White Burgfest 2012: An update on 2012 White Burgundies

Over two and a half days the team tasted through the 2012 vintage of Chablis and the Cote d’Or’s top Premier and Grand Cru vineyards from growers and negociants alike.  In total 191 wines were tasted, all blind, by village and vineyard, across 28 flights.  75 of the region’s most famous, and infamous, producers were represented.  The tasting was a great privilege, presenting several rare opportunities such as the chance to compare Meursault Perrieres from eight of the village’s top growers side by side, or examine a six-strong flight of Chablis Les Clos, or even, on the last morning, indulge in the merits of five different Chevalier Montrachets.  But enough gloating, how are the 2012s looking?  Well my own personal thoughts are as follows:

2012 White Burgundy in bottle tastes every bit as concentrated as it did from barrel, hardly surprising given that this was one of the smallest ever crops (I recall Sauzet making 2 barrels of Folatieres instead of 10, the smallest since Gerard Boudot started in 1974!)  In some instances this made the wines difficult to taste, so much power and density left you wondering how long it was going to take for them to be at their best.  There were enough shining examples, though, to suggest this is a good to very good, if not all time great vintage.  In such extreme growing conditions, there was always going to be a degree of variability amongst the 2012s. As ever a grower either managed the conditions well or not, but particularly stark this year was how some terroirs generally performed better than others.  The concentration in this vintage has served to magnify a vineyard’s characteristics rather than mask them, but sometimes to the point of caricature.

Starting from the North and then subsequently the order in which we tasted, it was not a typical Chablis vintage but there were some very good wines.  The Grands Crus, particularly the six Les Clos, were a class apart. In the Cote d’Or the best St Aubins continue to show they are a better bet than lesser Chassagnes, some very attractive, - character-laden wines of great vivacity.

Some of the highest notes in Meursault came from Les Charmes, Genevrieres suffered a little by comparison, and, as expected, Les Perrieres performed strongly.  Overall a successful showing from Meursault.

From the small amount of the lower clay dominant Chassagne vineyards we tasted, such as Vergers Chenevottes and Chaumees, this seemed to be a surprisingly high-performing area or perhaps this reflects more the very good winemaking of Philippe Colin many of whose fine examples we tasted.  Morgeot by contrast was harder work.  Chassagne is a variable commune and prone to mediocrity, however the top vineyards such as La Romanee and Caillerets proved they are capable of matching the best white wines in the Cote.  Paul Pillot wines consistently shone.

The poor soils of Puligny such as Folatieres and Caillerets  were particularly shut down and hard to taste, much more fluid were Champs Canets and Combettes.  In general these were more exciting than the next two flights that followed, both Corton Charlemagne, however Bonneau du Martray stood out.  The final morning was well spent, focussing hard on Bienvenue, Batard, Chevalier and Montrachet.   Some exciting wines from Bienvenue and Chevalier but the most seductive of all was Laguiche’s impressive Montrachet.

My own top performing producers overall were:  Comte Lafon, J Carillon, Ch de Puligny, Paul Pillot, Philippe Colin and Marquis de Laguiche.

As a subnote it was interesting that we only had four corked wines out of 191 or 2%, a reassuring trend over the last few years.  No doubt this is a percentage that would have been a lot higher ten years ago.