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Smith and Evans's avatar

Allegedly what Avery's used to do was to add a bottle or two of vintage (of course) port to every barrel of Burgundy to beef it up. Being a born and bred Bristolian I have drunk quite a few of their bottlings from the 1960s and 70s and can well believe it. They were soupy farmyardy and bretty.

I enjoyed them and actually rather miss them.

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Robert Cripps's avatar

Our first vintage in the Languedoc, 1994, we attempted to make a VDP wine that would please our burgundy-phile palates from what raw materials we had. We found a blend of approximately 60% Merlot, 25-30% Carignan and 10-15% Cinsault had the freshness (from Carignan) and elegance (from the Cinsault) to balance the strength and ripeness of the Merlot.

But we didn't have the finances (and courage) to bottle the whole cuvée and we sold off most of it in bulk. When we were loading the tanker I noticed that the delivery address was in Aloxe Corton. In 1994 there were only 2 negotiants in Aloxe Corton and both made exclusively "Grand Vin de Bourgogne".

I'd like to think that Don Hewittson would have been happy with their 1994s.

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