A contrary take on a simple red Burgundy

I had an urge to try a red Burgundy tonight, which is unusual for me. I’m traveling and had limited options, most of which were absurdly expensive. I opted for a 2009 Michel Gros Chambolle-Musigny, which was on sale for $55. I chose it for the price and because CT reviews suggested that, among the Burgundy options available to me, this would be the closest to ready to drink (albeit not ready yet). It turned out to be an effective reminder of why I generally avoid Burgundy: the price/quality ratio is wildly out of step with other regions, and I’m always left scratching my head trying to find complexity in lower-tier wines (I don’t dispute that Burgundy at its finest is exceptional). The attractiveness of this stuff relative to a $50+ price tag is incomprehensible to me.

Nothing about the bottle suggests it is flawed or likely to be atypical. I sampled the bottle over several hours, but the profile didn’t change much. The wine has a mild, pleasant smell of red fruits, but nothing close to “tremendous” or “striking” as claimed by reviewers on CT. When drinking, I found the wine to be thin, hot and lacking any serious complexity. Its basic red-fruit flavors are obscured behind alcohol. The purported herbal flavors are so mild as to have a negligible effect on the taste. It is still rather tannic, as expected, but the tannins—like the fruit—are secondary to the alcohol. There is almost no finish; the alcohol bite quickly fades, and nothing else remains.

In my view—and I realize my opinion is not shared by many people here with far more experience, so I’m open to the possibility that I just don’t “get it”—this wine is the quality equivalent of a thin, simple $15 US pinot noir. To me, it is utterly forgettable and extraordinarily overpriced. I realize it is still very young and closed, and it will undoubtedly improve, but I don’t see enough stuffing here to believe that the wine will ever evolve into anything remotely equal to its price.

Here’s my problem in a nutshell: What should motivate me to repurchase this? For current drinking, I would have strongly preferred a barbera that would have been a third of the price. For future drinking, my $55 could have purchased any number of other wines that will almost certainly shame this wine now or in 10-20 years’ time (for example, I considered purchasing some of my usual suspects from Lopez de Heredia, Ridge, Produttori del Barbaresco, G.D. Vajra, and Brovia, all of which were priced at or below this Gros). Indeed, with cellar space at a premium I can’t imagine bothering to cellar this and wait it out even if I were optimistic it would improve substantially.

Burgundy lovers, consider me unconverted. But I’ll keep trying, because you can’t all be wrong!

The wine is shut down.

Jokes aside the brand of burgundy costs an awful lot Stateside. Quality, unfortunately, is less of a factor (purely my impression, I don’t live there so I am not frequently buying there, this is simply my observation from reading the notes on this board).

Burgundy (Bourgogne) wines cost roughly €7-10 for private customers at the cellar door. Maybe €12 at the better domaines. €20’s is the Villages price point. €40 for top 1er Crus. Unfortunately you’re paying for a lot of “in between guys” as well as the brand. That makes exploring Burgundy a riskier proposition as a US customer than it does for EU customers.

Brand (general demand for burgundy) costs you about $35 a bottle regardless of its quality / level.

I picked up a case of Barthod’s 2008 Bourgogne last week at $21 a bottle here in Switzerland. It’s arguably one of the bet examples of that level of wine. I love that wine and I found it to be an utterly delicious wine. It’s my third case of the stuff!

That said I wouldn’t pay more than $25 a bottle and I am fully aware it sells for more than $50 in Texas.

So, I’m one burgundy lover who agrees with your point of view. I just don’t get why people pay so much for these wines. I just got the offer from Rhys where they had one of their wines listed at $45 a bottle. That is the wine that makes sense to me if you live in the US.

Kevin,

this is not a “simple” red Burgundy, this is a serious Village wine from an excellent producer - and it might have been shut down … simply.
In opposite to many (here and elsewhere) I predicted that the … initially foreward and fruity … 2009 vintage might shut down after 3-4 years of bottling, and I was right.
(BTW: the same for 2012 !)

For instance I bought a case of the 1990 Chambolle, then labelled Jean Gros but made by Michel.
The last bottle in app. 2007/08 was almost the best … and it would still be drinking nicely if had one left …

So I think the 2009 requires at least another 4-5 years to show the potential …

The “simple” Michel Gros wine would be “Hautes-Cotes-de-Nuits”, but even here the 2009 and 2010 have a potential of at least 10 years.

