2016 red Burgundies are plain gorgeous

As I approach the tail end of my 11th annual two weeks of Fall Burgundy tastings, pretty much exhausted and running on fumes, I thought that I would put out a brief shout: in moderation, harmony, purity, and classicism, 2016 has produced a stunning array of red Burgundy wines, hands down my favorite vintage alongside 2010 and 2013, with an even more approachable sensibility than 2010s sense of structure and 2013s sense of acidity.
There is a lot of detail, as always, that is needed to give a proper assessment, but I just don’t have the time and energy right now.
Yeah yeah, feel free to toss your hype hater rocks here.
Just mark my words now so that once the rest of the world gets the message, you can say, “that Panzer dude called it”.
TO THE SHARED LOVE OF THE GLORY OF BURGUNDY!!!

mmm, you sort of lost me when you professed your love of 2013. I’m on the fence about it.

anything that really really stood out of the wines you tasted?

Well, I wrote 2 weeks ago (but I wonder how many´ve read it …):

"VERY generally … and I hadn´t the opportunity to taste as much as usual due to the early harvest in the same week …

(for red CdNuits only):
The wines are good, very good, even excellent - not as sweet nor as structured as the 2015s, they seem to be more transparent in their youth, but also due to (sometimes) lacking a bit of ripe lush mid-palate … acidity seemes to be higher than ´15 … sometimes there is a slight bitterness/dryness in the finish reg. the tannins … nothing really to worry about, but characterizing the vintage …
No really an early drinking vintage, but accessible before the 2015s … for the mid-term … and the best will certainly age for decades …
From some sites there isn´t much (if anything at all …)".

If you compare 2016 to 2013 I cannot follow you … quite different (and I´m not a huge fan of 2013).
But I agree than one can call the 2016s kind of “classic” …
however - I don´t think that the basic qualities are on the high level of 2015 … and many of the best wines will be available in extremely tiny quantities … (no good news for fans of 2016 …)

(BTW: that was my 30th vintage of tasting in Burgundy)

Vintage of the Year!

Back in May I posted my impressions on 2016 reds and whites from barrel at Remoissenet. Across the board they were excellent.

During our trip to Burgundy one of the true highlights was visiting with Bernard at Domaine Remoissenet Pere et Fils. During our visit we tasted several barrel samples of his 2016 white and red Burgundies. A difficult vintage due to weather but their wines didn’t suffer the majority of the harsh realities that other wineries did. I didn’t take formal notes but let me say that their was not a mediocre wine in the bunch. They were good to excellent. For the 1st time in many years they did not make a Le Montrachet. Hail damage is to blame. Bummer.(really wanted to try this barrel sample) Here is the order of the barrel samples. All 2016.

1. Chablis Fourchaume 1er Cru - Nice steely profile with a hint of salinity.

2. Santenay Clos de Tavanne 1er Cru - Good depth and medium weight.

3. Pernand Vergelesses Les Caradeux 1er Cru - Juicy and pure fun.

4. Beaune Saint-Desire - hints of almond and various nuts. Would be perfect with smoked fish. Very unique. medium weight and slightly smoky finish. Well done.

5. Puligny Montrachet - good citrus and minerality on the finish.

6. Meursault Les Cras 1er Cru - Excellent Meursault. Balanced throughout with acid, nuts, smoke and citrus laden finish. Should only be enjoyed with food.

7. Puligny Montrachet Les Folatieres 1er Cru - Medium bodied creamy throughout. Should age well. Well done.

8. Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru - Long finish and impeccably balanced. You can taste the Grand Cru quality in this. Will try and get some of this.

9. Beaune Les Marconnets 1er Cru - An excellent red with currants and strawberries. Well done for the vintage. Will get some of this when available.

10. Pommard Les Rugiens 1er Cru - A new bottling for Remoissenet. I am a fan. this has good weight without sacrificing acidity. Darker fruits with a creamy syrupy finish without going too far. Should age well.

11. Gevrey Chambertin - Dark cherry with strawberry. Lovely floral nose. A no brainer.

12. Vosne Romanee - Well balanced with red and blue fruits. Should be a very good value.

13. Gevrey Chambertin Poissenots 1er Cru - A small production red that every pinot lover should have. You have a mix of bright and sour fruits with a nose that makes you smile. Considering its small production should be a fair price. Will try and get when available.

14. Gevrey Chambertin Cazetieres 1er Cru - This tastes like Grand Cru. You have earthy dark fruits with a long finish. Class in a glass. Bravo. Hope I can get some.

15. Clos Vougeot Grand Cru - I have a soft spot in my heart for this wine. I have had a few vintages over the years and this did not disappoint. Their plot tastes like a GC. This has great depth and a richness in the finish. The nose is outstanding right from the barrel. Will age well.

16. Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru - Well done from beginning to finish. You get earthy dark fruits with some salinity. The oldest vines in their parcels are over 75yrs old. Should age well.

12 minutes after your offer went up in CC. Try to be a little faster next time.

While there are some lovely 2016 red Burgundies out there (many of them from producers you represent, Robert), having just returned from two months in the region and after tasting over 1,500 wines and visiting 160 domaines, I think that it’s a rather more heterogenous vintage than that.

In the Côte d’Or, the impact of frost was very varied. The frost touched some areas intensely, others not at all - even within certain climats or lieux dits, and a fortiori across communes. Frosted parcels produced grapes of 2nd and 3rd generations which ripened at a different pace. Some low-yielding frosted parcels ripened faster because of the small crop load, others seemed to suffer with blocked maturity. Add to that the impact of what some producers called the worst mildew attack in their memory: it’s hard to ripen grapes if your vines have lost all their leaves. On the other hand, of course, some parcels were not touched at all. In Morey, Clos des Lambrays and Clos du Tart produced their largest crops since 1999!

