Burgundy’s Classy Whites and Getting Chardonnay Right in Canada: Weekly Tasting Report (Dec 14-20)

The Chateau Valandraud at the top of our list this week highlights the excellence of Bordeaux’s newest vintage on the market, 2020, particularly from the Right Bank, such as St. Emilion and Pomerol. But you’ll also notice a few dozen ratings of various vintages of top wines from Burgundy’s Chassagne-Montrachet. This was a tasting I did about two weeks ago in Hong Kong organized by a friend, Keith Pogson, to highlight the unique terroir and whites of the appellation.

I learned at an early age back in the mid-1980s when I was living in Paris that the appellation was “a red wine appellation making white wine.” At least this is what some of the luminaries of the time in Burgundy told me, such as the late Andre Gagey of the Beaune negociants of Louis Jadot. They also said that the whites were rustic compared with Puligny or Meursault.

But Pogson’s tasting certainly proved otherwise, and so many of the whites showed class and structure. “I think a lot of it has to do with global warming, and the wines are now riper and less rustic from Chassagne-Montrachet,” Pogson said after the tasting at Table restaurant in Central Hong Kong. However, most of the whites in the tasting still had lots of structure, particularly tannins that frame the wine as well as acidity. I also liked the earthy profile to many of the wines I tasted.

READ MORE: TOP 100 WINES OF FRANCE 2022

One note here: The Bouchard Père & Fils Montrachet Grand Cru 2016 is obviously not part of the Chassagne-Montrachet appellation but it's a beautiful bottle, nonetheless.

I also tasted a small range of tawny port from Sandeman and Ferreira, and I was impressed with the quality and real character they had. The tawnies from 20 to 40 years old really showed the slightly nutty and caramel aromas and flavors that you expect in a wood-aged tawny. Sometimes I find these type of ports too fresh in character, meaning the blends have been made with wines that are too young along with the old ones. I also really liked the 20-year old tawny port, which seems to be the right combination of old and young, giving a vibrant character of dried fruits, nuts and caramel.

The tasting team also rated a range of Canadian chardonnays from the Okanagan Valley. Checkmate winery has some of the oldest plantings of chardonnay in the country, such as those planted in their Dekleva and Jagged Rock vineyards. All of their single-vineyard chardonnays undergo wild fermentation, and the latest 2019s that we tasted show fantastic concentration. The best, such as Dekleva Vineyard Queen Taken, Jagged Rock Vineyard Little Pawn and Sunset Vineyard Knight’s Challenge, have intense ripe fruit, spice and creaminess, combined with mineral freshness and phenolic texture and tension, which will enable them to develop in bottle.

HUNGARY'S ELEGANT MERLOT

In Europe, Senior Editor Stuart Pigott tasted a range of Hungarian wines, mostly reds. Quality was erratic, but the best of them showed why this category deserves more attention. The most remarkable of them was the Malatinszky Merlot Villany Kúria 2015, which is a new release. “I really didn’t see this one coming, because the Villany region has a much better reputation for cabernet franc than merlot,” Stuart said. “However, this a spectacularly fragrant and elegant merlot with all the richness we associate with the grape.”

Csaba Malatinszky was originally a top sommelier and founded his small winery in 1997. “He made good wines right from the beginning, achieving a balance rare in Hungarian wines a decade and more ago,” Stuart remembered, “but his wines have really made a big leap forward recently.”

The Malatinszky Cabernet Franc Villany Kúria 2015, combines freshness and energy with complex aromas of violets and black berries, while you could almost mistake the Malatinszky Villany Kövesföld Kúria 2009 for a Bordeaux of this famously rich vintage. Perhaps that’s not surprising considering it's a Bordeaux blend.

In a more expansive style, but with great balance and precision was the St. Andrea Eger Bikaver Grand Superior Nagy-aged-Hegy Agape 2018. “Bikaver is always a cuvee based on the Hungarian kekfrankos and kadarka grapes, usually including French varieties," Stuart said. "The striking thing is how the kekfrankos [known as blaufrankisch in Austria] tends to dominate the blend, as in this case. The result is a totally Hungarian wine.”

READ MORE: HUNGARY ANNUAL REPORT: LANDING ON A NEW PLANET OF WINE

THE BRIGHTER SIDE OF CHINESE PINOT 

Senior Editor Zekun Shuai was tapping into more Chinese wines from his tasting office in Beijing this past week and found a few 92-point-plus bottles from some reliably consistent producers, such as Grace Vineyard and Copower Jade.

While the meaty, spicy and full bodied cabernet sauvignon-merlot blend Copower Jade Ningxia Chang 长和翡翠 “长” 干红葡萄酒 2020 impressed, especially considering the challenging vintage it came from, it was a pinot noir from the Xigu winery that really delivered.

We do have a love-hate affair with Chinese pinot noirs. While the producers who grow it in Ningxia show a real commitment, most of the wines still suffer from a short growing season, struggling to deliver pinot’s delicate flavors and intensity. Although a few outstanding producers like Silver Heights and Lansai normally come through in specific vintages, consistency still needs to be improved. But the three pinot noirs we tried this week from Tianshui, in Gansu province south of Ningxia, are on the brighter side. Here, pinot noir benefits from a slightly longer growing season that can extend to 135 days, from flowering to harvest. The result is a peppery and red-fruit-expressive pinot.

The Xigu Pinot Noir Tianshui Single Vineyard 曦谷天水黑比诺干红葡萄酒 2020 shows freshness, purity and delicacy. The peppery edge to the cranberry fruit on the nose makes it an attractive expression from vineyards at an elevation of 1,250 to 1,400 meters, which are leased by the Greek winemaker Mihalis Boutaris, who planted pinot in 2011 and made his China debut with the 2016 vintage.

Another impressive pinot comes from China’s Sha’anxi province, in Lantian, where architect Ma Qingyun founded his winery, Jade Valley, in the early 2000s and planted 13 hectares of vines, with his pinot vineyard found at an elevation of 700 to 800 meters with a southerly exposure. 2019 was a warm and wet vintage, according to Jade Valley’s winemaker, Lu Xijie, who recalled it was her first harvest upon joining the team. The Jade Valley Pinot Noir Lantian 玉川酒庄黑比诺干红葡萄酒 2019 shows plenty of oak now, but it doesn’t hinder the expressions of savory, berry-fruit and citrusy aromas, with firm, tightly knit tannins and medium acidity. It will shine with one more year in the bottle.

– James Suckling, Editor/Chairman; Stuart Pigott, Senior Editor; Zekun Shuai, Senior Editor

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the past week by James Suckling and the other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.

Note: You can sort the wines below by country, vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.