Saint-Aubin 2005, Louis Jadot
13th July 2008
By general consent 2005 was one of the greatest Burgundy vintages. Some are calling it the greatest ever. The richness, complexity and sheer majesty of these wines have been praised universally, even by those normally sceptical about Old World vino. The result, inevitably, has been record prices. Good Burgundy was never cheap, but the 2005 top growths now fetch the same as vintage Champagne.
Billionaires will doubtless be very happy. So too will professional wine critics, whose job lets them drink the very best. That just leaves the remaining 99.99999% of us. Our acquaintance with the better-known 2005 Burgundies will be confined to a wistful stare in our wine merchant’s, followed by a vicious gasp as our gaze settles on the price sticker.
The only solutions I can offer are (A) to sell all you have, buy as many cases as possible of the 2005 Romanée-Conti wines and drink yourself to death on them or (B) to forget the well-known labels and seek out the obscure ones. (B) seems the more practical option. As I have pointed out before, there are bargains to be had among the lesser-known Burgundies. Few are as poorly known and such good value as this week’s offering.
The village of Saint-Aubin is tucked behind Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet. Each year it produces about 6800 hectolitres of wine, two thirds of which are white. And the white is very, very good, resembling a more straightforward version of Puligny-Montrachet, or a Chassagne-Montrachet. (If you don’t know what a Montrachet tastes like, then your life has been sadly deficient, and I urge you to put matters right at once. But not necessarily with the 2005 vintage.)
Jadot’s Saint-Aubin is pale gold, with a nose of pears and honey and a succulent, butterscotch flavour. With any other vintage I would have called its price tag - $24 in the US, £13 in the UK – astonishing value. For the 2005 it is better described as miraculous. I realise this is not an easy wine to track down, but the internet has made searching much easier, and this one more than repays the effort.
