Stacking the odds: 7 Uncorked favourites to 1 email
As you can imagine in a lovely vintage like 2016, most of those frost-affected cherries from the top of the tree have been snapped up by previous purchasers. But arguably the regional and village level wines can offer better value - and compared to many vintages better quality - than in many years. This is what we found when tasting in the region last November as well as earlier this month. Partly because yields were naturally lower and partly because many village wines have unusual portions of premier cru parcels in them, buying these is a great move for drinking Burgundy.
Today we are concentrating on Chambolle-Musigny and Vosne-Romanée, two villages of contrasting fortunes when it came to the 2016 frosts. Chambolle was hit hard, with some vineyards devastated and many wines among the 1er crus not existing this year. Nevertheless we do have nice relationships with our more recent acquisitions in Chambolle and two contrasting domaines to offer. There is Felettig with their delicate and fine-boned structure and persistently perfumed wines. On the other side of the village there is Sigaut with more impressively built and fleshy Chambolles.
On the way down to Vosne-Romanée we swing right just before the roundabout at Vougeot to drop in on Charles van Canneyt at Hudelot-Noellat. This is a magnificent collection of wines, full of energy and bounce, in reasonable quantities and for the quality, sensible prices! Carrying on down to Vosne there is a little bit of one of the star domaines of the village. Grivot, now with more involvement from the younger generation, goes from strength to strength. Michel Gros has excelled this year, not just the Vosnes, but also Hautes Cotes from a monopole vineyard geologically identical to Corton. Brilliant value. The 2016 Meo-Camuzet tastings have been awesome. Not in the like, awesome, dude sense, but wonder-struck and trying to work out how he did that! Gorgeous and affordable wines. Finally, we drop down to Nuits, where Gouges (who lost over half their crop) have made small quantities of wines that really taste of Nuits and made up the best cellar tasting there in my 9 years of visiting. /CW
Offered subject to remaining unsold; for shipment 2018/19
