côtes de Nuits and Beaune, Beaune itself, St-Aubin (although the reputation of this Chassagne neighbor has been steadily growing), St- Romain, Monthelie, Côte de Beaune-Villages, Côte de Nuits-Villages, Ladoix, Fixin and Marsannay (although the reputation of the last two goes increasing) too).

Or, ditch Burgundy altogether and opt for some of the superior Pinot Noir alternatives listed (see below), although prices are rising to reflect those of Burgundy.

Tasting notes, ratings and suggested drink dates in the Purple Pages of JancisRobinson.com. International distributors in winesearch.com

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