Burgundy's happy new vintage

10 April 2012

His excitement was unfeigned - and unexpected. Three or four of us were standing in the moist stone cellar of one of the greatest white-wine producers in Burgundy, and all he wanted us to taste were his new red wines. This was a mere month or two after the 1999 vintage.

"That's what I'm looking for," said Dominique Lafon triumphantly, glass in hand, his smile less mischievous than usual. "This is the most beautiful year for reds that I've made. There's that energy in the wine, that vividness." The wines did, indeed, have a kind of warm glow at their core which surprised me, too. So often you have to make excuses for red burgundy. Poor little things, they can be; so slender; so fleshless. Not in this vintage.

Since that moment, the wines have done a lot of lying around in their casks, and now they've got up, rubbed their eyes and come to London to be sold. Most serious wine merchants have a current or imminent burgundy offer, and there was a daze of tastings to attend last week.

This is a very good vintage for red burgundy. What does that mean? Not the heavy, soupy pleasures the name can still suggest, an image based on the fraudulent burgundies of the past and the imitative "burgundies" of the USA and Australia. If you want that kind of wine, chose Châteauneuf-du-Pape or Gigondas. True red burgundy is a light and nervy red wine packed with perfumed red fruits. In a good vintage like 1999, those fruits seem to acquire a fire and a seductive power quite disproportionate to expectation; in such a vintage, too, the wines acquire a tannic belly that helps them age and knit together with time far more successfully than they will in lesser vintages.

Those who follow these things, meanwhile, will find 1999 has better structure than the lush 1997s, more grace and fullness than the sometimes rough-hewn 1995s, and is far more fun to drink than the piercingly acidic 1996s. It's the best, in other words, since 1990. Not quite as good as 1990, but (like 1989) within a cellar spit or two. It's also a happy vintage for those who, like me, like something to chew on in their red wines. Tannins are rarely this plentiful, or this ripe, in red burgundy. Thanks to a splendidly warm August and September, they throb.

Whites? It's not that there's anything wrong with the 1999 white burgundies; they just don't have the same outstanding qualities as the reds. This was a very large white harvest, and growers had to be ruthless in keeping yields low in order to concentrate flavours. They didn't always succeed, though there are many good wines.

How about prices? The best, of course, are expensive, though less expensive than the best Bordeaux. The weather in 1999 did, though, favour the Cote de Beaune over the Cote de Nuits - and that's the part of the region where you find a bigger spread of red vineyards of humble status. Result: good cheap red burgundy. Now that is rare.

BEST BUYS UNDER £150 PER CASE:

Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune, Françoise et Denis Clair (bottled: Haynes, Hanson and Clark, 0207 259 0102, £52.85 ex-cellars, equivalent to about £83 in the UK).
I never thought I'd ever come across a wine from this AOC which I could recommend. This I can. It's a sweet, soft little mouthful of ripe raspberries for drinking as soon as possible: 84 points (out of 100).

Bourgogne Pinot Noir, Bertrand Ambroise (bottled: Montrachet, 020 7928 1990, £92.83).
Soft, tasty burgundy with a coffee-cream note for early drinking: 85 points.

Bourgogne Rouge, Jean-Philippe Fichet (bottled: Morris and Verdin, 020 7357 8866, £105.75).
This wine comes from a vineyard just beneath Volnay Santenots; its meaty scents and fine fruit architecture suggest something more than the modest regional appellation: 87 points.

Mercurey Vieilles Vignes, J and F Raquillet (bottled: Morris and Verdin, £105.75).
There's often a clunkiness about the wines of the Côte Chalonnaise. This is much more stylish and seductive than the norm, packed with ripe and toothsome fruit: 88 points.

Santenay Clos Gênet, Françoise et Denis Clair (bottled: Haynes, Hanson and Clark, £85.90 excellars, equivalent to about £122).
Red burgundy, remember, is all about perfume and vivid, pure fruit: this wine incarnates the ideal at its simplest with its sweet blackcurrant scents and limpid fruit flavours. Artless charm: 89 points.

