Vintages and Vintage Charts — Dionysian Musings

I was always very impressed with Kermit Lynch’s Vintage Chart - horizontal and vertical axes but with absolutely no entries. A blank chart. No information it would seem. More accurately, Kermit no doubt feels, a lot of information. Vintages don’t matter. A position which conventional wisdom might describe as a tough sell.

I was also struck by the Wine Spectator in what must have been early 1993 rating Domaine Simon Bize’s 1991 Savigny Les Fourneaux 57 points. Barely drinkable. Proud indeed was I as Patrick Bize let me put the capsule on the magnum of that wine I unhesitatingly bought at the Domaine in the fall of 1994. I loved the 1991 red Burgundies. And a few still have life.

To me vintages do not matter much. I buy the same wines from the same producers every year. So not much thought is needed. I have wines at all stages of their journey through time. But I have barely any that absolutely need to be drunk. And I have been doing this since 1988. Wines with initial balance last a long time, even in unheralded vintages.

Normally the grander vintages take longer to be ready - longer perhaps than I would like. Often the lesser years are simply extraordinary, maturing sooner but giving almost as many years of pleasure. I may buy a little more in some years than others. I might buy a little less if I bought a little more the previous year. But there is satisfaction in continuity - developing a relationship over many different vintages with a vineyard you know well from a grower you have often met and whose dedication you profoundly respect. And winemakers are of course most proud of successes in the more meteorologically challenging years. This is farming after all. Given the litany of small decisions that are made by each grower for each vintage, quality assessment based on weather alone seems evidently inadequate.

Quite apart from the fact that the lesser vintages have provided many upside surprises and so called grander years some disappointments, to buy only in some years based on a prediction made of a vintage that is still in its infancy is an unwise risk to take. That journey can be quite unpredictable. Some 2007 red burgundies are now lovely whereas there is perhaps some developing concern in some quarters that the much heralded 2005 reds are still very tight, maintaining still big tannic structures - even at the lower levels and after a decade in bottle.

Everyone has stories to tell of upside surprises. The only criteria is that the wine initially has to have balance. The growers whose wines I buy (and you too, dear reader) don’t produce unbalanced wines. They let the vintage speak. A lighter vintage just has a different kind of beauty. Of course there are great vintages - and I certainly try not to miss these. But these are only a part of the whole experience.

The burgundians of course have no wine to sell. Less heralded vintages normally deliver less than an average crop. There is some price variation between vintages but the minute quantities produced caps any real price reduction based on perceived inferior vintage quality. This is not bordeaux. Today the quality of farming is so good that there simply are no bad vintages. Perhaps you have to go back to 1984 in reds and, in my view, 1998 in whites. So we are fortunate that each year there is something new and different that genuinely has something unique to offer