Such varied raw materials would naturally lead to above-average variation within producers’ ranges, but that variation was only amplified by the different decisions producers took in response to 2016’s unusual challenges. Consider a hypothetical grower with a parcel of Chambolle village, 50% of which was frosted to 50%, the rest of which was untouched. Half of that parcel ripened normally, the other half at a different pace - plus with grapes of 2nd and 3rd generations which ripen at a pace of their own. The grower could harvest in multiple passages (very, very expensive, especially in a year when you have much less product to sell than normal), or try to pick a compromise date: early, late, or in between. Many producers I met with reported being confronted with decisions such as this. Some frosted parcels ripened very rapidly indeed, and I tasted wines harvested in August with natural alcohols of 14%. On the other hand, producers who picked unripe 2nd and 3rd generation grapes sometimes made tart, green wines.

Then, in the cellar, consider the implications of vinfiying a massively reduced crop. Existing tanks were too small, and many producers had to use more whole cluster than usual to try to gain volume in the tanks for fermentation. After vinification, it was hard to maintain normal new oak percentages with so few barrels being filled: producers invariably used either more or less. How to preserve empty used barrels was another problem. (In this respect, choices made in 2016 will impact 2017).

Then, on the other side of the ledger, areas that were not frosted sometimes overcropped, producing dilute wines with little depth or character. In some cases, September and October rainfall amplified that, lowering both sugars and acids. So there are definitely some 2016s out there with less freshness and energy than 2015s, despite its being a cooler season overall.

I’m typing up my notes now, and there are certainly some absolutely lovely wines to be found in 2016. Cyril Audoin’s Marsannays, Emmanuel Rouget’s range, Ghislaine Barthod’s Chambolles, Thierry Glantanay’s Volnays and Pommards: happily, I could continue with a long list. And of course, sometimes lovely wines were produced despite challenging conditions, thanks to what was probably an antimony of judgement and luck, so I would certainly counsel against writing off any particular appellation on the grounds that it was frosted. But it would be a mistake to present the vintage as in any sense consistently good.

William:

Your insights — and ability to write about them so succinctly and convincingly — are very much appreciated.

I understand the impulse to label a particular vintage as this or that. I have to admit that I do it as well sometimes … because it makes me feel like an expert and a connoisseur!

But making sweeping generalizations about such a wide swath of producers, terroir, communes just seems too reductive to me — as your excellent report illustrates.

That’s very kind of you to say, Matthew, thanks!

Generalizations are definitely always tricky, but more so than ever with regards to the 2016 vintage. If you had just a day to taste at four domaines, it would be easy to come up with five different sets of producers which would show you five totally different versions of the 2016 vintage.

FYI, here is Claude Kolm’s Fine Wine Review commentary on the weather in the vintage.

I felt the same way as well… it seems a bit disingenuous to praise something and at the same time post it for sale…

I said much more detail is needed to give a proper assessment, right?
Good for you William and Gerard and Justin for giving more insight.
Heterogeneous is indeed the case.
Haters are gonna hate.
I have no time and energy for that.
Every vintage has its strengths and weaknesses.
2016, at its best, is just what I stated.
Berserkers can really suck sometimes.
Hard as it may be to believe, very few people on Berserkers buy wine from me.
The vast majority of people who populate things here are ITB, it seems.
I do it for community, and out of excitement.
That I posted something in commerce corner, where quite honestly hardly anybody looks and I get virtually zero bites, is immaterial, as far as I am concerned.
But hate on.
Or actually contribute something.

I tasted with Claude at Domaine Tawse yesterday.
It was my first time meeting him. A sweet guy.
He seemed to very much share my love of the vintage’s strengths.

Look, I don’t know you, I’ve emailed you a couple of times for pricing as sometimes it’s a huge secret, but ‘hate on’ is a ridiculous statement.
You comment on many wines you sell, fair enough and you truly seem excited about what you do, it just seems odd sometimes that your info vs. what’s in CC coincides to closely.

I have posted about wines I sell, mainly I do so with the disclaimer that the wine is already sold out and I’m not on here to sell to anyone, for me the majority of wine I drink is what I sell now a days so it’s what I comment on.

To me, reading your 16’ assessment then looking at CC and seeing a post for 16’s for sale ran a little to close to shilling…

It’s the Robert Panzer way. He’s like a mirror-universe Robert Parker… every troubled Burgundy vintage is the Bestest Ever, and just coincidentally he has some of it to sell you!

…

It is always impossible to generalize. But all I know is that 2016 was a pretty difficult year due to several circumstances. I am sure that the most passionate winemakers produced fine wines on their best terroirs. But these wines will be of limited quantity and pretty expensive. I am also sure that affordable 2016 wines can be had from some producers – but that is most likely not the rule but the exception because it wasn’t easy to harvest fully ripe fruit everywhere at the Cote de Nuits, Cote de Beaune and Cote Chalonnaise / Maconnaise. I recommend to taste wines first before buying anything from vintage 2016. This is especially true for the red wines.

In fact, I’d venture that it’s especially true for the white wines, but since this thread is to do with reds let’s stick to that.

Côte Chalonnaise reds were actually among the most consistent wines I tasted during my two months in Burgundy. Buy some Mercurey from Raquillet, Faiveley, Michel Juillot or Ch. de Chamirey; Rully from Dureuil Janthial or Jacquesson; Givry from Joblot and Lumpp, to single out some who did especially well. They won’t disappoint, and they won’t be expensive.

Thank you. Good to know! But the Domaines you named are amongst the most consistent these days anyway IMO.