Common sense about vintages and vintage reports

FASHION exists in wine as in other aspects of life. The current preference (I hesitate to call it a craze) in wine is Burgundy, red Burgundy rather than white. At the current rate of sales and consumption two predictable things are going to occur. The most obvious is that prices will go up and this prophecy has indeed come to pass.

Prices are astronomical in the secondary market. One bottle of Musigny 2005, Domaine Christophe Roumier, will set you back more than $1,000. And the wine is still not fully mature. The other inevitable outcome is that some wines have virtually been completely consumed. Except for the rare bottles still being preciously hoarded, availability (which means stock) is rapidly declining.

With these considerations in mind, I have been deliberately seeking out wines in my cellar, some of which I have not tasted since tasting them en primeur (my reference to Vieux Chateau Certan 2007 in last week's column. Three evenings ago, I pulled out a Chateau Lynch Bages 2004 which I had not even tried en primeur. Why this wine? For no better reason than I have known Jean-Michel Cazes (and his wines) since my introduction to Bordeaux some thirty-odd vintages ago and have confidence in his wine whatever the vintage. Besides I had not drunk a Lynch Bages for a long time there being so many other wines having gotten in the way!