Fri 25 Jan 2008
These email messages arrived within about six minutes of each other, the first from the Burgundy division of Sopexa USA (the French trade group) based in New York, announcing its fourth annual “Burgundy Best Buys”; and the second from the estimable 
Burgundy Wine Company, also in New York (and from which on occasion I have purchased wine), trumpeting the triumphant return of Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru in the superb 2005 vintage.
One understands Sopexa’s efforts to promote affordable products from Burgundy, a small, hallowed region whose tiny, segmented vineyards yield minuscule amounts of some of the world’s greatest and most expensive wines made from chardonnay and pinot noir grapes. The names of those vineyards, particularly the prestigious Grand Crus, are spoken with respect and reverence, and the wines that issue from them are not for the likes of ordinary pocketbooks like mine and (I guess) yours. The 20 wines on the new “Burgundy Best Buys” list (which I will reproduce in full below) range in price from about $16 to $35, depending in what part of the country you live, and would provide a great deal of versatility and pleasure in your household. Are these the best, the highest level of examples of Burgundy? Well, no, but judging from the labels and producers that I have tried the wines are well-made, satisfying, delicious and authentic. And they don’t cost $185 a bottle, which is what Burgundy Wine Company is charging for Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru 2005.
Burgundy Wine Company’s newsletter welcomes Clos des Lambrays 2005 to the fold with the joy which which the father greeted the return of the Prodigal Son: “And so it’s back!” Indeed, this has been a troubled domaine (Domaine des Lambrays) and a troubled vineyard. The property had fallen considerably in repute from the end of the 1940s through the 1970s, under the Cosson family, and it was purchased in 1979 by a group led by the Saier family, who worked hard and managed, in a rare instance of a change in the Burgundy classification system, to have Clos des Lambrays elevated to Grand Cru status. Still, neither the vineyard nor the wine made from it earned much respect from critics, and when I visited the domaine in March 1990, the Saier brothers seemed subdued and defensive. It was, I’ll admit, a chilly, gloomy day. In the mid 1990s, the estate again changed hand; the owners now are Gunther and Ruth Freund.
Burgundy Wine Company has — or had, yesterday — eight cases of Clos des Lambrays 2005. Purchasers of a case will receive (or would have received) a 10 percent discount, bringing the price per bottle to $166.50, thus a case being $1,998.
On the other hand, for the price of one bottle of Clos des Lambrays 2005, you could buy seven or eight bottles of wine from the “Burgundy Best Buys 2008″ roster; altogether, the 20 wines would cost — again depending on geography and availability — $529. What fun!
Now I understand clearly the the world operates strictly, and always has, on the principle of “You pays yer money and you takes yer choice.” So be it, right? You got the time, you got the dime, you get to finish the rhyme.
But I can’t help thinking that in a world that is drastically different economically than it was six months ago, when housing foreclosures are sky-high, and the stock markets in the United States are tanking and taking the rest of the world’s markets with them and my 401(k) is going down faster than a $10 hooker in the back seat of a Coupe de Ville, as I say, I can’t help thinking that it’s unseemly for Burgundy Wine Company to crow quite so gleefully and giddily about the “return” of a wine that costs $185 a bottle or $1,998 a case with your discount.
I mean, talk about bad timing.
Here are the 2008 “Burgundy Best Buys” from Sopexa.
Whites
1.Cremant de Bourgogne 2004, Dufouleur Pere et Fils. $16.
2. Bourgogne Chardonnay 2005. Maison Louis Jadot. $17.
3. Chablis 2006, Domaine Christian Moreau Pere et Fils. $23
4. Pouilly-Fuisse 2006, Laboure Roi. $18.
5. Bourgogne Chardonnay 2006, Domaine Pernot et ses Fils. $30.
6. Vire Clesse Vieilles Vignes 2006, Domaine des Chazelles. $30
7. Saint-Aubin 1er Cru “Le Sentier du Clou” 2006, Domaine Sylvain Langoureau. $35.
8. Mercurey (blanc) 2005, Chateau de Chamirey. $34.
9. Chablis 1er Cru “La Singuliere” 2005, La Chablisienne. $28.
10. Saint-Aubin 1er Cru “Le Charmois” 2005, Champy. $25.
Reds
11. Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2005, Chanson Pere et Fils. $21.
