Wine is a living product which naturally matures over time
Maturity will change a wine significantly
developing different characteristics, aromas and
flavours
Not all wine matures equally, and how a wine
develops will depend largely on its quality, with superior wines
generally maturing over a longer period
As they age, wine's will follow a maturity curve
starting with their primary characteristics in youth
and developing secondary
and even tertiary characteristics as they age.
This maturity curve varies for all wines,
with the growing conditions, the quality of the grapes,
winemaking practices
and wine storage conditions, all influencing
the process.
So what are the maturity curves of Burgundy wines?
I think that's going to depend on the level, the quality level. You know if you're going for your straight
Bourgogne Rouge, Bourgongne Blanc. I think you can drink
those fairly early, you know you don't really need to cellar them very much,
you can drink them one or two years after the after the vintage.
And then moving up to Village and then Premier Cru
and then Grand Cru. That kind of is an indication of when you
would want to drink them, you know, a Grand Cru you probably wouldn't want to drink it
at least less than 5, 6 years old.
Ideally, maybe about ten years old
but then those Grand Cru wines that with the power and the oak and the concentration
they can last for a long, long time. If they are cellared well
if they're in a cellar which is kind of damp,
it's cold, there's no light in there, there's no vibration
those wines will last for easily for half a century or even a century.
So, Grand Cru wines last for the longest Bourgognes,
drink them fairly young, they're the more simple wines anyway.
Village and Premier Crus you want to be drinking those within
10, 15 years something like that. So as you get those wines
when they're quite young, with Chardonnay it's really going to be
about primary fruit.
So, your primary fruit characteristics are going to be things like
orchard fruit. So things like Apple, yellow apple, green apple
characteristics to it, citrus fruits or things like lemon.
You're going to get to it some tropical fruits, probably on the slightly
on the under-ripe side so things like pineapple,
mango, but on that under-ripe side.
Fresh, crisp, high acidic that's what it's going to taste
like when it's young. As white Burgundy starts to get older
I mean this is a good example, this is a
a 2011 Chassange-Montrachet
that's really developed quite a golden, quite a straw colour
and wine, as it gets older it gently
oxidises, so it's almost rusting.
That sort of depth of colour bring with it more characteristics
probably a bit more light. Definitely moving away from green apple
moving into more that yellow apple, yellow plum. Floral characters
a bit like acacia, chamomile, honeysuckle
and definitely quite a nutty character so kind of like a toasted
hazelnut kind of characteristic to the whites.
Red wine kind of goes the other way with colour, red wine starts off quite dark
and then it starts to get lighter in colour as it gets older
Young Pinot Noir would be kind of quite
vibrant. Lots of red fruit lots of cherry,
lots of raspberry, lots of pomegranate, lots of cranberry
those sort of characteristics to it.
And Red Pinot Noir as it starts to get older it will start to get more tertiary,
those bright red fruit characteristics, that cherry, strawberry,
starts to fade away and it really starts to move into the more
leather,
smoked meat, bacony sort of characteristics to it
Almost of like truffles
In France they use a term called 'sous bois' which means 'under the wood' . So if you ever go into the wood after it's been raining and that
smell of damp vegetation, that's kind of what you're getting in mature
older Pinot Noir.
Do the weather conditions on a vintage make much difference?
Yeah, they can do, obviously if you get a nice sunny
vintage, a good vintage, you're going to get a big yield
you're going to get really fruity wines, you're going to get concentrated wines
it's going to be a successful vintage, they're probably the wines that will last
for longer. You may get vintages where
the weathers not so good, maybe a bit of that spring frost
maybe slightly cool during the rest of the year. Less maturation, less
ripeness. And those probably aren't for keeping
for a long, long time. So they're probably wines that want to be drunk fairly
soon. So what have been the best
vintages in Burgundy? Best vintages
of late, probably,
2015 was very good for red and white,
2016 was very good for red and whites, 2014
was not good, 14 had a lot of hail.
it hailed a lot in places like Mersault and Pommard.
Imagine 5 minutes of hail in a vineyard
basically, the hail comes down splits all of your grapes, punches holes
in the leaves, so 5 minutes of hail can absolutely devastate a vineyard
Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne have always had hail
the last few years. Maybe it's an indication of
global warming or something like that. After that 9 and 10
are a good, good pair together. 2005,
a great vintage, and then as you start to go back historically
1990, 1989 were good, 85 was good.
and then go back even more 78 was great.
And then if you want to be really flash, things like 59,
47 and then probably the ultimate vintage was 29.
So it's really only going to be the top Grand Cru
from the top producers that last for that long.
But if you ever get to try something like that I mean that's an incredible treat.
Wines can mature and develop significantly over time.
And a wine might taste completely different from one year to the next.
If your wines are cellared properly
it's possible to get an understanding how a wine matures by
opening a bottle of the same wine each year.