Curious what the strategies are out there. Less interested in absolute number of bottles or $ amount, but proportionally, how deep do you go when you really like or love a vintage? Do you pick your spots or spread your bets? Any mistakes made or lessons learned?
The reason I’m asking is that have really enjoyed the 08s and 10s, I’ve gone deep on both, especially the 10s. Very light on '09, some '07s and '06s and then a smattering of previous vintages that I have backfilled (e.g. 99, 01, 02). I’ve easily got 30+ years of wine drinking ahead of me and realize this is a long haul game, so want to have a good strategy. I do like wines with some age, but don’t need 30 years either.
I try to buy my favorite producers as much as I can, pretty much every vintage, less so in average to below average vintages, more so in great vintages. But highly lauded vintages usually come with associated higher prices. There’s always budget constraints and you can’t buy every producer, at least I can’t. I’m backfilling more these days with a buy less, but better bottles philosophy. Also, if yields are low, but I really like the vintage, I’ll usually buy what I’m offered from my sources cuz I know there’s not a lot out there.
I think you’ve done the right thing to go deep in 2008 and 2010. You’ll be very happy in 15 years, particularly since 2011, 12, 13 might be somewhat more iffy propositions, although who knows. and I personally agree ongoing light with 2009. Otherwise I would backfill. You still have the opportunity to get wines from the 90’s and 2001, 2002, 2005 and not have to wait forever on the new releases.
With limited funds, I actually buy a lot more from vintages like '06 and '08 (very good but not “vintages of the century”) than I do in vintages like '10, which I know is fantastic but much pricier. In '08 I was able to get Ponsot and Dujac CdlR for $180 per; in '10 it would cost me twice that. I think most decent vintages are pretty good these days, and I find more value in the very good rather than great vintages. Of course, if I had the funds I’d be loading up on '10 and backfilling '05s like crazy.
I’ve also had good luck recently cherrypicking nearly-ready-to-drink wines from '98, '96, '95, '93, and '91 – often for less than current release prices.
where Rousseau gives his classification of the various vintages, which I haven’t seen it discussed here.
There seems to be quite a few unexpected rankings, like 08 being of shorter term than 07.
The reason I mention it here is that he puts 09 in the category of the longest lived vintages, longer than 10, for example.
Mugnier expressed a similar view (in a video interview with Galloni).
As always, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions at such an early stage.
Yes 2009 young can be offputting because of the invading blast of fruit and I have had some who “are not my style” …for now (I also had reat bottles). What seems a weakness may turn out to be rewarded in the longer term. This only requires patience as the elements seem to be here. I also think the quality is more widespread than 2008 and 2010 where quality can be very high with great producers and great terroir but less attractive/consistent otherwise
2008 is a difficult proposition: I went across very acidic bottles on one end, but through great pure, crystaline delicious bottles. Irregular but some delicious young wines. I tend to think it is better vintage at the top end than at the lower end where some wines lack substance (except for acidity).
My policy has been to buy proportionatly to the production of the year (this makes things easier with suppliers) as I like diversity and have to buy before a judgment can be safely made hence, initially, I went normal on 2008, long on 2009, a bit short on 2010. However, when I saw 2011 prices, I filled back on 2010 and, funnily enough, was able to find quite some reknowned producer wines at release price (including Barthod, De Courcel, Fourrier and Hudelot Noellat) despite 2010 being a low production year. Bizarre! So, 2010 is now long and 2011 is short (half 2008). There are also some great drinkin 2007 although" not sure" it is a “great vintage”
I buy every vintage, it is merely the volume that changes. Really top vintages could be the equivalent of 25+ (mixed) cases, whereas vintages where you have to be more picky/focused could be as low as 4-5 mixed cases - 2004, after much thinning is at that level for me.
I only really started purchasing for the cellar with the 1996 vintage, as that was when I first had access to storage; since then I’ve averaged nearly 15 cases per vintage in the cellar, up to the 2010 vintage. Of-course that completely misses what I’ve consumed over the same period, which I assume is in the 250(+?) bottles per year (20 cases) range, so I guess what I’m cellaring, plus drinking, is in the order of 35 cases in an average year…
Being 50 (now) I’m actively reducing the cellar purchasing, starting with vintage 2011 I may only buy half (or less) than before. But knowing me, I’ll probably buy a bit more ‘casino’ old stuff at auctions for direct drinking…
I’m not sure if that answers it for you or not, but I saw the vintage as offering up what I love in Burgundy. I was light in 2009, fairly long in 2008, light in 2007 and 2006 (but am backfilling with some bargains now), pretty heavy in 2005, very little in 2003-2004, heavy in 2002, light in 2000-2091 (but have backfilled with bargains and favorites), moderate in 1999 (even though everyone loved them at release), etc. etc.
Only b/c I buy from top to bottom, I end up buying a lot. I will have extensive amounts of 2007 and 2011 b/c of special years (married in 2007, kid in 2011), so I’ve been buying a lot of wine over the last 5 vintages (one kid in 2008 too, so that worked out great!)
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