12. Bourgogne “Emotion de Terroirs” Pinot Noir 2005, Vincent Girardin. $22.
13. Bourgogne Pinot Noir Vieilles Vignes 2005, Maison Albert Bichot. $17.
14. Mercurey Domaine de la Croix Jacquelet 2005, Maison Faiveley. $23.
15. Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2005, Domaine Dominique Gallois. $32.
16. Cotes de Nuits-Villages Vieilles Vignes 2005, Nicolas Potel. $30.
17. Mercurey (rouge) 2005, Chateau de Chamirey. $34.
18. Beaune du Chateau 1er Cru 2005, Bouchard Pere et Fils. $34.
19. Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru “Les Fichots” 2005. Champy. $25
20. Beaune 1er Cru “Aux Cras” 2005, Champy. $35.
January 26th, 2008 at 8:46 am
I really do believe that people with money to burn ought to be made to do something good for every dollar they throw at their desire for Nirvana, not because doing good is good, although it is, but because they should be punished for chasing elusive Nirvana in a bottle!!!
If I had my money back for the Burgundies that did not live up to their price, I’d buy Ripasso Valpolicella with it…
January 28th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
I think that these two announcements, made simultaneously, are uncannily apt representations of the current staus quo.
You were right in the past paragraph there…most people will balk at the $185/btl price, but there will always be some people with deep pockets left on high ground.
Mind the widening gap!
January 29th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
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January 29th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Right about now, if you can find well made grand cru red Burgundy from the heavily hyped 2005 vintage for under $200 a bottle, it passes for a bargain. Lucky (and better informed) dog that I am, I purchased 2005 Clos des Lambrays in magnums on a pre-arrival basis in the US a year ago, for about what BWC now asks for the 750s, after tasting it from barrel in MSD very early on. It’s a wine I will likely share with my daughter, who is now seven, when she is in college. If I raise her right, she will appreciate what’s in her glass and thank her dear curmudgeonly old dad for laying some away for her.
The “people with money to burn” are not chasing $200 bottles of Clos des Lambrays, believe me. They are instead after those $500 bottles of Rousseau Gevrey Clos St. Jacques and $1500 bottles of Perrot-Minot Chambertin Clos de Beze and Vogue Musigny that occasionally appear and quickly disappear from the US market. This is not about wine. It is about acquiring emblems of conspicuous consumption for the stupidly rich (not that they aren’t also excellent wines, mind you). I’ve not seen a price quoted for the 2005 La Tache, but I surmise that for what three bottles will cost, you could put wheels on it, gas it up, name it “Prius” and drive it home.
But far from the hoopla over these trophies, there is a quiet revolution going on in Burgundy. Growers and winemakers are creating a minor flood of excellent wines, red and white, in the $15 to $50 a bottle price range, even allowing for the battered US greenback dollar and a bunch of middlemen taking their chunk before the wine lands on the retail shelf in Sheboygan. These are wines that speak of the land they come from and the people who make them; and they represent value that you’d be hard pressed to match anywhere else in the world. Unless you happen to love sauvignon blanc and cabernet franc, in which case there’s always the Loire. Pick up a bottle of Olga Raffault’s Chinon “Les Picasses” or Couly-Dutheil Chinon “La Baronnie Madeleine” for under $20 sometime, and you’ll get what I mean.
Yes, in the bad old days, one could spend considerable money, buy a famous label and open a thin, weedy bottle of expensive 1er cru or grand cru Burgundy. There was a time, particularly in the 1970s and early 1980s, when even some of the best properties in the Cote d’Or suffered from heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides, overcropping, shabby cellars and sloppy winemaking. Yes, this was a time when you could possibly find a barrel of Algerian wine in some broker’s cave with “sell as Pommard in UK” in chalk on the side. Much the same could be said about the wine trade just about everywhere at some point, and surely Burgundy was not immune.
However, if you go to the Cote d’Or or elsewhere in Bourgogne today and spend any time at all with the growers and negociants, you will find people who are passionate about the land and committed to quality. People who are domaine bottling small lots of wine, made from finicky, low yield, old vine pinot noir and chardonnay, tended on small parcels of rocky land, in an unpredictable northerly climate. Much of the viticulture is now organic or biodynamic. With few exceptions, these folks are not becoming remotely wealthy doing this. Certainly there are hacks and underperformers, as there are anywhere. By and large, however, they love making wine and drinking wine and talking about wine and are intensely proud of what they are doing – and in most cases, rightfully so.
