Worldbeat

Wines & Vines, Dec, 2000 by Larry Walker

I have heard it said that you need to spend $500 for a good bottle of Burgundy. That's $450 for nine bottles that you had to pour into the vinegar barrel and $50 for the one good one.

That has not really been true for several years, as Burgundian producers have become more reliable, but there has been some controversy over the 1998 vintage, so ever in search of the facts for Wines & Vines readers, I went to two tastings of the '98s in San Francisco recently. (See the WineBar at winesandvines.com for more on the 1998 Burgundies.)

Concluded that although some critics have written the vintage off, they were a little early. We cornered Terry Owyang of Southern Wine & Spirits at a tasting of Burgundies brought in by Newcastle Imports of Brooklyn for his estimation of the vintage. Owyang, after giving it some thought, e-mailed the following report, which he pointed out was based on a limited amount of tasting:

"I find the whites to be good to very good, not quite as well structured as the higher acid '96s or the surprisingly good '97s. The Meursaults are very good, but in comparison to the '96s, I don't feel they will be as long lived. Nevertheless, they're charming wines that can be enjoyed early and for the next three to five years.

"The reds are also chambering wines that will be easy to drink in their youth. I find the wines very fruit forward, concentrated. I find the grands crus slightly less structured than the blockbuster years of '96 or '95, but the wines are very enjoyable in their youth with very good aging potential. They don't have the 'raisin' quality of the '94s."

Jerome Hasenpflug of Newcastle believes that the vintage, overall is "decent." Hasenpflug said, "Nature--hail, mildew, odium--conspired with the best growers to limit yields and produce wines of considerable depth and style. Both whites and reds out of barrel exhibited more depth of fruit and concentration, a better acid/fruit balance and more definition than the 1997s in barrel. If the grower bottled early to preserve that fruit/acid/tannin balance, they were generally fairly successful."

Prices for the 1998s were up in the range of 10% in France because of a small crop, but the strength of the dollar has helped offset that increase in the U.S. market, where the wines are showing good success in restaurants, according to Hasenpflug.

"Overall the 1998 Burgundies offer very fine price-quality rapport, especially when compared to the much-hyped 1998 Oregon Pinots and other offerings from Sonoma or Carneros, especially some recent Chardonnay releases," Hasenpflug said, a statement not likely to endear him to Oregon and California producers.

I followed up the Newcastle event with an even more impressive tasting of the 1998s from Diamond Wine Merchants, held at Hayes & Vine, the cozy San Francisco wine bar. Some three dozen wines were poured. In my estimation, the wines from Nicolas Potel stole the show, especially a Volnay Premiere Cru from Pitures, closely followed by an old vine (vielles vignes) Volnay and a Sateny Premiere Cm from Beauregard. The Potel Savigny Les Beaune seemed a particularly good value-for-money wine at $188 a case wholesale. It would work very well as a wine-by-the glass.

Along the same lines, the Domaine Jacques Germain Bourgogne Rouge at $144 and the Chorey Les Beaune at $198, the Domaine Coste Caumartin at $156 and a really lovely Hubert Lamy St. Aubin Premiere Cru from Les Castets, would nicely round Out a selection of Burgundy-by-the-glass. And you might want to add two premiere crus from Domaine Suremain, the Rully Blanc and the Rully Preaux.