Burgundy's 2002 growing season

Here's an overview of what formed this promising vintage. See purple pages for detailed tasting notes. I'm delighted, in a way, to report that British wine lovers have, off their own bat, already gone for these wines in a big way. Readers elsewhere stand a better chance of getting their hands on the most sought-after grands crus, though prices in dollars will be scary.

A list of UK merchants making special burgundy 2002 offers follows this article.

'Flavour of the month' is an appalling cliche but the uniquely seductive flavours of red and white burgundy could truly be said to have been those most widely and appreciatively savoured by wine lovers in London this January.

More British wine merchants than ever before have been driving over to Beaune and Nuits-St-Georges to collect samples of the heavily-touted 2002 vintage to set before their customers in the hope of juicy orders. And the signs are that more and more wine lovers all over the world are becoming hooked on these wines which, in contrast to Bordeaux's famously tightly-buttoned, immaculately-suited produce, can be everything from flirtatious kittens to richly decadent essences, but always with a certain peasant earthiness. If I were writing for a style magazine, I would doubtless find some sociological parallel here (our increased interest in spirituality and/or ecology perhaps) but, you will be relieved to read, I will stick to the wines themselves.

They are extremely promising on the whole, and the vintage has been talked up to such an extent that growers and merchants are reporting unprecedented demand for 2002s – even though there are some producers, particularly in the Côte de Nuits, who maintain that their 2001s are superior. And there is no shortage of wine trade wisdom declaring that in 10 years' time we will all be singing the praises of the more angular, but arguably more expressive, earlier vintage in much the same way as the delicious 1991s were initially overlooked.

If demand is high for the 2002s partly because more and more palates are discovering what particular pleasures can be had from burgundy, it is also because wine lovers did not spend heavily on the last big en primeur offering, red bordeaux 2002. And thirdly, while no-one can be absolutely certain about its quality, everyone knows that the quantity of the 2003 crop in Burgundy is relatively tiny.

Partly because of this last fact, some growers have increased their prices at the cellar door for their 2002s – particularly for their top wines which normally have to be allocated in any case. This, together with currency movements over the last year, mean that the 2002 burgundies cost about 10 per cent more than the 2001s in sterling, and even more in dollars. I am told that there are still some American customers for 2002 burgundies, but nothing like the demand one would expect for such a lauded vintage if the dollar were strong. In fact many a British merchant reports increased allocations this year – mainly because of reduced demand from across the Atlantic.

A cynic might say that Burgundian producers would have raised prices for the 2002 vintage more if they could have relied on the American market. But that would be unfair on the Burgundians who have over the years been so much steadier and less avaricious in their pricing than the Bordelais.

The 2002 growing season started off well, went into decline, then was miraculously rescued at the last minute – as became evident from last winter when successive tastings showed the wines in an increasingly favourable light. But we must remember here that the last seriously dreary vintage in Burgundy was 1994, so if there is enthusiasm for 2002 it is certainly not based on a need to find good news.

The first fairy godmother to smile on Burgundy's 2002s was the coldest winter in a long time, which allowed the plants time to gather their strength and killed off all possible bugs so that it was the healthiest of vines that burst into bud at the beginning of the growing season. May was not especially warm or sunny but June was, so the all-important flowering took place rapidly and successfully, safeguarding the uniformity of ripening on the vine and the quantity of wine produced – though nowadays just about every vigneron worth his salt thins at least the leaves and often some bunches during the summer to concentrate the eventual flavour.

So far, so good, but then August was cloudy if not cool and, though summer had been very much drier than in the south of France with its terrible floods, things were looking distinctly doubtful as late as September 11. A bit of rain in early September, particularly in southern Burgundy, and low sugar levels made some growers worry that they might be left with underripe, rotten grapes – the worst combination of all.

But then, from about September 12, the wind turned round to the north-east and, as it did in 2001, dried out the vines and delineated the flavours. Burgundy then enjoyed an uninterrupted week of warm sunshine which raised sugar levels with remarkable speed. But thanks to those winds and the less-than-brilliant August there was no risk of acid levels plummeting to the depths experienced during last summer's exceptional, and exceptionally long, heatwave in Burgundy.

The sorting tables that have saved many a more variable vintage in recent years, and the once-routine addition of sugar to bump up the resulting alcohol of the wines (called chaptalisation), were hardly needed by good producers in 2002. All in all, the grapes seemed to have everything: health, good acidity, reasonable crop levels, full ripeness and, on the basis of most of the wines I have tasted, attractively ripe natural tannins. This was particularly true of those Cˆte d'Or producers who waited some time after a downpour on September 19 (which blighted one or two vineyards in the far north of the Côte de Nuits with hail) before picking.

Average yields, according to Louis Jadot, were 44.3 hl/ha in the grands crus, slightly lower than than average for the last five years, while they were slightly higher than average for the village wines and premiers crus which were generally over 50 hl/ha.

Of course there are many wines that taste less than harmonious at this stage – some of them because they are obviously babies that will eventually unfurl into loveliness, some of them because their makers made some unwise decisions in the cellar. But overall this is a delightfully well-balanced, accessible vintage that has been a pleasure to taste even so young – yet is obviously far from facile.

Next week: Red wines v white and my favourite producers.

Specific UK Burgundy 2002 offers
The following UK merchants are making en primeur offers of 2002 burgundies and some of them have already sold out of their allocations of the grandest, rarest wines.

A&B Vintners of Brenchley, Kent
John Armit Wines of London W11