I am currently exploring wines of Burgundy, trying to keep budget in check while figuring out the best producers, QPR, villages, and vineyards for my taste. I am especially a sucker for deals and coupons, however, many of the deal a day sites (WineText, LastBottle, etc…) tend to have more obscure producers that may be of variable quality.
I bought the Coates Wines of Burgundy book Coates Wines of Burgundy book and in it he ranks the producers and top premier cru vineyards. I found these rankings incomplete (and a bit outdated from 2008) but still very helpful when used alongside CellarTracker. I digitized the star ranking from his appendix and have been using it for quick reference. I thought folks on this board might find it useful as I have.
Let me know if its taboo from a copyright/board etiquette perspective. To be clear, I encourage everyone to buy the book as the details are often more useful than the stars .
I have sometimes joked that, were I to wish to rapidly make a large number of enemies in Burgundy, I would attempt a 3-star classification of its domaines myself. Such an exercise invites attention to points of contention rather than agreement. And of course any such classification is—as it should be—hugely informed by personal taste and preferences. Personally, I wouldn’t rate de Vogüé higher than Roumier, Barthod and Mugnier, nor would I put Jean-François Coche a star behind Lafon and Roulot. As for ranking Grivot, Anne Gros and Michel Gros above Henri Jayer, well… And importantly, as others have already observed, a lot has in any case changed since 2008.
If you are looking for a more up-to-date classification, albeit with all the limitations inherent in such a subjective exercise, you might look at the latest Bettane & Dessauve guide if you read a little French.
Classifications, in fact, are probably more useful in the less famous parts of Burgundy, simply to draw your attention to fine producers, and if looking at something like this prompts you to explore the wines of Vincent Dureuil-Janthial, Bruno Lorenzon or Jean-Marc Vincent, then the exercise will have been well worth it.
In the final analysis, however, it is amusing to reflect that the market may be less fallible, as a whole, than the press; Jayer, for example, having attained celebrity as much despite the writings of journalists (i.e. Michel Bettane’s dislike of his wines) as because of them. An 1855-style classification of domaines by market price, I’d suggest, certainly would’t be any less helpful than Coates’ reproduced here.
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