Top five red Burgundy vintages ready to drink now

There is seldom a ‘wrong’ time to drink red Burgundy.

Unlike some other grapes, Pinot Noir is fairly accessible in its youth. The voluptuous aromatics, silky tannins, and rich, velvety texture make these wines easy to approach young, while the extract and fresh acidity make it one that can age for decades as well.

A better question is not ‘when is it ready?’ but ‘when is it best?’ since unlike Bordeaux or Barolo it’s not strictly necessary to wait years for a wine to open up.

However, it would be a shame to drink a great bottle from a grand cru too early, and it would be equally unfortunate not to drink a vibrant village – or regional-level wine on the fruit of its youth.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores of top red Burgundies to enjoy now

While the question is apparently straightforward, there are several additional wrinkles.

One is the so-called ‘dumb phase’ where wines can show well in their youth but then close down and lose their generous, forward nature, only to re-emerge after a few more years of bottle age.

2005 is such a vintage. Sunny and warm, the year produced wines that were very promising in their youth. However, the wines closed up again and the ones we might think would be ‘the best’ are still tannic and not yet beginning to soften and show their fruit and complexity.

Other vintages confound our initial expectations, but for other reasons.

Here I have chosen a range of vintages suited to finding a perfect bottle of red Burgundy every year.

Best red Burgundy vintages to drink now

2015

2015 was a generally a hot and sunny year, although there was enough rain to refresh the grapes and the slightly cooler conditions in August as compared to July meant that there were few problems with sunburn.

Winemakers looking for a reason to complain about conditions in 2015 had to work very hard to find one, since the vintage produced a good-sized crop of ripe, balanced wines.

True to the idea, however, that it is possible to have ‘too much of a good thing’, there are some who believe that the 2015 reds are just too rich. It is certain, at least, that the top wines are no where near ready.

July heat kept the berry size small and produced tannic wines, and we will have to wait a long time for the top wines to soften.

However, now is a perfect time to drink the village- or regional-level wines which are delivering a lot of pleasure just now. In Burgundy itself, wines, even top cuvées, are often consumed much younger, so feel free to pull a cork and see where the wine is now.

2009

‘Année solaire’ is how the Burgundians refer to a warm, sunny vintage such as 2009.

Growing conditions made life easy for the vignerons in 2009 as the nearly uninterrupted days of warm, sunny weather produced grapes with plenty of sugar, fairly low acidity, and soft, supple tannins.

Comparisons were made at the time with 2005, but it was thought that the wines lacked the tannic grip of those from 2005. This generally seems to be the case. The implications are interesting, however, since while the 2009s are very seductive, the 2005s have largely retreated into their shell and are not showing well at this point.

2009 is a vintage that never really shut down—great news for Burgundy lovers. Even fairly substantial wines such as top premiers crus and some of the grands crus can be showing quite well today.

2007

2007 was a vintage that tricked me. I remember the year well and followed the weather from my perch in New York in a slightly crestfallen mood. It seemed that every week would bring news of cool, overcast, rainy weather in Burgundy and threat of mildew, mold and rot.

When I went to Burgundy the following year to taste the wines in cask, the wines even from the top growers tasted lean and lacked generosity. The producers were none too optimistic. I neglected to buy wine for myself, and came to regret it later as the wines opened up nicely with time.

The cool weather during ripening meant grapes with high acidity and the potential of the whites among growers who sorted thoroughly was soon apparent. It took a while for the reds to blossom. To produce interesting results, it was necessary to sort maniacally, but the top growers made some excellent wines.

2007 is not a vintage to cellar forever. The wines are drinking well now and should be consumed over the next five years. However, the best of these wines are mature, aromatic, and structured if a bit angular.

2002

2002 has long been a bit of a mystery to me. It is a truly good vintage that has largely been overlooked. Perhaps this is because of the poor results in Bordeaux and Piemonte in the same year.

However, the Burgundians (like the Champenois) had a marvelous success in 2002. It is a vintage that produced wines of the sort that I absolutely adore: ripe but fresh and crisp with plenty of acidity and tannin.

The best wines are still quite youthful generally and are beginning now to slowly show their depth of fruit, complexity, and nuance.

The wines have never really traded for the premium I would expect for such quality, and thus one has comparative affordability to add to the leger as well.

Unlike other successful vintages in recent years, 2002 was a cool year, and the wines have a perfumed nose of black cherry and violets, now accented with hints of game and leather.

1993

Another vintage, similar to 2007, where many of us got it wrong initially.

The year began very cold, delaying budbreak and flowering. June and most of July were wet, and fears of rot and mildew were widespread. The weather improved in August, raising hopes for a pleasant end to the season. These hopes were dashed, however, in the third week of September when torrential rains fell throughout the region, complicating the harvest. The harvest was controversial at the time – critic Robert Parker came out with a fairly pessimistic assessment, while Clive Cotes was much more optimistic.

When the wines initially appeared, some were washed out but others were unbelievably tannic.

Few observers expected them to come around. Lesser wines, in fact, did not last well. The best of the lot, however, are absolutely superb today. They have shed their astringent tannins and are resplendent, complex, compelling examples of red Burgundy.

Nine top red Burgundy wines to drink now:

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