Don Cornwell's tastings and a buying strategy for white Burgs

Obviously, all of us who love white Burgundies are horrified by what has happened to their ability to age over the past 20 years. Every year Don’s tasting bring home to us the fact that the issue has not been solved. Not even close.

I see two possible strategies for buying white Burgs today. One, buy less expensive wines that taste good young and drink them young. There are a lot of producers that make excellent wines to buy young, like Dublere, PYCM, Drouhin, etc., etc.

Focus on a relatively few producers whose wines seem to be doing ok. I am thinking of PYCM, Bouchard, Bernard Moreau (really came up with this outside Don’s tastings). Anyone else. Sure, I could add Coche Dury and Raveneau, but these are really hard to find and very expensive (at least in the US).

A third limited thing I have done on a limited basis is try pre-1995 wines. I have had great success in this with wines from Domaine Robert Ampeau (interestingly, I have not tasted or even seen whites from Ampeau from 1995 forward, have any of you guys). More mixed with wines from Fabian Coche.

What are you guys doing?

Howard
I was just starting to develop an interest when premox started getting recognition (by drinkers, though not by producers - which is not easy to forget). That interest has thus stalled, as prices have bizarrely gone up quite a bit, whilst premox on top of TCA make the odds too poor for me to explore the region properly.
We’re sticking with Macon and the occasional Chablis for now. Wines that I expect to drink quite young.
regards
Ian

I don´t know why but I have had a ton of luck with my white Burgundies because my failure rate is pretty low. I don´t know why. I opened a standard Chablis 2006 and a Montée de Tonnere of the same vintage from Domaine Fevre in the last 3 days and both wines are young. The Premier Cru even too young from my cold cellar. It´s said that Fevre is one of the producers with tons of Premox problems. But none of my last 20 bottles of this producer had any issues. It´s really puzzling. The price increase is a totally different story btw.

Howard,
I’ve been primarily following your first strategy. Buying young and somewhat less expensive whites. And not just drinking them early, but making sure to sample them early on and regularly. So if I get six plus bottles, I’ll try one, and keep trying them. If all is well, then will drag my feet on consumption. And like everyone, I have producers that for whatever reason haven’t been a problem for me. For example, I’m not sure I’ve ever had a single premoxed Raveneau. Same with Roulot - I drink them younger and premox hasn’t been a problem.

I have moved to Chablis and some St Aubin where the failure is less costly and I don’t feel as inclined to age them for 10+. My failure rate remains pretty bad (and worse than Don’s results) on the bigger White Burgs. Now even Leflaive seems to be poxing.
Most recently a bottle of '08 Sauzet Combettes was premoxed while another bottle was fine.

We have moved to almost Califirnia Chardonnay entirely.

2 prematurely oxidized bottles out of hundreds the past 5+ years. Producers replaced both of those too.

G you should be exploring OR Chardonnay. The program has made huge strides in the past few years. Check out Walter Scott or St. Innocent.

Very similar strategy chez Kirschbaum/Read. Sadly, though, we had our first premoxed Roulot on Friday. Every bottle from that case had been spot on, then a dark gold mess that smelled like apple cider, even after an overnight aeration experiment. We immediately opened another, which was great, but it was a big disappointment after such good luck with Roulot. Not going to change my approach, though.

don’t forget Don’s oxidized wiki that has huge amounts of information.

We are peeking at these wines too.

Curious whether anyone just walked away from the region given the propensity for issues. Once Chateauneuf du Pape started moving in the Parker/Cambie direction, I largely bailed. Different issue of course, but it’s a question of supporting a region that is no longer in synch with your needs.

Know it well, thanks. Have posted a number of notes there. Unfortunately, there are not nearly as many notes there recently. Seems like interest in posting there has gone down.

I bailed entirely on WB years ago after too many sink pours.

A few years ago I bought my last bottle of WB, a 2006 Chablis 1er. The color of the wine was nice and light when peered at thru the bottle so I bought it. No premox but it was corked! The very last straw for me.

