How to buy older burgundy

(JancisRobinson) - So, it seems that the fine wine buyers of the world are not too interested in the latest vintage of bordeaux. The 2011 Bordeaux primeurs campaign is one of the most sluggish so far. So how about something entirely different? Not Bordeaux at the beginning of its long life but fine burgundy at the end of its majestic, if often unpredictable, graph of maturity. Whereas most bordeaux is made in relatively vast quantities - there can be as many as 700 barrels of Château Lafite and more than 800 of Château Pontet-Canet in a good vintage - anyone who has visited a typical Burgundian domaine will know that cellars here may be counting their total number of barrels in dozens with, sometimes, just one or two barrels of a particular wine. Partly because of this, the secondary market for burgundy is effectively confined to a handful of famous names that sell at jaw-dropping prices. It is extremely difficult for us mere mortals to get their hands on mature burgundy unless we bought the wine young and did the maturing ourselves.

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