The 2018 vintage - A Great Vintage, with a Wide Variety of Sumptuously Thrilling Wines

We are delighted to offer you this, our 2018 Burgundy ‘en primeur’ offer for Hong Kong. Our Senior Consultant Anthony Hanson MW’s report on 2018 vintage follows. The breadth and depth here – 25 estates – offers a great deal of choice. We are fortunate to represent people so passionate about their work, and you can see from Anthony’s photos, taken candidly during the 2018 harvest, so many smiles.

Tasting 2018s from barrel in the domaines’ cellars in September and November 2019 with The Fine Wine Experience team was a real pleasure. Laying these wines down for short, mid or long-term cellaring, we wish that these smiles and the bottled sunshine of this vintage provide you many fine wine experiences to come and to share.

The Fine Wine Experience Team visited Burgundy during September 2019 and tasted the 2018 vintage firsthand.
This photo was taken with Claude Dugat (4th from the left).
 

Domaines on offer:
Hospices de Beaune, tended at Domaine Michel Lafarge
Hospices de Beaune, tended at Domaine Emmanuel Rouget
Domaine Amiot-Servelle
Domaine Berthaut-Gerbet
Domaine Christian Clerget
Domaine Claude Dugat
Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé
Domaine Confuron-Gindre
Domaine Denis Bachelet
Domaine Emmanuel Rouget
Maison Etienne Sauzet
Domaine Fourrier
Domaine Frédéric Esmonin
Domaine Harmand-Geoffroy
Domaine Heitz-Lochardet
Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat
Charles Van Canneyt
Domaine Jean-Marc Millot
Domaine Launay-Horiot
Domaine Laurent Roumier
Château de la Maltroye
Domaine Michel Bouzereau
Domaine Paul Pernot
Alvina Pernot
Domaine Perrot-Minot
Domaine Tortochot

An introduction to our 2018 offer by our resident Senior Consultant, Anthony Hanson MW:

The 2018 Growing Season & Harvest

To understand the great success of the 2018 vintage in Burgundy, it helps to look back at the dormant period of the vines, over the winter 2017/18.  Record amounts of rain fell in December, January and March – double the averages of the period 1961-2010.  These rains allowed water tables in the ground to be amply topped up.

This proved vitally important during the summer, as we shall see.

The growing season got off to a proper start from April onwards, then May stayed warm, with below average rainfall in both months.   Towards the end of May and in early June rain fell regularly, with warm temperatures, allowing the flowering to proceed in excellent conditions.  This is always beneficial to quality, as, after a speedy flowering, the grapes in a bunch will reach maturity at the same period.  It also helps to lock in a good yield, which indeed proved to be the case. 

Beautiful weather set in from 12th June, with virtually no rain, and heat-spikes at the end of the month.  July was more mixed, with two localised hail-storms affecting Nuits Saint Georges, then temperatures climbed at the end of the month, regularly beyond 30 degrees.  Rain was scarce, sunshine hours well above normal, temperatures also.  The heat-wave lasted until 7 August.  Some vines showed heat-stress, however, the plentiful water reserves built up during winter now proved to be a massive boon, allowing deep-rooted vines to continue ripening their fruit.  Sunshine lasted up to and throughout the vintage, which began at the end of August/ early September.

June to September 2018 are amongst the driest seen since WWII, and for the 5 months from May onwards, sunshine hours were all above normal.  Growers had been fearful that the heat-stresses might equal those seen during 2003, however 2018 is not a repeat of that torrid summer, and the style of the wines bears this out.

The 2018 Reds

The grapes were extremely healthy. Very few needed removing from the sorting tables, except for any over-ripe bunches, or those caught by sun-burn. Sugar-levels were high, so many wines have natural alcohol levels of 13 and 13.5 degrees, and above – un-thinkable in Burgundy 3 decades or more ago. Sunshine allowed the colouring matter, aromas in the skins, and tannins, to reach full ripeness in this generous-sized crop. A low level of acidity in some wines has been compensated by fine tannins, to ensure smooth, long ageing.

Depending on individual growers’ desires (which helped them to decide their picking dates), we have wines of classic balance, and others showing exceptional levels of richness, fruit density and power. This is a great vintage, with a wide variety of sumptuously thrilling wines, some for early and mid-term drinking, others for the long term.

The 2018 Whites

Many growers were astonished by the plentiful yield of juice from the grape-bunches. There had been fears that the hot summer and early autumn would have caused evaporation, with yield reduction. But the water reserves from winter played their part in confounding those fears, and the result is a record-sized crop, in many villages. Early pickers, locking in natural acidity, usually did better than those who waited. Generally these wines will mature for drinking sooner than the 2017s. We have been careful to select wines which show no sign of dilution, and also particularly those with sufficient acidity to balance their opulent richness. 

For full producer reviews and 2018 ratings, please click here.

WHY BUY EN PRIMEUR

The most obvious traditional answer was price. The basic deal was that the best price would be the en primeur or ‘futures’ price – the consumer rewarding the merchant, the merchant rewarding the negocient, the negocient rewarding the châteaux with cash up front, long before anyone would see the finished wine in bottle. This system broke (as it does every few decades or so) with the 2009 and 2010 vintages, where the price of the final delivered wine fell siginicantly below what customers paid en primeur. Price for the 2018s will be something to watch, though fortunately it doesn’t look this year (so far!) like aggressive pricing will be the order of the day.

Of course you are not buying an entire vintage, you are picking out individual wines, so over-performers who nonetheless price ‘normally’ may well prove to make financial sense.

But there are some other reasons to buy en primeur

- Provenance is assured. You will be the first to take delivery of the wine and you will have control over its handling and storage from day one, with all the assurance for preserving condition that that brings. Years down the line that will mean either drinking the wine in its optimal condition, or being able to offer it for re-sale with complete assurance to the next buyer. Everyone benefits from assured provenance.

- Access. This isn’t Burugndy, but it is true that some of these wines appear later in the secondary market in much lower quantities. This is the best chance to ensure you can own what you want.

- Sunk cost. It’s not an obvious one, but taking the pain of the expense now is something akin to savings. The wine will feel like a bonus when it comes to drinking it!

- Choice of bottle formats. If you like to own your favourite wines in a nice mix of halves, magnums and imperials, this is your best – often only – chance to have the wine bottled in formats you want. (Subject to availability and advance ordering).

- If you had a child born in 2018, or got married, this is a very nice way to mark the occasion from the outset – investing in furture anniversaries and birthdays.

A NOTE ON BUYING 2018s

We are delighted to offer you this, our 2018 Burgundy ‘en primeur’ offer for Hong Kong. Our Senior Consultant Anthony Hanson MW’s report on 2018 vintage follows. The breadth and depth here – 25 estates – offers a great deal of choice. We are fortunate to represent people so passionate about their work, and you can see from Anthony’s photos, taken candidly during the 2018 harvest, so many smiles. Tasting 2018s from barrel in the domaines’ cellars in September and November 2019 with The Fine Wine Experience team was a real pleasure. Laying these wines down for short, mid or long-term cellaring, we wish that these smiles and the bottled sunshine of this vintage provide you many fine wine experiences to come and to share.