Because the 89pts 1er Cru you describe is less good than the 93pts middle-of-the-pack Bdx. Fairly obvious, I think.
When you produce 2 barrels of a 1er Cru Burg you can‘t do the same investments and do the same vigorous selection as a 200k bottle middle-of-the-pack Bdx Chateau can.
Does anyone know if are a standard amount of 1.5L bottles in OWC? I’m thinking of loading up on large format bottles, specially Branaire-Ducru and Beau-Sejour Becot, and would like to keep them in wood packaging.
Should be a case of 3 or am I misunderstanding your question
Thanks.
I don’t pay too much attention to raw scores, but I was under the impression that Burgundy has traditionally been scored much more conservatively compared to Bordeaux. The implication being that numerical comparisons like these aren’t exactly apples to apples. Do I have that wrong? (Don’t mean to hijack the thread or anything!)
Your retailer / broker should be able to secure you mags in either 3-pk or 6-pk wood, with a small “glass fee” attached.
Burgundy is funny. It certainly is not graded like any other category.
What’s funnier about Burgundy is there are a lot of wines that scores be damned too.
Any update from folks on whether you’ve been able to get Capital One to honor cashback on futures, if you follow up/bug them?
Can’t bug them until 45 days after purchase, so I’ll let you know in a month or so
I did backfill a ‘20 or ‘21 futures purchase a couple of months ago and they paid the reward when I bugged them after 45 days. Past performance is no guarantee of course.
It’s also a very unique wine withe the heavy Franc cepage and whole cluster ferments. It has been markedly improving now for over a decade since the Chapoutier winemaker started.
How common is whole cluster fermentation in Bordeaux? I gather it is very rare, but does anyone know who else besides LCHB does it?
Paging @William_Kelley
How common is whole cluster fermentation in Bordeaux? I gather it is very rare, but does anyone know who else besides LCHB does it?
I take your middle-of-the-pack-Bordeaux and raise you Cru Beaujolais
I am just now in Bordeaux and I have met a few owners & chateau managers who tell me that outside of the obvious top-scored names the EP sales are not going as well as producers were hoping for. So many of those who haven’t released prices yet are having to reconsider how aggressive they will dare to be. Negociants are being pretty tough in the negotiations, apparently.
There’s also been a lot of backbook margin offers to merchants. I’ve had confirmation from several places.
This EP campaign is a disaster, if they were expecting things to sell. But if they were expecting things to sell this was a very tone deaf campaign.
If the plan was to sell historic vintages, I’d say it’s been somewhat successful.
Is this an “historic vintage” though?
My short answer is no, it’s not. Pricing aside, I think if you look at the bulk of the wines, the barrel ratings are between 89-96. That’s not historic. 2021 followed the same pattern.
According to the average critic ratings, most critics agree this is better than 19, 20, 21.
Further to this, I understand that whole cluster acts to lower acidity. If that’s the case, what is LCHB doing to get such a relatively low ph compared to others that do not use whole cluster (e.g., HB and LMHB)?
Definitely not adulteration. Nope nope. Wouldn’t even suggest such a thing.