[wine] NYTimes.com Article: Brushing the Dust Off an Old Label

The article below from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by jellings(a)me.umn.edu. /--------- E-mail Sponsored by Fox Searchlight ------------\ THE CLEARING - IN THEATERS JULY 2 - WATCH THE TRAILER NOW An official selection of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, THE CLEARING stars ROBERT REDFORD and HELEN MIRREN as Wayne and Eileen Hayes - a husband and wife living the American Dream. Together they've raised two children and struggled to build a successful business from the ground up. But there have been sacrifices along the way. When Wayne is kidnapped by an ordinary man, Arnold Mack (WILLEM DAFOE), and held for ransom in a remote forest, the couple's world is turned inside out. Watch the trailer at: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/theclearing/index_nyt.html \----------------------------------------------------------/ Brushing the Dust Off an Old Label June 30, 2004 By ERIC ASIMOV NO matter how much you love the wines, it's not easy to make sense of Burgundy. The region's organization is so sprawling and its nomenclature both so confusing and repetitive that many people, if given the choice of a Volnay or a Vosne-Roman�e, settle for a nice Bordeaux. One solution is to read a book, like Matt Kramer's excellent "Making Sense of Burgundy." But most people would rather enjoy wine than study it, and besides, a lot has changed since that book came out in 1990. More typically, people rely on brand names to ease decision making. It's a marketer's dream when a beer drinker becomes a Bud drinker, and brand names can take a lot of the confusion out of wine buying. But brand names change, too, and so do their connotations. Consider the case of Bouchard P�re & Fils, one of the oldest names in Burgundy (not to be confused with Bouchard-A�n� & Fils, another of those maddening repetitions). Perhaps 10 or 15 years ago, a discerning Burgundy buyer might have skipped right by the Bouchard brand. Despite its legacy - the firm had passed through nine generations of family ownership since 1731 - the wines were often dull assembly-line fare. The excitement in Burgundy was with the small growers and producers, not the big names. But in 1995, the Bouchard family sold the firm to Joseph Henriot, who began investing in improving the vineyards and winemaking. The result has been a stunning revitalization. The Bouchard comeback was on full display last week at a dinner at Montrachet in TriBeCa, where Bernard Hervet, Bouchard's managing director, brought with him a selection of outstanding recent wines along with some older vintages. Mr. Hervet, who joined Bouchard in 1989 under the old regime, experienced the turnaround firsthand. Before Bouchard was sold, he said, he did not have the budget to improve the quality of the wines. Bouchard was suffering, he added, because it did not remember what had made its wines great in the first place. "In the 1970's and 80's, Burgundy growers and n�gociants forgot that without great grapes there would be no great wines," said Mr. Hervet, a tall, lean man who looks like the proverbial banker from Bordeaux rather than the earthy Burgundian farmer. "They thought they could solve problems in the vineyards with technology." Liberated from budget constraints, and given the mandate to improve, Bouchard replanted its vineyards, replaced its cellar equipment and re-established its winemaking philosophy. "No huge wines," Mr. Hervet said. "It's a question of balance. It's a shame to confuse length and power." Hundreds of winemakers earnestly mouth similar words like scripture, but tasting a selection of Bouchard's 2002's made clear that these were sculptured, precise wines, shaped for subtlety rather than power. The Beaune Clos de la Mousse was light-bodied and elegant, with fruit aromas that perfumed the air, a contrast with the more robust and tannic Beaune Teurons. A Beaune-Gr�ves, with the evocative name Vigne de L'Enfant J�sus, seemed to combine the structure of the Teurons with the expressive fruitiness of the Clos de la Mousse. Perhaps the clearest indication of the changes at Bouchard were the three vintages of Volnay Caillerets Ancienne Cuv�e Carnot, from 1999, 1990 and 1964. The '99 was still a baby, fresh and harmonious with aromas that reminded me of truffles. The '64 smelled powerfully of truffles and chocolate and still tasted pure and balanced. The '90 also had truffle aromas, a signature of the vineyard, I guess, but it was noticeably sweeter than the other two wines and seemed vaguer, lacking their clear-cut lines. To emphasize the effect of Mr. Henriot's ownership, Mr. Hervet brought along three vintages of William F�vre Chablis, from the grand cru vineyard called Les Clos. F�vre's Chablis used to be notorious for their heavy oak flavors, the last thing you would want to taste in the lean and minerally wines of Chablis. That was before Mr. Henriot bought the domaine in 1998. Now the wines are lively and nuanced. "It was a pity, in my opinion," Mr. Hervet said, expelling air with his cheeks in the French manner that expresses exasperation and disbelief. "We completely changed the style to be more pure, more minerally." All of the wines we tasted were made from top Bouchard vineyards. Bouchard's more modest wines, Mr. Hervet said, are intended to be easy and uncomplicated, balanced and fruity, requiring no explanation to enjoy. As if to show that nothing can be truly predictable in wine, we also tasted three vintages of Bouchard's Chevalier-Montrachet La Cabotte, a white Burgundy from a vineyard adjacent to the more famous and costly Montrachet. One, a 1992, a pre-Henriot vintage, was every bit as lovely as a 1997 and a 2000. Nonetheless, the evolution of Bouchard is clear. It is not just small domains that are making great Burgundy, and Bouchard can now be placed with other n�gociants like Louis Jadot and Joseph Drouhin, which despite their volume of business keep their eyes on quality. "Bouchard used to be a reference when Burgundy was showing badly," Mr. Hervet said, "and I hope it's now a reference when Burgundy is showing well." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/30/dining/30POUR.html?ex=1089608017&ei=1… --------------------------------- Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy now for 50% off Home Delivery! 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