Advise required on serving 2002, 03 and 04 Burgundies

I will be having a party this week and will be opening up a number of 2002, 2003 ad 2004 burgundies. I'm looking for some advice. Most of the burgs will be 1er crus and villiage level wines. I would love to have some advice on whether to decant them and how long they should be decanted for.

I would appreciate your experiences on these.

IMO you're most likely committing infanticide. I'm just opening my 1997 and 1998 villages and premiers crus Burgundies.

So yes, definitely decant these wines, to let them get as much oxygen as possible.

I think you may be opening them before the optimal time. Which isn't to say they won't be enjoyable. Especially if you enjoy younger pinot noir as opposed to older (I am a proud wine necrophile!).

Serve with some food, too. They'll show better.

Salut,

-Paul W.

Yes, these Burgundies might be on the young side, that's for sure. But I myself actually quite enjoy the nice acidity, freshness and seductive fruityness of a young Burgundy. I never do a proper decanting of Pinot. While I agree that it helps the palate to show it's fruit, I think it kills the ethereal qualities and delicacy of the nose. I prefer to open the bottle a day in advance, pour out a few centiliters to enlarge the surface, and let the wine stand with the cork in it. This both preserves the nose and gives the palate a little weight. But then again, I know plenty of people that decants their Burgundies, this is just my way of doing it.

Holger,

I usually decant younger Burgs for a couple of hours. That seems to be enough time to allow them to open up without killing the subtlety. I do agree with Paul that these Burgs are probably too young to have come into their own, even at the Village Cru level.

The '02 and '04 vintages will most likely require several hours in a decanter. The '03s--well, it depends. I've tasted several lighter-styled '03 wines from Savigny, Haut Cotes de Beaune, Fixin, and Marsannay that in my opinion are now fully developed.

Many thanks! This helps much. I agree that this is infanticide and I was worried that the '02s might be too deep in sleep to even get at them, but we are having a bit of a bit of a session on young burgs so pop goes the cork