Burgundy’s Stunning 2020s, and the Hills of Chianti Classico Sing: Weekly Tasting Report (July 20-26)

The JamesSuckling.com tasting team got through a massive amount of wines over the past week, uncorking a weekly record of 922 bottles and taking a giant leap toward our goal of tasting 30,000 wines for the year.

Senior Editor Stuart Pigott returned to his home in Germany from Burgundy over the weekend with the 2020 vintage wines still going through his head “because they're so extraordinary, meaning they lie completely outside the realm of Burgundian normality.”

“Forget the idea of red Burgundy as a pale-colored, light-bodied wine with gentle tannins and fragile flavors,” Stuart said. “The 2020 red Burgundies are so deep in color they look like wines from the syrah grape, and the tannins often feel the same way – the aromas and flavors frequently full-throttle. Welcome to the maximum force of the future thanks to climate change!”

Maybe that sounds great to you, or maybe it sounds rather shocking. But what is the right reaction to the 2020 red Burgundies? Both excitement and dismay. When the wines retain freshness and subtlety they are flamboyant and charismatic, but if they move in the inky and chewy direction, they're pretty tiring.

READ MORE: TOP 100 WINES OF FRANCE 2021

Burgundy's winemakers have had plenty of practice with hot vintages since 2003's "summer of the century,” but some producers clearly struggled in 2020 with the third hot and dry year in a row. Our coming Burgundy report will take a look at the 2020 vintage in much more detail, but this is the crux of the situation.

Although the whites are less obviously extraordinary, some of them bowled Stuart over and others were way too ripe, tasting more like flashy old-style Australian Show Reserve Chardonnay than elegant white Burgundies.

For both the whites and the reds, 2020 is nowhere near as consistent as the 2019 vintage, so you really need a guide if you want to avoid wasting a pile of money. Prices for the sough-after wines of Burgundy have never been higher in modern times.

To get an idea of just how exciting 2020 can be, see the tasting notes for the red Louis Latour Chambertin Grand Cru Cuvée Héritiers Latour 2020 and the white Bouchard Père & Fils Chevalier Montrachet Grand Cru Domaine 2020. These breathtakingly concentrated and refined wines show how amazing a vintage can be when everything works as it should – from vineyard soil management through to bottling. There's nothing over the top about these wines except for their excellence.

However, the most exciting thing about the 2020 vintage is the stunning collection of reds that a group of daring winemakers produced from regional and village appellations or little-known single vineyards that lack the cachet of the Premier Crus, let alone the Grand Crus. For example, the red Domaine Boris Champy Hautes Côtes de Beaune Clou 377 2020 and the white Domaine Boris Champy Hautes Côtes de Beaune Montagne 382 2020 are the best wines Stuart ever tasted from this humble appellation.

Wines like these are not expensive. Read the notes below carefully and you'll find a slew of bargains.

COOL CHIANTI CLASSICOS

In our tasting office in Tuscany, James and Associate Editor Claire Nesbitt continue to taste hundreds of bottles of Italian wines. They are finding a number of beautiful wines from the hills of Chianti Classico. This cooler region, with surrounding deep forest, seems better suited to the hotter growing seasons of recent vintages, particularly 2020 and 2021. The higher elevations and cool green influence of the trees help mitigate the blistering weather conditions during the summer. This year now seems to be another hot and dry one, with the vines already about two weeks advanced compared with a normal grape-growing season. Some say the harvest will begin in Tuscany at the end of August.

The cool character of wines from the Chianti Classico area was a key factor in the Bertinga Toscana La Volta di Bertinga 2019 winning a blind tasting of some the best merlot in the world, including the legendary Pomerols of Petrus, Le Pin and L’Eglise Clinet. La Volta di Bertinga comes from a small vineyard near the town of Gaiole that is about 380 meters in altitude with a northeastern exposure, which allows the grapes a longer and cooler ripening period. Check out James’ full report on the tasting.

Meanwhile, our tasters in Hong Kong continue to rate outstanding wines from Italy, Spain and France. This week’s highlight came from Loacker Wine Estates, who revved us up with their Burgundy-inspired Brunellos from single-vineyard crus from their 19-hectare Corte Pavone estate, located west of the town of Montalcino. The singularity and personality of each of these Brunellos is underlined with breed and finesse, delivering loads of nuance from terroir variations.

The Corte Pavone Brunello di Montalcino Anemone al Sole Riserva 2016 was the top-rated wine among them. This cru, with a southern exposure, makes the richest yet arguably the finest and the most eclectic wine among their seven crus, delivering both bones and flesh with some tarry plushness that can hold back the oak spices and assertive yet polished tannins – something probably closer to Vosne-Romanée if this were in Burgundy.

The other cru that made it to the Riserva category – the Corte Pavone Brunello di Montalcino Vigna Poggio Molino al Vento Riserva 2016 – comes with a little more savoriness, elegance and linearity. It also has an engaging chalky texture to the tightly wound tannins and a mineral finish but was still very well balanced at a high-pitched 15 percent alcohol.

READ MORE: TOP 100 WINES OF ITALY 2021

Other Brunellos that stood out came from producers such as Celestino Pecci and Collemattoni. Meanwhile, a few Amarones also brought surprises. Senior Editor Zekun Shuai believes the Speri Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Vigneto Monte Sant’Urbano 2018 is a textbook example of how outstanding Amarones today seek more brightness and refinement. It’s an elegant offering with immense drinkability.

A few other producers, such as Brigaldara, deliver equally outstanding bottles but in a more traditional sense, with a signature Amarone warmth and savory bittersweetness that will not disappoint Amarone lovers who look for complexity and value. The Brigaldara Amarone della Valpolicella Cavolo 2017 is a smart buy outside the Classico zone if you’re seeking slightly richer Amarones with a tad more strength, but it also walks on the elegant side with a mineral layer and refinement.

There's a bonanza of great wines in this report from a gigantic tasting selection. Have a stroll through the tasting notes to see what suits...

– Stuart Pigott, Senior Editor; James Suckling, Editor/Chairman; and 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.