I have a decent amount of Burg in the cellar, none of it very old, so I don’t really have a ton of experience on how long to age them. I’d like to start with simple guidelines of the following form.
Bourgogne = 5-7 years
Village = 7- 10 years
1’er = 10-15 years
Grand Cru > 15 years
Fully understand that producer, vintage and vineyard matter, but I’m looking for some general guidelines.
Thoughts about those windows?
How about tripling any professional critic’s drinking window?
May not work for JG windows.
Rob,
Burgundy is a wine with many guidelines and generalizations, proven wrong by even more exceptions.
In general, there is a window of disappointment with burgundy. They are great in their first 2-3 years as they thrive on their fruit. Then as the fruit fades, they get harder, some would say shrill. This is often when haters of burgundy try them and describe them as “thin and acidic.”
After some time the wines re-open, still fruit driven, but sometimes with tertiary elements. That age where this occurs is generally 10-15.
Also noteworthy is that Burgundy doesn’t follow a traditional curve of youth-peak-decline, but instead follows a sort of sin curve with multiple peaks and valleys. If a wine is unfriendly today, don’t assume it’s past-peak, just push it further back in the cellar, and you’ll likely be rewarded.
Finally, a few caveats.
First, different vintages behave differently. For example the great 2005’s are aging glacially. Some village wines are drinkable, but almost none are in their full glory yet, and many here suspect the better wines are still a decade or two away of even being approachable. But 2002, another ripe vintage, was attractive early, and never shut down hard.
Second, the recent solar vintages of 2018-2020 may behave completely different than those that came before. Who knows, maybe they’ll start delicious and age on a bell curve?
Finally, winemaking has a tremendous impact too. Some domains take forever to come around, and others never seem to shut down.
There are only two or three vintages from this millennium that I worry about aging. 2004 has always been green and unpleasant to me, and many 2011’s are aging really fast. I’ve had a few worrisome 2013’s but I think it might have just been bad luck. I think you are in no danger of drinking any other vintage too soon.
In general I’m drinking village or lower wines from 2017 and younger, or 2012 and older. I occasionally experiment with premier crus from 2010 and before, and usual decide I opened them too soon. And except for one producer, I’m letting my 21st century grand crus sleep.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, there is so much more to learn. Even for the experts here.
In Bill Nanson’s book he mentions that the plateau of interest lies for GC - 20-40 yrs., PC - 20-30, Villages - 15-20. This is, of course, stated within the context of all the other variables (personal preference, appellation, vineyard, vintage, producer(x3), etc.) as a very general idea.
I don’t think simple guidelines for aging windows work in Burgundy (or much of anywhere else, for that matter).
One might say that every rule has its exceptions, and are no reason not to have baseline rules. I would reply that, in this case, the exceptions are the rule.
2000, 2007, 2017 were open and fine drinking early on and stayed that way (17 still early of course)
My POV is that your initial proposed guidelines are fine, as long as you consider adjusting them for vintage and producer. There’s already been discussion of 2005 e.g. - add 10 to the initial simple guideline.
To get more finely tuned, first and foremost, start drinking Burgs from producers you like of all different ages. Take notes. Do more of what you like and less of what you don’t like. Second, read Cellar Tracker (and sites like this one) to see what other people are thinking. If lots of folks are saying a wine you have from, say, 2012, is hard, tannic and not giving, then don’t open it. Often the messages are inconsistent and mixed, and you just have to guess or read between the lines.
The general rule of thumb is there is no rule of thumb. Drinking windows are completely useless. As Francois Audouze says “wine ages in a non linear way” and it is the truth.
In Burgundy, there are no rules, only exceptions. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
2005 will take ages to get there, many 2010 have been and are approachable and delicious now… both are excellent vintages but are very different.
I am getting more positive on 2011 and have had great 2013 (Mugneret Gibourg NSG vill was really special)
As mentioned above several times, there is no generalised rule. The best you can do is find the producers you like, then understand how their different wines age according to vintage.
Too young and maybe you’ve wasted a bottle. Not young enough and it might be shut down. Once there’s some age…is it still too early? I’ve had a few that were past prime, even at 10 - 15 years. 15 - 30 is kind of my sweet spot. 30 - 45 is definitely a possibility. 45+ and things get dicey. YMMV
RT
Agree. I did not buy enough 2000 and 2007. They are all gone…
I am getting more 2017 so that I do not need to open my 2015 for a while.
Not a clue how to answer this question. I have often had Bourgogne Rouge or other regional wines at 2-4 years old for the fruit - these wines at this age with good acidity can be wonderful with salmon, for example. But, then, a couple of weeks ago I had a beautiful 2010 Bourgogne Rouge from Cecile Tremblay that was just starting to hit maturity.
Howard…you sound like that you are in agreement of what Jeremy said.
I usually agree with what Jeremy says on Burgundy. He has a great palate and tons of knowledge on the subject.
But, I think the point I am making is a bit different. It is not always an issue of mature or not mature, although this is important. Sometimes, the issue is what you want the wine to taste like. Red Burgundies can be enjoyable at different ages but can taste very different at these different ages. For example, do you want clean pure fruit or more mature flavors and this can depend on what you are eating with the wine among other things. If I am drinking the wine with salmon, I may want a younger wine showing simpler flavors and more acidity. If I drink a Burgundy with meat, I might want the deeper flavors of a more mature wine.
Probably the most dangerous time to drink Burgundy is 5-10 years old or so where, depending very much on the wine and the vintage, the wine can be closed. I have seen tons of notes calling these wines over the hill when they are really too young and just closed.
My take exactly. Drink them young or old, but inbetween - a non determinate interval - they are more or less unpredictable.
I find simple aging rules of thumb to be extremely useful and mostly accurate for Bordeaux, but almost useless for Burgundy. About all you can say is that soon after the vintage date it will be fruity and open, and then at an indeterminate point after the vintage date it will shut down, stay closed for some indeterminate number of years, then reopen in a different form for an indeterminate period of years, possibly shut down again, etc. And it depends on vintage. And the primary fruit will gradually fade with age. etc.
Howard’s point about the different personalities of wines at different ages is also very true and important. I have seen people advising not to drink Burgundy young, not because it was really closed down, but because they thought it was a waste to drink Burgundy on the fruit rather than waiting for full tertiary complexity. But that depends on your taste (and your age lol).
Kind of skimming through this, it seems the closest to a generalization is as follows:
None of this is based on direct experience, just trying to distill some kind of minimal rules that reduce closed phase risk from the knowledge above . . . .