Recommend a Burgundian Burgundy

[Alan_C_h_a_n]

Did you say aged Burgs from Chambers? I’m there! The kimchi might have to wait until after the burgs, but the barbecue beef will be a magical pairing.

[Frank_Deis]

I just had some Ja-Jang-Myun for lunch.

And I would suggest that RICE soju is way better than that YAM stuff.

I really enjoy rice-based soju, but as a chemist, all those aldehydes in the yam soju totally put me off, it is a bit like trying to drink paint thinner.

We have our own Korea-town here in Edison NJ.

I suppose if we wanted to continue someone should open a “Korean Food” topic over in Epicurian Exploits rather than derailing Dave’s topic…

I really might need to do that when my copy of the Momofuku cookbook arrives.

[seawayjan]

How I miss the korean foods in Fort Lee! Is “Friendship” still there?

[Alan_C_h_a_n]

Ha! I love that we have this many Korean food devotees among the Berserkers - sorry for the hijack Dave.

Frank, I think you know more about soju than I do - I just drink what I am given! Seawayjan, I don’t know the place you’re talking about, I just eat where I’m taken to, too! But let’s start that food thread, if you haven’t already. Okay, hijack over

Dave, sorry if we Burgheads have confused you with too much information. Please do try any one of the excellent suggestions here - Burgundy really is wonderful when you find a good bottle!

[davetong]

@David Strange

Definitely go for the Ile des Vergelesses-flavour 1er cru, it is well worth the extra. $35 is a really keen price for that wine, you should snap up a bottle.

That’s the thing - the Ile des Vergelesses is $49, it was the Vergelesses des Vergelesses that was $35.
I’ll try to pick up a bottle at the weekend.

One thing it has made abundantly clear to me (if it wasn’t already) is that Burgundy is something of a maze without a proper guide.

[Jay_Miller]

@Rick Gregory

Which is why, Serge, I recommended the Savignys that others had mentioned too - in a good vintage wines from Ecard, Bize, Pavelot or another good Savigny producer will give you a bead on what Burgundy can be like. Spend about $200, get 3-4 wines, perhaps one from each of those producers, and you’ll have a bead on decent Burg. If you already have a good idea of what domestic Pinot is like, you can see the differences. Of course, you could do 4 burgs and 4 styles of good domestic Pinot and taste too.

PS: dave - the Chandon des Briailles should be a good way to get a handle. Skip the Drouhin - I always feel their village wines under achieve compared to the simple Cote du Nuits Village or the premier crus.

While I obviously disagree with the comments on the Drouhin village Chambolle (when I organized a blind horizontal of the 2001 vintage back on release it came in second to Roumier) I’ll agree with the people who say that Savigny might be a good way to go, esp. since the CM is now above the $50 mark.

Try a Bize Vergelesses and a Pavelot Dominode, two very different styles but both what I would call Burgundian.

[David_Strange]

@davetong

That’s the thing - the Ile des Vergelesses is $49, it was the Vergelesses des Vergelesses that was $35.
I’ll try to pick up a bottle at the weekend.

One thing it has made abundantly clear to me (if it wasn’t already) is that Burgundy is something of a maze without a proper guide.

Ah that price is slightly less keen, I’ve been buying the 05 in London (and will buy more) for about $9 a bottle less than that. However, I still think the wine is worth it; it is a properly good, properly beautiful, properly Burgundian bottle of Burgundy. It is made in a light/medium bodied style, and is all about exquisite elegance and refined harmony rather than being a ‘tits out for the boys’ fruit monster. Consequently, I think this will be a very good wine to taste to get a better idea of a different style of Pinot Noir. And it is a good wine to drink anyway. I hope you enjoy it. Please post your thoughts.

Burgundy is certainly a bit difficult to get a grip on, but once you’ve got some reliable pointers and find wines from the right producers in the right vintages it can provide extravagant, hedonistic and even intellectual pleasure in a way which I feel few other wines can touch. But I would say that because I love Burgundy in quite a deep and profound sense; over 50% of my wine collection is red Burgundy and I visit the region every year. I really don’t suggest you get as obsessed with the stuff as I am, as has been pointed out many times in this thread Burgundy is an expensive habit to acquire.

Cheers,
David.

