The Burgundy Revolution?

The enjoyment of Burgundy has changed, and its wines are being consumed younger and younger. Many great bottles are drunk within the first years after their release, meaning that 2019s are now on the table in many restaurants, and on the palate of Burgundy lovers throughout the world.

This is how it is in 2022 – like it or not.

The wines and the revolution

There is a new generation of vignerons that has taken this change to heart; they produce wines with true vin de soif potential, as well as wines that can age while still delivering hedonistic joy in their youth – 2010, for example, for the bigger guns.

Some producers have maintained a more traditional style, where a Bonnes Mares will need 20 years or more of aging to unfold. This is a choice, and while some people drink their Roumier 2018s now, they should in my view wait 20-30 years if they want the full, great, effect. I love mature Roumier, but even my 1999 Bonnes Mares is still very young.

Taste it fully mature, understand it, and then we can talk Roumier. Otherwise, it is to a large extent label-drinking, I’m sorry to say.

It’s about the energy; it’s about the emotion

The keys to Burgundy pleasure are energy and tension: the core of a vin d’emotion, and also the core of early drinkability.

The plot thickens

With the modern way of buying, selling, and serving wines in restaurants, they are consumed earlier, and expectations are (along with prices) increasing. Consumers want joy, pleasure, and a positive experience, not a closed, reduced, grumpy wine.

Many neglect to discuss the fact that Burgundy wines – like all products – need to adapt to consumers and their current pattern of consumption. If the wines are to be consumed young, they should have a tasting window that makes them agreeable, and preferably enjoyable.

OK, the top names can ignore this. But that said, even some of these benchmark producers have adapted their style since the mid-1990s, and are adopting a lighter style of vinification as well as adapting to the effects of global warming. The reduced use of sulphur in bottled wines is just one example.

Today, one can often drink a 10-year-old wine from DRC, Liger-Belair, or Bizot with great pleasure; they have energy and tension. And tendencies are pointing to an even greater focus on energy and hedonistic pleasure.

In my opinion, producers like Henri Jayer started the hedonistic wave – the vin d’emotion – with his forward, enjoyable wines. I drank his 1990-1995 wines around the year 2000, and many of them are still imprinted on my palate and my mind as the greatest hedonistic treasures I’ve ever experienced. They were built for pleasure with their cold pre-fermentation, and even with quite a heavy dose of oak.

Today, tasting the 2009 and 2010s from Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair, for example, confirms the early drinkability of even the big grands crus.

Wines adapt

It’s dangerous to suggest that all wines will be adapted to accommodate the earlier drinking now practiced by most Burgundy lovers. But winegrowing and vinification are never static, and now more than ever, should adapt to climate change and the extreme consequences of weather variations.

Wine must adapt and change, otherwise we will find 15% alcohol in our Burgundies and merlot-coloured pinot!

Taking this into account, intelligent vignerons will look at the possibilities and methods to ensure ever more hedonistic, enjoyable wines.

It is the winds of change, the breeze of vins d’emotion!