Chorey-Lès-Beaune, Tollot-Beaut (cask sample: Bibendum, 020 7916 7706, £122.20; Goedhuis, 020 7793 7900, £132.78; Justerini and Brooks, 020 7484 6400, £135).
The older generation at this domain say that 1999 resembles 1947 in terms of its ripeness. Certainly this wine, which I tasted both in Burgundy and in London, could only be made in a generous year: gorgeous, ripe black fruits for swooning into. Provided it's bottled with a light touch, it will define deliciousness: 89 points.

Monthélie Premier Cru Clos Gauthey, Jean Parent (bottled: Haynes, Hanson and Clark, £107.50 ex-cellars, equivalent to about £147).
In this exceptional Monthélie, you can begin to feel the tannins of the vintage, and a chocolate note creep into the dark cherry fruits: 90 points.

Beaune Premier Cru Champs Pimont, Champy Père et Cie (cask sample: Haynes, Hanson and Clark, £145.30 ex-cellars, equivalent to about £192).
There are some very lovely wines from Beaune in 1999, and this is one of them: scents of vanilla and pepper, and a beautiful smooth mouthful of cherry cream. Sumptuous and feathery red: 89 points.

GRAND BOTTLES:

Pommard Premier Cru Les Fremiers, Coste-Caumartin (cask sample: Justerini and Brooks, £216).
Honest-to-goodness Pommard, sweet-smelling, perfumed and rich-textured. A plum poem: 90 points.

Volnay Premier Cru Les Robardelles, Carré-Courbin (bottled: Morris and Verdin, £217.38).
Warmly, vividly scented fruits provide this wine's irresistible pheromones: 89 points.

Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes, Denis Bachelet (cask sample: Morris and Verdin, £217.38).
Expensive for a village wine, perhaps, but this rich, svelte, seductive and sumptuous Gevrey will not disappoint, providing bottling is successful: 89 points.

Pommard Premier Cru Les Rugiens, Annick Parent (bottled: Haynes, Hanson and Clark, £198.80 ex-cellars, equivalent to about £255).
This is one of the beefiest of all red burgundies, and 1999 has given the vineyard site the perfect opportunity to show off. Spice scents and flavours (especially liquorice), mouthfilling textures and vivid fruit. Great value for this top site: 91 points.

Nuits St-Georges Premier Cru Les Saint Georges, Robert Chevillon (cask sample: Justerini and Brooks, £300; Seckford, 01394 446622, £339.58).
As usual, a superb range from this producer: every wine except the Bourgogne (where I tasted a reductive sample) can be bought with confidence. I pick out Les St Georges only because the site is in old vines which provide an astonishing multi-dimensional power and purity: 92 points.

Pommard Premier Cru Grand Clos des Epenots, Domaine de Courcel (cask sample: Howard Ripley, 020 8877 3065, £327.83)
A tree-house of a wine, with lavish new wood yet lots of sexy plum stuffed in behind: 90 points.

Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru Les Véroilles, Ghislaine Barthod (cask sample: Justerini and Brooks, £336).
Ghislaine Barthod's wines combine a damson-like vivacity with perfume and punch. The Véroilles is beautifully crafted and spicy: 90 points.

Echezeaux, René Engel (bottled: Morris and Verdin £305.50; Howard Ripley £352.50).
Still quiet aromatically (it was bottled in December) but its fiery spice, chunky tannins and chocolate-swathed fruits promise something peacock-showy in a decade: 91 points.

Richebourg, Anne-Françoise Gros (cask sample: Haynes, Hanson and Clark, £405 ex-cellars, equivalent to about £497).
Just what a Grand Cru should be. Come-hither scents of sweet, burnt blackberries with hints of toast and coffee, and deep brambly flavours, too, powering masterfully through the mouth: 94 points.

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