On my March trip to Burgundy I had the opportunity to taste quite a few wines from the 2012 vintage – and here are my first impressions of the 2012 vintage.
A word of warning – it’s still very early to evaluate the quality and characteristics of the 2012 vintage – and my sample of 2012s is still quite limited – so this is only initial impressions of the vintage.
It’s rare to see new producers or owners on the big grand crus in Vosne Romanee, but during my work on the articles about Romanee-Saint-Vivant vineyard I discovered a new and for me unknown producer on this fine vineyard – Domaine Poisot.
The story is however much more complex, as the history of the Poisot holdings on Romanee-Saint-Vivant dates back to 1902. For decades they have however only been bottling very small quantities of RSV under the Poisot label – and sold the main part of the production off to negociants – so while it’s an old ownership it’s really a new producer of Romanee-Saint-Vivant.… Read the full article →
The 2011s are now getting bottled and most of the wine journalists have now published tasting notes on the 2011 vintage.
I was very positive about the 2011 vintage after my first tasting of the vintage in May 2012, and I remain very positive – but will reserve an upgrade until I have tasted more 2011s from bottle. With the succes of the 2011 vintage we now have theee very fine vintages in a row. But how does these vintages compare quality wise for the red burgundies.… Read the full article →
Thanks for all the support and all the visits in 2012. Special thanks to all the helpfull and friendly producers in Burgundy – without this hospitality and the tastings from cask, there would be no winehog.org.
The Hospices de Beaune 2012 auction held on November 18th really confirmed the very high demand for Burgundy wines – especially the Grand Crus.
On this years auction they offered 407 barrels of red and 111 barrels of whites – and the sale totalled 5,631,410 EUR including buyer’s Premium.
The prices were a lot higher than at last years auction – the average prices for the reds were up with 68,85% and the whites were up with 18,11% according to Christies.… Read the full article →
Facebook is a good place to meet wine friends from all over the world. Winehog is active in the different facebook groups and we have our own Facebook page, where you can follow all our new posts without having to visit winehog.org.
Support our Facebook page … we need a lot more fans and followers … and if you really feel the need … it’s ok to share the page with your friends, if they are true lovers of Burgundy.
The Grand Jours de Bourgogne is a very big event. There were 57 produceres at the Vosne Romanee tasting with around 200 wines – mostly from the 2010 vintage. At the same time tastings were held for Morey+Chambolle in Gilly, Nuit-Saint-Georges at NSG, and Gevrey Chambertin in Marsannay. In total more than 500 wines in one day …. !!
My focus were on the Vosne Romanee tasting, at little on the Nuit-Saint-Georges and Chambolle+Morey tastings. My tastings covered 100 – 150 wines, starting out with the presumed top producers, moving on to other interesting produceres.… Read the full article →
The main tasting at this years Grand Jours de Bourgogne was the Vosne Romanee tasting. The tasting was held at Chateau Clos de Vougeot on March 20th – 2012
Most of the leading producers of Vosne Romanee, Echezeau, Grands Echezeaux and Clos de Vougeot attended this event. While the tastings of Morey, Chambolle, Nuit-Saint-Georges were fine, my main focus was on the Vosne tasting. It’s anyhow impossible to taste all the wines – and Vosne somehow seemed like the prefect place to start!… Read the full article →
The last two weeks have offered some very nice wine from the area outside our normal wine districts. Some were – surprisingly – good, while one proved to be one of the most awfull wines I have ever tasted.
Starting with the positive stuff – two Italian wines worth mentioning! Giacomo Conterno 1996 Barolo Cascina Francia, and the impressive 1999 Roagna Cricet Paja Barberesco.
Sips and Samples is a new format on Winehog.org. The idea is to present wines in a more informal way. This could be wines outside our areas, or wines tasted under relaxed or less than optimal conditions.
This week offered a tasting of some interesting wines. These wines were opened for a tasting the evening before, so I was tasting the leftovers approx 24 hours after the bottles were opened. Not optimal conditions … but still usefull.
Recently I have had some white Burgundies with very high alcohol, sweet with notes of botrytis and a low acidity.
A white Burgundy should in my view be dry, and with alcohol below 14 and preferably even lower. A sweet style Burgundy with botrytis notes are in my view a faulty wine, and should be rated accordingly … with an average rating (or lower).
The 2007 is presently a mixed picture. Some wines have a fine balance, others is lacking acidity, fresh and vibrant fruit. Some 2007s are very good, but still they don’t have the potential of the good 2009s, nor do they have the weight of 2002 and 2005.
It’s not the time for a final call on 2007 reds, but at the moment they are slighly disappointing – but still very good.… Read the full article →
Reviewing and rating wines is very controversial, and even more so than the wines reviewed.
A lot of these discussions are, in my view, a result of inflated and inconsistent ratings for a lot of big non terroir driven wines.
Here is an old interview with the great master Henri Jayer – made by Jancis Robinson. I have never seen Henri Jayer on video before – and it’s somehow a fine moment to see him talking about his view on winemaking. Take a look!
Echézeaux is one of the largest grands crus of the whole Côte d’Or. It’s divided into a number of plots or climats the vineyard, located around the smaller Grands-Echézeaux.
I have tasted some very good bottles of Echezeaux, but also some very poor bottles where only the label was an indication of its grand cru status. Why this variation .. and what is a good Echezeaux?
We are currently expanding WineHog.org, and we still need to do a lot of work, before the site is matching our own expectations.
You are very welcome to browse the site, and our wine ratings. We will over time ad much more new and older ratings, and expand with a lot of articles about wine and food.
But at the moment … this is what we have – enjoy
Best regards
Steen Öhman
WineHog.org … Read the full article →