In the face of this, one grows weary of hearing the dismissive old saw about Burgundy being “too expensive and mostly disappointing,” repeated by folks who, no offense, may not have spent any time tasting Burgundy, much less in Burgundy, in recent history.
Two thousand dollar bottles of Shrieking Beagle are also too expensive and, if you are seeking any sort of subtlety, tremendously disappointing. Shall we now conclude that Napa Valley wine, writ large, is “too expensive and mostly disappointing”? Nonsense, of course.
Go to the northern frontier of the Cote d’Or, up Fixin/Marsannay way, where the wines do not have the cachet and do not command anything near the price of the Gevrey 1ers and grands crus. These folks are a stone’s throw away from Dijon. Developers wave fistsful of money in their faces hoping to snap up vineyard land, tear up the vines and put in condos and faux chateaux for city commuters. The developers have been run out of town on a rail. The growers hang on because they love their way of life and they love their land.
They should not be cavalierly dismissed.
January 29th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Chambolle,
You are mainly correct and could very well be talking about many regions in all of Europe, not just Burgundy. And I agree, cavalier is not a good face to put forward…mea culpa.
Problem is: the critics focus and write about what sells magazines, and not much about the rest seems to interest many.
January 29th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Thomas,
I no doubt overreacted. But as you may have surmised, it’s a subject near and dear to my heart.
The “middle” of the Burgundy market definitely does need to be developed, especially in the U.S. The problem in part is the benighted three-tier distribution system in place in most states, which makes it difficult for retailers to lay hands on wines from small producers who can’t get “posted” by distributors because they don’t have sufficient wine to sell and don’t have the kind of ready made market wholesalers usually demand.
My comments are really not limited to the Cote d’Or — there are wonderful wines coming out of the Maconnais, Chalonnaise, Chablis and environs. Even in the sea of plonk that is Beaujolais, there are islands of extraordinary quality. Plenty of folks are doing it right — old vines, low yield organic viticulture, natural non-interventionist vinification, wines true to type and not “internationalized” — at reasonable prices. The trick is getting them on people’s tables.
And as you say, the same could be said of many European wine regions.
January 29th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Well, if it’s any comfort, Chambolle, I tried. When I had a shop in Manhattan my partner and I eschewed anything that was rated, and we sought all manner of unknown wines–even went overseas to buy some ourselves.
Alas, I had to quit the effort, but I had fun while doing it.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Thank you Chambolle for your eloquent defense of Burgundy, obviously written from someone with the palate and enviable experience to do so intelligently. As for developing the “middle market” for Burgundy, that’s why I try to use the “Best Buys” losy from Sopexa, so people will know what’s available at reasonable prices.
Tom, I didn’t know that you had a store in NYC. when was this and where was the store?
January 30th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
The store was in the East Village, on 5th St between 2nd and Bowery–up the street from Jewel Bako.
It was named is-wine (2000-2005).
It still exists under that name, but is now on 8th Street between 5th and 6th, and of course it hasn’t got my winning personality behind it anymore…
Many years ago, Fred, I operated a small Finger Lakes winery. I can surprise you with my stories–either that, or make you cry with me!
January 30th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
There are quite a few consumers (including, I’d say, those of us who comment on this blog) who go above and beyond to get great wine from places like Burgundy despite the effort that it takes. We don’t dismiss them at all. And there are purveyors who do everything they can to get great wine to consumers too; there are excellent wine shops everywhere who are not about to dismiss the delicious but lesser-marketed wines from ANY region.
But wine is just like anything else: the vast majority of wine drinkers will buy what they have been marketed and there are several places where people get disconnected. First, there just isn’t enough time in the day for the average person, and odds are they aren’t going to devote their free time to learning the nuances of French wines (how many people will honestly trade their TV for the Oxford Companion?) So while we all know that the French are adverse to breaking with tradition, they really should make their wines more accessible to Americans.
