Tasting Report: The Greatest Burgundy on Earth?

A couple of Master Sommeliers based in Sydney recently staged a Burgundy celebration event, inspired by the Paulée events of New York-based sommelier Daniel Johnnes but tailored towards their own Sydney audience. I attended and co-hosted a few of the tastings and dinners across what was a wonderful three days.

The program took may different directions and across the three days I was thinking about which aspects of Burgundy the various attendees really enjoyed. One of the biggest differences was between those who know Burgundy as fairly young wines and those who have explored the world of aged, older bottles.

With so much good young Burgundy flowing from the Côte d’Or and surrounds, it’s a relatively easy world to fall into. But exploring older bottles is a much bigger needle to thread. There’s the vexing puzzle of producer, vintage, scarcity and pricing to be solved and then there’s the issue of provenance. The adage rings true that there are no great old wines, just great old bottles -- just ask any serious collector.

Storage and provenance does also easily affect young Burgundies too. I was taking a quick mid-celebration lunch with a mate of mine when we spied a 2010 Sylvain Cathiard Vosne-Romanée on the wine list and it made perfect sense given the theme of the moment. Sadly it had been badly stored (actually sitting up in a wall display as it turned out) and the wine had been totally robbed of all its freshness, all the fragrance, all the silky texture, all gone.

Back to the celebration and one of the marquee events of the program was a vertical tasting of Comte de Vogüe Bonnes Mares, looking at 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. The 2003 would have been interesting to see; I could live without the 2004.

It was a great set of wines, all sitting in formation, all showing the same stoic pedigree of the vineyard and producer but all, well, just a bit young. The 2005 was a clear star, more complete, more generous and showy, yet it will more than likely also outgun the other vintages over time.

The tasting was at Sydney’s Rockpool Bar & Grill where the wine list offers considerable depth, underpinned by the collection of the restaurant’s co-owner, David Doyle. I raised the point to the room that, as good as these wines were, they were all too young, by a decade or two, maybe more.

Seems the room agreed. The list was summoned, the hat passed around and we shared a bottle of 1990 de Vogüe Musigny. It was superb and actually just approaching its honeymoon period of drinking.

It was a moment that summed up the spirit of a great event; much camaraderie, many great bottles shared and, for a few people at that particular tasting, new aspects of Burgundy experienced and explored.

Nick Stock is a renowned Australian wine writer, author, presenter and filmmaker who reports on his worldwide wine tasting experiences for JamesSuckling.com.