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Featured Article:
Chasing Vintages
Chasing top vintages is a favorite pastime of wine enthusiasts the world over, as it should be. Great wine from a great vintage is a treasure and should be treated as such. However, one must be careful not to fall into the trap that has been perfected by Bordeaux négociants of the past century and a half, and promoted by the modern 100-point system. Vintage is important, but it's only one piece of data that goes into assessing wine. The potential to catch the next great vintage frequently leads to premature proclamations of grandeur and overlooking the steady, tried and true performers of the past.
Take for example the 2008 and 2009 Red Burgundy vintages. Wine Spectator rates the 2008 vintage from 89-91 points depending upon the sub-region. The editor, Bruce Sanderson, preliminarily rates the 2009 vintage at 92-95 points. On the surface, one should go long 2009 and pass over the 2008's, assuming that price is relatively constant. However, in his articles Mr. Sanderson goes on to provide important insight as to how his ratings should be interpreted. He says, "[2009 is] a vintage that stands in stark contrast to 2008, a more typical Burgundy harvest. If you like fresh, vibrant, transparent pinot noir, with an expression of red fruit, flowers and mineral, then the '08 is the vintage for you."
Thank you Bruce! He is humble enough, and thoughtful enough, to tell us that the 2009 is rated higher because the style of the vintage fits a certain profile better. In his opinion, the big luscious fruit common in 2009 means that the vintage deserves higher scores. But the higher score doesn't mean that everyone will prefer to drink it. Those who like typicity, or Burgundy that tastes like Burgundy, may like the 2008 better regardless of score. He finishes by stating very clearly, "I will buy some of each vintage for my cellar."
Though Mr. Sanderson doesn't go so far as to say which wines he will buy for his cellar, I would wager that very high overlap will exist between the producers that find their way to his cellar in each of these vintages. Vintage matters, especially in Burgundy, but a good vineyard with a good winemaker will produce quality wine each vintage, so long as disaster doesn't strike.
 To illustrate this point further, and to move beyond Burgundy, let's take Côte Rôtie in 2007 and 2008. The Northern Rhône region garnered a 91 point rating in 2007 while the 2008 vintage came in at a lowly 86 points (again Wine Spectator). So what should one do? In the instance of winemaker Jean-Michel Gerin, he chose not to produce his estate's top two wines in 2008 because he wasn't comfortable that the quality would be acceptable to his family name. So, he reduced yields dramatically by skipping over the less than ideal grapes and blended La Landonne and Les Grandes Places fruit into his baseline Champin le Seigneur label for 2008. Instead of making three wines that reflect a difficult vintage, he made one wine that will outshine the lowly expectations for 2008. Skipping this wine because of the vintage score would be short sighted. In this instance, whatever impacts the individual vintage makes is more than offset by the inclusion of exceptionally high quality fruit from renowned vineyards. This example shows how good estates with a disciplined winemaker will see the consumer through difficult vintages, and in this case deliver what might be a superior product.
Back to Mr. Sanderson's comments regarding 2008 and 2009 Burgundy. It may be that the 2008 wines from quality growers prove to be better wines over time. As Michael Broadbent discusses in his book Wine Vintages, "A vintage is often assessed at the most difficult stage in its life, its infancy..." He goes on to discuss the supposed high quality vintages that didn't really deliver and the vintages, like 2001 Bordeaux, that were somewhat overlooked but later proved to be of very high quality. On net, when collecting and buying for your own consumption, give each vintage a chance and go long when you find specific wines you like personally rather than chasing a rating that fits the 100-point system's idea of a "better wine."
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