HK Butler's Partners
HK Butler sources Burgundy wines from under-the-radar French domaines with whom we had fostered long and well established relationships with over the years. We cater to everyone who has a palette for Burgundy and that are looking to seek for extraordinary quality whilst delivering exceptional value.
Our wine connoisseurs touched ground to Hong Kong from Burgundy over the past couple of years and decided to share our love of Burgundy wine in Hong Kong. We are a dedicated team to bring Burgundy wines to your door. We understand your desire for Burgundy and is capable sourcing directly from the Domains more than anyone else.
Burgundy: Land of wine
Here is for the wine lover the most fascinating but also the most irritating vineyard of France and probably of the world. Nowhere else does the mysterious alchemy that develops between grape variety, terroir, climate and human intervention express itself with such nuance and produce wines that are more emotionally charged.
This emotion goes far beyond the flavor of the product, however exceptional it may be. And God knows that the greatest Burgundies can touch the sublime in this domain! It takes charge of the expectation inspired by names charged with history and creators of dreams; it transforms any consumer of good will into an artist; it feeds especially on the extreme irregularity of quality so much reproached to the region or to the nature, in fact due only to the human factor!
A quick overview
The best Burgundian winegrowers know today and almost every year how to produce on the most prestigious as well as on the most modest exhibitions a wine with high expression. Unfortunately, they are not alone. Innumerable combinations due to history, technique, and especially morality, have multiplied the number of producers unworthy of the heritage they are in charge of. Laziness, self-satisfaction, the lure of easy money, the lack of honesty itself are at least as dangerous here as lack of culture or lack of skill.
The vineyards of Greater Burgundy cover four departments from the Auxerrois to the outskirts of Lyon and offer a wide variety of wines of all styles and prices. The history and the nature of the soils have so individualized small productions that they have led the legislator to multiply the appellations of controlled origin to preserve these differences and to make them understood by the public. This multiplication of appellations, far from being a commercial obstacle, as was believed in the 1960s and 1970s, is increasingly perceived as a sign of authenticity that requires the consumer to learn more about the product as it increases his pleasure.
Since the clearing of the forests by the Romans and the monks, dozens of generations of producers have slowly selected Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines.
The two most admired grape varieties in the world and which, especially for the first one, have known on these lands a perfect adaptation to the soil and the climate. They have also slowly perfected the style of the wines through appropriate vinification, in barrels for the whites, in small vats with punching down for the reds, thus exalting the incomparable aromatic finesse of the grapes of these two varieties thanks to a natural control of the fermentation times and temperatures. It was thought that these restrictive methods could be dispensed with and that, thanks to technical progress, simpler solutions could be found. The obvious failure of these methods has made the local elite of the new generation return to the tradition. And everywhere in France (even in Bordeaux), Burgundian empiricism is the basis for the renewal of quality.
The best Burgundy wines open up a little faster than Bordeaux wines, generally between five and twelve years for the reds and between three and ten years for the whites. They can, however, age admirably in the best balanced vintages, retaining for thirty years or more, and better than anywhere else in the world, the silkiness of their texture and the fullness of their bouquet without the tannin drying them out. Some 1928s, 1949s or 1959s are still marvels and should give pause to some foreign opinion leaders and to many French wine lovers who prefer Burgundies in their prime. They are indeed more sensitive to the expression of the grape variety than to the terroir, and this is a great danger for the future of Burgundy. With the improvement of taste and techniques, it will be possible, all over the world, to make "great" Pinot Noirs or Chardonnays by exaggerating the varietal qualities in order to flatter consumers without culture. One will never reproduce true Chambertin or Richebourg and even at a less exalted level true Maranges or Givry which obviously require a completely different level of understanding but which alone will ensure the region's continued influence.