If you’re a lover of heavier red wines like Cabernet and Shiraz- as I am- don’t make the mistake of turning your nose up at light red wines like Pinot Noir, especially from Burgundy. And if your experience with Pinot Noir are wines like Belle Glosse or God forbid Meiomi, then you are in for a real treat when it comes to Burgundy.
Burgundies are not a “hit you in the mouth” wine like a lot of Cabs are. Burgundy is smooth, seductive, subtle. It creeps up on you when you least expect it. It trains you to appreciate subtleties and nuance in wine, letting you pick up subtleties and nuance in heavier wines.
Perhaps the most overused word in the wine rating and review world is “Burgundian,” and reviewers like to use it because it makes them appear smart. It does not. But just because it’s overused and smarmy doesn’t mean it’s useless. If you nose a quality Burgundy and you taste it, you will notice there IS an essential quality and taste that only shows up in Burgundy. To me it’s like wonderful red fruits blended with minerality, and you really get it when you taste a Burgundy, then taste a Pinot Noir from, say, Russian River Valley. It’s both readily apparent yet virtually indescribable at the same time, hence the overuse of “Burgundian.” You can find many good Pinot Noirs without it, some very good. But the great Pinot Noirs, the best Pinot Noirs come from Burgundy and have that essential character found nowhere else in the Pinot Noir world.
Now, I would almost never ONLY drink a Pinot, but since I have a friend coming over tonight for smoked beef ribs (paired with a nice Left Bank Bordeaux), a Burgundy is a great wine to start with. They can be some of the most magical wines in the world- hell Domaine LeRoy Richebourg goes for $6k a bottle, and I’ve seen Domaine Romanee Conti for $25,005.00. Don’t ask me why they add on the extra $5, perhaps because they can.
You would never pair Burgundy with, say, a Prime Ribeye. Since Burgundies are more delicate, intellectual wines, the beef would overwhelm the wine. I like to drink them without any food pairing, that way you can experience the nuances and subtleties of the grape.
A large part of the Burgundy wine experience is the nose. You can get lost in the best ones- they swirl, evolve, change, tease you with different scents, and thoroughly activate your brain. Just when you think you’ve nailed down what you’re sensing, it eludes you- and another aroma takes its place.
You’ll generally get a lot of red fruits- raspberry, red cherry, strawberries, red currant, etc., but it’s not just smelling or tasting each fruit, it’s how they blend together, come apart, swirl and dance around. And it’s not just the fruit- there’s a minerality, an earthiness, even some mushroom, and they all revolve around each other in a random way, constantly catching you by surprise.
The only analogy I have is seeing the Northern Lights above the Arctic Circle when I worked on the North Slope of Alaska in the oilfield in 1994. That’s what nosing Burgundy reminds me of- they literally transfix your mind before you even take a sip. I like to call them the “Nose Candy Wines” because the nose is as much a part of the experience as the palate is.
Some people say the nose is “80% of the wine,” but I think that’s unthinking BS. No one ever went to a “Wine Nosing.” You go to a Wine TASTING, and if you are doing a lot of tasting you spit it out. But you don’t walk around sticking your nose in various wines and proclaiming you got 80% and that’s plenty. You nose it, then you take a taste. In the end, the palate is where it’s at, and with the Burgundies it’s the combination of both. You can’t have the nose without the palate and the palate without the nose. Honestly, sometimes there’s a lot of BS when it comes to wine…we love wine because we drink it, not because we sit around nosing it or snorting it.
Today I am going to nose AND drink the Domaine Des Croix Savigny Les Beaune Premier Cru Les Peuillets 2020. While the Cotes de Nuits is best known for its Pinot Noir, you can get some hidden gems in the Cotes de Beaune, which is more known for Chardonnay. You can pay as much as you want for Red Burgundy, and I suspect this will be a fantastic introduction to the region. Luckily the Domaine Des Croix Savigny Les Beaune Premier Cru Les Peuillets only goes for about $85 so it eases you into Burgundy without busting your wallet. That comes later.
Domaine Des Croix Savigny Les Beaune Premier Cru Les Peuillets
In case you missed it:
- No recent comments available.