“That’s it, I’m done! I’m priced out of Burgundy!”
If you’re interested in fine Burgundy, and haven’t uttered the above yourself, I’m sure you’ll have heard the same or similar from your friends. As 2023 en primeur offers start to arrive in our inboxes, even the well-priced wines seem to underline that the halcyon days of affordable and unallocated Chambolle Musigny and Vosne Romanee Crus now belong firmly in the past.
Grand Cru wine in cases? Hang on, cases of 12 bottles?? The mind of someone who started buying in the last decade may just have been blown. And that’s before they realise such cases used to be affordable without selling the family silver.
It may be a contrary view, but I believe that serious wines delivering impressive value can still be found in the Cote d’Or. Venture beyond the most familiar villages and there are still treasures to be found. Read on and I recommend a strategy for unearthing fine Burgundy that won’t break the bank.
Look to the hills!
…or more specifically, the margins.
In older wine textbooks, Burgundy is described as a marginal region. The climate was considered at the margins for consistently ripening wine grapes each year. This explains why you might only have seen two or three good vintages a decade: the 1960s were exceptional for delivering 1962, ’64, ’66 and ’69 whilst normal service was resumed in the ‘70s with only ’71 and ’78 really hitting the heights. The 1950s delivered ’53, ’55 and ’59.
The hierarchy of Burgundy vineyards corresponds to this view of the climate, with the best sites being those positioned to achieve superior ripeness and produce the best wines. Vineyards in cooler, more elevated sites, with less exposure to the sun, were at a disadvantage in terms of ripeness and naturally lay further from the heartland of the Grand Crus.
Fast forward to today and climate change means that Burgundy is no longer exactly marginal. How many strong vintages can you name in the last decade and how many solar vintages now come in for criticism for being too warm?
My point is that parts of Burgundy previously dismissed as too marginal, too cool to produce serious wine are now rewarding those who give them serious consideration. Who would have put Maranges rouge in their cellar in the past (who even knew where Maranges is?)? Today, this can be a source of impressive, elegant and Volnay-esque wines sold for significantly less money.
At the same time, the value of land in these apparently inferior areas lags behind the spiralling prices of central Burgundy. Plots within the most prestigious Crus are now beyond the pockets of the new generation of up-and-coming vignerons. Dynamic young producers are increasingly stepping beyond the RN74 to build their domaines, and I urge you to follow them.
Where do I find these wines and what are they?
Step beyond the Routes des Grands Crus and there is a wealth of superb wine produced around the margins of the Cote d’Or and in the hills of the Hautes Cotes. My starting point would be to explore the margins of this once marginal area – look north of Gevrey Chambertin and south of Chassagne Montrachet.
It is no coincidence that Domaine Fourrier’s delicious Gevrey Chambertin Vieilles Vignes comes from vines to the north of Gevrey, around Brochon. One very knowledgeable insider once told me that most of the better village Gevrey wines come from the Brochon sector. Go that little bit further towards Dijon and you find yourself first in Fixin and then Marsannay – rich hunting grounds for affordable yet stylish reds and a few special whites.
There’s almost an embarrassment of riches to be found in these vineyards. Sylvain Pataille has long been the most famous producer – both for brilliant reds and some outstanding examples of single vineyard Aligote. Prices for Pataille are creeping up, yet they still represent significant value in comparison to their qualitative peers.
In recent years Amelie Berthaut, of Domaine Berthaut-Gerbet, has been making waves with her expressive and fragrant single vineyard wines from Fixin, particularly the Les Crais.
I have long been a fan of Marsannay Longeroies from Domaine Denis Mortet, which is far the best-value in the range and ages very well over the mid-term. There is also a Fixin from this estate.
In Singapore, Vinum represent the wines of Rene Bouvier which encompass a range of both Marsannay and Fixin, including a rare Marssnnay blanc (from Chardonnay) from a monopole vineyard called Le Clos.
Gevrey Chambertin’s Domaine Drouhin-Laroze has also introduced an attractive Fixin that provides a fine introduction to the estate’s more expensive Gevrey wines.
Sylvain Pataille
At the other end of the Cote, things start to get interesting for bargain hunters once you pass the southern boundary of Chassagne Montrachet. Jasper Morris (insideburgundy.com) writes that Santenay wines ‘used to enjoy a greater reputation than they do today’. Taste through a range of wines and you start to wonder why they no longer enjoy the same regard.
Jean-Marc Vincent is probably the best producer in Santenay, with a range of both reds and whites covering the better-known 1er Crus such as Beaurepaire and Gravieres. There is a sought-after Santenay Vignes Denses that is a blend of village and 1er Cru fruit from a massal selection of vines planted at an extraordinary density of 14,000-15,000 vines per hectare. Vignes Denses is a white Santenay and, effectively, follows the model of Hubert Lamy’s celebrated Hautes Densites bottlings – Jean-Marc Vincent’s version is slightly easier to find, although still takes a bit of hunting, but it certainly costs much less.
The wines of Pascal et Laurent Borgeot joined Vinum’s Singapore list last year. A ways off the well-trodden paths of the RN74 they are based in the sleepy and picturesque village of Remigny, although most of the vineyards fall within Santenay. Borgeot is not a well-known domaine yet Laurent is very close with Ramonet – I’m particularly drawn to Borgeot’s iteration of Chassagne Montrachet rouge 1er Cru Les Boudriottes and feel you can sense a Ramonet influence at various points in the wider range. From the Santenay wines my picks would be the white 1er Cru La Comme and red 1er Cru Les Gravieres, both from the more mineral and saline end of the spectrum.
Domaine Borgeot
Even further south, one reaches the village of Maranges, specifically Dezize-les-Maranges and it is little wonder no marketeer ever put that name on a wine label! After the hustle and bustle of Meursault and Beaune, this beautiful village feels like a part of Burgundy that time forgot, yet the domaine of the Bachelet-Monnot brothers has to be one of the most exciting and dynamic in the whole Cote de Beaune.
I might not be true that everyone comes to Bachelet-Monnot for the Puligny whites – but I bet that it is true 95% of the time and I was certainly guilty of this! To buy the Puligny Folatieres and Batard Montrachet, I was required to take a quantity of the Maranges wines; today, I am very glad I discovered these.
In red, there is a fine-boned and elegant 1er Cru La Fussiere and a richer, fuller-bodied wine from a monopole called Clos de la Boutiere. Marc and Alex were tutored by Jean-Pierre Charlot, formerly winemaker at Volnay’s Domaine Joseph Voillot and a mentor to an entire generation of younger Burgundians. I have long admired the lightness-of-touch and delicacy of the Voillot wines and feel there is a similar finesse to the Bachelet-Monnot Fussiere in particular. To me, this is a wine that drinks like a smart Volnay but can be bought for a mid-week price. The white version of Maragnes 1er Cru La Fussiere is a smaller production but well-worth seeking out. How good is it? Good enough that my wife and I served magnums of the 2014 at our wedding so at least I put my money where my mouth is.
So there you have it! 1,300 words that only scratch the surface – I hardly mentioned the hot bed of great wines in the Hautes Cotes – but I hope they introduce you to the idea that it’s not quite time to give up on Burgundy. Of course, there’s loads going on elsewhere in the Cote that is well worth your attention. Many of the growers I’ve mentioned also make wine in more famous appellations that are readily available and don’t cost a king’s ransom. There is also the huge topic of less-fashionable villages and the massive potential to be found in Nuits Saint Georges, Chassagne Montrachet, Pernand Vergelesses and so forth – but that’s for another time!
