Jancis Robinson, in her article in the Financial Times on 2010 Burgundy, picked out some producers dear to our hearts, in particular Daniel Barraud, whose remarkable wines from his vineyards in Vergisson continue to thrill – (see previous post about Steven Spurrier‘s best wines of 2010), and Jean-Marc Boillot, particularly for his very reasonably-priced Montagny, but do note that we can also still offer a wide range of his Pulignys right up to Batard Montrachet.
At the end of the article was a small list of ten producers ‘Jancis’ picks’, ‘who seemed to perform particularly well in 2010’, and singled out the Domaine Fernand and Laurent Pillot.
We have long been big fans of Laurent Pillot, whose wines represent particularly good value, and age well despite being attractively juicy when young. Laurent’s dynamism has made huge improvements here over the last decade and the wines really are better than ever. Not content simply to make wine, Laurent conducts the Chassagne brass band, keeps and hunts hawks, and flies a particularly sophisticated microlight all over France – on my last visit he was showing me how he does his flight plans on an iPad app.
Laurent’s 1992 Grandes Ruchottes came top of a tasting of wines of that vintage, ahead of some supposedly much ‘grander’ domaines, and his 2002 Pommard Rugiens surprised many to become the wine with the highest mark in a tasting for Bourgogne Aujourd’hui – Nicolas Rossignol, who was one of the tasters, remarked to me this year ‘un vin qui m’a bien bluffé’.