[Lee_Short]

Another piece of advice: if you do buy that bottle of Ile de Vergelesses, pay some attention to how you drink it. Open it on a Saturday, and have a glass with lunch. Later, have some mid-afternoon cheese, with another half-glass. Have more with dinner, but save at least a half glass for Sunday.

A young burgundy like this will take some time to show all its facets. I don’t know what kind of treatment David gave it when he tried the wine last week, but I’d be surprised if the wine is drinking well right out of the gates.

[David_Strange]

@Lee Short

Another piece of advice: if you do buy that bottle of Ile de Vergelesses, pay some attention to how you drink it. Open it on a Saturday, and have a glass with lunch. Later, have some mid-afternoon cheese, with another half-glass. Have more with dinner, but save at least a half glass for Sunday.

A young burgundy like this will take some time to show all its facets. I don’t know what kind of treatment David gave it when he tried the wine last week, but I’d be surprised if the wine is drinking well right out of the gates.

Good point well made. I decanted mine into a decanter and then back into the bottle about half an hour before we drank it. Naturally I tried a small glassful as I decanted it and when drinking time was reached it seemed noticeably more expressive. I certainly think the 06 could do with a bit of air.

Cheers,
David.

[Nick_Ryan]

@David Strange

Burgundy is certainly a bit difficult to get a grip on, but once you’ve got some reliable pointers and find wines from the right producers in the right vintages it can provide extravagant, hedonistic and even intellectual pleasure in a way which I feel few other wines can touch. But I would say that because I love Burgundy in quite a deep and profound sense; over 50% of my wine collection is red Burgundy and I visit the region every year. I really don’t suggest you get as obsessed with the stuff as I am, as has been pointed out many times in this thread Burgundy is an expensive habit to acquire.

Cheers,
David.

After first getting into wine in late 2006, I quickly discovered Burgundy and fell in love. Then, however, I fell in love with all of the other wine regions of the world. Within the past few months, however, I’ve been slowly coming to the conclusion that Burgundy is still what it’s all about for me. Being a generalist is nice, but one should also specialize in something, so now I’m making a choice. The tough part now is figuring out what other regions I need to cut back on to up my percentage of Burgundy… (CDP I hardly knew ye…)

[David_Strange]

@Nick Ryan

After first getting into wine in late 2006, I quickly discovered Burgundy and fell in love. Then, however, I fell in love with all of the other wine regions of the world. Within the past few months, however, I’ve been slowly coming to the conclusion that Burgundy is still what it’s all about for me. Being a generalist is nice, but one should also specialize in something, so now I’m making a choice. The tough part now is figuring out what other regions I need to cut back on to up my percentage of Burgundy… (CDP I hardly knew ye…)

Hi Nick,

Burgundy is certainly what it is all about for me; if you think the same then you are clearly a chap of excellent taste!

It can be a bit of a mine-field to get started with lovely, lovely Burgundy, but there are some good books/periodicals out there to help. Alan Meadow’s Burghound publication will probably give you the most complete and up-to-date picture of the wines in Burgundy, but even this assumes you know something about the different quality levels and the structure of wines in Burgundy. Anthony Hanson’s book has more background material, but as far as producers go it is a tad out of date. Reading is just the start; you have to taste widely across the quality levels and different villages to find out what styles and producers you like, and so determine whose recommendations you would find compatible with your palate. It is a hard old life, eh?

I was very lucky in that when I was at Oxford there was the son of a really serious Burgundy producer in the year below me. He joined the wine clubs and the blind tasting team which I ran, and got his father to give one of the most brilliant tastings I’d experienced at that time. During the holidays the Oxford wine crew would go and visit him and taste at all his friends wineries. It was amazing to taste wines such as Christophe Roumier’s when we were less experienced in the realm of fine Burgundy; they were so good you just wanted to know more about all of these wondrous vineyards and winemakers. In 1996 we managed to blag our way into DRC and taste the 95s in cask. What an experience for a young wine lover! These experiences were highly educational, and really turned my head in the direction of being a complete Burgundophile.

These days I go and visit my friend every summer, taste and buy wines from a select few producers and generally have a real laugh with every good bottle of the stuff that gets popped in my presence. As I said, I feel Burgundy provides not only intellectual stimulation, but it is really fun and hedonistic as well. Very few of the very many other wines I have tried stimulate me in quite such a deep, fundamental and moving fashion as lovely Burgundy. And they really are lovely.

