Diving into the red bugundy pool Am I nuts ? Caution: long and maybe boring

Having started my wine journey over 25 years ago with cabernets {still love them} I progressed to Bordeaux, Barbaresco, Brunello, Barolo, White Burgundy, and more recently Champagne. All along the way I have gradually climbed the quality ladder in each with usually a bit of research and/ or tasting before venturing into the deep end of the pool.

I have drank some very good producers of red burgundy including attending a Domaine Leroy vertical many years ago. For many, that experience would have been a start of their long Burgundy exploration. Even though I loved the educational experience and found them earthier more complex and more subtle than the wines I was drinking previously I was not hooked and none provided the epiphany “aha” moment. Nor has any red burgundy made me understand why all roads lead to Burgundy. until now

At a Bottle Of Pain tasting held by a friend of mine’s group I finally had my first epiphany. We shared some amazing bottles that evening, including an 82 Mouton, 02 Latour, 04 Haut Brion, 82 Grange, 93 Lafleur, 06 Harlan, 96 Henschke Hill of Grace, and a 90 Giacosa Santa Stefano Reserva as well as a few stunning Champagnes. Having already enjoyed some incredible offlines arranged by myself and others through the years this was no doubt the biggest embarrassment of riches of any offline in my life. several boxes on my bucket list were checked off at one time.

The dinner was already feeling like I was a 1%er enjoying a typical night, but none of these gems invoked the same reaction as when I took my first sip of the star of the night, a 1983 DRC La Tache. I felt like I was 12 years old and kissing a girl for the very 1st time. It was an epiphany unlike any red burg that had ever touched my lips. The color was ruby red dramatically lighter than any other red on the table. My best description would be raspberry ambrosia. Definitely in no way overripe or super sweet but all about finesse elegance and fruit purity I recall the taste vividly as though it was 2 seconds ago instead of 2 weeks ago. If I never drink another wine as good in my life at least I sampled it once.

However now the scary part is since I am 58 years old and have many great years ahead of me, I now have caught the bug possibly, and am craving to try a wine that gives me an experience that is close, without selling my house to buy wine. I do have a nice car but really dont want to live in it.

So in conclusion, with my epiphany motivating me I impulsively within minutes bought my first very expensive red Burgundy without having a clue what I am doing. I did not blindly go into a wine shop put a blindfold on and pick a random bottle but not much different. I received an email from a favorite store that I have bought plenty of other wine from and saw a familiar name which I suspect may be another gem if not quite a DRC. It is a 2017 Hudelot Noellat Romanee St Vivant. I suspect this might be an amazing wine and worth the tariff . At $600 it is expensive but if I do love it I could afford having a tiny stash of wines of this caliber. As I believe strongly in paying it forward and am floored at the generosity of the guest bringing the DRC to share, I will likely share this bottle at a future offline.

Hopefully my story doesn’t bore everyone or make people think I am bragging about the dinner, au contraire, I am humbled and feel like a rookie once again. One of the major reasons for my post is I would like to know from those who are versed in Burgundy, did I make a good pick as my first major foray into this varietal ? Secondly. is this a bottle that might provide a somewhat similar flavor profile to the DRC without such a huge investment. Thanks in advance for any feed back !

Well you started pretty close to the top. The problem is duplicating the experience. In short, you won’t. That first hit of the Burg bong is special, especially if it’s top shelf.

The Hudelot Noellat is likely to be a tremendous wine (I have loved other vintages), but you will need to wait 20 years to get the full effect.

Finding something similar to the DRC experience at a lower cost is tough. Very tough.

I am afraid that David is right. Also, buying that caliber of wine to cellar for twenty years is perhaps not the best strategy (but that’s a personal choice).
If you are willing to spend ~500$ a bottle the best way to enjoy fantastic bottles of aged red Burgundy is to buy them in restaurants, I believe.
And if you make a trip to Europe you can probably enjoy several such bottles in a relatively short time (I don’t know whether the same is true for restaurants in the US).
Another option is to buy at auctions, trying to chase aged bottles of very good but less hyped producers. For example aiming at the Cote de Beaune instead of Cote de Nuits.
I recently enjoyed enormously a bottle of 2002 Taillepieds of de Montille. I am sure it wouldn’t come close to your '83 La Tache, but it was fantastic, and costed 120 euros at a restaurant in Burgundy.

Hudelot Noellat makes fabulous Romanee St. Vivant that is beautifully perfumed. I don’t buy it because I don’t spend that much money on a single bottle of wine (I do buy others of his wines) but every time I have tasted one it has been fabulous. I tasted at the winery this summer and had the 2017 Romanee St. Vivant among other wines. Unfortunately, at the time we tasted it the wine was still undergoing malolactic fermentation and it was very hard to taste. It seemed to have impressive length, etc., and I bet you will be thrilled with it when you drink it, but I cannot tell you how good it will be.

Nuts? Certifiably so. But it seems you have wads of cash you wish to throw around, so throw. You’ve already gotten pretty close to the bullseye.

The first hit of the Burg bong! I love it. My first hit was filled with a '93 Lambrays about ten years ago. I dove into the pool and then started taking the ladder back out a couple years ago. I still dabble, but it is a pool that is mostly too expensive for me to really enjoy on a regular basis. Unless you want to drink Monthelie, Santenay, Savigny, and Ladoix. Which can be fun. But those are light years away from your '83 DRC.
Good luck in the pool.

