A Swing and a Miss

Don't you hate it when, full of anticipation, you open an expensive bottle of wine, only to find that is just nothing special? Corked, cooked, oxidized, or otherwise damaged - that's another ballgame. Here I'm talking about simply mediocre wine. Normally I wouldn't mind because most wine aspires to mediocrity. But there are some regions where you're just going to have to suck it up and shell out the bucks if you want a bottle, and I get really indignant when this wine is mediocre.

This happens to me most often with Burgundy wines, as I have not yet had enough Champagne to be badly burned. And I'm not a big Bordeaux drinker, although the futures that I paid through the nose for two years ago arrived and I feel like a jerk, but that's another story.

In Burgundy, even in a "classic" (meaning not exceptional, but not bad either) vintage, a solid producer can sell wine, even village level wine, for over $50 a bottle. Some of the real big names can get away with charging that much for a Bourgogne - think Roumier, Leflaive, Meo-Camuzet, and others.

But Burgundy is hit or miss, and everybody knows it. But what does hit or miss really mean? Not the obvious idea that if you select randomly you will probably get burned, because that is true with most wine regions. I take it to mean that you can't ever really be certain of how good a wine is until you open and taste it yourself, and usually over a few hours with a meal. And furthermore, a great producer with decades and decades of excellent wines behind them will usually sell their entire lineup each year, regardless of whether or not hail damaged the grapes, there was too much rot, or whatever. In Burgundy there are a million micro-climates and up or down a hill can mean a world of difference in the final quality of the grapes. You can do your research, think about things carefully, spend wisely, and still get mediocre wine in Burgundy.

So what's a producer to do if the wine is not up to their standards - eat the losses and not sell the wine? Uh uh, not likely. Hopefully they might downgrade, if possible, and lower the price correspondingly. For example, in 2001 hail damaged the 1er Cru Clos du Château des Ducs, a monopole in Volnay held by Domaine Michel Lafarge. I wish they had downgraded the wine to village level Volnay and sold the wine for about $35 instead of the $80 or so it went for, because it was completely uninspiring and plain old mediocre.

I think it's just part of the game, and I'm a happy player. But I still get burned every now and then. For example, I'm sort of scared to open my Roumier just in case it turns out to be mediocre, in which case I will have to smash it over my head.

My most recent case of charring by an established Burgundy producer came at the hands of Francois et Antoine Jobard or Meursault. I opened a bottle of 2002 Meursault en la Barre, a wine that retailed for about $50 back then, and man, did I feel unsyatisfied, as John Malkovich said in Rounders. It was pleasant enough, with a very reticent nose, but a nice oily texture and some roast nuts and cream on the palate. But that's it. Nada mas. No character at all, nothing to sink my teeth into.

So I used the other half of the Jobard to make fish stock and opened a bottle of 2005 Texier Mâcon-Bussières Très Vieilles Vignes. Now that is some delicious and exciting juice, vibrant and alive, many layers and nuances of flavor, from nuts to minerals, to something herbal and bitter, to sweet ripe and noble fruit. And it cost me all of $21. So take that Francois and Antoine.

It's all part of the game, I guess.