Stick with it, Nick, there is so much enjoyment to be got from Burgundy. It may be an expensive love but you’ll grin more often than the Claret drinkers:)

Cheers,
David.

[Nick_Ryan]

Heh, I like your style, David. We need more Englishmen on this board I think…

I’ve been dipping into Meadows for a while, and have a cursory knowledge of Burgundy geography and appellations, and do own a decent amount of the stuff now, drawn largely from tastings and Burghound reviews. But it’s definitely a cursory level of knowledge. Now it’s time to go DEEP. I’m drawing up a list now of books and sources, online and offline, that I need to read. There are frequently Burgundy tastings in this area so over time, that category of experience will tend to fill in.

Maybe someday I will visit Burgundy. Trips to France (Europe as a whole, essentially) from the US are fabulously expensive these days, however…

[David_Strange]

@Nick Ryan

Maybe someday I will visit Burgundy. Trips to France (Europe as a whole, essentially) from the US are fabulously expensive these days, however…

Well if you do make it to Europe stop by London and I’ll pop some flash stuff:)

Do continue attending the tastings, they are the best way to learn about the stuff you like best. And we should all like lovely Burgundy best, of course!

Keep up the good work,
David.

[David_Strange]

@Nick Ryan

Heh, I like your style, David. We need more Englishmen on this board I think…

Many thanks for the compliment, Nick, but I warn you that when it comes to my tastes in wine I am not typically English. Too many of my countrymen like Bordeaux and I feel that, unless you spend even more money on a bottle of Claret than you would to get an amazing bottle of Burgundy, the stuff just bores me to tears.

Cheers,
David.

[Wes_Barton]

@davetong

Can’t see anything locally from Chevillon or Patrice Rion in wine-searcher

VVW carries Chevillon.

[Ray_Walker]

Hey Dave,
I will be back stateside in a week or so. If you want we can open a few bottles. Young, aged. That’s a good way to start. Let me know. It’s been too long since we’ve had a few.

By the way, there is a lot of info in BH as mentioned as well as Burgundy-Report. You can of course simply google Burgundy vineyard names and or history and get a good lay of the land as well.

Cheers Dave

[davetong]

@Ray Walker

Hey Dave,
I will be back stateside in a week or so. If you want we can open a few bottles. Young, aged. That’s a good way to start. Let me know. It’s been too long since we’ve had a few.

It has indeed. Let’s definitely get together; what’s your itinerary?

[Nathan_Smyth]

@Ray.Tuppatsch

Try '90, '91, '93 or '99 Jadot Musigny (among others) and if those don’t deliver the “Burgundy Experience” to you then you don’t know what the “Burgundy Experience” is about.

I haven’t had any of those vintages, but the Musigny I had was a big, thick, dark, clumsy, blocky, thoroughly unremarkable wine.

[Which would be basically the same impression I’ve always had from Clos des Ursules.]

[Ray_Walker]

I will be back in the States Jan 27th, leaving back to NSG late Feb. Coming back to the US early March. Back for good April…

Let me know when you are free.

Cheers

[David_Strange]

@Nathan Smyth

@Ray.Tuppatsch

Try '90, '91, '93 or '99 Jadot Musigny (among others) and if those don’t deliver the “Burgundy Experience” to you then you don’t know what the “Burgundy Experience” is about.

I haven’t had any of those vintages, but the Musigny I had was a big, thick, dark, clumsy, blocky, thoroughly unremarkable wine.

Hi chaps,

I’ve only tried the 91 and 99 Musigny from Jadot, and I have to agree with Nathan that I thought they were somewhat clumsy expressions of Musigny. The best almost-affordable example of this Grand Cru I’ve had comes from Drouhin. However, compared to the olfactory fireworks, total elegance and brilliant refinement provided by Freddy Mugnier’s and Christophe Roumier’s amazing Musignys the Drouhin seems a bit pedestrian. I’ve never extracted much pleasure from Comte de Vogue’s Musigny, largely because they extract so much during vinification; in my vastly opinionated opinion I don’t think this vineyard should be about extraction and power.

Top Musigny really is the ultimate Burgundy experience for me; shame they are so freaking expensive.

Cheers,
David.