I used the word “simple” not because of the wine’s classification or status within the Gros lineup, but because I find what it offers to be be lacking complexity for its price point. As for being shut down, as I said above I recognize that it is closed. I routinely drink closed nebbiolo, however, and they still offer a heck of a lot more than anything I sense in this wine. My point was that I don’t see any sign of this becoming a $55 wine once it opens up and develops further. I suspect you won’t be the only person who disagrees, but that’s my impression.

At this pricepoint i simply wouldn’t buy.
I buy some bottles from Michel every year and paid $55,- for 2008 Vosne Romanee 1er Clos des Reas, $64 for 2010 and 2011…

From the description given, I don’t think I would buy the wine at any price point.

Also, what Paul says is true, but only partly so. Prices of Burgundies are getting crazy also on this side of the pond. The “simple village” by Ghislaine Barthod of the last three vintages are now well above the 55$ for the Michel Gros Vosne-Romanee.
I doubt one can buy a 2009 Vosne-Romanee from a good producer here for less than 55$. So, in the specific case, he bought the wine for a pretty fair price.

The price in the US is another issue … also heavily depending on the exchange rate in 2011/12 … (and on the US importer system) …
I think the wine is worth the price … WHEN properly mature, but not if opened (far) too young …

Some QPR tricks I’ve found in Burgundy:

Cote de Nuits

-Bourgogne’s in a Good Year + Good Producer:
A couple of the most enjoyable red burgs I’ve had in recent years have been filed here. There were a few 2010’s I liked on release but a Gouges for $25 stands as probably the best QPR…very masculine, with deliciously fresh sour red fruit, and great cut. The other was the latest from Lignier, though that goes for $35-40+. This has also worked for me with CdB whites.

-I’ve found village wines generally not worth the price increase by comparison. Best to go down to the Bourgogne or up to a 1er Cru. There will be exceptions, but this has generally worked for me and my preferences.

-Tortochot is really doing some good work at the $30-60+ level for their village and 1er Cru’s, then little over $100 or less for their GC Chambertin’s if you’re quick enough. Ditto for Frederic Esmonin. I see their '07 Ruchottes for around $70 on retail shelves now.

-Nuits St. Georges. The best wines are usually not far north of $100, and it’s harder to find better values in the CdN, though the labels or region as a whole isn’t seen as very sexy, the wines of Chevillon, Gouges, and others are stellar.

Cote de Beaune

-For Red Burg there’s generally more value here for the same reasons as with NSG, but even more so. There just isnt the same demand for these wines and the classifications play a part in that, though the lone Grand Cru, Corton, is about the cheapest GC for reds.

-Savigny-les-Beaune

There are very few QPRs in Burgundy if you purchase in the US.

Burgundy is a special wine when caught at the right time however. This one sounds like it is just
pinot noir and not showing anything special. There are many 09s like that to me.

09 is an especially difficult year to get anything except pinot noir from Burgundies.
Ripe pinot noir at that too. The acidity is OK but not like 2010 where the wines really have a sparkle and have a wonderful balance with the perfectly ripe fruit.

In many cases, I would rather drink US pinot like Rhys than many 09s. My $69 2011 Horseshoe would be my choice over lots of 2009 Burgundies. (I am a Burgundy nut too) Not painting with too broad a brush here however. Ponsot KILLED 2009. Lafarge too! There are many others.

In 10 years with aging however, that will probably change for this nice Chambolle you have selected. Unfortunately, that is not the way the wine has been marketed. They need to blow it out of the store.

FWIW.

Kevin - I enjoy your posts, especially on Italian wines.

On the one hand, if you’d rather not buy Burgundy, more power to you - I wish more people felt that way!

On the other, I’ve found Burgundy to a region where, more than others, a fund of specific knowledge is needed to get good value at any level, and to open them at times when the wine will show well. Buying the odd bottle now and then is a gamble against the odds.

The best thing might be to get a friend to open an older bottle for you, from a good producer. Many peoples’ love of Burgundy wines seems to begin with a single good bottle, which opens a vista on the potential of wine from the region, and hooks them.

It’s true that prices are going kind of wild now; but, even so, I’ve still been able to buy several lots of Corton from good producers and decent vintages at less than $50 during the last calendar year. I won’t be opening them until 15 years after the vintage year - about the same time I’d now normally wait on a good Barolo.

