Martha Shaver, Proprietaire
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2006 Burgundies
Reprinted from Bourgogne, Oui... Issue #3
The 2006 Vintage: An Early Assessment
We are still many months from our annual visit to review the 2006 vintage in Burgundy. By March—a year and a half after the harvest—the wine resembles something like its final form. Some growers have bottled then, others will bottle within the next six to eight months, but the samples offered give the earliest reliable picture of vintage character and grower success or failure.
Nonetheless, we—like all those fascinated with Burgundy—follow the earliest reports with great interest. The June-July issue of the Beaune-based Bourgogne Aujourd’hui, a journal deeply embedded in the community and culture of Burgundy, sampled several thousand wines from the vintage, interviewed numerous growers and drew some, undoubtedly, preliminary conclusions.
In general, they believe the wines will be wines of softness and easy drinkability—what the French charmingly call vins de plaisir—with the whites more impressive than the reds. The problem, it would seem, was “capricious” weather, principally rains in August of 2006 (The traditional sagacity warns that if mushrooms are harvested in August which they were in 2006, it is a bad sign for the vines.). Usually rains so late in the growing season lead to dilute wines and encourage wide spread moisture-friendly rot, both enemies of truly grand wines. In their estimation, these conditions were more harmful to Pinot than Chardonnay for reasons peculiar to the characteristics of the two varieties. Despite the dilution, Chardonnay will still ripen to develop a suppleness, richness, and intensity of flavor now fashionable among consumers as well as professionals. We suspect that they will lack the austerity for aging and the energy traditionally admired with white Burgundy.
The Bourgogne Aujourd’hui tasting notes show considerable success, attributed largely to the improvements in vineyard and cellar techniques over the last 15 years. The “capricious” weather was largely ameliorated through vineyard and cellar practices that have become common among the growers. From bud elimination to green harvesting, to vineyard and cellar selection, the discarding of unhealthy, underripe grapes guarantees a level of quality higher than the growing conditions would suggest. While this is an oft-heard claim in Burgundy, the fact that red Burgundy production was down 7.5% from 2005 (3.7% below the four year average) suggests some substance to this claim.
Some of the results of the Bourgogne Aujourd’hui are summarized below:
1. Chablis was very successful. They singled out Domaines Gautheron and Grossot for special praise.
2. Domaine Louis and Jean-Louis Trapet merited special attention in Gevrey-Chambertin. Also, the new negoce firm of Émilie Geantet Père et fille run by the young daughter of Vincent drew plaudits from the tasters.
3. Familiar names in Morey-St. Denis succeeded in 2006: Arlaud, Clos des Lambrays, Hubert Lignier, Lignier-Michelot, Magnien.
4. While Chambolle-Musigny enjoyed a higher success than most villages in the tasting, the tasters featured two growers not often seen in the US: Digioia-Royer and Gilbert et Christine Felettig. Of course, Roumier showed well, too.
5. If the tasting is at all prescient, look for the Bouchard Père et fils Clos Vougeot!
6. One suspects from the results, that many of the best producers of Vosne-Romanée were absent the tasting. Nonetheless, a grower unknown to us, Francois Confuron-Gindre, was specially featured—perhaps worthy of seeking out.
7. We suspect that because the vintage mutes the generally rustic, aggressive character of Nuits-St. Georges, 2006 appears to be a great success. Of course Gouges showed well, as did David Duband-Francois Feuillet, the negoces, and the better growers.
8. Aloxe-Corton was much of a success, though AC Beaune proved to offer the highest success among wines tasted. Of particular note were the wines of the talented Nicholas Rossignol and the impressive Domaine de la Vougeraie.
9. Bourgogne Aujourd’hui lodges a properly delicate Burgundian disappointment at the showing of Pommard. We are generally disappointed in these wines—surprised when they show well.
10. A good showing was made by Volnay with special attention paid to the spare-no-expense Pousse d’Or and the Domaine Christophe Vaudoisey now properly committed to sensible extraction.
11. As noted, the white wine villages promise to offer even greater achievement in 2006 according to the journal. Boyer-Martenot, Hubert Bouzereau-Gruère et filles, and Marc Rougeot, and a host of other Meursault producers performed well in this tasting. In Puligny-Montrachet, both Hubert Chavy and Jean-Louis Chavy received special plaudits. And the very special wines of Bernard Moreau were praised effusively in the tasting of Chassagne-Montrachet.
Interesting results.
