Friday, April 27, 2012

The Finest Wines of Burgundy – Bill Nanson (University of California Press)

Yet another book on Burgundy has reached the Australian shelves, distributed by Inbooks with an RRP of $49.95.  It contains 320 pages of full colour photography and text, and has an entirely new take.  The author, Bill Nanson, is a chemist by profession, and has no connection to the wine trade, but has made frequent visits to Burgundy over the past 15 years and regularly works the vintage there.  On thing that particularly impressed me (apart from Hugh Johnson’s foreword) was his vintage chart from 1990 to 2010, in which he refused to ascribe any rating to the vintages 1994-2004 inclusive because of (and I quote) ‘the pervasive influence of oxidised bottles renders this period a complete lottery. Spend only what you can afford to lose.’

3 comments:

Paul Bishard said...

As for most Australian consumers who are (slowly) realising that there is value in French Burgundy, comments like this instill some sort of confidence that there is some random-ness to the wines when sourced and purchased. It shows and comments on aspects of quality and consistency which the new world strive to, achieve (in most part) and most of all win consumer trust to repurchase. These aspects alone are what winemakers rely on to ensure consistent pull through of their wines vintage after vintage.

Anonymous said...

Delicate Burgundy is climat (micro climate) sensitive and some years are nightmares for the winemakers whereas others are pure dreams.

Anonymous said...

The first guy- Paul, sounds like an idiot!!! Dude, what are you saying? ENGLISH please!!!

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