The
2012 Red Burgundies from Bottle

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single taster facing two
glasses of wine from the same producer will always prefer one over the other. Depending
on the taster’s predilections, one wine will seem more floral and refined, tauter,
sweeter, deeper, fruitier, livelier, longer. It follows that the other will
come across as less concentrated, less pristine, simpler, heavier . . . less
magical. That was the case for me writing large in dozens of cellars in
Burgundy when I tasted the 2013 and 2012 red wines, essentially side by side,
in November.

During the early days of my tour, the racy acidity and exhilarating
high-pitched aromatics of the 2013s tasted from barrel often made the 2012s
come off as a bit ponderous, if not overripe. But at a certain point I found myself
yielding to the fleshy charms of the highly concentrated, ripely tannic 2012s.

&nbsp;<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1426164056906-burgpix+319-1+%282%29.jpg">Driving across the top of the Clos Vougeot 

2012s From Bottle

In recent weeks, chez moi, I have sampled dozens of additional
2012s, this time without the 2013s for comparison. And on their own, the 2012s
are wonderfully rich, satisfying wines that offer glorious fruit and site
character, uncanny flavor intensity, and the balance and stuffing for at least mid-term
aging. Moreover, many of the wines I have tasted or revisited this winter seem
already to be closing down in bottle. Although their aromas are still pure and
multifaceted and their uncommon concentration clear to see, they are showing
even more backbone now and evolving very slowly. For me, the major question to
be answered is one that was raised about the 2012s by Frédéric Mugnier during
my cellar visit in November: “Do they have a hidden dimension?” That may turn
out to be the difference between very good and outstanding wines. And if the
wines are sweet, fleshy, fresh and satisfying, how many of today’s Burgundy
drinkers, who typically tend to consume their wines too early, will really be
more concerned with what they don’t find in the glass?

In all the talk of climatic challenges, small crops, serious financial
troubles for many producers on the Côte de
Beaune, and record prices for Burgundies these days, it’s easy to lose sight of
the fact that vintages 2010 through 2013 have provided many, many beautiful and
eminently ageworthy wines. Two thousand twelve is the richest vintage of the
group and the year that will have the widest appeal.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1426164112439-2014-11-24+04.03.49.jpg"> The Côte de Nuits glistens on a lucid November day Côte de Beaune Versus Côte de Nuits

While 2012 does not have the bracing acidity, inner-mouth tension or
sheer class of the best 2010s, the ’12s are fruitier, sweeter and more pliant
in the early going. Two thousand twelve is another topnotch vintage along the
lines of such earlier years as 2010, 2005, 2002 and 1999—although I should
emphasize that my generalizations in this introduction refer primarily to wines
from the Côte de Nuits. The Côte de
Beaune was a special case in 2012, as it was again in 2013, and these wines are
far more variable in quality—and style—due to severe hailstorms that damaged
the grape skins and interfered with the ripening process in many sites.

But in the Côte de Nuits, 2012 was also a
year of consistent quality, which is rare for Burgundy. I suspect that most
collectors will turn out to be happy with their purchases, assuming that they
stick to the better producers or, better still, to wines highly reviewed on
this site and by other veteran critics with track records for assessing young
Burgundies. The biggest downside to the ’12s is their nosebleed prices—and the
difficulty of actually tracking them down in the marketplace.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1426164190933-2014-11-22+07.57.25.jpg"> The back of the village of Gevrey-Chambertin 

A Quick Recap of the 2012 Growing
Season

The smoothness and full ripeness of the 2012s hardly reflect the bumpy
season, which featured most of the plagues that can affect Burgundy with the
exception of rot and frogs. As I reported in <a target="_blank" href="http://vinousmedia.com/articles/2012-red-burgundies-jan-2014">my coverage of the 2012s from
barrel</a> last year, following a cold, wet winter, March
was dry and warm, resulting in an early budbreak.&nbsp;But then April, May and
June were fairly miserable.&nbsp;Frost in mid-April affected some vineyards and
rain fell virtually every two or three days into mid-July. It was a constant
challenge for grape-growers to carry out critical vineyard treatments because
the breaks in the rain rarely lasted for more than a couple of days.&nbsp;Owing
to the humid conditions, mildew and oidium were widespread and demanded
constant vigilance. 
 
