I was puzzled that the great Henri Jayer considers 2002 as one of the greatest vintages of the last 100 years ( quoted in the excellent little book on Burgundy vintages from Jacky Rigaud ) . So our wine club accepted the theme and we organized a blind tasting with 11 wines . The order was completely random .
Overall , this is an excellent vintage . The wines are concentrated , powerful and have great balance . I also find them still very primary and often still very much closed , which is remarkable at year 12 . However , the wines lack the sweetness of vintages like 1999 to be considered absolutely top imo .
intense , dense , lot’s of material here . Still very primary . Lovely nose , very sappy . 92+ Dom Vougeraie BONNES MARES
dark , heavy , lot’s of alcohol on the nose , lacks freshness , extracted , not bad but not my style 88+ Forey NSG PERRIERES
red fruit , yummy , silky and spicy , finesse wine , lovely 93+ Gerard Mugneret NSG BOUDOTS
full bodied , lot’s of alcohool , a big wine , silky and long , powerfull 92+ Rousseau Gevrey CLOS ST JACQUES
nice red fruit , sappy , lot’s of pinot character , spicy and fresh , this is a great wine 94+ Chevillon NSG les ST GEORGES
some caramel in the nose , very sweet , spicy , some like it much more than I do 93 Dujac ECHEZEAUX
fresh , sweet , but little Pinot characteristics , almost a Rhone wine , perfectly drinkable now , ( most of all wines in this tasting ) no great lenght 93 Mugnier MUSIGNY
initially very closed , very concentrated , I would leave this alone for at least another 10 years , great wine though , spicy and funky 94+ Chevillon NSG VAUCRAINS
sweet nose , more evolution , brique , seems too old compared to the others , not 100 % clean , gamy 90 ? Groffier BONNES MARES
nose of liquorice , young , severe , difficult to judge , not good NR Gouges NSG Les ST GEORGES
pure pinot , fresh , no great complexity but concentrated , yummy , 94 Dom Leroy SAVIGNY NARBATTONS
Overall , the 10 tasters were asked to vote for their top 3 with as a result
Gerard Mugneret , Nuits St Georges aux Boudots : 15 ( 2 first places )
Domaine Leroy , Savigny les Narbattons : 12 ( 2 first places )
Chevillon , Nuits St Georges les St Georges : 11 ( 2 first places )
Dujac Echezeaux : 9 ( 1 firts place )
Mugnier Musigny : 5 ( 1 first place )
So lot’s of good wines , no real stand outs . But this Gerard Mugneret makes stunning wines , they ALWAYS do well in our tastings . They are true finesse wines that somehow escape from peoples radar screen . ( I know , Rainer , not yours ).
A 2002 was my Burgundy epiphany and that was the vintage on the shelves when I first started exploring the region so the vintage style is burned into my wine DNA. I particularly love it. I think its especially strong in the cote de beaune. Im surprised to hear that you think it lacks sweetness because I feel that if the vintage has any flaw its that its sometimes a bit too ripe in some wines.
I am hardly an expert compared to many others around here, but from personal experience with wines significantly less exalted than the ones listed above, I find that 1990 is still my favorite vintage, followed by 1999, 2002, 1996, and 2005.
1999, 2002, 2005, 2010 for saving
2006, 2008 also for saving but not like the above
2003 risky but great reward if right
2009 for saving or drinking
1998, 2000, 2001, 2007 for drinking
2004, 2011 for skipping
2012 not sure if like 2002 or 2009
2013?
yeah, this is pretty, pretty good. but 2012 seems more like 2010 to me so far than 2009.
i like the 2002s a lot as well and have been slowly cracking into the cheaper stuff - a 2002 Bize Vergelesses recently was profound.
however, i have seen some that are not mature, but seemingly a little weak and/or advanced. i have always wondered what affect the summer of 2003 had on 2002 barrels sitting in the cellars of burgundy. many cellars are not subterranean and not actively climate controlled. there must be cellars where the maturation was accelerated or otherwise altered unexpectedly given the freak heat wave. perhaps it had no ill effect or perhaps it’s too early to tell. anyone else have thoughts on this piece?
Good topic. - I don’t know if it’s great, but like Barry, this is the one I really cut my teeth on. This is the one I reach for the most and from which I’ve drunk the most. I’m always hunting for these when I see a retailer release a new cellar. I think it’s been a really open vintage. Good wines made up and down the Cote and up and down the hierarchy. I just finished up my villages level wines and they have been generous along the way. So too with some of my lower esteemed 1ers. Like the OP, I didn’t really find them tight until I started trying some of the higher levels wines (I just had a really clunky Hudelot- Noellat Chambolle-Musigny Charmes - you can’t win them all).
