Purity and balance

Thursday 10 January: 2011 Burgundy barrel sample tasting
12-8pm, Bishopsgate shop, walkaround
£25 per person inc VAT (redeemable against 2011 Burgundy en primeur purchases over £500)

The start of a new year is our chance to retaste the one year old Burgundies, and your best chance to assess and buy them. 2011 gave us everything early and was - as ever - a vigneron's year. An early spring made people think of 2007, as did rain in early June. But an early summer with high June temperatures gave way to cooler, damper days in July and August. The early May flowers set the clock ticking and harvest began in the fourth week of August.

What did we taste? Looking back on our October trip it's easier to see why so many growers saw an element of 2010 in their wines. Whites were very approachable - not as firm as 2010s, and certainly drinkable earlier. The reds are more endowed with structure and will take a little longer than 2007s to mature fully. Both were delicious, with the reds in particular looking very attractive: harmonious, a bit more stuffing than 2010 and super minerality and fruit.

Yields are low of course - we'll be missing those vines that froze to death in 2010 for a few years yet. Similarly the sorting tables were well used by the best growers to discard unripe grapes. So it is that allocations continue to be tight. At the same time, the world is jumping on the Burgundy bandwagon and this makes the decent stuff ever harder to find at sensible prices on the secondary market. Demand is growing and supply falling, though we ain't seen nothing yet: wait until 2012 comes to market - there's virtually none from many producers. All of which means buying Burgundy en primeur has never made more sense than now. /CW

We're putting the spotlight on different villages in a series of daily offers this week and next. Whilst we welcome requests for the most sought-after wines, priority goes to loyal followers, and some of the wines won't make it into our offers.

Tuesday 8 January: Gevrey-Chambertin
Wednesday 9 January: Morey-St-Denis
Thursday 10 January: Chambolle-Musigny & Vosne-Romanee
Friday 11 January: Nuits-St-Georges

Monday 14 January: Chablis
Tuesday 15 January: Pommard & Volnay
Wednesday 16 January: Puligny- & Chassagne-Montrachet
Thursday 17 January: Meursault & St-Aubin
Friday 18 January: Cote Chalonnaise

Our annual Burgundy en primeur tasting is earlier this year, and we hope to see many of you at the shop this Thursday.

Click here to view the wines listed so far