Poor weather during the flowering in June set the stage for a very small
crop.&nbsp;The flowering was drawn out over nearly four weeks, with heavy
showers and especially cool temperatures marking the beginning of the
period.&nbsp;There was substantial coulure (poor set, or shatter) and millerandage
(shot berries, or "hens and chicks"), as well as serious mildew
pressure. The older vines were particularly vulnerable to coulure.&nbsp;Of
course, the tiny millerandé berries are usually positive for wine
quality owing to their greater concentration and lower quantities of seeds. At
the end of June, a brief heat spike scorched some of the younger, more
vulnerable grapes, and there was another similar episode in late July, which
occurred just after some estates had pulled leaves in an attempt to aerate
their fruit.&nbsp;But in general this was a coolish growing season. 
 
August brought warm weather, but the last serious hailstorm of the season hit
the Côte de Beaune on the 2nd and there were more storms in the middle
of the month.&nbsp;Needless to say, 2012 was not a year of drought stress,
although the ripening of the fruit was slowed in areas that had been hit by
hail, and fruit that was sunburned during heat spikes could also retain a
pronounced green character from unripe tannins. 
 
Clusters were generally small yet well aerated and the millerandé grapes
had thick skins, which protected the fruit against botrytis.&nbsp;So did a
north wind during the weeks leading up to the vendange and cool weather during much of the pinot harvest, which
took place mostly during the last ten days of September, sometimes extending
into the first week of October. The weather remained mostly dry, with some
nippy nights helping to preserve acidity in the grapes.&nbsp;There was some
rain on the 21st and 22nd, just as many growers were getting started, and then more
substantial rainfall on the night of the 25th and all day on the 26th--two to
three inches across much of the region.&nbsp;However, chilly ambient conditions
and the thick skins of the grapes forestalled rot, and most growers maintained
that the post-rain fruit was little affected by the precipitation. In fact,
some insisted that the fruit they picked at the end was best. 
 
Although there was little rot, it was often necessary to eliminate dried grapes
and those affected by hail. Vibrating tables and optical sorters were
especially valuable on the Côte de Beaune. The effects of hail ranged widely, as some vineyards
had been hit multiple times and others scarcely touched. In some cases, the
loss of foliage had resulted in loss of acidity, while in others the remaining
fruit struggled to ripen and acidity levels remained high.&nbsp;Most producers
agree that the hail occurred early enough in the season that the obviously
affected berries shriveled up and fell off the vines.&nbsp;Even the major storm
at the beginning of August was followed by dry, windy conditions, which
facilitated this process. 
 
The crop, which had already been cut sharply by the poor flowering, was
eventually down by 15% to 40% in spots that escaped hail (including most of the
Côte de Nuits) to
as much as 70% to 90% in sites that were seriously hit.&nbsp;The worst-affected
estates are seriously short of wine in 2012, but red wine producers in Volnay
and Pommard are in even more dire shape, especially after the catastrophic July
23 hailstorm in 2013 and the tricky summer of 2014.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1426164251931-2014-11-10+05.35.22.jpg"> Bruno Clavelier gives a geology tutorial The Vinification of the 2012s

Potential alcohol levels in the
grapes were mostly moderate to good, typically ranging from 12% to
13%.&nbsp;Some growers chaptalized lightly, mostly to prolong their
fermentations, but others did not.&nbsp;Owing to the high ratio of grape skins
to juice, many winemakers extracted gently, cutting back on the frequency of pigeages
(punching-down of the cap to keep it wet), and relying more on remontage
(pumping the fermenting juice over the cap). Some were hesitant to ferment
their wines with a high percentage of whole clusters (vendange entier)&nbsp;because
they already found their wines to have plenty of tannic support or were
concerned about the quality of the stems. But many others used whole clusters
to add structure, verve and an additional aromatic dimension to their wines.

