Notes & queries
Each month our experts answer readers’ wine questions and share their knowledge
Burgundy 2008s
What is your view on the 2008 vintage for red Burgundy today?
Trond A Gudbrandsen, by email
Charles Curtis MW replies: The 2008 vintage in Burgundy is remembered as perhaps the best example of a season ‘saved by the bell’, or more appropriately, saved by une belle arrière-saison – the timely intervention of dry, sunny weather at the very last moment.
Growers certainly needed saving in 2008. The season started poorly – snow almost until Easter – and it never really got better, with cold, wet weather in much of the season. The sun finally came out on 14 September, along with a strong north wind, drying the fruit and concentrating the sugars just in time.
In the end, yields were tiny and acidity was high, but growers who were careful through the season and who sorted stringently were able to produce beautiful results. I tasted the wines from barrel in 2009, and wines from the best growers showed well. The Echézeaux 2008 from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti had surprisingly deep colour, ripe fruit and lovely floral notes, with enough structure and weight to show real potential.
Today, the wines are maturing. While most of the regional and village-level wines are frankly past their peak, the best premiers crus still show well. Top white wines can be thrilling – if they haven’t been subject to premature oxidation (see ‘Ask Decanter’ on Decanter.com/learn) – and the grandest of the red grands crus are often still in the ascendant. Recent favourites have included Rousseau Chambertin, JF Mugnier Musigny, and in particular the grands crus from Ramonet and Raveneau, which still require considerable time to show their full potential.
Southern reds to lay down
If I wanted to try ageing some good reds from southern France, would the Syrah-based wines of Pic St-Loup be the best option, or are there others I could try?
Adrian Beatty, by email
Andrew Jefford replies: There are three sorts of wine: those that get worse with age; those that maintain their qualities with age; and those that improve with age. In my view, few southern French reds actually improve with or demand age, though many maintain their qualities with age while their sensorial profiles modulate. The main ‘improvers’ would be the very best red wines of Gigondas, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Bandol, Madiran and Cahors. (I’ve excluded Bordeaux, which is also in southern France – though those, of course, age best of all.)
Within Languedoc-Roussillon, the best wines from Terrasses du Larzac (northwest of Montpellier) and from Côtes du RoussillonVillages (and crus) show most ageing promise; Pic St-Loup, St-Chinian, Faugères and Maury Sec are also worth watching. None, though, demands to be aged other than to satisfy curiosity. Avoid hard and over-oaky, evidently ambitious examples (often in heavy bottles); wines with ample density of pure, ripe yet structured fruit are likely to age best, though they are unlikely to cost most.
Advice on recorked Penfolds
I’ve been offered a bottle of vintage Penfolds which was recorked. Has this ruined its value? Robin Sanderson, by email
Anthony Rose replies: Recorking used to be a service provided by a number of top châteaux in Bordeaux. Today, few will recork, believing that exposure to air can damage an old, fragile wine, not to mention the potential for fraud. But a New World company, Penfolds, still offers ‘the ultimate health-check’ at its periodic recorking clinics, held since 1991.
Recorking is both a goodwill gesture and a practical, free service offered for Penfolds wines of 15 years or older. A colour-coded measuring card is applied to each bottle: pale green indicates that recorking is not necessary, while red, for the lowest level, means the wine is no longer certifiable. Between the two, deep green represents a slightly reduced level, for which recorking is
optional, and orange represents a very reduced level, with recorking recommended.
Supervised by head winemaker Peter Gago, the recorking process is reliable. Gago tastes every wine. An inert gas is sprayed into the neck, and the bottle heads to the recorking machine for topping up and recalibrating. It’s then given a fresh A-grade cork and capsule and issued a numbered certificate, which goes into a database to protect against fraud. If it’s not up to scratch, it’s given a plain cork and a white dot, signifying ‘drink up soon’.
The main deterrent to recorking is that it can mean a loss of value. Gago, speaking at a 2016 London clinic, said: ‘If the wine is from the mid-1970s and more recent, it loses value; if, however, it dates from the mid-1970s or earlier, recorking adds value.’ So, for more recent bottles, the decision is whether to trade loss of value for improved condition.