The best Burgundy wines to buy now — chosen by our critic
, The Times
Is there any other fine wine region in the world with the draw of Burgundy? Certainly the 400-odd fans who rammed Berry Bros & Rudd’s tasting last month for the just launched 2024 vintage don’t think so, happily paying £75 a head for the privilege of tasting this baby burgundy year, still mostly maturing in cask, long before it’s bottled.
Based on the more than 600 I tasted last month, though, I am not so sure about the “classic year” hype from specialist burgundy merchants. At best 2024 is a competent, mostly early-maturing year with, in my tasting book, rafts of good, ordinary whites but scarcely a handful of stars. In this uneven vintage the reds are nowhere near as good as the whites and caution is needed.
Given the relentless rain throughout the spring and summer, in what many burgundy growers felt was their most challenging year yet, the uneven quality is hardly surprising. Spring frosts and hailstorms in Chablis were issues for some and few escaped the warm wet weather’s rampant mildew. With the red crop down by about two thirds and the white by about a third, it’s clear that 2024 was saved not just by a final September harvest fortnight of sunny weather but by the small yields, which meant that the grapes did at least ripen.
The good, and somewhat surprising, news on the Côte d’Or is that hardworking, conscientious growers have produced some decent, age-worthy meursault and puligny-montrachet with, lower down the scale, some tasty bourgogne blanc. Bucking the trend, Samuel Billaud’s leafy, floral 2024 Chablis is delicious (armitwines.co.uk, £30). And the brilliant Jean-Jacques Girard family-run domaine has made a beautiful, bright, minerally 2024 Savigny-lès-Beaune Blanc (montrachetwine.com, £29).
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The most successful 2024 burgundy districts lie to the south of the Côte d’Or, where the weather was kinder and value can be had from the Côte Chalonnaise, Mâconnais and Beaujolais. Good picks from the last of these include the light, juicy, plummy 2024 Classics No 35 Beaujolais-Villages (Marks & Spencer, £12). Equally moreish is Mallory and Benjamin Talmard’s 2024 Mâcon-Villages (thewinesociety.com, £12.95) with just enough of this year’s light but lively lemon and apple orchard fruit, plus a firm, nutty finish.
2024 Burgundy stars
2024 Beaujolais-Villages, Combe aux Jacques, Louis Jadot, France
12.5 per cent, Tesco, £11, down from £12.50
Brimming with rich, red cherry and black plum-packed fruit, Louis Jadot’s Combe aux Jacques is a cracker.
2024 Savigny-lès-Beaune Rouge, JJ Girard, France
13.5 per cent, montrachetwine.com, £29
Jean-Jacques Girard is a wizard wine domaine, as this delicious, ripe, cherry kernel and tangy red berry 2024 proves.
2024 Bourgogne Côte d’Or Chardonnay, J Pascal, France
13 per cent, montrachetwine.com, £25 Côte d’Or bourgogne blanc is a rare 2024 success story and Joseph Pascal’s is a ripe, tasty, stone-fruited sip.
2024 The Society’s Exhibition Chablis, J M Brocard, France
12.4 per cent, thewinesociety.com, £17.50
A gorgeous, greeny-gold chablis with fine, nutty, herbaceous fruit and a long, zingy, steely, saline finish.
This week’s best supermarket buys
2024 Marques de los Zancos Red Rioja, Spain
13 per cent, Tesco, £6.25
The Solis family’s night harvested, unoaked, bright, light rioja has masses of uplifting, juicy, strawberry fruit.
2024 Viognier Terre Siciliane, Italy
12 per cent, Lidl, £7.49 The best white in Lidl’s Italian Wine Tour is this easy-glugging, white peach and nectarine charmer.
2024 Taste the Difference River Block Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand
12.5 per cent, Sainsbury’s, £8.75 down from £11
Snap up Brent Marris’s cut-price, lime zest-licked Marlborough sauvignon from the Waihopai valley.
2024 Être Affamé Cinsault, France
13 per cent, Co-op, £8.15
An unusual, 100 per cent unoaked cinsault from Languedoc, with jolly, smoky red plum pizzazz.
Dining and Cooking