I somewhat agree. Replicating the experience of a 30+ year DRC will be hard or impossible without spending an immense amount of money. Doing so on a regular basis is beyond the means of most ppl that haven’t been collecting for decades.

That said, drinking excellent burgundy on a regular basis isn’t cheap but isn’t outrageous. The majority of what we drink is premier cru white or red burgundy (and some champagne); a lot depends how much you drink too; a bottle a night will be much more expensive than 1-2 glasses a night.

Congrats for your experience!

Well, maybe the Leroys were too young … not mature enough … or whatever …
This 1983 La Tâche seemed having been perfectly mature - and a well stored bottle indeed …

However, the 1st kiss is impossible to repeat, the 2nd one will be different, even if the girl is “more beautiful” …

The Hudelot-Noellat RSV should be a really fine wine - when mature …
however with young Burgs like that there is “also” the possibility to taste it soon after bottling (which might be the case here …) - it will be very different from 1983 LT, but it can also be rewarding in a different way … 2017 should be a vintage not being closed down now … and over the next 12-18 months.
However, if you wanna enjoy this wine at full maturity, as said above, about 18+ years might be necessary … and 25 might be better still …

(when opening bottles like that I recommend to get infos about slow-oxidation etc. … pop-and-pour is not what I would do … but you will certainly hear some different opinions here …)

JS,
At 58, you’re not a spring chicken…
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may!

Buy older vintages that have some age on them.
I’ve stopped buying burgundy (except minor village wines) with the 2010 vintage).
Chances are, top flight burgundy will outlive you and you’ll never get to fully appreciate them like you did with the DRC.
Most 2000 & 2007 burgs are drinking pretty nicely now.
Try some of the finer wines of those vintages and buy back even further.

TTT

As with any other region/wine there is good and bad. Producer, vintage and age are particularly important with Burgundy. Lining all three of those up can be a difficult and expensive proposition. But very rewarding when it all comes together.

Jonathan, you are not nuts! Just your typical Berserker . I have taken a similar wine journey, and am just a few years younger. I started off buying only Grand Cru Burgundy but soon realized that both my budget and patience would be impossibly strained. What I’ve found now is that a mix of bottles across the range of producers I like (from Bourgogne Rouge to GC) gives me some aging balance in my cellar. Plus I buy what I can at auction to back fill older vintages, though honestly this is very tough due to availability and pricing.

The best advice, as always, is to taste as widely as you can and buy what you like. I’ve found plenty of bottles below $100 that scratch the red Burg itch. ‘83 La Tache itch? No of course not. But you’re on a good path now!

I probably have too much of 2009-2016 in my cellar but that will be easy to fix in a decade or so if it seems like I have more than I will drink.

Burgundy is a rabbit hole that has no end and can have a few nasty (and costly) wrong turns. Your first great burg experience can never be replicated and will always be a special memory. In some ways you are lucky it wasnt the 78 Tache (hands down my favourite of that era).
Burgundy is the most addictive drug in the fine wine world and we are all searching to replicate our first great high.

I will take a slightly contrarian view. Yes, replicating that first amazing Burgundy moment can be both an impossibility and an obsessive expensive pursuit. A Holy Grail, truly.

But. Burgundy is also the source of many many beautiful wines at a wide range of price points. Daily drinkers, weekly pleasures, and great balance that can go with just about any food across the entire range of what Burgundy offers (i.e. white, red, light, heavy, tannic, easy drinking, fruity, earthy, mineral-y, etc, etc.). For me the charm of Burgundy is both the chase of the amazing and the regular pleasures, with the latter far more common. And it’s worth digging in for the quotidian, for sure.

One more point. Burgundies can vary in style more than wines from other regions. For example, just because Leroy is a great producer does not mean you will like wines by them. I am not a big fan of these wines for example. I can admire them but they do not seduce me. I do really like wines from Hudelot-Noellat, but your sweet spot may not be the same as mine. I recommend trying another wine by them (say a villages VR) before spending the money on the Romanee St. Vivant. Do note that the current person running the estate (a young (30) rising star) did not start until 2008.

Great advice, my palate runs along similar lines to Howard, there are some highly rated wines that are just too extracted for me to love and some highly rated vintages that dont purvey the elegance of Burgundy IMHO.

This is going to sound crazy and be anathema to some:

I love Burgundy, but it is very difficult for me to really keep up in this current market.

So, I treat Burgundy like peyote buttons. Instead of obsessing/hunting, I like to go with the flow and drink those that find a way to present themselves to me as drinking opportunities. It makes for a nicely varied experience and keeps me off the “where can I get this, I gotta have that” treadmill.

Good shops often point me toward current stock they like, I’ll watch my K&L notices, I watch here and pop into Wine searcher or Wine Bid…it works out with minimal stress.

Plus, this kinda of random walk approach has ensured I’ve run into lots of varying styles to encounter and figure out.

I vote to follow the “Tao of Burgundy” and see where you end up.

Buy and drink, you’re not nuts, you will learn. Also, along the way, you will have many epiphanies, and not necessarily with Grand Cru first order Burgundies. Last night I was taken aback, and taken by surprise by a little Villages 2016 Jouan Chambolle Musigny VV. It took me to such a nice place, a place few other wines could ever go…

Jouan is an excellent producer.

Howard, the wine was as pure and perfect as it gets. My first Jouan, and I have to have many more…

I love your post. And I love all sorts of wine, but nothing else hits the heights of Red (and White) Burg.