This vintage kind of seems to sit in the shadows of 1999, 2005 and 2010, but for a long time that kept the prices a little more reasonable. I haven’t been seeing that lately though.
For me it’s a very good vintage but hasn’t proven that it is great. But it is also too early to tell. I find the wines charming and with quite nice fruit, but overall lacking a bit in complexity and that last little bit of excitement you find in great wines. I’m hoping things will change with a little more time, but at this point I think 2005 and 2010 will be better. I’m also a big fan of 1999, but also still too early to tell.
I think it’s a very good vintage, currently showing a rather roasted ripeness which makes it far closer to 2003 than one would have thought possible.
Gerard Mugneret is indeed a great address. Even though prices have doubled recently they are still inexpensive compared to those other, often overrated, growers!
In my opinion 2002 is one of the best vintages between 1990 and 2005, maybe slightly behind 1999, but more consistant than 1995+96 - not in all cases superior to the latter two - and I prefer it to 1993, too.
Several winemakers were enthusiastic about the vintage in the summer of 2003 when I tasted thru their barrels: great pure fruit, perfect balance, fine concentration, good acidity but ripe tannins - and not too much of the latter. This was (more or less) confirmed in my tastings … although sure there were differences.
While several wines seem to be acessable now, most are far from really mature … I guess that´s why some seem to be slightly disapointing, because they are neither very expressive now nor very powerful.
My experience is: if a wine was great in barrel AND great young in the bottle, it will also be fine when mature - question is only WHEN … so patience is necessary.
My guess is: 2010 - 2025 most wines will be entering maturity.
Thanks, Herwig. Very interesting notes and thoughts. How well I remember those Chevillon 2002s…both at Xmas 2004 and in spring 2004 they were superb. Glad to see they’re behaving as they should at almost 12 years old.
The fact that Peter and a number of other posters have compared 2002 to 1999, 20005 and 2010 I think answers the question. Whether it is a truly “great” vintage or merely “really really good” is somewhat academic for most of us. For me it is a distinction with out a difference. I want to drink all the vintages…
I really enjoy the vintage and wish I had more in my cellar. I love the bright fruit character that shines thru.
I think 2002 was great for 1ers and village, not so good for GC. For example I would drink a 2002 1er in favour of a 1999 but the reverse in regards to GC.
I was in Burgundy during the 2002 harvest and the bunches were tightly packed with grapes, relatively thin skinned and small ripe seeds. I think this generally produced fruit driven rather than highly structured wines though for Pommard I have had highly structured 2002 wines. Cheers Mike
“It” all gets back to what your criteria are in determining whether a vintage is “great” …or whatever you think it is.
In “great” vintages…the grand crus usually stand out “less”, as their ability to ripen and produce great wines is better in any given vintage, historically. That’s why they’re “grand crus”. They often show their worth in “lesser” vintages more so than in “great” ones, depending on one’s criteria.
That’s why massive tastings of grand crus (sometimes the best of the grand crus) make me chuckle…in the context of judging a “vintage” in any sense but how the grand crus did…which such tasting can certainly do. But…in some ways, it is misleading about the overall quality of a vintage. They don’t need the help that “great” vintages give to the 1ers/villages/regionals…and, as Mike points out…the grand crus often do not seem that “grand” vis a vis the other wines in a “great” vintage. Quite a paradox.
One can create just about any group of criteria for evaluating a vintage, I think. The winemakers and “industry” – in my experience-- are almost always talking about “greatness” “accross the board (ie, levels of the AOC hierarchy and geography)” when they’re talking about “great” vintages. But, then again…those people are talking mainly about fruit quality…not just wines.
I would say it was a great vintage for some additional reasons - both the CdB Blancs and Chablis are also excellent. For me, a “great burgundy vintage” provides excellent wines across the range of appellations. Contrasting with other vintages thrown into the mix '96 would qualify (except for premox) and 2010. Others such as '99 and '05 just don’t have that consistency.
To Peter Hirsch,
I have had a number of really delicious 2011s that are well above the level of the 2004s.
To the original question,
To me 2002 is not great. It is a lovely vintage of open, pretty wines, but I would like to see a bit more depth for the vintage to be ranked as great! Having said that, I have opened a few lately that have been quite yummy (technical phrase).
I popped a 2002 Domaine Armand Rousseau Chambertin-Clos de Beze for lunch before the Showdown, it was really good but far from great. In general, I really love the 2002 vintage and am getting great pleasure from drinking many now MT
).![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink"){kind=small}