That’s another one that I like.
If I’m not mistaken, I think he’s done making a Bourgogne. Too much bother …
FWIW, my choices at higher end are M-G, Fourrier and H. Lignier. Sorry no sleepers.
Barthod
If our remit extends to Passetoutgrains, we need to mention Groffier, Lafarge and Emmanuel Rouget too.
I am curious about this. Most domaines don’t produce all that much wine to begin with. What would be a “general” case number for Bourgogne rouge from, say, amongst the producers mentioned? I know that the effort and time we put into our WV (Reserve) bottling far exceeds any other bottling and probably from an effort standpoint all other bottlings combined. We definitely look at it from a long-term-what-does-it-get-us-beyond-$ viewpoint but I can see the attraction to not doing it if a bigger picture did not exist for its creation.
Arnoux Lachaux Pinot Fin is a particular favourite of mine
I won’t claim that it’s the best, but I think it’s my favorite. It drinks like a light Chambolle.
I used to think so, too, but after having opened a couple of the 2012 over the past year or two I am beginning to have doubts. It seems thin and sour, nothing like the 2010 was at the same age. Anyone else getting this? Was there a change in winemaking?
2012 may have closed down, Pascals Son Charles took a little more control of the winemaking but that really started in 2013. try giving a 2012 a couple of hours of air you might find the mid palate fills in and wakes the wine up
If I’m not mistaken, I think he’s done making a Bourgogne. Too much bother …
I just bought some 2015. did he quit after that?
Hard to argue with Mugneret-Gibourg or Barthod. I don’t know why either of them make it. I’m assuming for both love and commercial reasons.
I just looked back at an earlier email from Panzer. He said 2015 was last year. 125 cases made by Bertheau
There are my two faves along with Lafarge. M-G Bourgogne can be harder to find than the Sisters’ top Grand Crus, however!
My favorite is made by JP Brun. I suspect he makes it for the usual reasons that folks make wine.
Now, I like the Lafarge better, but it’s not my favorite.
Just had an '05 Faiveley Bourgogne over the weekend. It was pretty epic on the nose, and very nice on the palate, with plenty of fruit and structure. Had a good feeling about what it would be, but it definitely outperformed expectations. Can recall having a '97 Montille BR some years ago that may have been even better.
Jim, I’ve been wondering the same (and in reverse - why doesn’t this kind of Pinot Noir exist from CA/OR?). I assume that it’s economics in the US (though your Berserker Cuvee is an interesting exception) that drives wine makers to focus on higher end wines.
In Burgundy I’ve always assumed this was driven both by tradition and legal restrictions. Of course the economics have to work, and I assume they do.
I don’t know. I think it does exist here. In Oregon it does from a variety of producers I would say. Our equivalent bottling we will make 3,000 cases of and SRP is $27. It comes exclusively from sites we make vineyard designated Pinots from and includes large amounts of 25-45 year old vine wines. We sell it almost exclusively through our distributors as we have almost no demand for it direct through the winery. I’m sure similar wines from Cameron, J. Christopher, Belle Pente and others have similar pedigrees, backgrounds, pricing and stories.
Again, I would love to know general production levels on these BRs. Seemingly they would be mostly in the hundreds of cases and rarely over even 1,000. That would not be viable for us. I get that they have classifications of vineyards so certain wines have to be only at a certain level where we do not have those restrictions in the US. At our level of production there does seem to be a payoff beyond the actual dollars that helps move the business forward but at, say, 300 cases of production that would not be the case.
Quite a while ago, I decided to quit buying Bourgognes as they never quite seemed to turn into under the radar wines that you had hoped they would–always slightly disappointing. Much more productive to chase village wines that might be declassified grapes from better vineyards. If I understand it correctly, most bourgogne rouges come from communes that don’t benefit form having their name on the label, just outside of the primary communes of the producers. (they could of course be across the street, and in some cases might be pretty high quality grapes). They aren’t very often declassified PC grapes–those generally go into the village wines, as I understand it.
More recently i’ve bought a few that seem to turn out really well each year (Chevillon, lafarge, etc), but for the most part I’ve stayed away.
Oregon on the other hand does produce somewhat similar wines, but as Jim says, these are more often declassified grapes from the vineyards that the single vineyard wines come from. More like village wines I would think. (Jim. am I getting this right?) This is in contrast to the occasional one or two off of something like the Berserker cuvee.
Yeah, I would have thought so, too, but it seems no amount of air will improve it. I guess I have nothing to lose by burying the rest but I hoped someone might have a take on this. Thanks for the tip on their winemaking, that probably means their “new” style isn’t really in my wheelhouse!