Is "Getting Into Burgundy" Très Chic In The Real World Too, Or Just Here?

Over the last 3 to 5 years, there has been an avalanche of people from the online wine geek community deciding that exploring Burgundy is something that they just have to do. It seems that some dabble a bit, then flee back to familiar ground. Others cherry pick some hot wines from the shortlist of trendy domaines, and consider their ticket has been punched. Others delve deeper and deeper, infected by this disease that has no cure, and wonder why they didn’t get here sooner. And all of these types have always existed, but never before in such numbers.

Meanwhile, we online folks are still outnumbered by “real world” wine enthusiasts, who are often as passionate about wine as we, but not as connected with a broader community of like-minded souls. My real-world wine friends seem less affected by the siren song of the Cote d’Or, actually quite oblivious to it. Of the two wine groups that I drink with regularly, I can’t think of one person who has made a strong shift toward Burgs at the expense of other regions, other than myself, and that was over 15 years ago. OTOH, I realize that Texas is not really a cutting edge wine culture… Drawing conclusions about what’s happening in the US market by observing Texas is very risky indeed.

So I’d like to here what others observe about the question, "Is getting into Burgundy très chic in the real world too, as it is among the online community?

I think you’ve been treating the wine boards, and this one in particular, a little too much as Gospel. For some reason WB seems to have most of the pundits that push folks into declaring their allegiance (and dedicating their wallets) to Burgundy. I don’t see this as much on other internet sites; here, it is almost like religion with a capital R. I have friends who love Burgundy, but they are not fanatical or dogmatic about it. It is one region of many and I don’t know why anyone would treat it as the only wine to aspire to. There are many mansions. Let us live in them all.

It is one region of many and I don’t know why anyone would treat it as the only wine to aspire to. There are many mansions. Let us live in them all.

Perfectly stated.

Tends to be a small subset of wine geeks. Many others, including many people ITB, aren’t obsessed with it nearly as much as people on this board. It’s one region, interesting if you happen to like those wines or think you should. But love of Burgundy over all is certainly not required to be a proper wine geek. There’s a lot of wine out there worth exploring!

Interesting. I myself have not observed anyone getting pushed. Perhaps you could cite a few examples?

So, Greg, you are saying that here in the W/B community you see an obsession among non-Burg peeps to become Burg peeps, but not elsewhere, did I get that right? Which is pretty much what I observed too, in the original post. If I understood you right.

seemed to start with the 05 vintage of red Burgundy. Prior to that, I had no problem getting even “rare” wines at “fair” prices and didn’t even have to jump the second the wine was offered. But 2005 seemed to open a floodgate for those with money, willing to pay anything for the 95 point and higher-rated wines. That’s about when Asia started buying top red Burgs, too, and the always short of supply market became long on demand, too. There’s just too little wine and too much demand.

As for being chic, I don’t know–most of my friends are Burgcentric, as am I, but I’ve been that way for more than 2 decades.

alan

Lew - there is a sense of a Burg ‘fraternity’ mentality here that I don’t find elsewhere. I mean, c’mon, when the 2009’s were just starting to show up retail there is already a thread up about the 2011 vintage?? What’s up with that? Look through the threads. I’d say about 1/5 deal with Burgundy/pinot noir. Perhaps ‘pushed’ is the wrong choice of words, but I find the excitement (which is not a bad thing, since passion should drive any hobby/interest) a little too much like political campaigning and grandstanding. Pinot envy as it were.

In my experience it’s just (or mainly) here. By far the majority of people I run into who would consider themselves wine collectors/connosisseur/enthusiasts still focus more on CA/BDX and know little (and care to know little) about Burgundy

I never had even the most remote interest in Burgundy while in the Parker board. In WB there is a strong contingent of burgophiles who, for the most part, make Burgundy sound interesting and exciting. The constant stream of TNs has kept Burgundy always on my mind since WB started. This is why I decided to dip my toe and see if there is anything there for me to like, since my palate gravitates the other way generally. I have found people to be quite helpful about where to begin, with some exceptions of course.
Burgophiles have mellowed IMHO in the past year or so. There was a period where a discussion could not be had about Marcassin or any other big wine without a flock of Burg lovers jumping in about how much anything non Burgundy sucks. It has not been the case lately.
How this translates to “chic” or to the “real world” I have no idea.
–B

Burgundy definitely has displaced flashy New World cult wines as the loudest, most fervent ideology. There are still a few people on this board following the SQN and 100 point flavor of the vintage cults, but they are marginalized. “Clos Forum eBob”–the walled forum of Parker–is probably a better place to bang the Manfred drum.

