1999 Burgundy Vintage, 22 Years On

15 September 2021
Author: Jeannie Cho Lee

 

I have been fortunate during this pandemic to enjoy numerous Burgundy red wines from the 1999 vintage. I started to notice that many wine friends were generously opening up their 1999s and rightly so, since this vintage is at its glorious peak right now. Some of the highlights included the 1999 Domaine Meo-Camuzet’s Richebourg, which took my breath away – its aroma, delicate yet persistent with layers of complex flavors and an incredibly long finish! The DRC Echezeaux was also divine – a wine that is simply poetic at this moment in time, both energetic and harmonious with amazing confidence and intensity. The Romanee-Saint-Vivant from Domaine Sylvain Cathiard is beautiful in its elegance, grace and intensity on the finish while their Malconsort is intense and more muscular in comparison.

 

After tasting numerous top Burgundy wines from 1999 over the past 12 months, I realized that what this vintage has in common is its expressiveness and that these wines are at their peak now. It is like watching a top athlete at the height of her/his career, or a musician in top form sharing the best performance of their lives. So far, I have yet to find a bottle from this vintage that I found really disappointing.

 

The 1999 vintage was a generous crop (making producers happy) with a warm summer and good harvest conditions in September leading to excellent wines. There were some cases of light or dilute wines, but these are exceptions and by now would have been consumed rather than cellared. If you have any 1999 Burgundies from leading producers, enjoy them now with your close friends and family – they will remember the wine and be very grateful.

 

Over 60 tasting notes and ratings for 1999 Burgundy wines can be found here.