I was most interested to read in Decanter the discovery by my old friend Clive Coates, that certain vintages of white burgundy in the late 1990s , especially '96,'97 and '98, were becoming prematurely oxidized. I had noticed this most irritating occurrence in a number of bottles from some of the greatest and most immaculate makers, and had put it down to the normal causes, bad storage or movement in the boot of a car on a warm day at some stage, or perhaps some neon light (gout de lumiere) had got to the bottles somewhere. In my cases the corks all looked perfect, but I understand from Clive's tasting that he and the various owner/winemakers have put the problem down to a bad series of corks, which have not provided a perfect seal. Interestingly the top Chablis producer Raveneau, who always seals his corks with a thick layer of yellow wax has not had any problem.
It is certainly my experience that where bottles have the extra precaution of a waxed seal the wine is most generally much better preserved and often younger and fresher tasting as a result. I have particularly noticed this with Vintage Port. I have always been a great supporter of the Stelvyn screw cap now so widely used in New Zealand and Australia for young white wines, and increasingly for junior wines around the world. Perhaps this further nail in the coffin of the cork industry, who always professed that their most expensive best corks, used by all the Burgundians, are taint free and airtight, will lead this the most conservative of wine regions to trial some screw caps? Perhaps they are already? I know it might seem sacrilege to serve a bottle of Montrachet or Corton Charlemagne with a screw cap, and it maybe a bit of a knee jerk reaction, but when you end up putting two or three bottles costing well over a hundred pounds each down the sink, isn't that even worse sacrilege? I think if I was young Dominique Lafon, or Jean Charles Le Bault de la Moriniere at Bonneau du Martray, I would follow Raveneau and put a heavy wax over the cork, and get my cork supplier who supplied the duff corks to pay for the waxing equipment. These wines deserve to be kept in perfect condition for several years, and the wax seal is a small part of the cost of a great white Burgundy. The oldest white Burgundy I have ever tasted was a Montrachet from Marquis de Laguiche, 1929 vintage,- still some freshness there, amber colour, and wonderful depth of concentrated and complex flavours. The bottle was given at a dinner by the charming wine merchant Roy Richards, and Clive was also there, but Clive may have tasted older and better, but I doubt it. I remember this bottle had a very heavy old lead capsule. As the saying goes, and I'm not sure if it just applies to ones head on a sunny day, but try to "always keep it covered." Christopher Burr M.W. February '07
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