I think the real attraction with Burgs is that they are every bit as rare and expensive (if not more) as the barrel Helen Turley pissed on to baptize it with greatness, but have a historical, terroir driven imperative rather than a trendy flying winemaker behind the curtain. Scarcity is vital for the snob appeal to reach critical mass, but then you can phrase it as an intellectual pursuit rather than a conspicuous one when terroir is invoked.

Personally, I’ve enjoyed the handful of Burgs I’ve tried, but the prices in general are unrealistic if you just want to explore the terroir. You better be paying for both flash and terroir, and I don’t have the budget or the audience to justify it.

OK, now I understand what you mean. Clearly, there is a strong contingent of Burgfiends here. Mostly, we migrated to here from eRP when that place imploded. Actually, the Burg community there was even stronger than it is here, but it did not stand out so much, as eRP in its strongest years also had a very active Bordeaux community, a very active Cal Cab community, etc. Here, I think we stand out more, and have been encouraged by Todd to expand the weekly Burg appellation cycles, etc.

So, Marcus, you are sorta like Greg, if i understand, in that the riptide flow of Burg rookies to explore the region seems to be a W/B thing rather than a wider thing?

We’ve had Burgundy as our favorite wine since 1961. We like all varieties of wine (except cab and merlot), but they still don’t measure up to Burgundy, except with certain foods.

Dick, how does it feel to be très chic and you didn’t even know it, LOL?

WB is the reason I started getting into Burgundy. Obviously not “pushed”, but when you read about the excitement and wines, it’s easy to want to explore.

I’m from Oregon and was introduced to wine via the local industry in the Willamette Valley, which is, of course, pinot-centric. Most of my mentors looked to Burgundy as a reference standard, with the deepest well of knowledge on how to get the most from pinot noir and chardonnay, so naturally it follows that I would want to learn more about Burgundy. It took moving away from Oregon for me to finally shift focus away from Oregon and emphasis to Burgundy. Ten years later, I’m just about even on Oregon/Burgundy in the cellar.

I think the avalanche you are observing is real, Lew. I would cite “The Sideways Effect” as the start of it. The movie sparked a lot of folks to look at pinot and I think that many of them would at some point or another want to know what the “hallowed pinot from France fuss” is all about.

Cheers,
fred

I’d like us all to make a strong effort to make Burgundy appear passe, emabarrasingly geeky, and bad for the healthof Chinese people (or perhaps better, socially embarrasing for the chinese?) so that it would have a chance to become affordable for me to start buying it again.

indeed.

Being back the days where everyone is scrambling for California wine! The state needs the boost in revenue!!

As opposed to Dick, I’ve rarely had a Burgundy that could match the structure and length of Bordeaux and I miss these qualities when I go to the Côte d’Or (which I will do next month, for a week).

I see Burgundy more as pretty wines than serious ones.
But, hey, why not go in for something sensual and uncomplicated you like?

Having reacted (or perhaps over-reacted) to Dick’s post, let me say that:

  • Yes, Berserkers has a definite Burgundy slant, i.e. is hardly typical of the wine-drinking public or even geeks IMHO
  • That’s fine by me so long as people don’t denigrate the world’s other great wines.

Buying Burgundy is a bitch. I think that the tiny quantities make people feel cabalistic about it so there is a “club” atmosphere to the whole thing.
Which is fine by me, but drinking just that seems alwfully ingrown to me…

Best regards,
Alex R.

We will never agree on the above. But, I can’t wait to meet up with you once you visit and I look forward to visiting with you in Bordeaux as well.
[cheers.gif]

Some would like this to be a less Burgundy focused site. The key to change is simple: post more about different wine regions.

I’m closer to being in Alex’s camp on this one. While I am a total Francophile, I own not a single Burg and probably drink less than 3-5 per year. My wine collection is 95% French, running from Rhone, to Bordeaux, to Loire, along with some smatterings of other regions.

Burgs have significant entry obstacles, IMHO, that I simply no longer wish to overcome: price, limited quantities, label complexity, and significant inconsistency in vintages. Plus, i’m just not profoundly moved by Pinot. A mature Bordeaux is heavenly to me.