Pinot price inflation
So, the 2019 en primeur Burgundy campaign has been and pretty much gone, the prices of most wines are slightly ridiculous and I’ve dipped my toe in again and bought a couple of wines that hopefully will provide enjoyable drinking in the future. I say hopefully, because Burgundy seems to be the perennial wine region for unpredictability and imaginative prices. It always seems to have been thus and the wines sell, so I guess everyone is happy?
But I wonder... Do we all enjoy shelling out in the hope that we’ll find this ethereal, holy grail of a Pinot Noir? I know I can get a good red Bourgogne for £20 (Arlaud’s Roncevie never disappoints). But when do we enter the ‘Now that’s what I’m talking about’ range? Gevrey, Nuits-St-George, Chambolle – 30, 50, 80 quid? We can’t seriously be happy to spend upwards of £50 to get an ‘OK’ wine. So, with a readership as broad as Decanter’s, my question is: ‘When did a red Burgundy really wow you, and how much did you have to spend?’
Barney Dunstan, by email
It’s a fair assumption that the typical Decanter reader is not short on cash. I was nonetheless taken aback when a £44.99 bottle of Oregon Pinot Noir was described as ‘entry-level’ (‘Expert’s choice’, February 2021 issue). This is roughly what you’d pay for a fabulous Rioja gran reserva or a Sauternes premier cru! While buyers in the US may be willing to tolerate such prices, I doubt that Oregon’s offerings
have a bright future in the UK when faced with such stellar competition.
Michael Walker, Edinburgh