While waiting for a cab at the train stain in Strasbourg, Alsace, we watched two seriously drunk backpackers trying to figure out if they were in France or Germany. Their confusion was warranted: Alsace has been part of Germany at least four times, and at first glance the city looks like a German fairy tale come to life.
If we can concede that “generational” changes in the wine industry occur every decade or so, I am very concerned that forthcoming generations of wine professionals, perhaps starting now with people in their early to mid-twenties, are going to hold the same opinions of Burgundy as I do about Bordeaux.
No other estate in Burgundy, or perhaps the world, has achieved such an enviable reputation in such a short amount of time. Admittedly the seeds were planted two centuries ago and at a certain point in history, the Liger-Belairs owned a dizzying collection of vineyards that included the monopolies of La Romanée, La Tâche and La Grande Rue as well as considerable parcels in Clos de Vougeot, Chambertin, Saint-Georges, Malconsorts, Reignots and Vaucrains.
We are incorrigible. The trip that Richard and I made to Jerez in southern Spain earlier this year was to acquaint ourselves better with our pre-established Sherry producers - not to add anybody to the roster. And yet somewhere in the cellars of Emilio Hidalgo, we realized that we could not live without these subtle, vital and venerable wines.
The lunatics have taken over the asylum!!! And not the right lunatics!!! Not the ones who spend the vast majority of their waking hours (forfeiting the vast majority of potential sleeping hours) contemplating the convoluted, multi-faceted and exciting discipline that is wine, but the ones who, knowingly or otherwise, want to reduce wine to just another commercial product – a one-dimensional product that we engage with indifferently in the same way that we might ketchup, lip balm or snow shovels!!! Something needs to be done!!
The ciders made by Eric Bordelet are simply the best that we have ever tasted. Feel free to define the word “best” in any way that you choose – when one considers complexity, versatility, persistence, purity and deliciousness, all of the word’s applications in regards to fermented juice will accommodate our argument.
