The Burgundy Report Vintages 2009 & 2010
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J.J. BUCKLEY FINE WINES The Burgundy Report Vintages 2009 & 2010 web: jjbuckley.com phone: 888.85.wines (888.859.4637) email: [email protected] twitter: @jjbuckleywines 7305 edgewater drive, suite d | oakland, ca 94621 2010 BURGUNDY REPORT Authors Chuck Hayward Christopher Massie Editors Paige Granback Deborah Adeyanju Alexandra Fondren Contributing Writers Cory Gowan John Sweeney All photography supplied by Chuck Hayward. All rights reserved. For questions or comments, please email: [email protected] 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introducing Burgundy 3 Burgundy: A History 4 Hierarchies in Burgundy 6-8 The Region 9-15 House Styles 16 Vintages in Burgundy 17-19 The Negociants 20-21 Negociant profiles 22-25 An American in Burgundy 26-28 Where to Wine and Dine 29-32 The Future of Burgundy 33-36 Winery Profiles and Tasting Notes 37-98 About This Report 99 3 INTRODUCING BURGUNDY Burgundy is a unique part of the wine culty in growing the grape and fashion- experiencing such a wine, the need to world. Its viticultural history extends ing it into wine is well known. Finally, experience it again and again exerts an back two thousand years. It has pro- the vineyards have been divided and irresistible pull. The search becomes as duced wines that inspired great literary subdivided into plots of various sizes exciting, if not more so, than drinking works. Its vineyards are known and names, then ranked according to the wine. throughout the world and its wines their designated quality level. What you Adopting the idea that pinot represents command some of the highest prices. In drink can depend as much on where it is Burgundy’s true soul, I have often said fact, Burgundy's wines are in such great grown as the way in which it was made that you don’t start with pinot noir, you demand that counterfeiting has become and who made it. end up there. Other varieties are easy to a serious issue. But it's the patchwork of vines and the appreciate and understand, their quali- At the same time, Burgundy has always varied styles that make Burgundy so ties more upfront and direct. Burgundy had a sense of mystery and intrigue. It is seductive to wine enthusiasts. Burgundy and its wines are about subtlety and quite small, with a more obscure history is a puzzle that needs to be unravelled. nuance. Their characteristics are more compared to areas like Bordeaux and It's the challenge of figuring out favorite discreet and must be gleaned. As such, Champagne. Burgundy's place in the vineyards and winemakers that makes they are more intellectual, requiring world of wine has been tempered by the Burgundy so intriguing. And when the knowledge of site and style. At the same fact that the region is land locked. This stars align, with the right grape planted time, it is essential to know one's own made it difficult for its wines to be cele- in the right soil and the right growing palate so that the wines selected possess brated by Paris' tastemakers. Most im- conditions, the result can be a wine like the right qualities. portantly, pinot noir, Burgundy's most no other. And after prized variety, is an enigma. The diffi- 4 BURGUNDY: A HISTORY Burgundy's history is fairly well known isolated from Paris and the ports that but always bears repeating because of conducted trade. At the same time, Bor- how much the past has shaped the deaux and Champagne gained a greater wines we taste today. And history not reputation, both in France and in Eu- only affected what we drink today, it rope, thanks to the ability of wineries in also determined how the wines have those regions to send their wines to a been made and how they arrived on our variety of markets. Burgundy's fortunes tables. began to rise when it became easier to ship wines from there, particularly in It is thought that vines were planted in the 19th century. the region some 2000 years ago. The Romans who occupied the area, were Burgundy's fragmented vineyards are among the first to introduce viticulture due as much to church and state as they as they did in most lands they con- are to geology. While much of the dif- quered. In later centuries Burgundy's ferences can be attributed to the contri- reputation grew, and its vineyards were bution of the region's differing soils, donated to the Catholic church. At the there are frequently many different time, monasteries were the repositories owners within each vineyard, often of research and knowledge and the with the same family name. This was monks and priests applied their efforts shaped by changes in France's legal to making better wine. system. The Cistercian order, which built Clos After the French revolution, the church de Vougeot, is credited with laying the was forced to sell off its vineyards. At foundations. As more and more vine- the same time, the Napoleonic code that yards were donated to the church, was instituted created new inheritance monks discovered that different sites regulations. Most inheritance laws created wines with distinct flavor pro- passed property to the oldest heir but files. Certain plots of land were found the egalitarian nature of the revolution to grow better fruit so that over time, required that property be divided the monks accumulated a very special- equally among members of the family's ized understanding of their holdings. next generation. Plots were subdivided This knowledge, passed down over the again and again, reducing some hold- centuries, helped to form our current ings to individual rows. This fragmenta- understanding of Burgundy terroirs. tion by soils and by law is one reason it is so difficult to develop an understand- Burgundy's somewhat reserved and ing of the region's wines. Trying to as- low-key status has as much to do with sess what you are drinking requires a its location as with anything else. To concerted effort to understand both the gain an international reputation, French land and the law. wines needed access to the centers of commerce and government. Burgundy, until railroads were developed, was 5 HIERARCHIES IN BURGUNDY UNDERSTANDING THE CRUS One reason Burgundy is a bit tricky to the minute details ascribed to each plot grand cru status, not the wineries, as is understand is its multi-layered system of land. After snowstorms, for instance, the case in Bordeaux. For example, in of quality designations codified in the the snow on certain sites melted before Bordeaux, if a vineyard owned by a cru Appellation d'Origine Controlee regula- others, indicating which places received bougeois property is sold to a cru classe tions. The Cote d'Or's 9,505 hectares of more sun and heat. Over the years, this domaine, the fruit can become part of vines is home to 137 different appella- accumulated knowledge allowed cer- the classified growth's grand vin. The tions. The appellations are categorized tain plots of land to be recognized as vines in each cru are frequently owned in tiers based on the quality of each ter- better than others in terms of quality. by multiple wineries, each with its pre- roir. The system can be a bit confusing ferred viticultural practices. Some grow- and there are a number of quirks that The first classifications occurred in the ers choose to bottle their own wine seem to defy logic. Yet once the under- early 1800s when two important treatis- while others sell their fruit to a negoci- lying theory and structure is under- es ranked the region's vineyards. These ant which may have its own ideas about stood, it all makes sense. books were the foundation for the offi- how to make wine from that particular cial classifications set forth by the site. So while a grand cru is theoretically Burgundy's vineyard classification is Beaune Committee of Agriculture in of higher quality than a premier cru, the based on qualitative standards that per- 1861. This effort was undertaken in re- classification system does not distin- tain to the specific plots of land on sponse to Bordeaux's classification a guish among growers within a specific which the grapes grow. Soil, aspect, and few years earlier. The ranking of climats vineyard. All the vines in a single cru elevation are key factors in determining into three classes was the basis for the are considered to be of the same quality. where in the hierarchy a specific plot of formal categorization of the Cote d'Or land will be ranked. The tiers are undertaken when France's AOC regula- So how about what the wines from each ranked in ascending order of quality as tions were adopted in 1936. tier actually taste like? This is another follows: regional, village, premier cru, and quirk of Burgundy's classification sys- grand cru. While these regulations, boundaries, tem. It is easy for those planting their and classifications seem written in feet in the world of Burgundy for the As part of the AOC regulations, wine- stone, they are actually fluid and malle- first time to expect that wine from a making practices and viticulture proce- able. The status of individual crus can premier cru will be richer and more com- dures are mandated for each tier. Re- be elevated by the membership of the plex than village wine and for a grand quirements are set by the governing appellation controlee in conjunction cru bottling to be more substantial than agency for each appellation and ap- with approval from the Institut Nation- a premier cru bottling.