Photograph: Jason Lowe

Our Burgundy offer was put to bed before Christmas – with just a few last-minute decisions left to make and tardy allocations to chase up – but otherwise the extensive tasting and note-writing work was done and dusted, allowing welcome respite over the holidays.

Of course, it’s back to business now, and full-steam ahead as the 2014 wines are out of the gate. No two campaigns work out in the same way, any more than any two vintages resemble each other too closely. Market conditions can be as sunny or as stormy as the weather.

As for the wines themselves: I loved tasting the 2014 reds. They have fruit and charm, and that sense of transparency that Pinot lovers adore. They are not massively dense, structured wines such as 2005 or in all probability 2015 can offer, so 2014 will not be characterised officially as a ‘great’ vintage. But there are plenty of wines to fall in love with and the vintage will be rated superior to 2007, 2008 and 2011 and maybe 2013 (such a different style) in recent years.

The white wines are the most consistently fine for a generation. I am also hesitant to use the descriptor ‘great’ here, because I don’t want the image to be of massively rich, concentrated wines. They are pure and fresh, balanced and beautiful. And this holds true for the whole of the region and at every price point. No need to ask for much more than that!

The unqualified good news is that virtually every wine is cheaper than last year and even more so than for the 2012s, thanks to beneficial exchange rates. Now my job is to persuade the producers to start coming down in euros as well.

Explore Burgundy 2014 en primeur on bbr.com.