Yes, you can afford good red Burgundy

It's easy to reminisce about the days when searching for a delicious red Burgundy would be rewarded with lots of wonderful options.  But as prices keep going up it's challenging to find any semblance of value.  How often have you heard: ‘I can’t afford to drink red Burgundy anymore’?

It is true that a string of short vintages and exploding global demand has made Burgundy harder to source and afford than it once was but it’s still possible to find and buy good red Burgundy at a reasonable value--in other words, for less than a large pizza.

And when you find such a wine, you really want to share it with your customers because, after all, Burgundy is delicious, rare, treasured.  They will remember you for it.

Your research is often best rewarded in the wide-ranging and often confusing Bourgogne Rouge AOC.  The trick is to find a good one. The AOP is vast--covering 1,855 ha across 300 communes--and the rules are relatively lenient.  Thus, it's not "all good".  

So you want to pick a great producer.  The most expensive option is to go with an esteemed family wine grower from top villages in the Cote D'or (e.g., Henri Boillot, Hubert Lignier, Anne Gros) who declassify more expensive wines or dedicate younger vines or peripheral plots to their Bourgogne Rouge. These now go for ~$50.  

On the other end are negoce brands like Drouhin, Louis Latour, Faiveley, who bottle what ever they can scrape together and sell at a comparable value, which now is roughly $30.

And finally you have small grower producers who emerge from the crowded landscape with a wine that overdelivers and justifies bringing to our shores. That's a lot of work to be sure, and very few can do it.  But when they do, the result is worth celebrating. 

Such is the case for our Bourgogne Rouge direct import, Domaine Chapuis.  You're getting single vineyard, old-vine Bourgogne  organically farmed by a small family winery, with zero Instagram, zero Facebook, zero brand markup.  The wine simply crushes others in its price range.

Domaine Chapuis’ Bourgogne comes a hillside in Mancey, the named lieu-dit ‘Les Cras’, with an average vine age approaching 40 years. The soils are a mix of limestone and clay similar to what you’ll find in more famous locations. It is second generation family organically farmed with minimal tilling and no insecticides. The resulting wine is treated simply in the cellar with 25% oak (5% new) with the remaining wine resting in stainless tanks to preserve its fresh fruit. The wine is aged for a year and then bottled and released. 

What you get is a wine with juicy red fruit, a nice earthy undertone and beautiful limestone minerality all for a BTG glass pour price. It’s a wine about enjoying what it is that makes Burgundy Pinot Noir such a delight to drink, an activity you can now do several times a week.