The 2005 Burgs....

[JimHow]

We uncorked all the bottles and drank up a large quantity of those 2005 Burgundies in my room with cheese and whoopie pies.

No surprise, the 2005 d'Angerville Volnay Premier Cru seemed to perform best. The wines were outclassed by the Bordeaux we drank over the weekend, but that's not to say that the Burgundies weren't interesting and delicious in their own right. They are extremely young and structured, and I'm not sure they opened up significantly by Day Two. I think the Volnays performed best.

Nic and I concluded that these wines just are not of a nature that they should be compared with anything else. These are wines that you uncork with a dinner and watch unfold over the course of several hours with the meal. Even the aged Burg that Werner brought to the Friday night dinner I thought was overwhelmed by all of the Rhones and Bordeaux and Spanish and CdPs that were there, but it would have been interesting to try it on its own.

It was fun to try the '05 Burgs with fellow BWEers, I'm going to let them sit now for upwards of a decade before revisiting them.

[DavidG]

I did enjoy the Volnays, especially the Angerville, and the Jadot Clos des Ursules, and one or two of the more "modern style" wines, though I don't recall their names. I also liked the St Innocent Pinot Stefan brought. Some of the more classic Burgs were tipping a bit too much towards the acidic and away from the fruit side of the spectrum for my taste. Something that might well have been less objectionable if they had been drunk with a meal. The whoopie pies didn't make a match for me. Though I do wish I had taken one of those buggers with me for later consumption. They are decadently good.

The wines I liked seemed pretty good values at the prices Jim paid for them, but I haven't seen deals like that locally.

Jim, thank you for sharing all of these and to you and Stefan for guiding us through a mini-tour of Burgundy. And thank you for the generous gift of a bottle of the Angerville Volnay. I'll squirrel it away for a decade or so before opening it.

[JimHow]

My pleasaure David, you've put a lot of time and effort into the success of BWE.
I enjoyed that special bottling of St. innocent that Stefan brought.

[Rick]

Jim
all those burgundy soldiers standing tall in your room was quite a sight

it was nicew tasting over two days - for the most part I think day 2 was better

Thanks for sharing

rick

[Tom In DC]

Quite a nice line-up, Jim -- thanks for bringing them along. I liked the d'Angerville on the second day (kinda tight on day one), and was also fond of the two Jadot Beaune's -- Ursules and the Walrus (Couchereaux) -- as well as a few others. (But who's going to tell Jim that all of these 1er Crus aren't what most folks mean when they talk about "village" Burgs?)

I'll also be on the lookout for impressive and truly Burgundian St. Innocent Pinot's from Oregon -- thanks, stefan and Lucie!

[JimHow]

Indeed, I may have mis-named the 2008 BWE Wine of the Year, it wasn't just village wines I was drinking.

[Rieslingfan]

Nic and I concluded that these wines just are not of a nature that they should be compared with anything else. These are wines that you uncork with a dinner and watch unfold over the course of several hours with the meal.

That's pretty much how I feel about Burgundy. I dearly love the wines, but almost never drink them for enjoyment without a meal. I've never been to a tasting of Burgundies that was more than a fascinating intellectual experience.