Approaching age 50 - is it too late for Burgundy?

WINE TALK
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How much money do you have? [tease.gif]

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Yeah, I hear you.

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Well good [cheers.gif] then welcome to the credit card breaking club!

Covid year is a terrible time to explore a new region because large tastings are impossible. So you’ll have to just conduct your own! Not the worst, but I’d be impressed if you could replicate a La Paulee-esque event with 100+ bottles to try. Needless to say, when this time is past, go to La Paulee. It’s a special, unique event - aside from all the secondary opportunities, there is no better Burgundy (red and white) tasting event in the US that I know of.

And to answer your question - approaching 50 is nowhere near too late. I’m 56, and I’m still buying new release Burgundy. I’ve been trying to split my purchasing 50-50 between new releases and backfilling (2010 and older, an arbitrary distinction but that’s how I think of it). Yes, you get fewer older bottles for your money, but I don’t want a cellar that’s untouchable for a decade or two. [Disclaimer: this all depends on how you like your aged Burgs. If you like them with 30+ years then sure, maybe it’s too late. But pre-1990 Burg is nearly impossible to find in any quantity anyway.]

Last bit of advice - don’t just focus on top end GCs or 1ers. I try to fill my cellar with lots of village level wines. They are easier on the budget of course, and they also are drinkable earlier. Been opening some 2009 village wines (eg. Bertheau Chambolle) this year that have been wonderful. Some will take longer to open, of course. It’s also much harder to backfill village level wines - they are just not available in the market, especially the auction market which tends to focus on higher end bottles.

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That was my takeaway from the original post as well. Do you like Burgundy and you’re wondering if there’s still time to get into it and how much would it cost? Or are you wondering if you will or should like Burgundy?

If it’s the latter, you should attend some tastings, buy a few assorted mature bottles, and see if you really like it that much, and if so, how much you’re willing to pay / store / wait. I don’t think you should assume just because Burgundy is exalted on this board and in certain circles that therefore it should become your main thing.

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Yes, sound advice. I’ve dabbled a bit in Burgundy and have liked some, but not ‘aha’ moment yet, like with some other wines. Like you said, I should dabble some more before making any big commitment.

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You mentioned BoJo, which isn’t Burgundy :wink:

But on a more serious note, I agree withe posters on this thread that there’s lots of very good Burgundy well within your price range.

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I like Rossignol-Trapet’s wines a good bit and have a lot more experience with their wines than I do with the wines of Trapet. I have visited RT a few times and the people there are very nice and the wines really excellent. But, I have had the wines of Trapet a few times in the last year or so and I think they are excellent as well. Note that this used to be one winery until cousins - brothers David and Nicolas Rossignol on the one hand (their mother was a Trapet I believe) and Jean-Louis Trapet on the other hand - split up the winery.

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Burgundy is only expensive if you want it to be expensive. You can save a lot of money buying wine from the Cotes Chalonnaise. Wines from producers like Domaine des Moirots and Juillot are very nice and not that much money. http://www.weygandtmetzler.com/all And, Faiveley is very well known for their wines from Mercury. Are these wines as good as a 40 year old la Tache, no, but for the money they can be quite nice.

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Therein lies the rub, no? Scott said he was “really looking for some outstanding experiences”

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I can live with “quite nice”, with a few “outstandings” sprinkled in.

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How much sense do you have?

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Wine is not about sense. It is about want and then keeping want to a reasonable enough level so that it doesn’t change your lifestyle.

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For a drink now situation, I would go for 10+ year old village or 15-20+ year old 1er Cru. If you can find a '95 Beaune 1er or older, that could be great.

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Are you sure you’re in the right place? This is Wine Berserkers. If we had any sense we would be listening to our spouses.

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There are surprises everywhere in Burgundy, and you don’t need to spend a couple of thousand dollars to find a great wine. I echo Howard’s Rossignol Trapet notes. Seriously good QPR. The Glantenay which I just started a new thread on are fabulous wines, and if they are not going to be that epiphany wine, there is pleasure and surprise for an excellent sub $100 Burgundy and it will give you an idea of what fine Burgundy is about.

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yes

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I agree with a lot of the above. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to find your epiphany Burgundy, you just have to follow what you like and listen to advice about similar producers. My epiphany was with a Guillemot Serpentieres Savigny 1978 that cost me about £30, albeit at auction about 8 years ago. Still, you can some times find good vintages from the '90s for around £50 or so (I bought 4 bottles of the '99 for £38 each a little while back - they’re superb). There are plenty of other examples of superb wines at reasonable prices, even from older vintages!

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I think the problem is in seeing Burgundy as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, rather just another wine region which has a vast array of wines in terms of quality, style and price. If you don’t inflate your expectations, you’ll be fine. If, however, you find nothing particularly interesting about Pinot Noir that’s merely quaffable, you might enter a cycle of financial self-destruction as you look for the wine world’s equivalent of Buddha’s Enlightenment. I don’t know where this mythology comes from, but it’s interesting.

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Tomas, I agree with your first post. Yes, there are plenty of fine sub $150 Burgundies, but you have wines from the Dao and Barriada which are similar in style and quality for a quarter or a fifth the price. Some say there is no replacement for Burgundy, but I believe them to be quite insular. They need to go out and taste more. The magic of Burgundy are the well aged versions of Premier and Grand Cru. That’s when they achieve their great complexity.

1 Like
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I’ve had several wines from Dao and Barriada. More from Douro. I liked most of them, but didn’t think any of them were in a similar style to any good burgundy. What wines from those regions are similar in style to burgundy?