The Boston Phoenix
October 1 - 8, 1998

[Uncorked]

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Starting out on Burgundy

Is this the year to get into the world's priciest wine?

Uncorked by David Marglin

"I started out on burgundy / But soon hit the harder stuff"

-- Bob Dylan, "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues"

Sometimes wine is more than just a beverage: it's personal, like a smell, or a memory, or a laugh. I first got serious about wine because of two ancient bottles dredged up from my grandma's cellar. It was 1985, and they were Burgundies -- a 1962 Chambolle-Musigny and a 1964 Gevrey-Chambertin. From the first sip, I was completely seduced. My mouth yielded to the exotic perfumes and subtle flavors; each sip offered new combinations of delight. "Wine" had a whole new meaning to me. I was in love.

Many dedicated wine drinkers share this ardor. Few wines are as nuanced and delicate as mature Burgundy. Young Burgundy is also good, especially if you open the bottle a day before you want to drink it, or pair it with sharp cheese to take the edge off the tannins. But affordable young Burgundies can be hard to find. The past few years have seen very limited harvests -- indeed, part of the magic of red Burgundy is the fact that every year it is a struggle with the elements to get the crop in.

In a good year, when there's plenty of mature fruit and little mold or rot, the demand for these wines is unbelievable. The entry point for a good bottle is around $40, and it goes up from there. (The issue price for the best Burgundies, like Domaine de la Romanée-Conti or those made by Domaine Leroy, can be $600 or more per bottle!) Needless to say, few of us can afford to drink much great Burgundy. Whether young or old, at every quality level these are usually exceptionally pricey wines.

The latest vintage may change that. The Wine Spectator, that oh-so-influential wine 'zine, recently lauded the 1996 vintage as the best since 1990 (which, in my opinion, is the best vintage of recent years), and I completely agree. Although the yields were incredibly high, the wines have a lot of acid and structure, meaning it is likely they will keep drinking well right into their teens. (Often, when the yields are higher, the fruit will be proportionally less intense.) So wines are being released that are affordable and quite peppy now but have plenty of staying power.

At last there are values to be had in them there Burgundian hills, especially in the Côte d'Or -- the Gold Coast -- which is the heart of Burgundy. Burgundies have been informally ranked over time, but there are also official rankings for certain vineyards. The best wines, called "grands crus," are grown on tiny plots of bare hillside where, as in much of the region, wine has been made for more than a thousand years. These wines range from $60 to $600 upon release. Then come the "premiers crus," usually from slightly larger plots; the prices will be, in a good year such as 1996, upward of $30. Then come the "village" wines, made from grapes grown in a particular village where quality is often a function of the winemaker's skill. (My beloved '62 and '64 Burgundies were such village wines.)

Finally there is the catchall designation "Bourgogne," wine made from a mixture of pinot noir grapes grown in the Burgundy region. It is these last wines that, while merely inoffensive in most years, are actually exciting in 1996. While I still prefer American pinot noirs to these collage Burgundies, I have to admit that, for less than $20 a bottle, you can set yourself up pretty nicely. Any of the wines listed below will perk up your fall foliage experience.


After my last column, about the state's wine importing laws, I got a call from a company I mentioned, Vintage Imports, that felt unfairly singled out as a villain in the Massachusetts wine trade. My point in that column was not to criticize Vintage -- in fact, I think Vintage is probably one of the best importing companies in the country, and has done a lot for wine drinkers in Massachusetts. I was using them as an example of how Massachusetts wine law, which I consider unfair, allows importers to restrict the availability of certain wines.

My caller also pointed out one factual mistake: I reported that Sean Thackrey's wine Pleiades VII was available at one venue -- Biba. The representative for Vintage listed three stores where Pleiades VII is now available. We called the stores and found the wine at Marty's Liquors, in Newton.

To be clear about it, my main complaint in that column was not with the importers, but with the law. The state's "three-tiered" system, with its reliance on middlemen, does keep prices artificially high and cause a lot of mediocre wine to end up in stores and restaurants and wine bars. It also allows importers to limit availability for a variety of reasons, including limited allotments from the wineries and strategic business decisions. Vintage's policies are sound business practices within the current system. But until the system changes, our wine market won't be free -- whether people want me to talk about it or not.

**1/2 Domaine Jean-Marc Bouley Bourgogne 1996 (Hi-Rise Bread Company, Cambridge, $14.99). Awesome fruit, almost New World in character. Light cherry and strawberry, with young Burgundian bite.

** Chambolle-Musigny Cuvée Unique Vielle Vignes Reserve Domaine Arlaud 1996 (Marty's Liquors, $29.99). A keeper from the Côte d'Or. Big, perhaps too potent. Let it breathe for a day or hold it. Musky, funky, almost fizzy. Great potential.

**1/2 Domaine Robert Arnoux Bourgogne 1996 (Brookline Liquor Mart and Marty's Liquors, $17.99). Sharp, snappy, almost rough at first blush, but it got round and warm after time. Plenty of silky tannins will come into their own, and after a day of air, this became a smooth and immediately enjoyable luscious wine. Or hold it, as you like. And you will.

*** Savigny-Lès-Beaune Les Lavières Claude Marechal 1996 (Wine and Cheese Cask, $24.99). Another from the Côte d'Or. Bright, ripe (perhaps too ripe), with lots of berries and some yellow fruit like gooseberries. Beginnings of mushrooms. This will be better in six months to a year. You gotta believe. It will blossom.

David Marglin can be reached at wine[a]phx.com.


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