Burgundy 09 big in style and volume

Burgundy 2009 was described as a “big vintage” in terms of volume and style by Véronique Drouhin at a dinner and tasting in London this week.

Speaking at London’s 28-50 Wine Workshop and Kitchen, she compared the 2009 wines to those from ’99 or ’59 in terms of ripeness levels and flavour profile and said that vintages ending in the number nine have always been bountiful.

“Every year ending in a nine, except 1939, has been a big vintage in Burgundy”, she remarked.

Véronique, head winemaker at Maison Joseph Drouhin, further described the wines from last year’s harvest as “good from day one”, which she proved with two bottle samples, a 2009 Drouhin Clos des Mouches white and red 2009 Chambolle Premier Cru.

Comparing the vintage to 2005, she added that the latter year produced wines with higher acidity and greater consistency.

In 2009 however she pointed out that, unusually, the white wines proved more testing to make.

“The whites in 2009 were more tricky, while normally the reds are harder. In particular the malo was very quick for the whites and you had to stop it quickly to keep the acidity,” she said.

Looking beyond 2009 she picked out the 2008 vintage for the quality of the wines made in Chablis. “2008 was a very easy vintage in Chablis and produced beautiful fruit”, she said.

Patrick Schmitt, 16.09.2010