2010 Morgon Charmes

Burgaud’s 2010 Morgon Les Charmes is tartly red-fruited but also more astringent than its Regnie or Cote de Py counterparts in the present collection, engendering a bit of gum-numbing along with its berry seed crunchiness and cherry pit piquancy. Suggestions of charred meat and smoky black tea add dark shading to this cuvee’s sappy concentration. Given its recent bottling, I am prepared to believe that the accentuated astringency might be temporary and that it will ultimately offer several years of unalloyed enjoyment. In Jean-Marc Burgaud’s absence, his father guided me through this estate’s 2010s, including a pre-assemblage of those cuvees that had not yet been bottled at the time of my visit, and an opportunity to further sample individual barrels. (For more about Burgaud’s sites, methods, and exceptional talents, consult my report in issue 190.) From among Burgaud’s 2009s, I have re-tasted stateside the Beaujolais-Villages, Regnie, and Morgon Cote de Py, all of which continue to enormously impress, the last-named easily justifying the upper end of my issue 190 projection. Unfortunately, press of time and circumstance has thus far precluded my revisiting Burgaud’s three limited special bottlings of 2009 Cote de Py. A Thomas Calder Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29; also imported by Ideal Wine and Spirits, Medford, MA; tel. (781) 395-3300 and Langdon Shiverick, Los Angeles, CA; tel. (213) 483-5900