No notes and ratings ….

The world of Burgundy is evolving, sometimes for the good … sometimes not! The prices of buying or renting vineyards are, in some cases, exploding.

This can sometimes have unexpected consequences for the tasting and rating of the wines.

I got this reply from a vigneron earlier in 2024 and I kept it and did not comment on this until now as it sort of relates to the inheritance tax and especially the prices of grapes and vineyards.

For now, I will leave the vigneron unnamed.

Mail from a vigneron …

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Hi Steen, 

All good and you ? 

As I told you last time, I don’t want to appear in any revue or website or get grades, because of my range of wine. I don’t want other producers in Burgundy to get envious or criticize because that would put in danger my purchase grape sources despite the fact I have contracts. I don’t want to it make it more difficult as it already hard to buy vineyards or grapes at the fair price. 

Nevertheless you’re welcome to taste the wines if you want for you to try personally. 

I hope you get my point. 

Best regards, 

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I love wines and normally, I like to taste all great wines, but I have my limits in this case.

Firstly, I make my living off tasting, rating and describing wines. Without tasting notes, there is no way I will be able to publish Winehog. In some cases, I will drop the points ratings on producer’s request … but this does not even leave room for the tasting note.

Therefore, I did not go to taste these wines …. this is not how it works for the traditional wine critic like me.

I will later discuss the arguments of the vigneron, arguments that can have some reason, if the vigneron himself is not one of the big pushers of the vineyard prices, as this is certainly a problem for some vignerons …

I will study the price development of some vineyards to see if certain vignerons are pushing the prices unreasonably thereby driving up the prices almost alone, like I have seen in the top part of Meursault.

In this case, the producer is good, but aside from the occasional great cuvées, the wines are not indispensable in a tasting or in a vintage context.

I do however see a point in tasting the wines, and I will now start to gather and taste some bottles from different sources to taste the wines at my own expense.

There are limits to this, but perhaps I, or other critics in the same situation, can gather resources to taste these wines from time to time?

A strange situation indeed!