2006 recommendations aplenty in view

On purple pages we’re starting the new year with a flurry of useful tasting notes on the 2006s currently available from Burgundy and the Rhône. Many of these wines – white as well as red – are delicious, yet free of the hullabaloo and hype that surrounded the 2005s, by no means always better than their counterparts made in 2006.

Notes on 65 white 2006 Châteauneufs are published today. I gave a score of at least 17 to more than a third of them – unparalleled enthusiasm! A full account of the 160 red 2006 Châteauneufs that I tasted recently in the Rhône will follow very soon – and there are even more great wines among them. Look out too for other 2006 Rhône tasting notes.

But next week is devoted to 2006 Burgundy as Julia and I plunge into London’s annual burgundy primeur tastings. Because we know how urgently some British purple pagers seek our recommendations, since allocations can be small and you may have to pounce to secure some of the most outstanding wines, we plan to report daily on our favourite wines throughout next week, leaving the full set of tasting notes on these hundreds of 2006s to be published later in January as a permanent record for purple pagers everywhere.

That’s just the start of what we’re planning for 2008, www.jancisrobinson.com’s eighth year.