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.

Over the four days and 244 wines of Red Burgfest 2013 vintage, there were plenty of tannin-stained smiles.  

Judging by all of these bottled samples from the Cote d’Or’s finest crus and producers,  2013 is what it always promised to be from cask:  Overall a very good vintage that, whilst uneven, is capable of hitting the heights. The odd stain on the largely rosy tasting notes was that a few wines appeared to be picked a tad too early.  At best, though, this is a racy, ethereal and pure vintage with good intensity levels, there may not be the overall consistency or concentration of 2010 but it offers more charm and approachability in its youth. 

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