Burgundy 2010 – a Magical Vintage

(Thankfully, more Houdini than David  Blaine!)

The doomsayers had started by writing this vintage off and to be fair, come the end of August it was looking pretty dismal.  However, Burgundy is all about the magic of wine and the importance of harvest.  In 2010 the magic was strong and they have pulled out one hell of a rabbit, from the proverbial top hat!

                      

2010 Burgundy  is relatively small and will go down as a vintage that was extremely challenging but where the growers and winemakers have excelled, the results are nothing short of thrilling.  In fact, I am so excited about this vintage, I feel this actually surpasses the offering from 2009, with 2010 offering sophisticated “Haute Couture” against the more “High-Street” appeal of 2009. 

The Whites

With a decent level of ripeness, just under 2009, but with better acidities, the whites are uniformly pretty darn delicious and, I feel better than 2009.

The Reds

More care has to be taken at looking at these but where the winemakers have excelled, I again feel the 2010’s are even more thrilling than the more opulent 2009 vintage.

Despite the euro weakening, basic economics of the harvest being 40% smaller, means that prices have gone up marginally.  Needless to say, we’ve tried our best to hold them as sensible as possible!

The loonies are taking over!

Every Biodynamic  wine I tasted appeared to have the edge.  I know many are sceptical about why, if you plant a cow corn with cow manure in a corner of the field and then spray it on the vines later as a fertiliser you make better wine.  There’s a hell of a lot more to it than that and for a full explanation into the theory please check out our friends at Wikipedia, then look up Rudolf  Steiner but please maintain a sense of balance!

Now I’ll be honest, when I hear the words holistic, energy, and phrases like “natural order” etc I find it hard to suppress the urge react like Bluto  in Animal House but those who practised this method just seemed to excel in 2010.  Further evidence of this being taken seriously, is that every large supermarket arranges their press wine tastings according to a biodynamic calendar – but maybe their wines need all the help they can get!

So put your scepticism aside, I don’t know how it works but then again, I barely understand how a car works, just give Biodynamics a go....although please your sandals behind!