Wines To Be Treasured

The literature of wine is ripe with descriptions (and barely concealed avarice) about wine buying. Here’s Thomas Jefferson in 1787, acquisitive and even geeky in his wine pursuit, writing to a friend: “I cannot deny myself the pleasure of asking you to participate of a parcel of wine … It is of the vineyard of Obrion [Château Haut-Brion], one of the four established as the very best, and it is of the vintage of 1784, the only very fine one since the year 1779.”Even in the early 20th century, when the greatest wines were freely available for a pittance, wine buyers still had their moments of anguished lust. While visiting the Champagne house Perrier-Jouët, wine merchant Charles Walter Berry was served at dinner an 1892 Perrier-Jouët Champagne. “It was so wonderful that the horrid commercial instinct was difficult to quieten … I wondered if there was any for sale, I dared not ask, being a guest at the table,” he writes.“When the opening arrived,” he adds, “I said in the most nonchalant manner, ‘You must not have many of these treasures left — what a pity it is that the end must come to all good things.'”Informed by the director of Perrier-Jouët that not only was the lusted-after 1892 bottling not his own, but that of his brother-in-law, Berry was further informed that the brother-in-law was “lying dangerously ill” and — here come the words that incite wine lovers to near-uncontrollable lust — “I doubt if he will ever drink the sixty bottles that remain to him.” With that, Berry could not resist. “I whispered to my host, while tenderly pressing his hand — ‘Wouldn’t it be a charitable thing if I offered to buy that 1892 Perrier-Jouët nectar, and thus put temptation out of the way of your invalid brother-in-law?'” Berry did, eventually, obtain the wine.The following wines require no such guile — only initiative.Here’s The (Not So Nonchalant) DealBeaune du Château Premier Cru 2005, Bouchard Père et Fils — It’s pretty rare to be able to recommend both the red and white versions of a Burgundy bottling, but the 2005 vintage was something of a “comet year.” The 2005 reds (pinot noir) were extraordinary; the whites (chardonnay) were at minimum excellent and, at best, superb.Bouchard Père et Fils is a venerable Burgundy shipper (founded in 1731) that was long mired in complacency and deceit. In 1989, the company was convicted of fraud: It was guilty of adding excess sugar to fermenting juice (chaptalization) and — most serious of all — mislabeling wines. But in 1995, Bouchard Père et Fils was sold to Champagne executive Joseph Henriot, who has transformed the company and vastly improved its wines.Bouchard creates a blend of its Beaune holdings under the name Beaune du Château Premier Cru. You can get a sense of just how much vineyard land Bouchard owns when you discover that grapes of an astounding 19 different premier cru (a high rank) vineyards in Beaune make up the Beaune du Château bottlings.Let’s make it simple: You’ll have to look awfully hard to find a better 2005 Burgundy for the money than either the red Beaune du Château Premier Cru 2005 or the white Beaune du Château Premier Cru 2005. Both are exemplars of purity, flavor delineation, and sheer quality. They are stunners for the money. Widely available at around $35 each at Sherry-Lehmann, Crush, New York Wine Co., and Zachys, among others.Chianti Classico Riserva 2004, Fattoria di Fèlsina — Landing on really great (and I use that term advisedly) Chianti Classic is no easy task. The district has some 600 estates, many of them less than accomplished. Yet others are chasing after the quick fix of blending their native Sangiovese with merlot, Syrah, or cabernet sauvignon. It’s quite legal — and entirely unnecessary.Want proof? Try Fattoria di Fèlsina’s 2004 Chianti Classico Riserva, which is composed of 100% sangiovese from 50-year-old vines. Here you’ll fine sangiovese in full operatic cry with the variety’s signature dried cherry and dust flavors, delivered with a rare depth. It’s a very great wine at a lip-smacking price of $25-$28 at numerous merchants, including Garnet Wines & Liquors and Sherry-Lehmann, among others.

Wines To Be Treasured

Wines To Be Treasured

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