This article is the introduction to the series of pieces to come, in which Marco Manzoli aka Vinogodi, has put together tales of his travels, tastings, and chats made with producers and friends. A Burgundy experienced firsthand and tasted so much over the years.
It is talked about far too much by now. The subject of fierce speculation over the past 25 years, then and consequently object of desire, now almost unattainable, for most wine lovers around the globe. Top Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, minimal quantities, demand beyond all market rules and availability, almost morbid desire for a unique experience by wine lovers, and speculation have led Burgundy wines to prices considered amoral, taking into account that they are only “bottles of wine.”
Those fortunate enough to have had facilitated access to producers, distributors or alternative channels at an unsuspected time, however, had a golden opportunity to have a unique experience and realistically contextualize the value of these wines. Those who dispute them either make it a crusade “of virtual wine for dreamers” or “of overrated wines” have never drunk them, or are simply aware that they belong to the “fox and grapes” fairy tale, thus wish more dreamlike than achievable, except an economic power today within the reach of a few, as quantities produced at the limit of “confidentiality” and truly inaccessible in terms of availability.
Not a treatise on Burgundy
This paper does not pretend to be a treatise on Burgundy, already there are excellent and very interesting ones on the market, as much as a journey, made over the past decades “lived” among glasses of wine from the area, visits to producers, sharing among friends, endless discussions, more or less articulated insights, but always dictated by a great sense of passion, sharing and that quid of “science and knowledge” that characterizes the enthusiast at the last stage.
A scrapbook of memories
A scrapbook of memories where the photos, somewhat faded, are reviewed with nostalgia, as something difficult to repeat. For several reasons: the cost today prohibitive of much of these wines and the relatively long parable of their lives. Main reason why they are drunk, given the costs, when they are considered to be at the peak of their quality journey, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, as long-lived as they are in Burgundy, not being close to the eternal evolutionary parabola of Bordeaux, Nebbiolo, Brunelli, Tempranillo, Rhone Syrah and Riesling. So the drinking frenzy becomes almost psychosis about wines whose economic sacrifice perpetrated must match the maximum pleasure these oenological masterpieces can bestow.
It starts with drinking
Inevitably we start with a premise, I anticipate: boring, of a “personal” description at each thematic tasting session. Only apparently objective because documented and experienced, of areals and characteristics, and then went into the merits of the various wine zones starting with drinking, both Pinot Noir-based red wines and Chardonnay-based whites, through an almost endless series of encounters among friends, sometimes semi-serious banter where conviviality clearly outweighed the technical aspect, most often where the hedonistic aspect reached very high levels and left only partial room for analysis of these-but yes, small masterpieces.
The absolute value of the producer’s skill
I will preface the first consideration after so many decades of wine-passionate doggedness: the almost generalized awareness that in Burgundy “the handle,” that is, the skill of the producer, is an inseparable property of the value of the wine itself, going to decisively enhance the classification of the wines or the characteristic of the terroir. This may seem a platitude transferable to any wine area, but in Burgundy this fact is absolutely inescapable from knowledge of the reality of the area and amplified in a perhaps anomalous way.
Of this, the market has been so aware that it has valued some producers to an incredible degree, whatever product and whatever classification the wine made by these “wine artists” had. The fabled value of the area also brought market distortions, so much so that it has the sad record of 95% of the most expensive wines in the world (without going into ancient auction wines, Bordeaux especially and little else) that make history in their own right.
…But why not start right away with a delicious Burgundy that costs…just right?
Marsannay Blanc Saint Jacques 2019 Fréderic Magnien
Score: 90/100
Average price in wine shop: € 50
We are in an area on the sidelines of Burgundy “in the spotlight” but which manages to express wines with nuanced and deliciously drinkable characteristics. Located in the extreme north of the Côte de Nuits, the domaine of Fréderic Magnien produces, in biodynamic agriculture, Pinot Blanc, almost as an exception, really interesting Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc. 18 months in barrique. Canary yellow with green highlights. The aromas are of medium intensity, where one recognizes white rose petals, daisy pistils, saffron. The mouth has great acid tension, apparently lean, actually of great finesse.
