Medium, medium-pale colour. Forward, friendly strawberry, no bubblegum, and with a slight grassy/herbal backdrop. Decently smooth texture, a sweet-sour fruit impression with acidity that whisks you along just fast enough to avoid you contemplating the sour! Actually the sour is not so bad – let’s call it a talking point. No impression of ‘thin’, also no impression of tannin. Some length, this is actually quite drinkable. It’s not as good as the 2005 or 2006, less beaujolais-esque than the 2005, it’s somehow, almost redolent of proper burgundy…

Amply demonstrating the challenge that vignerons faced with this vintage, in 2002 Bichot were able to produce 10,000 cases of this wine – for the same quality in 2004 only 2,000 could be made. Fresh, bright cherry nose – almost a Ribena aspect. Sweet and clean it nicely fills the mouth. A little grainy tannin, but a very well-crafted Bourgogne.

In this case VV indicating vines older than 20 years, it’s the first year for this cuvée. Very cheap looking cork – but smells sweet enough. Medium-pale cherry-red. The nose starts very green – like a early-malo wine – all green pea rather than a lack of ripeness. Slowly the shade turns more red, never quite losing that green edge though. The palate is quite clean, some sweetness, nice acidity and a perceptible dryness to the medium tannins – they are quite fine tannins though. While it is possible to find better Bourgognes, at it’s price-point (~6&#8364, ) it’s stunning value and a little more ‘classic’ than the 2003’s that follow.