We made a push a while back to just start drinking pretty much all our White Burgundies (or selling them off in some instances). It has been, as one would expect, a very mixed bag. Recently a 2005 Sauzet Puligny was on the edge of drinkability. It had a cloying nature to it with no sign of any elegance and the finish was beginning to be stripped away. I think 4 people went through about 2/3rds of the bottle. We cracked a 2005 Champ Canet last night with higher hopes (why?) and they turned out to be unfounded. Much worse off. Golden color and smelling of a combination of hair spray and over-ripe canned peaches. The inner core of fruit is there but not in a very appealing way and the outer shell of the wine is strongly oxidative and tastes of over toasted nuts (bitter) with the finish being completely blown out. We have a handful more of 2005s to go, a decent amount of 2006s, we drank the 2007s, didn’t buy the 2008s, still think the 2009s are okay and for some reason (not my call) we got a case of 2010s which will be consumed quite early.
ouch.
Oh my. Haven’t touched any Sauzet yet.
Sucks. Just sucks.
I mean, do I need to start worrying about my 2007s, Jim? I love the Champ Canet and would really like to see that one age, as I have 3 of them. I did drink a 2008 Combettes recently and it wasn’t affected by anything but the oak to me seemed higher than I preferred.
For me it was Guy Amiot & Fils. All 2005 Chassagnes; Champgains, Baudines & Vergers.
“on the edge of drinkability. It had a cloying nature to it with no sign of any elegance and the finish was beginning to be stripped away”
Sounds exactly what I experienced. And they weren’t cheap!
I still have a bunch of 2002-2005 Fevre GC that I’m trying to drink up… wish I could swap them for something less disappointing.
Jim–why are you still buying these things? Aside from the premox issue, for which there is no actual sign yet of a cure, the character of the wines has not been up to snuff for the most part in most vintages. Many of the Sauzet’s I’ve had, and the Leflaive’s from 2002 on have just seemed too ripe, lacking definition, etc. The only vintages showing promise have been 2007, maybe some 2008. I haven’t had much 2010 yet to make a judgement. 2004’s that have survived have been fairly good, but the premox toll has been fairly heavy. I’ve wondered about the winemaking, but I think a lot of it is just climate change and the vintages.
One caveat is that this is about the worst time to be trying 2005’s and 2006’s–probably the most off phase of their development, so there is a reasonable chance they may be somewhat better in 2-3 years (if they survive).
2005 Pernot Bienvenues Batard was the white wine of several great wines a couple weeks ago, so not all hope is lost. A 2004 Leflaive Bienvenues also a couple weeks ago was really young. I think Sauzet has been known for its premox issues since the late 90’s, and that doesn’t seem to be improving. I’m still buying but just the few producers not known for any premox issues, if that is indeed possible.
I’ve tried many white burgs, but I’m not 100% positive that I really know what a proper mature non-oxidized white burg is supposed to taste like. This is the curse of having gotten into wine in the last few years.
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We had stopped buy Sauzet for a bit. We totally dropped Laflaive after '06 (and sold that and the '05s off). We only bought a few 07s and pretty much drank them. We passed on '08. We bought '09s but mostly the Bourgogne (which is really good and we re-upped for more and drink them frequently). The '10s were not my call but we have a box of them downstairs now. My plan is to be pretty much all our White Burgs in the next 2-3 years. Pernot might be the exception there however. Never have had an off bottle over many, many vintages.
As far as being worried about the '07s you have. I would drink them sooner than later if you want them to be solid. Anything past the near future means you are entering into the super-risky PMOX zone.
We had an '07 La Garenne last Friday night that was still drinking quite well, had picked it up at a local store that had it “marked down” to $48.
This is my sense, as well. 06s already have a high incidence of premox in my experience, and I think 07 is into the gray area now or very soon. Of course, this varies by producer, bottling etc., but I think the rolling window of “mostly safe from premox” is probably now or very soon going to be 2008 and later, and then roll forward from there.
I have some 2008 Sauzet Pulignys and should probably drink them in the next 6-12 months to be safe.
Sheesh you guys are depressing. I honestly don’t understand the deal. I rarely find bottles with premox and mostly drink 2000 to 2002 now.
Covered a million times. Very recently in fact.
UGH.
I never really jumped back into Sauzet but still have some bottles from the mid-late nineties. Ugh is right.
I don’t disagree with the strategy to just say screw it–I’m going to drink them when I ordinarily would if PREMOX wouldn’t exist. the survivors might be wonderful. part of the trouble with drinking early is that some folks are drinking them in middle age, which is often a down period for a number of these wines. That’s where I think some of the 05’s and 06’s in burg and chablis are right now.
These wines are not in some sort of down phase. They’re toast or close to and headed in that direction. My experience is what I think is commonly expressed here. At around six years of age the wines enter into the zone where they may or may not be PMOXed. The bottles that go south are not coming back. The bottles that are clean may age gracefully or may not. I’m likely to keep '02 and '04 stuff we have around since it’s either gone or good. The younger wines I’m not bothering to try and find out. Hopefully I get to them before they die a too youthful death and get at least my money back out of the deal. Others experiences may differ or they may decide to take a different course of action but the 2006-2007 and younger White Burgs I happen to own are getting consumed sooner than later.