Burgfest: The 2015 Red Vintage

The prospect of four mornings spent blind tasting some of the finest reds in the Cote d’Or would be a mouth-watering one to any Burgundy lover...

...though the reality of tasting 244 embryonic red burgundies from one of the most tannic and deeply coloured vintages on record was a more sobering thought - the daunting idea of trying to retain an unflinching concentration to give each wine its fair chance whilst endless batteries of between four to nine wine flights come in, wave after to wave, to assault the senses. Fuelled by enough restorative baskets of bread and gallons of water, I would just about make it to the end, palate intact, I thought to myself.  And yet….  The 2015 confounded this and many other tasters in the room.  I was surprised by the openness, joy and energy I found in the wines, tasting them was a sheer pleasure from start to finish.  Make no mistake, this is a powerful and concentrated vintage, but one with a sense of balance.  Only a few wines displayed alcohols that were out of kilter. Equally some wines from some producers will always have harsh tannins, but for the most part I found the wines had nice contours  - tannins were fine-grained, even seamless in some cases.  Acidities were not obvious but you could sense the role they played in supporting the wines’ big structures. This is without doubt a vintage “de garde” but a classy one.

So after four mornings tasting 244 wines over 43 flights, all tasted blind, these were my impressions:

Beaune: Largely a solid effort. Correct wines with good ripe structures, some warmth but well balanced.  Greves did not always show the gulf in class compared to the other vineyards that it usually does.  Chateau de Meursault and Tollot Beaut my preferred producers.

Volnay: Lots more wines to taste here, 27 in total, so a mixed bag but the best were better than anything else the Cote de Beaune had to offer, including the hill of Corton.  There were three very good Clos de Chenes from Comte Lafon, Ch de Meursault and Michel Lafarge but my favourite wine had to be the Taillepieds from Francois Buffet – one of three good wines from this producer who is not so familiar to me.

Pommard: A small representation, 11 wines, but impressively consistent. In fact it is fair to say they surpassed my expectations. Nothing challenged the great wines of the whole four day tasting, but some very enjoyable things. Comte Armand’s Clos des Epeneaux the most impressive wine for me. Keep an eye out for 2015 Pommards!

Corton: Three flights and seventeen wines. Solid bold Burgundies for those who like that style, Bressandes offering the best most complete and composed wines. Tollot Beaut’s was my wine of the three flights.  A consistently good showing but not always hitting the heights of the highest Volnays.

Nuits St Georges: A Nuits marathon with four flights divided into Premeaux, south of Nuits, a Vaucrains / Les St Georges flight and a north of Nuits flight.  Nuits often delivers at this tasting and perhaps my own expectations have heightened as a result but, as good as many of them were, I did not get quite as excited as previous vintages.  Where I felt this appellation more or less met expectations in 2015, Vosne exceeded them – it can often be the other way round.  Cras from Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair,  Les St Georges from Gouges and Pruliers Taupenot-Merme were my stars, the best of the rest being Chaignots Mugneret-Gibourg, Clos de Thorey Domaine de la Vougeraie, Les St Georges Thibault Liger-Belair and Les Vaucrains Robert Chevillon.

An intermediary course of Morey followed. Only 9 wines, so perhaps not representative, but another area that I felt surpassed expectations. Difficult to really pin down a style here, they weren’t exactly ethereal but they displayed less brawn and richness than in Nuits. Built for pure pleasure. Les Chaffots from Hubert Lignier was very good and my favourite of the flight, closely followed by Roumier’s Clos de la Bussiere, edging out the lovely Clos Rosiers from Remy - yet to be elevated to 1er Cru status, though deserving of it.

