Curtis tasted a number of hundred wines blind with the Burgundy Wine Board (BIVB) earlier than setting out on over 100 visits to the area’s premier domaines to style with the winemakers and hearken to their ideas concerning the classic.
In whole, greater than 1,600 wines had been tasted, overlaying the Côte de Nuits, Côte de Beaune, Côte Chalonnaise and the Mâconnais, from which Curtis chosen 670 of his favorite wines to current to Decanter Premium readers.
Every of the principal villages within the Côte d’Or is examined in flip, with a extra basic have a look at the Côte Chalonnaise and the Mâconnais. Each sort of producer and degree of wine from the celebrated high domaines to up-and-coming rising stars, little-known caves cooperatives, and enormous négociant homes are all included within the choice throughout a spread of each doable worth level and wine model – that is really a report with one thing for each Burgundy lover.
The report appears in-depth on the climate every step of the best way and its implications for wine high quality and elegance. A heat, considerably damp winter preceded budbreak in Burgundy’s 2023 rising season. Nonetheless, the area dodged potential frost harm to proceed to an early flowering underneath good circumstances that noticed a beneficiant crop set on the vines. Truthful climate remained for June and far of July, however circumstances deteriorated to rain clouds and funky temperatures in late July and early August till a heatwave on the finish of the season introduced the heavy load of grapes to ripeness.
In distinction to 2022, which was very constant throughout the area and in each Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, there are vital variations in high quality in 2023 relying on village, grape and grower. Important to understanding the classic is a data of winery follow and selecting date.
The chief hazard for pink wines in 2023 was dilution; for white wines, it was low acidity and excessive alcohol. Growers that thinned their crop sufficiently obtained ripe, concentrated Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay producers that selected an optimum harvest date had been capable of make whites that seize the ripe, sunny nature of the season’s final fortnight whereas sustaining freshness and stability.
This report arms readers with lists of really helpful wines in each class, pink and white, high quality and high worth, undiscovered gems, and high producers in key villages so that everybody can fill their cellars with ease.