Sure, a fraction of people will buy whatever is the most expensive thing on the shelf, but most just don’t know what the hell the names actually mean! Those expensive wines are recognizable, something that most French wines aren’t. So much of the market buys New World wines that have neat labels or are labeled with a name or varietal they know and, on top of that, New World wineries have done a hell of a good job with marketing in general. Champagne houses did as well, and look at the amount of business they’re doing! There’s even been a substantial amount of press for those grower-producers lately, too, as is inevitable when markets grow. In recent years Spain and Portugal have also taken a hint, have mounted huge marketing campaigns, and they’re starting to see the fruits of their labor (not just the big guys, either)
The majority of wine drinkers don’t buy wine from independent shops. Look at the large portion of the market that buys wine at the grocery store or at Trader Joes, etc….these stores are still in the business of making money, not in the business of educating consumers about wine (we can’t blame them for that). Why would they carry a wine that is a tougher sell? And once again, the average consumer isn’t going to spend the little time they have away from their jobs and such to troll the local wine shop to get taught about wines they don’t know. It’s easier to pick up the Napa Cab.
Yes, the 3-tier laws here are dated, and so are the laws regarding importing goods from Europe (though the people who benefit from it certainly don’t think so). Many of us in the business believe it’s time for a change, and we’ll have to deal with that issue sooner rather than later. But if you’re aiming for more exposure and in getting these wines more widely available, then it’s time to stop ignoring the innate issues of the way these wines are marketed and sold. If Burgundy as a whole could generate more sales and credibility with the largely un-tapped middle market of American consumers, then I bet that the wonderful wines that you and I hold dear would be more readily available as well.
I’m not saying this is the only possible solution, but I think it’s a big part of it.
**End of Rant**
January 31st, 2008 at 12:13 am
(oh, and the “hell”s were for dramatic effect)
January 31st, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Thanks for a wonderful “rant,” Miss K, that brings a great deal of comon sense to this brouhaha. When you look at the population of the United States (not to mention the world), it’s a daunting task indeed trying to sell wine to those thirsty people who just want a decent bottle for their dinner table; the choices are overwhelming, but somebody has to be out there at the barricades selling product.
February 3rd, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Indeed. These days, if you want your wine to be sold (especially to people outside your own region) you’ve got to really put yourself out there with marketing and your consumer-awareness efforts. It does take a lot of money and time, but it’s a bit unrealistic to think that the quality of your wine alone will sell it…there is a LOT of good wine out there! THere’s better consumer awareness now, but there’s a long way yet to go
February 6th, 2008 at 2:03 am
K:
I’m shocked. You mean the BIVB hasn’t yet convinced the average American grocery shopper of the virtues of a well made bottle of Monthelie, or Mercurey, or St. Romain? I hear what you’re saying.
I ran a wine shop many moons ago, before the urge to get a job that would permit me to make enough $$$ to feed my wine jones took over. Many many hours were spent hand selling Burgundy, a bottle or two at a time, with vineyard maps in tow. It’s not an easy region to know and the wines are tough to sell to those who do not know.
The three tier system doesn’t help anyone either. Out here in Washington State, where I dwell, it ain’t exactly easy to buy small production Burgundy. As a retail consumer, I have spent decades scouring the national marketplace for a few bottles of this or that. Our state was always open to out of state retailers. Recently, the wholesaler lobby paid the legislature to enact a bill that shut the door.
A bill was just in committee in our state legislature, sponsored by a state senator who was getting lots of pissed off mail from his constitutents asking why they suddenly could not buy wine from licensed out of state retailers they had been trading with for years. The new bill would have permitted out of state retailers to buy a permit and legally ship direct to state residents, who would also pay state sales tax on the transaction.
When a public hearing was held on the bill, the committee chairwoman opened the hearing by remarking that she had received more mail from constituents on the bill than any other legislation she had ever considered — all but two letters urged her to assist in getting the bill passed. Even the Washington Liquor Control Board, which is supposed to be enforcing a ban on out of state retail sales to our state, came out in support of the bill — noting that enforcing the ban is impossible and serves no real purpose; and the state may as well regulate this trade and get tax revenues from it.
So what happened? Today I learned that two industry lobbyists got to the Committee members and the bill will die in committee before it gets to the floor of the state legislature.
So not only is it tough to get a handle on what’s what in Burgundy, but just laying hands on the stuff requires quite a lot of creativity.
Another rant, I know, and slightly off topic. But this hits me where I live.