Just wanted to share my thoughts on this matter based on experience over the last few years.
At one time I was convinced that Burgundy was extremely vintage-driven, meaning that the quality of the wine (regardless of who made or grew it) was dependent on the quality of a vintage.
After tasting through several 06s, 07s and 08s (plus a few 09s), I’m becoming convinced that while vintage obviously plays a role in the style- the appealing elements of each vintage are captured is dependent upon the producer’s approach. I feel like great Burgundy producers and growers have made some tremendous wines in the span of 06-08.
So, for all of your Burgundy lovers out there- what are you more focused on for your purchases? Vintage or Producer. I find myself always looking at particular producers 1st now and then seeing what vintages are available. Thoughts?
In my experience when hunting for Burgundies, I always go with producer first, appellation second and then vintage last. Good producers will make good wine year in year out while bad producers will find a way to make bad wine in a good vintage.
I will be a contrarian and go with vintage first (though the real answer would be both). I have tasted many disappointing wines from great producers. Meanwhile in a uniformly high-quality vintage like '05, I bought quite broadly and I am rarely disappointed with any of the wines. In a mixed vintage of variable results, I do focus on producer as well as locale (since weather events are often isolated to certain areas)…
What if you knew NOTHING about Burgundy… which would you choose, if you could only have one type of information, going into a great wine store?
Vintage quality
Producer quality
Vineyard quality
At first I was going to say “Vintage”, but then I thought, wait a minute, if I really knew nothing, I think I would want to know Vineyard information first, after all Musigny, Chambertin, and La Tache are unique and hard to beat! Then it occurred to me that there was really no way to make ANY choice unless you really DID know something about Burgundy, after all, how else would you know what was important?
Personally, given what I DO know, I’ll look for vintage information first. But maybe that is because I already have a mental checklist of the best vineyards and producers!
Like Kevin, I have seen great producers turn out mediocre wine in poor vintages. Their wines may be good in “average” vintages, but I don’t trust the weather in Burgundy that much!!
I think in reality Producer, vintage and vineyard are all important but I think producer is most important. Its a stylistic thing more than a quality thing for me.
Producer first of course, but vintage is a foot note to that for me as well. I’m not buying 2007s of producers I like (price is a heavy factor, but so is my love of 08).
I think another thing that weights heavily too is the era of wine making as well. Ponsot had some rough years in the mid-90s, so wouldn’t be buying those. For whatever reason, this seems to happen, but less and less so in the last decade.
It also depends on the nature of a vintage.In some vintages (2002, 2005, maybe 1990) an idiot could make really good wine. In some vintages (like 1993, 1996, 1998) to make really good wine required a really good, thinking producer. So, I’m not sure how you separate these two criteria to answer your initial query. If buying on one criteria, though, I think knowing a producer, his/her holdings, level of skill, style, etc…is likely the safest criteria. But…but if the vintage is really bad…that would be a negative indicator for me to avoid, regardless of the producer.
Maybe the “answer” here is that producer can be a positive filter in buying and vintage mainly useful as a negative filter. So, what’s the bigger goal: getting great wine or not buying terrible wine?
Going to agree with Kevin here. Lot of unheralded, inexpensive producers like Raphet and Delarche that make lovely wines in vintages like 2009 that I wouldn’t touch in vintages like 2008 (or even 2007). Producers can only work with what nature gives them; unlike DRC most can’t afford to cull 90% of their grapes to make microscopic quantities of great juice even in bad years.
Looks like you might be lucky in that you can appreciate many different styles of burgundies. By contrast there are many producers who I think make good quality wine but just don’t make wine in a style I like at all. For me, focusing on producer isn’t so much a quest for quality but rather an issue of stylistic signature. So if Im not in love with a producer in years like 2007 or 2008, a ripe year like 2009 isnt going to make me all of a sudden like them.
Producer, Commune-Vineyard, Vintage. Because I’ve had poor wines from certain producers in a good vintage as well as good wines in a poor vintage from a good producer.
Also with certain foods I prefer certain communes - vineyards.
Its more complicated than singular focus on producer, commune, vineyard, and vintage. Most of us probably have personal experience, or investigative scholarship/resources, that creates a personal rank order from all of these inputs for those burgundies that meet our personal taste, cost , and availability. At the outset I might exclude wines based on bad vintage or winery style. I do take risks to enjoy “new to me” wines from Burgundy if the price is right, however, on some occasions I have chosen badly. I’ve had absolute stunning wine from a bad vintage 1987 DRC La Tache or completely average wine in a great vintage 1990 Bouchard La Romanee. Turns out for the later you needed to know what changes were going on with Bouchard and their vinification practices. I think access, taste profile, and cost has put mostly Gevrey’s in my collection. I guess you would say that I take the opportunist approach to buying Burgundy…Gary
Lots of good comments here so far. My opinion is, a three-legged stool will fall over unless it has all three legs. I’m OK with requiring producer, vintage, and cru to all be satisfactory to me before I buy, because there are plenty of wines that meet all three. The producer has to be a quality outfit and have a style that I appreciate. I don’t doubt the quality or skill of Dugat, but don’t care for the style. And we all know certain domaines and negociants who focus on quantity or low cost rather than quality. There are vintages to avoid, and vintages to seek, and vintages in between. I love Fourrier more than Dugat, but don’t want to buy a Fourrier 2004 or '03 or anything chez Fourrier before 1996. And in a very real sense, my journey with Burgundy is all about the cru… I have my favorites. And I can’t be comfortable without at least the possibility of interesting and distinctive somewhereness in the bottle. Just my $0.02.
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