A September check-in on the 2018 red Burgundies proved a fascinating, and at times, thrilling five days of tasting. I had not tasted the vintage so extensively since the Autumn of 2019 and so I was delighted to find as many good wines as I did then, from barrel; if anything I came away even more enthused than my initial impressions allowed me. Many of the wines have found a calmness and balance I had not broadly predicted at the time: alcohols were a little less dominant and bold tannins, though still very much a feature of the vintage, were better matched to the fruit. There is no doubting this is a big, powerful vintage, of course, but they seem to have settled into themselves and feel a bit less daunting. Whilst it is clearly one of the less consistent red vintages of the last few years, lack of freshness or predominance of brett being the two major pitfalls, there were so many wines I loved; many wines I could seem myself enjoying earlier in their life than I had imagined. Be selective but don’t miss the 2018s, embrace their exuberance and boldness, you won’t regret it.
All wines were tasted blind. The flights were organised by village and, where possible, by vineyard or vineyard style.
Amongst the 100 producers, and 241 wines entered, there were a handful of producers I personally found to be consistently outstanding.
As a general pattern, and this is very broad brush, the wines that showed best were from clay-dominant sites. Vineyards strongly influenced by limestone did not quite seem to hit the highs they often do. This applies equally to the Cote de Beaune as it does the Cote de Nuits.
In the Cote de Beaune, Corton was a little less inconsistent than usual, perhaps, but the really top wines were limited to just a small handful -Renardes from Camille Giroud and Rognet from Michel Mallard the clear winners as far as I was concerned; Volnay performed a little below expectations but still produced some excellent wines, Comtes Lafon the most consistent producer and Clos des Chenes the most consistent vineyard. My preferred wine, though, was the stony Taillepieds from Domaine de Montille.
However, eclipsing anything else in the Cote de Beaune, was Pommard; continuing its rapid upwards qualitative trajectory of the last few years… Not only did I find my scores consistently high - Clos de la Chapelle, Comte Armand, Genot Boulanger, Launay Horiot and Olivier Leflaive, Buffet and Domaine du Pavillon all doing well – but also the peaks were higher than anything else in the Cote de Beaune; my number one spot was reserved for Violot-Guillemard’s Pommard Rugiens ( the seven wine Rugiens flight was the best flight in the Cote de Beaune ) a wine of power and nuance, that beautifully balanced earthy substance with high-toned florality.
The Cote de Nuits produced some of the tasting’s most exciting wines, but lacked the consistency found in the best corners of the Cote de Beaune (listed in tasting order) :
I was lucky enough to return for the Vosne Grands Crus, however:
Clos du Roi
Domaine Tawse, Domaine Camus-Bruchon & Domaine Tollot-Beaut
Les Aigrots
Sebastien Magnien
Epenottes
Dominique Lafon
Les Bressandes
Domaine des Croix
Pertuisots
Jean-Yves Devevey
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