Maybe taste some wines from the vintage (just as should be done with the 2015s) but, as always with Burgundy today, there will not be an opportunity to taste wine from the popular domaines before buying, particularly given what little is available.
I meant to taste a bottle bevor buying in quantity.
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Quite true - but their '16s might be better than their '15s, theyâre that good.
Some 2015s arenât that good; simply too sweet. I have little doubt that there will be 2016s in better balance than 2015s.
Well, that´s really good news, William!
Given the small quantities, I would guess itâs risky in some cases to wait until you can get ahold of a bottle to sample.
Be that as it may, and without wishing to revive a debate which has already been exhausted in another recent thread, that is not a criticism which could be leveled at the 2015 reds of any of the eight CĂ´te Chalonnaise producers which JĂźrgen and I were discussing.
I had the pleasure of tasting 2016 Dujac from barrel. And at least at Dujac, the 2016s are plain gorgeous. What struck me at the time was how pure the fruit was and how smooth the tannins were, even the Bonnes Mares. So I was a little surprised to hear Gerhard mention drying tannins in 2016. Hearing William Kelly mention the success of Morey St Denis helps explain it. Also, Dujac is Dujac.
I also bought a 2016 Frederic Esmonin Gevrey Clos Prieur out of curiosity and this thread. I was very pleasantly surprised.
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2016 Frederic Esmonin Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Prieur - France, Burgundy, CĂ´te de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin (11/4/2017)
Found at Whole Foods in Miami for $28 which isnât bad if you know Miami.
Bright red cranberry fruit on the nose and palate. The fruit is surprisingly clean and pure. Maybe a hint of earth if you look for it. Tannins are very smooth and search as I may, nothing drying on the finish. A very pleasant surprise and a very pretty 2016 Gevrey.
Posted from CellarTracker
Wow thatâs crazy, didnât know 2016s were being shipped already. Have been tasting some wines the past few days, but all still from barrel, and in some barrels the malolactic fermentation wasnât even finished.
Fred Esmonin walks to the beat of his own drum, I have had his 2017 offer already
After reading Robert and Justins posts, I think Iâm going to check if someone is ITB before reading anything in future. Can you block users?
Yes you can use the âignoreâ feature, or you can read someones post and filter it with the knowledge they are ITB and add the information to the broad overview that you obtain from all the other pundits who have an opinion, I dont have the time to barrel taste in Burgundy, so I welcome any first hand reports and notes from people on this board, ITB or not
Robert Panzer has recommend a few wines to me, all suggestions have been great, I have no issue with him being ITB.
As for 2016, the only issue I see are prices will probably be higher. As for the whites, I will buy all the ones I have been buying, but sadly, I think allocations will be cut again and prices higher.
My post may have looked a bit harsh, but I too arenât privy many factsâ and have to rely on second hand opinion. I feel uncomfortable when the writer is also peddling these wines. Maybe the writer is being 100% honest, but how would I know? Williamâs post came across as honest, detailed and logical. As he has no skin in the game (AFAIK), Iâm much more comfortable believing him, although there are no guarantees that he is ârightâ (please notice the inverted commas - I know itâs all opinion.) As Robertâs analysis was so different and so positive, added to the fact that it is in interests to be positive troubled me a little.
I may not use the ignore feature, but itâs nice to know it exists!
Hi James,
I was attempting to qualify, not contradict. Iâm assuming Robert has mainly tasted with producers he works with; and looking at wines represented on his website, I would say that if you tasted 2016s with, e.g., Olivier Lamy, Violot-Guillemard, FrĂŠdĂŠric Lafarge, Hudelot-Noellat, Charles Audoin or Mugneret Gibourg, then you would certainly come away lyricizing about the 2016 vintage. My attempted contribution was a word of caution to the effect that not everyone did so wellâincluding producers and cuvĂŠes from whom one normally expects excellence. I also attempted to explain some of the reasons for that heterogeneity. My view is informed by tasting and reviewing 1,500 wines at 160 or so Domaines over two months, which is not something anyone other than a professional critic is likely to have time to do. As threads like these can do a lot to establish expectations, I thought it an important qualification.
FWIW, I interpreted Robertâs initial post as an honest expression of enthusiasm for the 2016 vintage.
All best,
William
I understand how Robâs vintage comments could be taken as shill. I think it is important that with any critic, wine purveyor, or anyone posting impressions on this site, that you have to have an understanding of their palate, experience, and passion for the comments to mean anything.
I have been buying wine for years from Robert, and I have a basic understanding of his palate, and know that he is extremely passionate about what he does. He also has an understanding of my palate, and he has steered me away from buying things that he felt I might not like, without pushing another wine on me.
I know Robert sells wine to make a living, but I get the feeling from him that long term relationships are more important to him than pushing something that will get one sale, but disappoint the buyer. While his offerings are usually filled with lots of excitement, and passion, I have no doubt that Robert believes in what he writes. Whether you or I agree with him is something else.
Just my two cents.
Agreed, Jeff - like I posted in a similar thread, we seem to have a lot of Berserkers that want to buy wines, but donât want to have wines sold to them 
Interestingly, a lot of people seem to love Terry Theiseâs annual vintage catalogs for Germany, Austria and Champagne. I enjoy reading his stuff as well, but at least IMO, while well-written, Terry is also clearly in âsell modeâ.
Approaching the finish line, still in full on pant-pant-pant hustle mode, in the Mosel.
I thank everyone (haters too, iâm in a peacemaker mood) for their contributions.
As I donât have the time for as much detail as I ideally be able to add, I would like to add these few precisions:
-As William noted, not only did Clos de Tart and Clos des Lambrays make the most wine since 1999, the entire village of Morey did.
-Gevrey as a village was mostly spared from frost.
-Santenay was completely spared from frost.
-Pommard seems to have suffered only 5-15% frost damage.
-Portions of Vosne did not suffer frost. The northern portions very much did.
I believe that these areas that had little to no frost very much illustrate the character of the untraumatized portions of the 2016 vintage, sort of what the dynamics of the 2016 cycle would bear if every producer/village got to experience peaceful frost-free abiding, even with the crazy intense mildew pressure from the June rains. At the heart of things, this is the face of 2016 that I am so wild about, and it also exists among the most diligent of the frost traumatized villages as well. As William mentioned, Cyril Audoin is a good example of this.
Things get far more complicated and require qualifiers and heterogeneous expectations once you enter trauma town oâ frost.
But as in every single vintage: producer, producer, producer.
Every single vintage presents opportunities to capture the greatness of the vintage, or fall into its trappings/shortcomings. Sometimes nature is much more generous, sometimes she is cruel.
'15s can be outstanding. They can be overripe, overly tannic, lacking energy.
'16s can be outstanding. They can be overripe, underripe, somewhat dilute.
In wildly oversimplified fashion, 1990/1991 comparison can be made with 2015/2016.
Both vintages have simply wonderful strengths that any Burgundy lover will celebrate.
It is very true that there is, especially in the frost affected parcels, way way way less wine to go around in 2016, sort of to echo what John said.
Ciao for now.
Doubling down on âhatersâ doesnât count as peacemaking in my book. I guess we all have different standards.
TOP DEFINITION
shill
A person engaged in covert advertising. The shill attempts to spread buzz by personally endorsing the product in public forums with the pretense of sincerity, when in fact he is being paid for his services.
Who are you shilling for?
Ignore the n00b, heâs just here to shill.