Comments on: Assessing risk and reward in white Burgundy

By: End of Summer and Too Many White Wines | Vegas Wineaux

End of Summer and Too Many White Wines | Vegas Wineaux — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 16:26:10 +0000

[...] Can white wines be aged? I already know that some white wines age well – Riesling and White Burgundies come immediately to mind. Most of my whites are “budget” to mid-priced, and frankly, [...]

By: SJWPierce

SJWPierce — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 17:03:05 +0000

In addition to previous comment if the following rules are adhered by winery to premature oxidation would significantly reduced.
1) sparge wine prior to bottling with nitrogen or even better but more expensive argon to levels of <0.8mgL dissolved oxygen
2) ensure minimal oxygen pick up during bottling, this is a critical point and must be measured.
3) use responsible levels of free sulphur between 28 and 30 mgL.
4) use a modern cork that reduces gas exchange, reducing oxygen ingress

There is a poular trend to use less sulphur and this is the only preventative against oxidation. Note Ascorbic acid without sulphur leads to chemical oxidation. The above rates recommended are not high.

By: SJWPierce

SJWPierce — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 15:19:16 +0000

I can only say the corks may be a contributing factor for premature aging such that better seals could be the savior for the whites of Burgundy. Either that or drink them young in their wonderful prime rather than storing them ad infinitum.

By: Pascal Eyssette

Pascal Eyssette — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 17:26:06 +0000

Just had a grand cru Chablis 08 yesterday and it did show some signs of oxidation. DIdn’t know it was someting common of white burgundies, some thanks for the great article.

By: ElGordo

ElGordo — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 17:28:29 +0000

Sorry for the delayed response on this Doc, I fully agree with everything you said here, having tasted many of these same wines from different vintages. My sommelier friends geek out over them, but if I want oxidation, I’ll drink Sherry! Plus a quick side note, I really love how you avoid specific (and IMHO often highly subjective) fruit descriptors. I’m the same way when tasting and/or teaching. It allows tasters to make up their own minds. Keep up the great work!

By: David Barnes

David Barnes — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 01:56:30 +0000

I’ve been serious about wine for 25 years. I have a really nice cellar with proper temperature, humidity, etc. My wife and I usually have wine with our evening meal and entertain family and/or friends most weekends. We go through a fair amount of wine. Out of the many, many of bottles that have passed through our cellar, the only ones to go bad are white Burgundies.
In the early years, I avoided Burgundy for price and availability reasons. Then, in the late 90′s, I decided to take the plunge. I purchased about 15 bottles of high end white Burgundy from the 1996 & 1997 vintages. The producers were Leflaive, Latour and Sauzet. The vineyard sites were Montrachet, Chevalier Montrachet and Batard Montrachet. Shortly after purchase, we drank two or three and they were excellant. In 2001, one of the bottles was darker in color and seemed a bit “off”. I decided it was going through a stage and a little more time might help. In 2002, we tried another and it was obviously oxidized. Over a week or so, we opened the remaining bottles and they were all oxidized. It was heartbreaking to pour out all of this expensive wine. These are different vintages from different producers (all top shelf) and the same result. I stayed away from white Burgundy for several years, but decided to take the plunge again in 2007. I purchased 12 bottles of 2005 Brocard Chablis(certainly not the same reputation as those above) from two vineyard sites. During the next three years, we enjoyed three of those. They were excellant. By early 2010, I noticed we had not opened a bottle for about a year. Upon opening a bottle, the color was darker than I remembered. Sure enough, it was oxidized. So, down the drain and open another bottle. Same thing. Disappointing! The wine was less than five years old, probably bottled less than four years ago and stored in perfect conditions. In all the years and thousands of bottles of wine that have went through my cellar, these are the only bottles that went over the hill.

By the way, I disagree with the Marcassin comments. They are made with ripe grapes, but they are balanced, and that is the key. But…..as they say….. one person’s ceiling is another’s floor!

By: Robert Whitley

Robert Whitley — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 23:17:00 +0000

I brought up this topic on a couple of occasions while at the Hospices de Beaune this year. My experience with white Burgundies through the years had been that the tops wines aged very well. Fifteen to 20 years was never a problem. But now premature oxidation makes it problematic to age white Burgundies. Some of them, anyway. The most interesting explanation I heard in Beaune was that so many winemakers are concerned with pristine juice and the most advanced sorting tables that they’ve removed much of the plant debris such as leaves, stems, seeds and whatnot. That plant material possessed antioxidants that some now believe were essential to the aging process for white Burgundies. I’m not a scientist so I can’t say whether this is a viable or plausible explanation, but it is a theory that seems to have some traction in the Burgundy community.

By: Terroirist » Daily Wine News: A WLTV Milestone

Terroirist » Daily Wine News: A WLTV Milestone — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 12:02:32 +0000

[...] Vino joins the chorus – White Burgundy is in trouble. His assesment — “the risks outweigh the rewards” — is damning. (0) [...]

By: Wayne Young

Wayne Young — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 08:45:43 +0000

It has always seemed that when anyone ever spoke about the ability of White wine to age, the first white mentioned was always white Burgundy. There are inexpensive whites from Friuli that have aged better than these outrageously expensive bottles… Has someone shown us the emperor has no clothes?

By: Daniel

Daniel — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 17:22:13 +0000

My notes will be up on winetalk.com this week, but this was a great tasting.

And, for those that care, Dr Vino calling the second blind wine as a wine that had been worked too hard in the winery and then saying it was Marcassin, was most impressive, especially after tasting 9 white Burgundies!

I have a new found respect for the good doctor!