With all the gloom surrounding us at the moment, here is a little ray of sunshine to pierce the -6°C up here in Norfolk (on a day when our London office is claiming it has been -11°C there and can they put the heating on?).

 

Many people find Burgundy a difficult proposition. The village names are one thing but then there is a plethora of producers’ names in each village. Who’s good; who’s bad; where are the better wines coming from…?  It can be confusing. But if one sits back with our offer for a moment, takes a deep breath, and looks again, it’s not that mind boggling. We would argue the key is to work with your wine merchant (who jolly well should understand the region) and trust their judgment, armed with some knowledge of your own. We do spend more time in Burgundy each year that any other region for this very reason. Burgundy is very different from Bordeaux. The latter is much more rigid and branded and their prices can reflect this. We would argue the Burgundian producers are more realistic in pricing their wines. They do understand that the € strength is an issue for us and have reacted accordingly. In Bordeaux we rarely seem to get such flexibility and the pricing system is further complicated there by the négociants (another layer which requires its own margin). In Burgundy, we can buy direct, pass on our savings and so offer value to you.

 

What does EPW offer in Burgundy? As previously mentioned, we spend more time in Burgundy each year that any other wine region. With this comes our ability to generate stronger relationships with our producers, and to get a feel for the quality of their wines. We look to work with small, established producers who fit our philosophy of wines being made with passion and in measured quantities. We also have taken the time to find value. We can offer Auxey-Duresses as an alternative to Meursault; Morey-Saint-Denis which is found between the more recognisable names of Chambolle-Musigny and Gevrey-Chambertin and a whole raft of generic Bourgognes which are essentially Village wines but for where the Appellation boundary has been drawn e.g. Sylvain Dussort’s white Bourgogne is a mini-Meursault. We also have the advantage of Derek Smedley MW keeping a close and watchful eye on what we are sourcing.

 

Why buy in this Offer? As well as the vintage being highly-rated (an 8.5/10 score from “Decanter”),  a number of the wines offered will only be available during this offer as the quantities available are small. This includes some of the Village wines too. The majority of the wines we offer are only available through ourselves in the UK.With the initial indications that the 2008 Vintage out of Bordeaux is not going to be one to buy, this vintage provides the best ‘cellaring’ opportunity this year.

 

So, to a vintage which does look rather exciting. In 2007, there was no precedent for the growing season, which was characterised by early flowering and a miserably cold summer, but sun in late August and early September saved the day. We have visited Burgundy on a number of occasions during 2008. Right from the start, the white wines have been exciting. They have a clarity of fruit which is very appealing and more structure and acidity than those of 2006, so they will age for longer. Overall, they are archetypal Burgundy. The reds have been a slightly different story. A year ago, we were asking our vignerons how the reds would develop and we didn’t hear a great deal back. But over the course of the year the reds have come together beautifully and it was really exciting to be able to taste them again in November (when we were last there) to see the success achieved. We would say that for the reds, it is a wine-makers’ year. To that end, therefore, there is a simple philosophy: stick with the good wine-makers, something we have gone to great lengths to do. The great joy of this vintage is each village is perfectly represented by their wines. In summary, we feel referring to this as a ‘terroir’ vintage perfectly describes it. On recently re-tasting the 2000 vintage we feel there are certain parallels of great style in this vintage we are offering.

 

Our full offer will be published in the next couple of weeks. If you have interest in the vintage, please do let us know soonest. We will be offering the wines below from the following Domaines (including some of their enviable Grand and Premier Crus):

 

                                                                                                      

Yours, Ed