Kevin, I’ll join you in part in regard to your unpopular (at least on this wine board) views. The word Burgundy and value just don’t belong in the same sentence. I’m a terrible rationalizer and apologist for the region, but I think what you are saying it’s mostly true at the lower levels. Sometimes I think I’m beating the system and when I look at $30-52 dollar bottles from Macon, Savigny or St. Aubin, but then I think it through and it’s only a bargain relative to the other stuff up slope - it’s still really expensive. I can find U. S. pinots from $25-30 all day long that I’d enjoy and rate 91-93 points.

Burgundy is the biggest part of my collection, but I just don’t drink much at the lower levels. It’s about 1/3 GC and 2/3 PC. I’ve got about two cases of villages level wines from Mugneret-Gibourg (Vosne) and Dujac, (Chambolle and Morey), which I really do love. They really over-deliver within the hierarchy, but they are still expensive. The highest rating I’ve given to one of these wines was a 92 once to a Dujac Chambolle. M-G’s Vosne hits 91 regularly. For 2012 though I paid about $95 per bottle for it. Sometimes I think about that I think I should have my head examined - I can buy three bottles of US pinot for that that I’ll probably score higher. I love it though and it’s unique.

On the other hand, at the higher levels from the better spots, I just haven’t found the equal anywhere else. Some of the higher level wines take me to a level of enjoyment other pinot noirs can’t. So the premium is worth it.

Just curious - did you have the wine with or without food?

Mostly without. I tried it with food, but that further obscured everything in the wine except alcohol and tannin. Not good.

Thanks, everyone, for your comments.

I don’t drink as much Nebbiolo as I should so I won’t directly compare the two, and I’m not the expert many here are, but one thing that I learned quickly is that when burgundy shuts down it shuts down harder than anything. In fact the wine you describe is, to me, the classic shut down burg. I think that even a much, much more heralded and expensive burg can show this way when it is truly closed. Even extensive air (as in 12-24 hours) seems not to help much. It’s almost a mystery that it can even happen, and yet it does with great reliability. What’s harder is waiting out the other side. They show a lot of youthful joy if you catch them quick enough but if not I think it’s best to bury them. It’s funny but I drink less burg than I’d like simply because most of mine are sleeping.

I do think that there is good value but it’s not easy to find. I like Savigny for some value, or a good producer’s basic Bourgogne. Something like Pernand or Beaune 1ers as well. Sometime village NSG or Gevrey from good producers can offer value. Mercury, Chorey, Santenay, etc. are worth exploring. Chambolle and Vosne are expensive neighborhoods and hard to find value IME.

I myself do not understand the combination of the descriptors “thin” and “hot”, which usually do not go together. If hot, there should be some level of glycerol typically–the usual complaint (well, in the past) with Burgs are that they are too thin, but these are also the low alcohol wines of the past.

FWIW, i would’ve most likely preferred a Barbera (especially Brovia’s) over that chambolle and I am a Burgundy lover!

It used to be easy to find “value” burgundy in the States at almost every price point short of DRC and Leroy - but this was when you had to have spent time learning about and understanding Burgundy. Now that the shortcut of going online and reading someone’s TN (especially Meadows’) is available, the hoi polloi have caused price hikes that remove the value.

If I didn’t get burgundy I would be happier…certainly have more money. A wine geek with no interest in burg is a lucky wine geek…

To me a big part of the charm is the ethereality and the fact that you can never quite pin it down…I can recall almost exactly what some Bordeaux or Piemonte wines taste like for example, but red burgundy has this ineffable quality which makes it hard even to recollect. Quantum mechanics may well be involved.

I agree with the poster above - burgundy is horrible and to be avoided. Stay away…

To those Burg lovers: is Corton GC qualitatively worse than Echezeaux, Musigny and other top tier sites up North? It is certainly priced that way. Any producers that would be considered the best here?

Even if it’s expensive, I love -relative- bargains, so I’d consider some of these in my exploration of Burgundy. Still looking for that Holy Grail of QPR on something I really love.

I’ve had many wines that are both thin (lacking body) and hot (the alcohol stands out, perhaps prominently). I don’t think those two experiences are mutually exclusive at all. Just my take, of course.

I have to admit I don’t understand posts like this. Is there something that says as a wine lover you need to love all wine regions? Need to find the wines interesting or good values? It sounds to me like you’ve sorted out you don’t find burgundy to be a good value, great!

I don’t mean to single out Kevin, there are posts like this nearly every week. I don’t see how they forward anyones enjoyment/knowledge/etc of wine.