I love the 14s and also the 17s, but the best vintage I’ve had in the past decade is 2020. It has it all. Of course, this is entirely subjective, and there’s always a chance that the 20s won’t age as well - although personally I doubt it… They’re just a perfect combination of power and freshness IMO…
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You should drink what you like, not what I like. Also, zero overlap on what you have drunk and what I have drunk.
I have really enjoyed the 2014s I’ve drunk from my cellar - or at least the chablis (some poxed CdB whites). Consistent high performances from:
Christian Moreau Les Clos (4 bottles beginning in May 2022 and most recently in October 2024 - that bottle had begun to shut down)
Louis Michel Vaudésir (3 bottles beginning in May 2022 and most recently April 2024 - fabulous every time with bags of life
Louis Michel Montée de Tonnerre - although a half bottle drunk in February 2021 showed well, another half opened in December 2022 was young and tight
Henri Boillot PM C de la Mouchère - one opened in November 2020 was delightful if restrained but one opened in August 2023 was oxidised.
Henri Boillot PM Les Perrières - this was showing quite young and rich in May 2021
Henri Boillot Meursault Les Perrières - one opened early by mistake in October 2018 was fabulous but another opened in May 2024 was oxidised
Henri Boillot Corton Charlemagne opened in October 2022 was poised and terrific.
Lamy St Aubin En Remilly - three bottles consumed between July 2019 and July 2022 were terrific but the most recently opened bottle (August 2023) was oxidised.
Marc Colin PM Garenne - two bottles drunk in June 2022 and May 2023 were each delightful.
A few others but only real disappointments (aside from poxed bottles) were two bottles of Michelot Meursault Les Perrières, both drunk sometime in 2017 - way too young I suspect.
I’d agree with this. A few years ago a blind tasting of the 2014 white Burgundy the Dauvissat AOC Chablis was the wine of the day. I think 2014s are very good wines but acidity is not as high as one might think, and it will be interesting to see them in another decade.
I’ve enjoyed the 2017s just as much, and the 2007 Meursault at 63 Clinton with you guys 3 years ago is still my highlight white Burgundy in recent years.
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IMO, that hardly counts, really, after 13 years. Could have been heat damaged or just natural oxidization caused by a damaged cork.
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I put on a blind horizontal of 2014 Montée de Tonnerre last week where every wine was wonderful—Billaud-Simon, Samuel Billaud, Louis Michel, and Fevre—and aired out particularly nicely. Some notes here. ‘83 Gruaud was the chaser.
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I also think this vintage is strongest in Chablis, where there is a real plenitude to the wines to match their freshness. 2014s in the Côte de Beaune and Mâconnais are often a little lean (it makes sense that the lights-out bottles many are citing are from ripe grand and premier cru terroirs in Puligny-Chassagne, rather than communal-level wines; and also mostly producers who make richer wines through their farming and winemaking choices).
If you’re of the school that “pick underripe to preserve acidity” is the key to making great white Burgundy, then 2014 is a good fit, because the grapes were not very ripe in the Côte de Beaune and were often chaptalized (like the reds).
In style, the newly-minted 2024s may turn out quite similar to 2014.
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While I agree that winemaking and bottling practices, including closure choice, are the key factors in premox, I do think that, all things being equal, ripe grapes inherently make more robust wines (in red as in white). Ripe but not overripe grapes produce wine with a higher redox potential. This is why, before the premox era, we looked to ripe vintages such as 1992, 1990, 1982, 1979 and 1973 as benchmark years for white Burgundy… Today, out tendency is to champion the lean, mean vintages. Now, I love mature 1993s and 1988s as much as anyone, but it is interesting to reflect on how tastes have changed and why.
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I’m curious how “ripe” those vintages actually were compared to ripe vintages of today like 16/18? What I seem to recall reading is that vintages as a whole have been trending warmer recently and back then, you needed a “warm” vintage just to get ripe fruit. Now growers seem to have little trouble obtaining ripe fruit almost every year and it trends towards overripe in the warmest vintages.
To your point, while 90 Ramonet BBM was probably not really surprisingly one of the best older whites I’ve ever had, the other favorite was more surprisingly 93 Lafon Monty.
16 is a ripe vintage? It was frosted and quite cool with a later harvest. 18 was over-cropped so not such high alcoholic degrees in white. 2019 is higher alcohol…
But yes, vintages such as 1992 easily hit 14% or more in the grands crus, which is confirmed if you analyze them today. In that era, people were picking more golden grapes, and then often chaptalized on top of that.
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Yeah I guess I was thinking 18/19 and then threw 16 in there instead because it’s just so bad.
Lol what
Is there going to be a decent amount of 2024s or is it going to be a short vintage? I saw all the hail damage in Chablis, but I’m wondering if Cote de Beaune fared better?
An important lesson that it took me some time to learn is that in Burgundy it is really vanishingly unlikely that one will get a good wine from a mediocre producer even if it comes from the greatest vintage of all time.
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100% agreed.
Everyone’s experience is, of course, different. Between bottles of Dauvissat I opened and those drunk with friends and at restaurants, I expect I’ve had around 50 bottles of Dauvissat in the past year, maybe more - at least 10 pre-2011s were premoxed. Just yesterday, the 2010 Forest was absolutely shot, while the 2017 Forest was great. Multiple 2005 and 2008s Le Clos were DOA at restaurants in the past few months; it very much still happens. I do think Dauvissat has added mroe sulfur to the wines to help with premox (hardly the only producer to do that!), so the rate post 2010 has decreased, but it’s certainly a prime offender pre 2010. The couple of bottles of 1996 in my fridge look questionable.
I appreciate the laugh out loud moment.
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1992 was a warm vintage, but one my least favorite years for white butgundy.
If pick dates are a sign of anything, wouldn’t that inclune that things are generally warmer and ripening earlier? It seems like August pick dates are relatively regular these days, versus the previous century.
The difficulty comes when there is a change of generation. While reknown producers will try to transmit their talents and experience, there are some talented and well educated new producers who take over from a less talented generation. It is important to react before the new talent becomes a star (Arnoux Lachaux, Berthaud Gerbet and Castagnier as examples?) and prices reach the stratosphere…
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Are berthaut-gerbet and castagnier prices in the stratosphere?
No indeed! Arnoux Lachaux yes. Maybe, there is no consensus about Berthaut Gerbet and Jerome Castagnier, I don’t know but they are affordable and I like them (especially JC)