Grands Jours de Bourgogne – aftermath

Back in Denmark from a long Grands Jours de Bourgogne – sadly some of the trip partly spoiled by a cold … but I did manage to taste a lot of wines.

In general the quality level has improved over the last years, and the number of awfull and flawed wines have been reduced significantly. A big improvement within the last 5 to 10 years.

Big houses and Grand Cru

Thursday I attended the tasting and event Grandes Maisons Grands Crus where all the big houses showed the best wines from the 2015 vintage.

The evening even included the tasting of a few older wines – a very generous gesture of the organisation – and the host Alberic Bichot.

Thanks for the treat of the Musigny 1993 ,,,, a rare bird indeed!

Also the the big houses have increased the quality – and even the bottom level has been improved.

That being said – I do feel that given the prices charged for these wines – the apparent leniency on the ratings of these wines should in my view stop.

The ones that do well should be rewarded – and the others not so! … I will in the future be firmer in the ratings of truly disappointing wines.

I normally try to avoid rating of these these wines – but I think this policy could lead people to buy these wines believing that a Grand Cru Burgundy should taste like this in a great year.

Expect more consequent notes and ratings in the future – claiming 500 EURO for a bottle does raise some expectations.

Prices and the role

It’s no secret that top Burgundies have become very expensive, and this does in the end introduce other dimensions in the evaluation of the wines.

The price parameter is important to us all – and I will therefore include the price as topic in some of the tasting notes – i.e. if the wine offer great value. I have further initiatives in the pipeline regarding prices, and please feel free to comment if you have any ideas.

To be honest more transparency is needed, and value for money is getting increasingly important.

Brisk notes

I’m normally quite or even very polite and skip ratings for poor wines. I do however continue to see a range of really poor wines coming from even Grand Cru vineyards.

If a producer enters a wine in a tasting they should have a fair rating – and if the wine is poor – a poor rating, rather than being omitted.

This will give some very brisk ratings – and it also raises a demand on the organices of tastings – if a wine performs dramatically below the expected standard then it should be redrawn from the tasting and not presented.

So expect a few rather grumpy notes …

A tribute to the organizers

The Grands Jours de Bourgogne is a large and complex event – a very generous event, that gives us a unique opportunity to explore Burgundy.

My angle this year was to explore the new and improving names – perhaps even rising stars – had to neglect some of my favourites (they will survive I’m sure) – but the number of tastings and events does call for selective tasting.

Thanks to the organicers for a great event..