Morey was lovely but a mere aperitif before the serious Chambolle main course.  A mixed flight followed by a series of Cras and Fuees (Amoureuses is separated out and tasted in a mixed flight with Musigny on the last day.) There were some very good wines here but the heights were really hit in the Cras / Fuees line up.  For me Ghislaine Barthod has taken this vintage by storm. Her Fuees was the wine of the two flights as far as I was concerned, in fact it was among my favourite wines of the entire tasting. Her Cras, a more tense, mineral and idiosyncratic but beautifully executed style was not too far behind.  When on fire, those high vineyards of Chambolle really are up there with the great wines of the Cote, and so it proved in 2015.  The best of the rest in Chambolle was a Charmes from Hudelot-Noellat - who had their finest outing in this tasting for a while

Day two concluded with 16 Clos Vougeots. Hudelot-Noellat faired the best, for my tastes, closely followed by Comte Liger-Belair and Clos Frantin (Bichot.) Clos de Vougeot is rarely a wine of finesse, indeed there were several 1ers Crus from Chambolle, Vosne and Gevrey I enjoyed more, but it was perhaps a lot more successful as an appellation than I expected.  The good examples, and there were a decent handful of them, displayed an impressive inner energy and drive that gave focus to their dense, powerful structures.  Lesser examples were burly and lopsided.

Day three was a Gevrey day and a thrilling one it was too –containing some of my favourite wines of the tasting. Five flights of premier crus, the first a mixed Gevrey bunch followed by six Lavaut St Jacques,  a six-strong Champeaux / Combottes flight, six Cazetiers and finally, the icing on the cake, five Clos St Jacques.  The higher vineyards, again, proved to be the most successful. This is certainly expected of Clos St Jacques, but not necessarily of Lavaut and Cazetiers – I felt both strongly over performed. They permanently live in the shadow of their illustrious neighbour but if you can still find them, 15s from either vineyard from a good address would be well worth seeking out. In the Lavaut flight both Maume and Duroche fared well but my favourite was that of Henri Magnien, of whom I know nothing and must discover more!  The Champeaux / Combottes flight delivered some nice wines, without excelling, the Combottes from Dujac my most enjoyable.  Cazetiers followed and quality went up another gear, more so even than the Lavauts.  Henri Magnien’s again performed well but for me Bruno Clair’s was the outstanding example -  a beautiful mix of allure, seduction and control.  It was certainly one of my top 15 wines of the tasting and the third best Gevrey 1er Cru (out of 29 illustrious examples.)  I felt it pushed Bruno’s Clos St Jacques closer than ever.  And finally, the Piece de resistance, each of the Clos St Jacques, side by side, a Burgundy lover’s fantasy! Again Bruno Clair showed what Champions league Burgundy they are making at the moment, his Clos St Jacques winning the flight, pipping that of Armand Rousseau and his own Cazetiers to the crown of top Gevrey.

Next followed a series of Gevrey Grands Crus divided into seven flights.  Charmes / Chapelle / Ruchottes / Latriceres/ Mazis / Clos de Beze and Chambertin. It showed the gaping gulf between mid-slope and those sites lower down the hill.  There were some lovely wines from the lower lands but they did not set the pulse racing anything like as much as the best Clos de Beze and Chambertin.  Clos de Beze from Robert Groffier was my favourite, my joint second best wine throughout the four days, and Chambertin from Rousseau came in a close second, a clear couple of notches above their Clos de Beze. There were a raft of good Chambertins, in fact, overall it felt like they overshadowed their neighbour’s wines a little,  Groffier’s Clos de Beze being a clear exception.  Of the less “prestigious” Crus the Ruchottes Chambertins were the most brilliant, some better than many Chambertins.  Chateau de Marsannay’s was my pick (my third favourite wine in this section,) closely followed by that of Mugneret-Gibourg.) Latriceres, from the likes of Trapet and Rossignol-Trapet were the next best, there was clear daylight between these and the remaining Charmes, Mazis and Chapelles.  If the 1er Crus of Gevrey over delivered, the Grands Crus, as many very good wines as there were, did not quite excite as much as they could have - judging them by their own sky-high standards. It is certainly in Chambertin’s nature to be closed, perhaps time will reveal that extra level.

