2009 Vintage: France -Burgundy Reds

The trickiest appellation of France to understand has had a solid "A" vintage in almost all red wine regions. To boot, they will be relatively accessible as young wines. Acids are a little firmer in the North (Marsannay, Fixin, Gevrey-Chambertin) but tannins are sweet and ripe as close to uniformly as you will see in Burgundy. At times in ripe years, like 2009, Nuits Saint Georges can be overly broad and run to fat, but what I tasted had good balance and structure to go with the sunny fruit.

Côtes de Beaune reds were ripe and balanced as well-with big strengths in the South in Pommard and Volnay. Aloxe Corton may have a good quality price ratio in particular this year. Savigny-lès-Beaune runs very true to terroirs for personality as the wines are quite vivid.

Côte Chalonnaise reds are super rich and will require more time than usual in the cellar before drinking.

The Beaujolais has had a historically important vintage. The last year to produce grapes of this quality was 1976 and the wine-making and hygienic standards are much stronger today (in general). I've never tasted such crus, nothing close. The best wines will be attractive and very interesting wines to cellar. Fleurie, Moulin-a-Vent, Régnié, Morgon and the Côte de Brouilly produced the most age-worthy wines.