Glorious Burgundy: video, photos and tasting notes on 2009 and 2010

[Panos Kakaviatos]

Greetings!

Last week, I visited Burgundy where, at Clos de Vougeot, I tasted 25 whites and 25 reds with many other tasters for the occasion of Grands Maisons, Grands Crus, across various appellations from the 2009 vintage.

The event gathered wines from no less than 22 maison negociants of Burgundy, from Joseph Drouhin and Bouchard Père & Fils to Chanson and Maison Champy. It was a nice way to get a sense of that vintage: the reds were more or less good to great. Occasional encounters with monolithic aspects, and some heat on the finish indicated the hotter side of the vintage, a rapid ripening which is not always best. But this is no 2003. Most of the wines were downright pleasurable.

As for the whites, quite a few were flat or hot on the finish or both, although there were some fine examples of Chablis Les Clos and a particularly fine Chevalier Montrachet from Bouchard Père & Fils.

Here a link to the video and the tasting notes.

The day after the tasting at Clos Vougeot, I sampled a wide variety of both 2009s and many 2010s. The occasion was the Grands Jours de Bourgogne, a biannual week of tastings. I must say that, as much as I like the appeal of most red 2009s, I came away feeling particularly impressed with the verve and freshness - along with fine fruit and ripeness - of the 2010 vintage.

The 2010 whites are also clearly excellent, a step up from 2009, to be sure. I was able to taste a series of Cortons and Corton Charlemagnes as well as wines from Mugneret Gibourg, Ramonet, Jean Jacques Confuron, and many others.

Here a link to the video and tasting notes.

[Daniel Posner]

Sorry that we did not not meet up, Panos. I was there for the entire week. Was very happy with the 2010 whites, as well. Just insanely good wines.

[Scott McArthur]

Panos,
Thanks for the update.