The Magic of Old Burgundies

Drinking aged Pinot is a completely different experience than imbibing recent vintages. The primary fruit aromas give way to the smells that fine wine acquires over time, known as the bouquet (or to the chemist, ’reductive bouquet’). After many years in the bottle, old wines develop smells of truffles, fungi and mushroom. There are often other olfactory charms as well, including loamy earth, sweaty leather, old library book, garbage, mahogany, smoked bacon, rust and iron, musk, tobacco smoke and so forth. Not everyone finds charm in an older wine’s bouquet, but zealous fans find it magical.

The flavors of Pinot Noirs that have aged take on secondary characteristics. Notable among these are beef bouillon, anise, pencil shavings, Chinese five spice, mushrooms on a grill, beef stew, molasses, fig, Worcestershire, sherry, vitamin tension, smoke, and even foxy and fecal highlights. The development of secondary flavors tends to obscure the features of the wine which delineate its origin or terroir, although experienced tasters can still make pronouncements that are relevant to the sense of place of the wine.

When it comes to older Burgundies, there is no definitive rating or judgment. The wines simply represent snapshots frozen in time and memories that follow. There is considerable bottle variation, so part of the charm of drinking old wines is the anticipation upon popping the cork. You just never know what you are going to get. Knowing provenance of the wine is of course preferred, but this is often shrouded in the many years that have transpired. In older Burgundies there is always the scepter of poor wine transport and storage. The use of temperature-controlled containers to ship French wine to the United States wasn’t popularized by California wine importer Kermit Lynch and others until the mid-1970s.

A small crew gathered recently at Napa Rose Restaurant in Anaheim, California to drink some old Burgundies. There was some discussion prior to the event on how the wines should be drunk and whether decanting was appropriate. One attendee was told (incorrectly I believe) that the corks should be popped several hours before drinking, allowing “micro-oxygenation” of the wine therein and bringing out the full charm of the wine. According to Emile Peynaud writing in his classic treatise on wine tasting, The Taste of Wine, he strongly recommends tasting very old bottles immediately after the cork has been drawn. “It is definitely incorrect to decant old wines (wherever they come from) several hours before they are drunk because, following even a light aeration, their bouquet, fruit of the reduction process slowly achieved in the absence of air, weakens with varying rapidity, depending on the wine.” We chose to following this path and opened each wine in succession, from oldest to youngest, drinking each wine immediately after it was opened.

Purchasing older Burgundies at auction or retail is a bit of a crap shoot because of provenance. Prices also have gone stratospheric, particularly for bottlings from stellar vintages and wines made prior to 1978. The best strategy is to avoid the designer names such as Jayer, Roumier, and Leroy, and concentrate on reliable producers with less cache such as Mortet, La Farge, Montille, Barthod, Trapet and so on. Remember that vintage is all important and look to recent vintages like 1978, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1995, and 1996. Off vintages can surprise from good producers as the 1983 wine showed above. When it comes to old Burgundies, “It’s not the Pinot in my life, it’s the life in my Pinot.”