The Private Cellar team visited Burgundy just before Christmas to taste the wines and catch up with the growers to get a real feeling for the vintage that is causing quite a stir in the UK wine trade. Click here for our 2010 Burgundy offer and for your convenience, we have reproduced our buyer, Nicola Arcedeckne-Butler MW’s thoughts on the vintage, the growing season and our quality assessment below.
Burgundy 2010 Vintage
Every so often nature combines her various capricious elements to produce something really quite sublime, made all the more so by the knowledge that the outcome could have been so very different. 2010 was one of those years in Burgundy, when the challenges started early, on 19th December. On that day and during the night there was a phenomenal frost in Burgundy, particularly to the south of Beaune, when daytime temperatures tumbled from around 8°C to minus 20°C. Whilst the effects were worst on the flat vineyards producing generic wines, they were felt in the Villages and Premiers Crus as well. Such a rapid drop in temperature caused some vines to literally explode as the remaining sap in the trunk expanded on freezing – these vines were killed instantly. Many others either lost part of their wood or their nascent buds, resulting in a severely reduced potential yield for 2010 – and this even before the year had started.
The Growing Season
The growing season was marked by atypical weather much of the way through. After a cold winter with sporadic snow, April was dry and warm causing an early budburst. May was cool, followed by a heat-wave towards the end of June. During flowering in mid June there were strong winds which meant fertilisation became a bit of a lottery, with many flowers failing to set properly and some setting but then not growing further (millerandage), thereby reducing the potential yield significantly. Mixed conditions continued – hot and cold in July, mainly grey and cool in August – presaging at best a difficult vintage, with pressure from disease never far away. However towards the end of August the weather cheered up somewhat and, although not hot, the sun shone and the wind blew, chasing away rot and mildew and hastening the ripening process which then came back on track, with most growers in the Côte de Beaune looking to begin harvesting in the last third of September.
This is where nature’s final capricious 2010 stab came in, affecting the southern appellations of the Côte de Beaune. A substantial electric storm centred over Santenay on 12th September brought a ‘coup de tonnerre’ – literally a thunderclap – which can make Chardonnay grapes ‘turn’ if they are close to being fully ripe. Although the reason is not understood and verges close to old wives’ tale territory, it was clear that many eminent producers were convinced by its potential to affect the fruit, with Marion Javillier stating that the grapes take on a bluish hue. In essence, the maturation process of the fruit goes into double time with hyper maturity and low acidity a real risk, which meant that many Domaines brought forward their harvest dates to avoid their wines being affected.
Unusually, and frustratingly for the producers after a fairly dull summer, the expected Indian summer failed to materialise, so although September was mostly dry it didn’t bring the anticipated heat and warmth which the Pinot grapes so badly needed, leaving growers to worry about their maturity levels. This is where nature’s attacks on the vine earlier in the season came into their own. With a lower charge of fruit on each vine than normal, the requirement for late season heat was less significant than in other vintages, and, despite the lower temperatures the vines were able to ripen all their fruit in good time. Many growers noted that had they had the normal amount of fruit on the vine it would not have ripened properly and they would have been looking at a rather lean year, but thankfully nature can also be kind at the same time as being cruel.
Vinification
And so to the wines. Following the difficult conditions, many growers were very careful in their extraction techniques; significantly reducing pigeage (punching down of the cap of skins) compared to other vintages, and limiting handling of the grapes to the bare minimum in order to preserve the freshness of the fruit. Many growers are bottling earlier than in previous years for the same reason, to ensure the immediacy of the fruit is maintained. White wines saw less bâtonnage than in previous vintages, and had drawn out malolactic fermentations which, in some cases, finished after the malolactic for the following vintage!
Quality Assessment
Given all that we had heard all about the growing season, harvest and vinification, it was with some trepidation that we approached our tastings, fearing the worst, yet we were confounded at our very first red wine tasting by gorgeously floral, perfumed red fruits, supple, ripe, juicy – and the word ripe appeared again and again in our tasting notes. Perhaps it was a fluke? But no, each successive tasting yielded some of the prettiest, juiciest fruit we had tasted in many a year, perfect examples of Pinot Noir and in direct contrast with the rich 2009s, which seem almost blowsy in comparison. These are wines which although they are delicious now will keep longer than the 2009s and will show the differences between each individual cru more starkly as they evolve. They will also drink later than the 2008s which had a more marked acid structure but which are beginning to show well now. The white wines follow a similar track to the reds, with fresh, linear fruit, underscored by ripe acidity and again are wines which although very attractive now will outlive their 2009 counterparts.
Nicola Arcedeckne-Butler MW
January 2012
Click here for the 2010 Burgundy offer.
Please contact your salesperson for up to the minute information on the campaign or call us on 01353 721 999 for advice and assistance.
