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Burgundy 2008 Vintage Report
(The wines can be viewed using the
menu on the left)
The Weather A curate’s egg vintage; coulure hail rain (of course); uneven ripening and finally a drying north wind with plenty of sunshine. Spring could have been better but no great damage done. Coulure is simply poor flower set or nature’s ‘green harvest’. Conscientious growers remove bunches and berries in mid summer to improve quality of the remaining fruit. There was no need for that in 2008. This also helped to aerate bunches and so minimise rot through a damp August. On the morning of 26th July Thierry Matrot left his house in Blagny high above Meursault. After a few hundred metres he took shelter from hail under a tree. When he reached the village he saw vines as they are in winter; stripped of leaves and fruit. At one point the road was gravelled with a six centimetre layer of marble sized hail stones. It was astonishing but only devastated a narrow band of vines to the north of Meursault and south eastern Volnay. Again there is little affect on quality but significant effect on yield. The poor summer was countered by a wonderful end of the season. Growers have always said that the vintage is made in the last 2 or 3 weeks before harvest. The drying northerlies and wonderful sunshine made up for all that had past. Christophe Drag at Domaine Chauvenet cited the 27th September as the latest day he had started a harvest in his time in charge. This slow end to the season often results in great complexity as long as growers took care to select fully ripe grapes. Ultimately uneven ripening was the biggest scourge of the vintage resulting in huge differences between growers who care and those who failed to work at triage (selection). The Wines Tasting 2008 Burgundies was my most testing experience in the 21 years of Handford Wines. I felt like Ranulph Fine-Wines battling through six inches of snow and temperatures as low as minus 14 degrees during the final round of tastings. An unprecedented delay in the malolactic conversion (a secondary ‘fermentation’ that softens the natural acidity from malic to lactic; some of the 2009s had finished before the 2008s!) and a huge variation in cellar temperatures (some were heated to encourage malos to finish) made any direct comparisons very difficult. However I have no doubt that these late malos will serve to preserve the tender and complex characters and result in far more brilliant Burgundies than many may have you believe. Tasting the lesser whites in mid 2009 was a bit of a worry as many were flabby apparently sweet and certainly not for the long term. But the 1er Crus and bigger wines of Meursault Puligny and Chassagne are almost at the other extreme. They show delicate citrus and pomegranate fruits with zesty acidity. Many will cellar well for 3 to 6 years or more. My overriding conclusion was of evenness purity and elegance and certainly more attractive and abundant fruit than in 2007. There is more variation in reds and I have favoured growers who sacrificed an ounce of weight in order to retain perfume expression and elegance. The best examples are Fourrier Burguet Millot and Lafarge. Wines I refused tended to show a coarse herbaceous temperament almost in contempt of the difficult times they had lived through. If pressed to earmark any consistency in appellation I would nominate Morey Chambolle and Gevrey Chambertin at the top of the Cotes de Nuits but it is without question the name of the grower and not the name of the wine that counts in 2008. Vintage comparison is always difficult. For the whites I would go for a bit of 2006 and a bit more 2007 but with extra zip energy and zest. The best comparisons for red are quite historic now. The vintage cycle was similar in 1998 but results in 2008 are palpably better and my generation of farmers have certainly benefitted from the extra 10 years of experience. 2008 is truly Burgundian; vines living on the edge and resulting wines that if well chosen will survive a rocky path to a Garden of Eden in the valley below.
How the offer works Prices are quoted per case of 12 (unless stated) in bond (i.e. duty free) at London City Bond. Wines may be stored by us or transferred in bond. Most wines will be shipped in the spring or autumn of 2009 for onward delivery. When you choose to receive wines the duty (currently £19.26 per case) and V.A.T. on the total value (including duty) must be paid prior to delivery. Transfer under bond and delivery to the Most wines will be available in the autumn of 2009. Smaller wines may be shipped in spring 2009 and the Grand Crus may be later.
Where possible I have included tasting notes to give an indication of style. Bear in mind that wines have been tasted prior to bottling and in some cases before they have finished malolactic fermentation or been fined and/or filtered. More importantly Greg and I have tasted at least 10 wines for every wine chosen and most wines offered have been tried more than once during 2009 and early January 2010. Drinking dates give an idea of when the wines will be ready. There are never fixed rules and wines should be enjoyed at as many stages of their life as possible. Most of the bigger wines though should certainly be left for a few years though there is often much to be gained from trying a bottle or two in the very early stages. Many wines are made in very small quantities and so orders may be stacked
for allocation at the end of February. |