I really have not found a substitute for white burgundies. I have had some decent California Chardonnay that are decent, like Stony Hill, Kalin, Ridge, Montelena, but most California Chardonny are, IMHO, horrible. I get much better value from whites from St. Aubin and even places like Pernand Vergelesses. Or Macon or Chablis. Maybe a decent substitute is Champagne or a couple of Chardonnays from Jura.

While I don’t disagree that there is a lot of bad chardonnay made in the US, I think at its best, US chardonnay is pretty good and can be of comparable quality to white burgundy, and when it is, it is better value. Mount Eden and Ramey are two such examples. At least I find this true when US chardonnay are compared to premier cru white burgundy.

Multi-faceted approach:

  • buy village level wines from good producers and drink within 5 years
  • buy 1er or gc only from very, very select few. In my case , typically only pycm and the occasional Bouchard Corton Charlie our boillot cdlmouchere
  • buy pre 95 white burgs from eg potinet-ampeau
  • buy champagne
  • buy dry German Riesling

More than enough options there never to have host another Poxathon as I did about 5 years ago with all my WBs up to the 02 vintage. Over 150 bottles served that afternoon, including complete cases of some wines. <30 bottles were pristine.

Sounds like a bad cork.

Mount Eden, Arcanian, HdV, Hanzell, Ridge, Varner…

I have showed restraint despite great reviews of the 2014 vintage in Burgundy. I need to empty my cellar before the current crop becomes oxidised and then I will restart buying select Burgs in small numbers.

There is life outside Burgundy. May never reach the heights of white Burgundy. The magic moment of a great producer, great vintage and site perhaps is difficult to replicate in the ‘new world’.

But with exactly that theme in mind we did two recent tastings this year to compare and contrast white Burgundy and Australian chardonnay side by side.

Not meaning to hijack this thread in any way but to give you a glimpse of few Australian chardonnays which have come a long way.


Will post the tasting below

First tasting. All wines tasted blind.

White bracket #1
2014 Flame Tree SRS Walcliffe chardonnay (Margaret River, WA)
Touch oily on nose. Good depth but just slightly broader than most. Interesting.

2013 Coldstream Hills Reserve Chardonnay (Yarra Valley, Vic)
Talc and citrusy. Linear, finely built, elegant expression of chardonnay.

2013 Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay (Margaret River, WA)
Matchstick , good quality oak perfectly judged, structured wine, minerals, chalky. I really loved it.

2013 Jean-Marc Pillot Chevalier Montrachet
Funny nose, orange rind, in some ways intense but also not showing much, perhaps tightly coiled, a bit polarising
2012 Oakridge 864 Funder and Diamond chardonnay (Yarra Valley, Vic)
Flinty, crystalline, very appealing. The balance of fruit, oak and acid is just perfect.

2013 Roulot clos de Boucheres
Peaches and stone fruits. Slightly angular and a bit clipped finish.


White Bracket #2
2010 Oakridge 864 Lusatia Park chardonnay
Clean acid driven wine. Fresh and vibrant. In early maturity. Long way to go.

2010 Henri Boillot Clos de Mouchere
Brawny, bigger wine with more fruit and oak poking out a bit, long finish,

2010 Giaconda Chardonnay (Beechworth, Vic)
A slightly worked style, reasonable drink although it appeared a tad clumsy. One of the most famous chardonnay makers in Australia. Long run of great vintages. Now that many other producers have lifted their game this style looks a bit dated. It goes through full MLF. It is being debated whether not going MLF in a warm climate such as Australia is the correct thing because it preserves the acid spine and freshness.

2008 Penfolds Yattarna Chardonnay
Mostly Tasmania fruit. Very appealing, expansive on palate, good mouth feel. Vibrant and very different in its make up compared to the Giaconda. Top most white wine from Penfolds stable. Early vintages were disappointing but significant strides made in late 90s. I like the Reserve bin Chardonnay series too.