“What has been produced is rather magical.”

Tasting En Primeur is always a slightly odd experience; you arrive in Burgundy shortly after harvest, but rather than talking about the vintage they have just brought into the cellars, you are discussing nearly finished wines from grapes picked the year prior.

Or at least that is what usually happens! When we arrived in Burgundy to taste the 2020 vintage, everyone wanted to talk about 2021.

The usual En Primeur trip was pushed back as the harvest in 2021 was late, having had no significant heat spikes during the summer to speed up ripening. Although the second half of the year was largely uneventful for the vines and the harvest itself was a dream, the year began with unusually mild weather in March and early bud break on Chardonnay, followed by devastating frost at the beginning of April. This generation of growers have never seen such conditions, and neither have their parents and grandparents.

In some villages, like Meursault, the frost meant losses of up to 90%. In Chassagne Montrachet, Fontaine-Gagnard has made just one barrel of La Romanée, despite collectively battling the frost as a village. Jean-Louis Chavy, a producer whose wines we always enjoy tasting and offering En Primeur, is noticeably absent from the brochure this year as they suffered a 70% loss across the entire Domaine.

So, when Burgundy says, “there is no wine,” this is not a smoke and mirrors attempt to drive up pricing; it is a stark reminder of the perils of climate change and the extreme environment in which this young generation of winemakers find themselves today.

Luckily, every cloud has a silver lining, and what has been produced is rather magical. 2021 is one of the most classically styled Burgundy vintages in twenty years, a relief for Burgundy purists and a welcome point of difference for anyone who has been collecting in recent years. The Pinots are fresh and pure, with breath-taking highs, and the Chardonnays are electrifying, with verve and acidity that will see them age comfortably into the next decade and beyond.

You will want 2021 Burgundy in your cellar; these wines will become benchmarks for what the most diligent winemakers can achieve in a vintage that threw up plenty of challenges. The little wine that our growers made is glorious in both colours and will provide immense drinking pleasure for years to come.