Young Vigneron's trophy, 2021 – the first wave of judging…

I was tasting a bunch of 19s this morning – single-blind as I knew the vintage and AOC. What was clear to me from 8 whites was that none of the aromas sung – one nearly – and that was one of the fresher wines. Essentially, this freshness was the ‘missing’ in this selection of modest crus…

A single crémant interlude – which tasted more like cider – heralded 9 reds for me.

The reds – there were 9 – where not ambitiously oaked for Bourgognes(!) – began with a bit more definition – certainly not all were deeply coloured, indeed this selection had more airy and open wines than dense, deeply coloured samples.

From these 17 samples of still wines, I had a preference for the reds today – only a small sample though…