David… to be satisfied, it is easy. To be not satisfied, it is also not satisfied. To be satisfied or not to be satisfied, it is a question within one’s hear and mind. Isn’t it David.
Thanks for your comments - but I am not the Burg geeks from Singapore, Hong Kong or Shanghai. For long, long time I let them drinking all my red wines which were ringing and singing like the Church Bells in Chambolle - Roumier…Mujginer…my dear… Roumiers…
FYI - I am the president of the 2 Ms Club in Montreal, Quebec , Canada.
Yes - the fairest in any life is : the end result. We come with nothing and we will go with nothing.
Please remember what the wine God in China said :
Ten thousand coins for a cask of wine, with many a laugh and quip.
Why say, my host, that your money is gone?
Go and buy wine and we’ll drink it together!
My flower-dappled horse,
My furs worth a thousand,
Hand them to the boy to exchange for good wine,
And we’ll drown away the woes of ten thousand generations!
I recall after tasting the '18s in November of '19 saying that it was my least favorite vintage in memory due to the heterogeneous peaks and valleys, and the possible extremes of being overcropped, phenolically underripe, overripe in either an alcohol sense or a more cooked than fresh fruit sense.
However, many people made outstanding wines by any definition, with Lafarge, JP Guyon, Charles Lachaux, Michel Mallard, Thomas Bouley, Bruno Lorenzon, Cyril Audoin being some who immediately pop to mind among my stable of growers. Hands down delicious delicioushnesh that I have every confidence will age very well.
Brady’s point is a reasonable one about '18-20 all being, globally speaking, riper than might please whatever metric of traditionalism we can come up with. But we could also add '15, and '16 to that same list, I think…and '09/'10 possibly.
'21 seems poised to possibly be a traditionalist’s cup of tea, in the late September/early October picked, lower alcohol, higher acidity vein. But it will certainly be heterogeneous, I think…
Lots of details.
Lots of great wines.
Lots of not so great wines.
C’est la vie en bouteille.
I don’t really understand “ripe” and “shrill” going together, except in one sense - almost all Burgundies now come across shrill on release and for several years thereafter as a result of being bottled with a noticeable amount of trapped CO2. You need to shake 'em up and then they are fine. I wish it weren’t so but this is what they are almost all doing now.
2018 is not a 5-star vintage like 2015, there are definitely some wines lacking freshness, but I have to agree with David that those can’t find a lot to like in it are just looking for negativity. It’s funny how much praise gets heaped on lightweight nothingburger vintages but as soon as you get a vintage even a small notch on the other side of the ripeness norm, everybody feels compelled to establish street cred by complaining about it.
There’s definitely some truth to this. I’m no '18 fanboy – I prefer '15, '16, probably '17, and very likely '19. Probably '12 and '14 too, and '09, and '10 of course. But it really has been an embarrassment of riches recently, hasn’t it? Where would '18 fit in the '90s hierarchy? Certainly it’s way too early to tell, but would it shock anyone if it ultimately proved superior to every '90s vintage except 99/93/91 and possibly even better than all except '99? Ripeness isn’t exactly a flaw.
2018 is my least favourite vintage in recent memory. I’ve had very few which showed true elegance - the aforementioned Lafarge Volnay is one, Thomas Bouley’s Volnay is another (though I don’t like it as much as 2017) and I just opened a Barthod Bons Batons last night which was perfumed and sensual while still being round and generous. It’s my first Barthod, though, so I cannot compare it to any other year.
I just don’t think many people nailed it and I’m basically done buying them in lieu of 2019s. Of course there are exceptions but I find that they lack energy and just feel heavy.
As I’ve said before, it was a hard pass in both colors given it’s almost impossible to taste, then buy, anymore and early samples were not encouraging.
Say what you will about Burgundy drinkers, 2018 is a minefield in France everywhere east of Bordeaux and west of the Jura. Usual high quality suspects did poorly so Buyer beware. Which isn’t to say, of course, that there are not good to great wines out there. There are.
This is my take as well. There are some producers that knocked it out of the park, as mentioned up-topic (I personally have the 2018 Arnoux-Lachaux wines in my cellar), but most bottles I’ve tasted from producers that I typically enjoy have been disappointing (in both colors). When you’re spending serious money it’s not worth the risk. I took the opportunity to backfill.
It’s pretty much my same feeling on 2018. I am sure there are some great wines but I was not a fan of the few things from many regions I tasted early which influenced my later impressions; it seemed broadly a vintage more of density and furry tannin rather than my preference of complexity and freshness and focus. And not cheap. Since I am getting old and have too much wine it was easy to just say no.
While I haven´t tasted many wines by lower level producers on the top level it´s imho not Subpar …
(and the best and most expensive wines were not even in the tasting due to financial restrictions …)
Yong and I are satisfied with the 2016s, Ryan and Peter are satisfied with the 2015s, Michael is satisfied with the 2018s. I have never seen so much satisfaction in one thread.
Yes, the same way everyone fell over themselves for the 1990 vintage only to later realize 1991 and 1993 generally produced better wines.
Michael - you are confusing me. I was under the impression that you love 2017 red.
So now you are also buying all the 2018.
Are you planning to do a match-tasting ( = single blind with wine pour by someone else from bottles ) of Chambertin by Rousseau vs Trapet from the same vintage year ? I love to hear your honest result…
Yes Jay : burgundy geeks - when young - often made mistake. I bought DRC 1990 due to the fact that Clive Coates rated 1990 red very highly and said the DRC was a Church full of Cred-robed Cardinals. I did not regret it…and in any event, for DRC I much prefer the 1992 and 1994. I shared them all with friends…and let someone else drank the 1990 DRC.
It’s clear to me that 2017 and 2019 are great vintages. Of course there are misses, but generally speaking I’ve had many experiences that make it clear that they’re a profile I already love and I expect will age nicely. I do wonder if 2019 will be longer lived than 2017 (which has been so very open for it’s first few years and is perhaps only just beginning to shut down).
I think this makes 2018 a hard proposition by comparison. Why purchase a question mark vintage with some high alcohol wines when the prices on the 2017s and 2019s are similar. Its just so very rare that I’ve had a bottle of 2018 I felt was truly open. I can’t recall having one that I thought had overripe notes, but they are burly, structured wines that often achieved high alcohol levels (13.5% - 14.5%) which has caused me to feel some are unbalanced. I can’t help but wonder however; is long aging will be kind to the 2018s? It’s very clear to me that generally speaking none of the wines are showing the overripe notes that some from 2003 or even 2009 might. So I have hope that with very long aging 2018s will go somewhere good. I ended up buying a lot from 2017 and 2018 and plan to buy even more of the 2019s than either of the other two.
Last night I watched Jasper Morris’ most recent video in regards to the '20 vintage. He does touch on & compare '18. '19 & '20.
I like his perspective.
Myself - I couldn’t taste anything before buying any 2018’s, so based on some early reports - I passed on almost everything and continue to. Just a very few of the Volnay’s on the north side that neighbour Pommard along with some bourgognes.
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