Blog
2010 Burgundy offer coming up tomorrow 9th January
January 8th, 2012 by
A very early morning flight to Lyon on Thursday to finalise allocations and organise samples for this week’s tasting. Back on an equally early flight yesterday to this charming heart-warming welcome form my lovely daughters. And I’d only been away 2 days. It’s lovely to feel missed sometimes, especially when you come back to a welcome like this.
On Thursday it tipped down with rain all day, albeit was very mild. Friday was lovely. Here’s a shot looking across from the south to Chambolle.
Growers are anxious there seems to have been, so far, no real winter and sap has not really sunk back into the plants. There are potential serious problems if a sudden cold snap comes on. Thousands of plants were lost in December 2009 when temperatures dropped suddenly to minus 20 Celcius. This was just the start of a whole series of reasons why 2010 is such a small harvest.
We’ll publish the Burgundy offer tomorrow, (9th January) but for a preview, it will be featuring the following:
Henri Delagrange, Volnay (NEW) - wines of great freshness and energy; spice and red fruit notes and well-priced.
Domaine Heresztyn, Gevrey Chambertin – consistent as always: elegant , supple forward style; very fine, good value.
Domaine Fourrier, Gevrey Chambertin – dramatically reduced quantities; tragic as this is a great year for them.
Domaine Henri et Philippe Jouan, Morey St Denis (NEW) – tiny artisanal domaine; supple, charming and delicious wines.
Domaine Francois Bertheau, Chambolle-Musigny – our second year working together; brilliant, pure intensity throughout the whole range.
Domaine Confuron-Gindre, Vosne Romanee (NEW) – another Confuron, this one for the first time in UK; cool elegant styles, great vineyards, but again small quantities.
Domaine Sylvain Cathiard, Vosne Romanee – the great Sylvain’s final vintage.
Domaine Guyon, Vosne Romanee – powerful, structured wines, lots of whole bunches.
We’ve been to Burgundy a lot in the last year, and have been blesed with some great tip-offs about up and coming estates. It seems doubly fortunate for us that the last two vintages have been so good. It’s not our preference to squeeze an allocation out of an already well-known estate, but to look and think and explore for ourselves. So don’t be put off if some of these names are new to you. Our track record is proven from the 12 years we’ve been working with now famous names such as Sylvin Cathiard and Domaine Fourrier, so we trust you’ll have confidence to give some of the others a try.
Quantities are tiny from some domaines, and this, if it is coupled with heavy demand, will mean that we will have no wine for new customers for the established names. But there is plenty of excellent wine in the offer, and 2010 is a beautiful vintage.
Lance Foyster