By contrast the Grands Crus of Morey, admittedly being judged with lower expectations, performed above and beyond.  This was truest of Clos de la Roche, a flight that was evidently above the other Morey Grands Crus. They may not have hit the heights of Groffier’s Beze or Rousseau’s Chambertin, but I scored them consistently higher than the rest of the Gevrey Grand Cru pack.  Hubert Lignier’s was beautiful and jewel like, Bichot’s and Castagnier’s also impressed as did that of Coquard Loison Fleurot.

An exciting Bonnes Mares quintet followed, again another marked success in this vintage.  For once Bruno Clair’s edged out his Chambertin Clos de Beze, it was my number one Bonnes Mares and my joint second wine of Burgfest.  A brilliant Roumier was close behind and a very accomplished Vougeraie’s third.

A salivating seven wines were to follow, four Amoureuses followed by three Musignys. On average my highest scoring flight of the week – though I think this may reflect the exemplary quality of all seven producers who submitted samples more than a village trend versus the Grands Crus of Vosne. Roumier topped the charts with his Amoureuses, whilst Mugnier won the battle of the Musignys – another of my joint second wines of the entire week.

Into the home strait of the final morning and all that remained between me and the plane home were three flights of 1ers Crus Vosnes, two Echezeaux flights and the Grands Crus of Vosne.  It was going to be a scramble for the airport!

The three flights comprised Suchots and Chaumes / Reignots and Petits Monts and Malconsorts / Beaux Monts and Brulees.  All three series delivered highs and consistency. Vosne really showed its class in 2015 and offered a wider gap to adjacent Nuits than usual. Yet again the high vineyards of the last two flights shone the brightest – the middle flight of the three my most enjoyable. Petits Monts and Reignots from Comte Liger-Belair and Brulees Meo Camuzet were my top wines, Beaux Monts from Hudelot Noellat, Malconsorts , Lamarche and Etienne Grivot’s Beauxmonts all excelled.

Eleven Echezeaux were the mixed bag you would expect them to be, being such a big Grand Cru, but the best were every good indeed if not as stellar as some of the rest of the final day’s wines. Again Comte Liger Belair achieved my top billing, this time tied with Coquard Loison Fleurot, with Etienne Grivot’s snapping at their heals in third.

And finally, drum roll please, eight Vosne Grands Crus which yielded my single highest scoring wine – La Romanee Comte Liger Belair. Embryonic yet clearly brilliant. Patience will be needed but it has such classy texture, depth, energy and composure – all of which should ensure a long and exciting life. Richebourg from Etienne Grivot was my next favourite, a totally different wine that seduced and haunted.  La Grande Rue from Lamarche and AF Gros Richebourgh completed the rest of my most favourite wines.

In summary, this tasting very much underlined the great quality and homoegenity of the 2015 vintage.  May be, like many powerful vintages, it will shut down, but there are no signs of it yet. Although this was a sunny year it was more of a dry one than one that was particularly hot. The fruit was, on the whole, ripe and had a sense of equilibrium rather than feeling “solaire.” The vintage has yielded wines on the controlled side of powerful – a good thing.The traditional hierarchy of appellations and sites may not always follow in this vintage - the magic you get from top sites in difficult years (perhaps it was just too even and consistent a year for that) but you do get outstanding wines that will deliver a lot of pleasure and complexity. An excellent if not yet a mythical vintage, though that may well come with time.

In summary :

Top ten wines:  La Romanee, Comte Liger-Belair; Musigny Mugnier; Clos de Beze Groffier; Bonnes Mares Bruno Clair; Richebourg J Grivot; Clos St Jacques Bruno Clair; Amoureuses & Bonnes Mares Roumier; Brulees Meo Camuzet and Fuees Ghislaine Barthod.

Over-performing villages and vineyards: Vosne-Romanee across the board the most consistent village; Chambertin and Ruchottes; Clos de la Roche; high Gevrey vineyards; high Chambolle vineyards; Volnay and Pommard.

Favourite producers: Comte Liger-Belair, Bruno Clair, Mugnier; J Grivot; Roumier; Hudelot Noellat; Barthod; H Magnien; Groffier; H Lignier, F Buffet, Tollot Beaut; Taupenot Merme. Vougeraie.