Charles Curtis MW: My top 10 Burgundy wines of 2021

2021 was a complicated year. While it lacked the raw existential terror of 2020, the year seemed to begin in a chasm of uncertainty. We had collectively made it across the finish line and into a new year, but the prospects for the year to come had never been more obscure.

In January, I had the distinct impression that I didn’t know where my next bottle of great Burgundy was coming from. I had made my way to Burgundy in October of 2020 but the country had locked down again, and the prospects for my return were uncertain.

At home in New York, restaurants were closed, and friends did not socialise, even those near at hand, for fear of infection. Work went on, but the situation was less than ideal.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for Charles Curtis MW’s top 10 Burgundy wines of 2021

As the weather began to warm in March, friends decided they could gather outdoors.

Sharing with friends

With restaurants closed, one very thoughtful collector friend sent around kits to prepare cassoulet at home. We each cooked at home and convened in the backyard of his brownstone to enjoy them.

I brought a brace of Cortons and Corton Charlemagnes that I was reviewing. At the end of the meal, my friend pulled a treasured bottle from his cellar, and we enjoyed a 1993 de Vogüé Amoureuses with the cheese. It was drinking in top form, and the generosity of the donor amplified the pleasure it delivered.

April brought vaccines, excitement, and the renewed opportunity for travel. Although it was still complicated to get back to France, a tasting group that gathers yearly in Atlanta decided to meet, having skipped 2020.

We enjoyed three dozen top Bordeaux from 2005 (as described for Premium readers), and I continued south from there to visit Bern’s Steakhouse in Tampa with friends. Bern’s serves delicious steaks, but it is the legendary wine list that makes a detour worthwhile. I was not disappointed.

We enjoyed a bottle of the 1962 Romanée-St-Vivant GC ‘Domaine General Marey-Monge’ produced and shipped by négociant J. Thorin before the vines were rented to Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. It was not my first from the cellar, and I hope it is not the last.

By the end of May, I was able to return to Burgundy. Upon arrival, the curfew was still in place, and restaurants closed firmly at 9pm. One had to taste, eat quickly, and retire.

Tasting in-situ

Fortunately, the winemakers who had been starved for visitors for the past twelve months generously opened some older bottles for the few visitors such as myself who arrived. There were many lovely surprises.

Stand-outs included a 2002 Chambertin from Dugat-Py, a 1993 Chapelle Chambertin from Rossignol-Trapet, and a 2006 Jean-Claude Bachelet Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet.

The trip was a pleasure, but bittersweet in some ways. Becky Wasserman organised one delightful tasting at her home on a Saturday. Becky was always very generous, and she offered to pull together a ‘little tasting’ that ended up being about 50 wines from the producers that she represented suited to the themes of my articles. Her husband Russell cooked, and her son Paul and I tasted through the line-up with a few friends. This would be our last visit before her untimely death later last summer. There were many delightful wines that afternoon. A number made it into various articles, but arguably the finest wine of the tasting didn’t fit in an easy category. It was the 2012 Bourgogne Le Chapitre from Sylvain Pataille that I wrote ‘Wine of the tasting?’ in my notes.

I returned to New York and wrote up my notes, visiting wine regions including the Finger Lakes and the Willamette Valley over the summer.

In October, I returned to France to taste over 1,200 wines from the 2020 vintage. Many showed immense potential, yet few were ready to drink, and any list of the best bottles of the year should be limited to those ready to drink in my view. The exception was the 2019 Coche-Dury Corton Charlemagne, which offers both immense immediate pleasure and enormous ageing potential.

Surprise vintages

It may be the case that what might appear to be a ‘lesser’ vintage could provide more pleasure than a ‘better’ vintage that is not yet ready to drink.

I found absolute delight in a bottle of 2006 Bonnes-Mares grand cru from Christophe Roumier, generously contributed by a friend to a quick, casual dinner of Peking Duck at Pinch Chinese in SoHo.

Another evening with friends, again at Bern’s Steakhouse, provided another wine that made the cut. I have had the fortune to drink four bottles of 1978 Bouchard Père et Fils La Romanée, but the bottle we enjoyed that night was perhaps the best of the four.

Each of these wines was magnificent in its own way, but the best bottle of wine that I had this year was a 1971 La Tâche that came my way through the auspices of the auction trade. My former colleagues at Christie’s had organised an exciting sale in London of treasured wines purchased on release that had been carefully stored in a chalk cellar. They were visiting New York to promote the sale and opened this sublime bottle that rounds out my ‘top ten’ list for 2021.

It seems that despite January’s uncertainties, I didn’t do so poorly in the end.

See tasting notes and scores for Charles Curtis MW’s top 10 Burgundy wines of 2021

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