No doubt about it: the 2012s are
very concentrated. While some wines may have been overextracted during
vinification, I would characterize most simply as rich in extract, which is a a
whole ’nother thing. Certainly, the atypical concentration of these wines on
the Côte de Nuits was a natural
concentration resulting from the poor conditions during flowering. 
 
The Wines in Bottle

In the cellars in November some 2012s came off as a bit roasted next to
the 2013s, but they were generally fresh and firmly structured too. Today, I am
more likely to refer to ‘liqueur-like’ fruit aromas rather than ‘roasted’ in my
notes—and to fresher red fruits as often as to riper black ones. Clearly, many
2012s have excess baby fat that they will shed during bottle aging, so that
their true shape and underlying minerality and site specificity become more
apparent over time. So even if some ’12s do not eventually reveal a hidden
dimension, they will be transformed through the aging process.

Due to often freakishly low yields, wines from the Côte de
Beaune are often even more concentrated than those from the Côte de
Nuits. Such examples will need more cellaring than is usually the case for
these wines, and the best of them should be long-lived. But just as
superconcentrated white Burgundies can reveal themselves to be
unbalanced with time in bottle, the aging curve of unnaturally concentrated
pinot noirs can be unpredictable. I would note that today, relatively few Côte de
Beaune ’12s show the aromatic lift and sappy quality—or the velvety tannins—of
the better Côte de
Nuits wines. Many of them, in fact, finish with a dry edge.

Drinking Windows

I predicted a year ago that
relatively few 2012s will be austere in the early going. Also, that the best
examples have the concentration, balance and energy to evolve slowly and
gracefully in bottle over the next 12 to 20 years, with the top grand crus
probably capable of lasting another decade or more beyond that.&nbsp;Today, I
remain confident that the premier and grand cru bottlings from the producers I
visit each year will age at least as long as I thought they would a year ago.
But it also seems increasingly likely that many wines will shut down within the
next couple of years, if not even sooner.

My projected drinking windows are my early
predictions of the likely sweet spots for enjoying each wine. That is not to
say that many consumers will not derive pleasure from some 2012s right now—and
certainly you will already find many of these wines on restaurants’ wine lists.
Of course the best 2012s, kept under perfect storage conditions, will likely go
on longer than my ranges suggest.

A Note on Missing Wines

Never before has it been so difficult for me to taste the finished
vintage from bottle as it was for the 2012s. The fact remains that Burgundy’s
better estates are frighteningly short of wine, particularly on the Côte de
Beaune, where financially strapped growers can barely afford to lay down a few
bottles for their own collections. In many cellars, producers were not able to
show top cru bottlings because the wines had been overcommitted, while at a few
addresses on the Côte de Beaune, nothing was
available to taste. Due to severe hail losses, some growers on the Côte de
Beaune were unable to bottle some of their crus, or else declassified this
juice into their village-level bottlings. Others bottled tiny quantities of
certain crus entirely in magnums, and these wines will essentially be
nonexistent in the market.

Why should growers offer critics scarce wines to taste and review
that are not even available to their clients? What do they have to gain? In
many cases, the only reason they showed me their 2012s was because I have been
faithfully visiting their cellars and reporting on their wines every year since
I first visited the Côte d’Or
in 1988 to sample the ’87s and ’86s. Still, I am always amazed at—and thankful
for—the generosity of producers in opening expensive bottles, even if nowadays they
are often 375-ml. bottles put aside for professional tasters in the 12 months
or so following the bottling.

All of the wines in this article were tasted from bottle in the
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