1999 Côte-Rôtie

Burgaud was happy with his 2001 harvest, which had been drawn out over a period of 15 days, rather than the usual 4 or 5. "I picked one part early due to encroaching rot," he told me, "but then waited two full weeks for the rest. My anti-rot sprays really worked." The 2000 vintage also featured a bit of rot toward the end, yet Burgaud is convinced that this vintage should last 15 to 20 years in bottle. "The challenge was to hold down yields," he noted. Burgaud's Cote-Rotie does not necessarily track those of his neighbors in style. In '99, for example, his grape sugars were high at the end of August but so were acid levels, making this a totally atypical crop, said Burgaud. Although the finished wine is a full 13.4%, some of his cuvees began at just 12% and required chaptalization. Burgaud told me he dislikes his '95 ("a lousy, rainy summer") but loves his '96 ("I had a very reasonable crop level compared to my neighbors"). (Alain Junguenet/Wines of France, Mountainside, NJ; Martine's Wines, San Rafael, CA; Europvin/Christopher Cannan Selections)

Bernard Burgaud produced 38 hectoliters per hectare in 1999, the same as in the previous year, despite the fact that there were two separate hailstorms before and during the flowering in '99. Like Jean-Paul Jamet, Burgaud told me that the hailed-on vines were especially high in sugar and acidity. "The vines stayed without vegetation for three weeks after the hailstorm," said Burgaud. "You would think that this would have retarded the maturity of the fruit, but it didn't. I've never seen something like this happen." Burgaud '99 will ultimately be bottled with alcohol in the low-13% range, very high for a grower who is always among the first in the appellation to harvest. The '98, meanwhile, is in-your-face Cote-Rotie, impressively dense but not for the squeamish. (Alain Junguenet/Wines of France, Mountainside, NJ; Martine's Wines, San Rafael, CA; Europvin/Christopher Cannan Selections, Watertown, MA)