2023 Côte d'Or Burgundies -- Preview to My Tasting Reports
I am in the Côte d’Or this week and next visiting domaines that I have been visiting for many years to taste their wines from the 2023 vintage. I have so far completed nine visits, tasting wines of both colors from the Côte de Beaune and the Côte de Nuits. In addition, I have spoken with some colleagues who have tasted widely in the vintage. On these bases, I offer the following early impression of the vintage, which will be followed with reports on my visits to individual cellars.
2023 is the second large vintage in a row for Burgundy, which will help to relieve pressure on pricing. Unfortunately, however, 2024 is an extremely small vintage, with many producers saying that they only produced 25-30% of a normal crop in 2024, thereby causing contrary upward pressure on pricing.
A photo from the hill above Vosne-Romanée showing parts of some of the most famous vineyards in the world, including La Tâche, La Grande Rue, Aux Reignots, La Romanée, Romanée-Conti, Romanée-Saint-Vivant, Richebourg, and Les Suchots.
The vintage conditions were generally favorable; there were problems in some locations, depending in part on how producers chose to face specific challenges. The biggest challenge was high yields. The producers I’ve visited so far, all being highly conscientious, had yields that were higher than normal, but within the realm of reason. Generally, producers reported moderate-to-low acidities and high pHs (although there were exceptions), and some producers reported high alcohols (that is, in excess of 14º). In spite of this, I have found wines of great charm and approachability with an overall high level of quality and indeed some very great wines. But I understand from my colleagues and other sources that this is not the case in all cellars, and in fact it is a vintage of very diverse quality.
In addition to the reports from my visits in Burgundy cellars, I will continue my reports on German wines from 2023, primarily Grosses Gewächs wines that I tasted at the end of the summer.