Spring is the season for lighter styles of wine that refresh as you bask in the early evening sunshine. When we move towards high summer, I can imagine turning to slightly fuller styles of wine, though to be drunk out of the full glare of the sun and the heat of the day. Most importantly, drink what you want when you want it. This article is a rough guide to which white Burgundy vintages seem to me to be in a good place to drink this year. 

2023

The lesser appellations have been delicious to drink as soon as they arrived in the market, which mostly they have. It is such an exuberant vintage, plump rather than chiselled but not overly heated. I don’t think the 2023s are going to close down and while they should last quite well, their joy is available from the outset. I have just done and will publish shortly a tasting of 55 Bourgogne Aligotés from 2023 and there are many accessible gems among them. 

2022

2021

Drink all but the best as soon as you want. I will have a clearer view on exactly how ready the grander 2021s are after this year’s White Burgfest which takes place in late May. 

2020

2019

The middle vintage of the three hot dry years has a different character to its neighbours, in that the harvest was later and the wines are a little lusher, but with balance. They are drinking very well now at all levels, more succulent than exotically flamboyant. The style may be more for high summer than early spring, though.

2018

I am a little more positive about this vintage than many, and lesser wines will be good to drink now. I believe that there remains an upside in keeping the grander appellations which are slowly gaining in personality. 

2017

Definitely a go-to vintage, more or less across the board. Any that you might see in a restaurant these days can be pounced on with the expectation of enjoyment. Most, even at the upper end, are close to brining full enjoyment, so I do not se a need to hold back on this vintage, given that there are several other great White Burgundy vintages waiting to follow on. 

2016

I was lukewarm about this vintage when it first emerged, largely because I felt that too many wines were imperfectly balanced by the after effects of the frost. It seemed risky to me to invest in 2016 for laying down, but as it happens, a few have come my way recently which I have enjoyed. But think about drinking them up. 

2015

2014

Sometimes we have a slight preference for the reds over the whites or the whites over the reds in a given year, but rarely is it so marked as in 2014, a vintage which seems to have suited the whites down to the ground. Their stricter acidity which has kept the wines young and fresh for so long is beginning to relent now – so it is safe to start taking a look at mid and upper range 2014 whites, but don’t be in any hurry to finish up your stocks. I am still sitting on mine. 

Older Vintages

At this stage, it is a question of being confident of provenance and storage. In a restaurant you would need the assurance of the sommelier, plus the reassurance that they would take back a faulty bottle.

If you have owned the wine yourself, with good storage conditions, then there are still plenty of great wines to enjoy. The vintages that appeal to me most are 2012, a small crop after hail but still bright, 2010 in a more exotic style thanks to traces of near-noble rot, 2009 which is one of the more powerful vintages but glorious from those who picked early enough. Otherwise, most wines from pre-2014 vintages were probably better earlier than they would be today, though I did have a very enjoyable, fully mature, Meursault Clos de la Barre 2004 from Domaine des Comtes Lafon recently, and even a Bâtard-Montrachet 1957 from Louis Poirier, kept in place by what must surely have been enamel stripping acidity in its youth.