2011 Red Burgundy: Three Sides of a Coin

The best 2011 red Burgundies are striking, quintessentially transparent wines that capture the essence of site, but overall this is a variable vintage that is going to require careful selection. Interest remains sky-high for the 2009s, 2010s and 2012s – for different reasons – while by comparison the 2011s are languishing. Although quality is inconsistent across the board, the top 2011 red Burgundies are absolutely gorgeous and well worth checking out.

La Romanée, Vosne Romanée

The 2011 Growing Season

The 2011 vintage will be remembered as one of the most unusual in history. A number of growers talked about the inversion of seasons; summertime weather in the spring and spring-like weather in the summer. Winter was warm and dry, as it was across much of Europe. An unusually hot spring led to a very early bud break. Above average temperatures continued into the early summer. I remember alarm bells going off when I was in Burgundy in June that year. At the time, weather patterns were suggesting a mid-August harvest that was far earlier than anyone had ever seen.

But Mother Nature has a way of balancing things out. July and August brought cooler temperatures, overcast skies and higher than average rainfall, all of which served to slow down ripening. The harvest was early, but not as dramatically early as initially feared. As was the case in 2010, yields were once again down 30-40%, mostly the result of poor weather during the flowering. Because of the cool summer, the 2011s were picked at relatively low sugar levels. Most growers I visited chaptalized lightly by 0.5 to 1.0%. Concerns over ripeness in the stems caused winemakers to go a little lighter on whole clusters than they did in 2009 or 2010.