Recovery is good, but I don't think most of us need a whole winter of recovery. If you're feeling burned out from the season, just take a week or two off (or LSD) and I bet you'll be plenty recovered (physically, at least, but mental recovery times will vary).

After the week(s) off, take it slow for a while, and then get back to business. I think the best approach is to do a little bit of everything all year round- do some intervals and some long slow rides all in the same week. Any time you only do intervals or only do distance, the other area will suffer (I learned that from experience this year).

It's probably different for everyone, though. I'm naturally good at distance and bad with anaerobic stuff, and if I don't keep up with intervals I lose everything very quickly and it takes me a while to get back to form. During the winter I do just enough to keep my aerobic base and do more focusing on muscle strength and anaerobic improvement. Once it's warm and I'm back to riding a lot the aerobic stuff just comes naturally.