3 x 2022 Rebourgeon: the wine drinker dilemma

R

Rahsaan

Rahsaan
2022 Michel Rebourgeon Pommard Les Noizons
Juicy forward baked berry pie, definitely seductive and attractive, although a bit broad for my ideal tastes. The inner structure and elegance becomes more apparent with air, although perhaps even more so with age?

2022 Michel Rebourgeon Volnay Carelle sous la Chapelle
Again, juicy forward baked berry pie, but more silk and angles to the texture than the Pommard Noizons, so I like this more. That said, still more polished than my ideal, but definitely attractive to drink and becomes more elegant and fine with air.

2022 Michel Rebourgeon Volnay Les Brouillards
Was very curious about this one, because have drunk a fair bit of Louis Boillot Brouillards, but not sure I’ve had the vineyard from anyone else. Would not have made the connection via this bottle, as the Boillot Brouillards is all about acid linear structure but this is juicy forward baked berry pie. Again, with air, there is some nice elegance that emerges, although not quite as much silky verve as in the Carelle sous la Chapelle, which is probably slightly more exciting for me right now, but who knows how that might change over time or with different bottles.

In the end, these were attractive wines with screaming QPR ($50-60), but then I’m left with the wine drinker dilemma. At the moment, they are good-very good for my palate, but not great, which doesn’t motivate me to buy. If they evolve into greater elegance with time, then I would be very happy to buy a bunch more. However, I’ll have to wait several years for that to become clear, at which point the buying is off-track. I do have some more bottles, will probably stick with those and see what happens.
 
Not familiar with the producer but quite familiar with the dilemma.
Sometimes, you just have to say, what the . . .
 
originally posted by Florida Jim:
Not familiar with the producer but quite familiar with the dilemma.
Sometimes, you just have to say, what the . . .
Click to expand...

Indeed. And in this case, I tend to err on the side of not purchasing. Always more wine somewhere.
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
There's an old Burgundy adage: be very strict on quality, very lenient on price.
Click to expand...

Maybe.

But Burgundy, for most consumers, is a mine field. And prices for the past several years have gotten completely out of hand.
So if you have the experience and knowledge of a Claude Kolm, and a nice oil well or two, you’re spot on.

For myself, I’m old (so I’m past buying for extended cellaring), I live on a relatively fixed income, name Burgundy has often disappointed and accumulating significant experience and knowledge would be, at best, daunting.
So I listen to folks who know a lot more than me and mainly buy from off the Côte.

Not an exact flip of the adage but close.
 
originally posted by Florida Jim:
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
There's an old Burgundy adage: be very strict on quality, very lenient on price.
Click to expand...

Maybe.

But Burgundy, for most consumers, is a mine field. And prices for the past several years have gotten completely out of hand.
So if you have the experience and knowledge of a Claude Kolm, and a nice oil well or two, you’re spot on.

For myself, I’m old (so I’m past buying for extended cellaring), I live on a relatively fixed income, name Burgundy has often disappointed and accumulating significant experience and knowledge would be, at best, daunting.
So I listen to folks who know a lot more than me and mainly buy from off the Côte.

Not an exact flip of the adage but close.
Click to expand...
I'm old, too, so if I buy Burgundy any more, it's for current consumption, not for cellaring (and I'm fortunate to have a good cellar of the stuff that now sells for uninteresting prices). Also, here in France, everything costs roughly half of what it does in the US.

As far as the current drinking, thanks to global warming and much better viti- and vinicultural practices, there's a lot of great stuff coming out of former marginal appellations such as the Irancy and other northern Burgundy areas, the Hautes-Côtes, Marsannay, Fixin, Ladoix, Maranges, the Côte Chalonnaise, and other more "mainstream" appellations such as Savigny, Santenay, and Côte de Nuits-Villages (part of which is now being incorporated into Fixin). But at double the price (and now even more to come with the tariffs), even those areas become less interesting for US consumers. A Bourgogne that at $60 (before sales tax) becomes $120-180 in a restaurant before tax and tip? I think Burgundy connoisseurship is going by the wayside in the US other than a very small handful of very wealthy, and in my experience they concentrate on a small number of very high-profile wines and so don't develop true across-the-board connoisseurship.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Thanks. All the Lyle raves left me curious, so this goes a ways towards satisfying that from a financially unbiased source.
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Yes, always tough to translate his words into my own interests. He definitely has lots of 'good' wine, but that doesn't mean I need to prioritize it.

But do you get the LF mailers out of general interest? Presumably you're not ordering from him to ship CA to PT?!
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
former marginal appellations such as the Irancy and other northern Burgundy areas, the Hautes-Côtes, Marsannay, Fixin, Ladoix, Maranges, the Côte Chalonnaise
Click to expand...

yep, just drank the '22 hautes-cotes rouge from rollin, and it's a whole new ball game

can say this with confidence, since i've been consuming/collecting the wine since 08 vintage and while there were a couple that were reasonably approachable on release ( e.g. the '18 ), this is the first edition that gives you an immediate sense of completeness with little guilt over popping the cork the day of arrival
 
originally posted by Pavel Tchichikov:
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
former marginal appellations such as the Irancy and other northern Burgundy areas, the Hautes-Côtes, Marsannay, Fixin, Ladoix, Maranges, the Côte Chalonnaise
Click to expand...

yep, just drank the '22 hautes-cotes rouge from rollin, and it's a whole new ball game

can say this with confidence, since i've been consuming/collecting the wine since 08 vintage and while there were a couple that were reasonably approachable on release ( e.g. the '18 ), this is the first edition that gives you an immediate sense of completeness with little guilt over popping the cork the day of arrival
Click to expand...

‘Got that same sense from some 2022 Pinots from Epineuil and Chardonnays from Côtes d’Auxerre.
Claude’s comments about advances in the vineyard and winery ring true; and maybe with a bit of climate change thrown in - not to mention that newer/younger makers need less capital expense to get started.
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Thanks. All the Lyle raves left me curious, so this goes a ways towards satisfying that from a financially unbiased source.
Click to expand...

Yes, always tough to translate his words into my own interests. He definitely has lots of 'good' wine, but that doesn't mean I need to prioritize it.

But do you get the LF mailers out of general interest? Presumably you're not ordering from him to ship CA to PT?!
Click to expand...

Yes, I continue to get the mailers to stay informed. Mostly, because when something piques my interest, I check if it's easily available in the EU.
 
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