I think this is a very astute observation. There has been amazingly little consumer push-back in response to premox, and white Burgundy prices have continued to rise, in some cases asymptotically. When old customers stopped buying their e.g. Ramonet allocations, new consumers who were not in the habit of forgetting the wines in the cellar for a decade plus stepped up to take the wines.
Now we see merchants and producers trying to revise consumer expectations: “if a village Meursault is oxidized after ten years it isn’t prematurely oxidized” etc. With pre-premox bottles in circulation that’s still easy to refute, but in another decade or so, with generational change in the wine world, white Burgundy’s true capacity for greatness with bottle age may be largely forgotten. It’s a depressing prospect.
I’ve run into a number of otherwise knowledgeable wine lovers, who buy expensive bottles and have pretty deep cellars, who are unaware of the premox epidemic. Unfortunately, I fear it’s a relatively small army of wine geeks carrying the premox torch. And even among us, we continue to purchase expensive White Burgs. So I agree with Fred: the economic incentive to change is probably minimal.
I would think, however, that these winemakers have enough pride in what they’re doing to work toward a solution. But it does not appear to be an easy problem to solve.
I, for one have taken White Burgundies other than Chablis off of my purchase list. I preferred the taste of older white Burgundies but after the 5th or 6th premoxed bottle and the price I was paying for this privilege, I gave up. There are now just 5 bottles of White Burg not Chablis present in my cellar and when those are gone that is the end of it.
I agree. No producer whose name we know is in a position to figure much of anything out concerning this plague. Some tried early on. All are concerned and motivated. However, most are artisanal operations, and, therefore, look elsewhere to solve the problem. (And the “problem” has been existing for at least a decade, now, suggesting the solution is not evident.)
It is only a trade group, such as BIVB that can hope to solve this mess. And, it hasn’t so far, though the industry seems very motivated to do so. Demand is important to any industry, and demand is down.
I am not sure this is a true. We have experience a lot of expensive premoxed bottles at a very young age. Before they even reach the cellar. It is frustrating it is tolerated by the winemakers
Just after I wrote my reply to your post, I looked up the retail price for 2014 Leflaive Bourgogne. I was surprised to see it in the mid $60s, so now it makes sense why the restaurant charges $50 a glass. I figured it was a $30 to $40 retail bottle, but I was way off.
I’ve seen good restaurants which don’t allow corkage at all, or have a very high corkage fee with a 2 bottle maximum. I recently took a party of 9 (charity auction winners) to one of these places with a high corkage and 2 bottle max. I brought 3 bottles of my wine. I think the first corkage was $50, the second was $100, and they so graciously allowed me to open the 3rd bottle, because it was a charity event, for $190. And we spent another $1200 from their wine list. Oh well, I wish I knew how to make profits like that on wine.
Ed, we’re off topic, but wow, you spent 1200 on wine for 9 people, and they still charged you that much corkage? I’m chuckling at the thought of what would have happened if you had told them “we’ll just have food, no wine”.
On premox itself, or motivation to change? For the former, I don’t think many questions can be answered with authority by anyone unless they are about theories rather than facts. Almost nothing is known for sure in terms of cause.
I’ve had numerous Loire Valley chenin blancs that were prematurely oxidized; given how long chenin blanc can age, any oxidation at any time could be considered premature.
As far as assigning fault, I think the Lavigne-Dubourdieu study that assigns blame to the lack of lees/glutathione in the wine due to faulty use of the new presses was pretty much right on.
Wineries in the Loire and in Burgundy bought these presses beginning around 20 years ago.
When I started in wine, back in the early '70s, older wine and having a cellar in which to turn young wine into old were both prized. Now, selling older wine seems a struggle. To most people, the idea of older white wine seems bizarre. Even red wine out of step with other releases can seem weird. If everyone else has released their 2015 Pinot Noir, then your 2013 must have something wrong with it.
People in Burgundy are concerned. SO2 levels are up; some are going back to older presses. I think the problem was caused by a perfect storm:
1/using less SO2
2/riper musts
3/new presses…less glutathione in the wine
4/a market that called for restaurant ready white wines
One grower said to us, Most of my wine is sold and consumed within two years of bottling, but then ten years later somebody drinks the wine and judges it.
Andy points out that wines from most regions are aging as they were 25 years ago. Nobody talks about premox with California Chardonnay. The wines that aged well then age well now. The wines that fell part five years on still fall part. We all face the same global warming issues and use the same closures.
I have discussed premox with many Burgundian winemakers…usually the wines who make red wine!
Maybe they could go over to Coche and to Raveneau and find out what they are doing to be relatively spared. And then go to Leflaive and find out exactly what changed with the new winemaker regime to find out what NOT to do, since it seems to be a reliable recipe for premox.
Not really. The problem exists elsewhere (Alsace, Loire) but isn’t so widespread as it is in Burgundy. Plus, there have been similar changes in winemaking elsewhere, but not so much premox. The more I think about it, the more questions I have, not answers.
True, but Lafon’s wines have been premoxing from before premox became a plague. At least with Leflaive there was a distinct and sudden change from “rarely to never premoxing” to “fairly reliably and even earlier-than-usual premoxing”…so one would think that investigating the several winemaking changes that occurred so suddenly would offer some insight. But, I suppose that there is ego and reputation involved, hence denial and, unless I am wrong, an unwillingness to admit that things have gone to shit at one of the great white Burgundy estates where nevertheless the prices continue to climb to absurd levels and I suppose their wines still sell out to people who drink them upon release.