2011 Red Burgundy Part One

11/1/13 -

How is the 2011 Red Burgundy vintage? These are wines that are delicious now and have very good aging potential.  Michel Lafarge compares it to 1952,  which to this day is a great vintage.  Marie Christine Mugneret Gibourg compares it to 1985 and 2002, two fantastic vintages that are still drinking beautifully. All of these vintages have superb ripe fruit and drank well when they were young and did not shut down and go dumb.  A friend in Burgundy called it the Marilyn Monroe vintage.  He said "Everyone knew she was beautiful but no one realized how smart she was."

The red wines have lots of fruit up front and then there is this wonderful spine of acidity that comes out which illustrates that these wines have the structure for long life.  It is not just a pretty vintage, it is a really good solid vintage with good aging potential. Unfortunately there is not a lot of wine to be had.  There was a bit more red wine produced than in 2010 but a lot less than in 2009.  There was an early flowering - according to the Lafarge's in Volnay it happened on the 27th of May.  Overall the summer weather was kind, there was not disastrous hail and the 2011 Red Burgundy vintage was a success.