1996 White Burgundies

[DonRocks]

I hesitate to keep posting letters from friends of mine, but here's one from an expert who wishes to remain unnamed, which he submitted to a private wine mailing list I run, regarding his perception of the ageability of the 1996 White Burgundies. I reprint it here with his permission.

Rocks.

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Without going overboard on this, I'll tack on my recent experiences with the 96 White Burgs. I started noticing some excess oxidation about 2 years ago, and was quite worried, but it was localized and not consistant. In the last month, I have had about 15 bottles of white burg and and grand total of ZERO of them have been better than tolerable. All had a lot of acidity (which I like), but the fruit was in various degrees of oxidation and dullness (if any existed at all). The bad wines included: Jadot Demoiselles, Drouhin Montrachet, Ramonet Ruchottes, Niellon Vergers, Dauvissat Clos, Preuses and Forest. My favorite producers and wines, and yet, splat.

I will pose 2 questions to those who know more (and will ask my friends when I'm in Burgundy next month) about the chemistry than I do. First of all, why would ALL white Burgundy producers have used less sulfur in 96 than usual? OK, the vintage was "clean," but did everyone respond with less sulfur? Hard to imagine. Secondly, why does lack of sulfur lead to this kind of oxidation? Is it usually the sulfur that binds with the oxygen dissolved in the wine first, slowing oxidation? I wouldn't imagine that it makes that kind of difference. And finally, if sulfur is so necessary to prevent oxidation, what is the future of wines like the Fourrier wines which have zero (or close to it) added sulfur? Are they going to meet this end soon, or is this just a phenomenon of white wines? Thank you in advance.

[Michael M]

I'm bumping this up a bit because I'm curious as well.

[Brad Ballinger]

I'm not a chemist, nor do I play one on the Internet.

Reagrding 1996 White Burgs, I've drank what few I've had up. I've not been disappointed, but I need to add that I'm likely nowhere as experienced with these wines as the person whose opinion is reprinted here. I only have Batard-Montrachet left (from Jadot). My other 1996 White Burgundy are from Chablis, and there is definitely nothing wrong with any of them. Some are young yet. But I think your friend is writing more about the Cote du Beaune, from which by the way, I've enjoyed 1995s of late.

Regarding sulfur-oxidation. They are a somewhat opposite ends of a spectrum. Wines heavy in sulfur are said to be reductive (which is the opposite of oxidative). There is a balance to be achieved. But as to you question about what would lead a winemaker to add more sulfur in one vintage, less in another, I've no idea. But sulfur does occur naturally during fermentation, so perhaps there are tests that read the sulfur levels throughout the process.

[chasmartel]

Even though I can't really afford to drink much white burgundy, I am a subscriber to Steve Tanzer's International Wine Cellar. '96 white burgundies have been an off-an-on topic on the IWC discussion forums. Tanzer also discusses the oxidation problem in the introduction to his reviews of the 2003/2002 white burgundies in the most recent issue. He says that discussed the oxidation problem with a number of producers and they cited a number of factors among them defective corks. Apparently chlorine is sometimes used to treat corks and that chlorine can absorb the free suplhur in the wine (sulpher that is a by-product of fermentation) and thereby speed up oxidation if not enough sulphur was added by the winemaker. There was also some issues with treatment of the corks with silicones or other componds used to faciltate extraction. He reports that some of the burg producers are quite unhappy with the cork suppliers and have demanded changes with the processing and treatment of the corks.

Tanzer discusses other possible causes, but it is too involved for me to try & recount here. In any case, a lot of people are disappointed with a lot of different '96 white burgs.

The truth is out there.

[chrisnorth]

I've heard some of the concerns out there about 1996 white burgundies, but I must say that many of the bottles I've had from my cellar have been superlative.

Just a few examples off the top of my head:

Had a 1/2 bottle of Ramonet Chassagne-Monstrachet Ruchottes the other day which was jaw-droppingly gorgeous, with easily another 5-10 years of aging potential, if not more. By contrast a Vergers from the same producer and same vintage (and in 1/2) was very disappointing; the difference was by no means entirely explainable by the difference in quality of the two 1er crus and in retrospect perhaps it was a bit oxidative.

Several different Colin-Deleger 1996s have been consistently excellent

Six months ago a spectacular 1996 Bouchard Corton-Charlemagne which I won't touch again for at least a decade. Also a good '96 Bruno Clair Corton-Charlemagne the same night.

A 1996 de Vogue "Bourgogne Blanc" (really declasified Musigny Blanc!) had in Beaune two years ago was superb.

Maybe I've been particularly lucky? I bought all of the above wines in Burgundy directly from the producers or in local retail stores, for what it's worth.

Chris