2019 Bourgogne Les Prince Vin

Since joining their father Alain in the late 1990s, the brothers Jean-Luc and Eric Burguet have furrowed their own path. Jean-Luc was on hand to guide me through the 2019s, minus the discontinued Chambolle-Musigny Les Echézeaux, in their warm and comfortable office rather than the barrel cellar. “The south and west orientated vines where bunches were exposed to the sun suffered some burning,” he told me. “We lost 30-40% of the harvest because the vine could not absorb the potassium in shallow dry soils. When the berries are green the sun can burn the skins very fast and they can become raisined. That was really disheartening. Everything was going so well and in two or three days we could see the burned skins. So in 2020 we ploughed in more organic matter and this improved the potassium uptake. We waited for the optimal tannin and seed maturity. We started picking on 15 September and finished in eight days, de-stemming everything. I think the 2019s are quite spicy. When we pressed the wine we found amazing flavours. We never do any correction but it is important to have a very good vin de presse. We use a Vaslin-Buchere that does not tear the skins as it rotates. Sometimes we press at 1.6 or 1.8 bars.” Though you might expect their Chambertin Clos-de-Bèze to take top honours, in fact, it was the Vosne-Romanée Les Rouges des Dessus that really impressed, sporting a pleasant balsamic edginess on the finish. I enjoyed the purity of these 2019s, but in general I suspect they lean towards earlier drinking than other producers’ contributions to this vintage.