Reactions to the Vin d’Emotion Guides

I have started my “new” guide to Burgundy producers based on the emotional expression of their wines. While this is a work in progress, I’m perhaps a bit surprised by the results and also by the reactions, and I, therefore, feel a need to explain further.

The Guides

• Vins d’Emotion from Chassagne-Montrachet and St. Aubin
• Vins d’Emotion from Puligny-Montrachet
• Vins d’Emotion from Meursault
• Vins d’Emotion from Volnay and Pommard
• Vins d’Emotion from the Côte de Nuits – Off Piste
• Vins d’Emotion from Nuits-Saint-Georges – (New added)
• Vins d’Emotion from Vosne-Romanée and Flagey-Echezeaux (update)
• Vins d’Emotion from Chambolle-Musigny and Vougeot
• Vins d’Emotion from Morey-Saint-Denis
• Vins d’Emotion from Gevrey-Chambertin

I have now classified producers from five villages (four have been published) on my way through Burgundy. Readers have pointed out some good – and perhaps also some rather predictable elements about the lists. I will address these one by one.

Claim 1 – They’re all very expensive wines

Sadly, this is partly true, and although I don’t think the causality is 100%, the fact is that the leading producers making great wines often are in the forefront of viticulture and vinification, hence their strong consumer focus and appeal.

The financial appeal to the market is, however, often a different thing, with investment and speculation playing too large a role, sadly, in price inflation.

Not all the wines are extremely expensive though. Producers like Domaine Marc Roy, Domaine Herezytyn-Mazzini, and Domaine Jérôme Galeyrand in Gevrey-Chambertin are not cheap, but are nonetheless still in the reasonable league. The same could be said about Domaine Arlaud in Morey-Saint-Denis, and there are more affordable wines to come as the lists are expanded.

Claim 2 – All the old names are there

Yes and no. Adding estates like Domaine Meo-Camuzet to the list could be expanding the definition of vin d’emotion, as some of the wines from this estate are clearly not extremely emotional. Yet even if this is true, its Vosne-Romanee Aux Brulees, Cros Parantooux, and even the regular Vosne-Romanee village are hard to exclude. If I do, the lists are going to be very short!

The same can be said of Roumier; his wines do need plenty – plenty! – of time to unfold. But when they do, they are mystifyingly great. I could not make a list of Chambolle’s emotional producers without him, although the wines are rarely understood for the right reasons, and are almost always consumed too young.

In some of the articles to follow, more relatively unknown (to some) names will appear – names like Domaine Garcia, Domaine Nicolas Faure, and Domaine Naudin-Ferrand.

These lists will perhaps expand your knowledge, and will also exclude some well-known producers who have been weighed in the emotional balance and found wanting: too light, or too densely extracted. Again: I do not criticize these producers, but they are perhaps not ideal if one is looking for energy and vividness.

Claim 3 – They are not consistent

To see vignerons changing their viticultural and vinification practices is exciting, but to expect them to do so without minor errors and a dip in quality is unrealistic.

They will in the end be rated accordingly, but taking chances should be rewarded, in my view.

Moving on ….

Next up is Nuits-Saint-Georges … a village that has the full palate of producers… good and bad.

Comments and discussions

• Expanding on Vins d’Emotion March 26, 2022
• Reactions to the Vin d’Emotion Guides February 20, 2022