CRITIC’S CORNER | Burgundy 2023

The London wine circuit was all about Burgundy last week, as the trade hopped from one tasting of the nascent 2023 vintage to another (several of which were hosted at the Club). As the various merchants’ en primeur offers drop into Members’ inboxes, we collated verdicts on the vintage from some of the leading critics

As a whole, Burgundy’s 2023 vintage has been well-received, with critics welcoming it as a year that will provide plenteous wines for relatively early drinking. 

According to Charles Curtis MW in Decanter, there are ‘an abundance of approachable, fruity reds [and] lush, round whites for early drinking’. The reds, he said, show ‘lovely fruit [and] rich texture, but less potential for ageing than 2022’, while the whites are ‘charming, but sometimes [with] low acidity and high alcohol’. 

Matthew Hayes, the Burgundy critic for jancisrobinson.com, was more enthusiastic: ‘There is much to love in 2023’s near-repetition of the fine, balanced wines of 2022,’ he said. His preference was for the reds, the best of which ‘will offer sustenance and satisfaction for lovers of (modern) classic, Burgundian Pinot Noir with, for the second year in a row, abundant supply from top to bottom.’

‘It is clear that 2023 is a good-quality vintage, at or around the same level as the classic, quite feline 2022, but with at times just a little edginess to it, whether in the tannins or acidity,’ he continued. ‘Once again, the often deceptively open character of certain wines, including quite a few grands crus, suggests this is another vintage, like 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2022, to drink as we wait for the 2019 and 2020 vintages to mature and work out their considerably greater structure and concentration.’

Neal Martin at Vinous was even more ebullient, saying he ‘adored’ the 2023 vintage. ‘It is not the greatest ever, but I am hard pushed to think of another vintage so pleasurable from barrel – pleasure that its best growers will translate into bottle. Time and again, as I tasted unfinished wines, thoughts of relishing the same finished wine at some future date kept popping into my head.’

‘For a change,’ he noted, ‘there is plenty to go around, which will oblige less frenzied chasing after minuscule allocations.’ The high yields of the year may lead some to jump to the conclusion that 2023 has to be a vintage for the whites, he pointed out, as Chardonnay often handles higher crop loads better than Pinot Noir. But final yields are ‘not astronomical’, with the whites leaning towards a ‘sunnier’ style of Chardonnay in that yellow fruit dominates, without veering too far away from traditional white Burgundy, thanks to the absence of summer heatwaves. ‘Many maintain sufficient acidity levels to counterbalance any richness delivered by that late summer climb in temperatures.’ 

For Martin, though, it is the reds that are ‘the real surprise’, with the best marrying ‘the ripeness of 2020’ with ‘the freshness of 2017’. ‘Acidity levels are not necessarily high, yet there is abundant freshness,’ he said. ‘These Pinots are going to be very tempting in their youth. Perhaps they will replace the 2021s that are proving so delicious in infancy.’ He also notes how the general stylistic trend in 2023, even at estates that generally favour more concentration, is more about ‘red fruit and finesse’. ‘The reds convey a sense of transparency, more weightless than weighty,’ he added. 

On the flipside, ‘these are not wines of immense fruit concentration,’ he conceded. ‘Some of the reds lack backbone and grip, and are occasionally slender on the finish and missing length on the aftertaste.’ 2023 is ‘not consistent like 2022’, and ‘you have to choose wisely’. But… ‘the best wines can be summed up in a single word – charm’.

The final verdict came from our good friend Jasper Morris MW, who hosted a Paulée style-dinner at the London Club towards the end of En Primeur week (above). He told Members how the Côte de Beaune whites grew on him the more he tasted, saying that while 2023 may fall short of the very best years, ‘in some cases, this clearly is a great vintage.’ Of the reds, while many commentators were making the comparison to 2017, he feels 2023 shows ‘more personality’. Noting the less homogenous nature of the year, he heralded plenty of ‘delicious, fruit-forward wines for medium term ageing’. 

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