SPECTATOR WINE CLUB
Burgundy golden oldies
Auberon Waugh
or my last offer of the year I have been routing around among the less prestigious vintages of the last decade, 1973, 1974 and 1977, in the search for mature Burgundy which I can recommend at a reasonable price. I came up with three excellent '77s, two of which are so cheap that one can only gasp and rub one's eyes. The third, although less cheap, is offered at a huge discount to Spectator readers, which should tempt a few.
The first, and cheapest, of the two 1977 Givrys on offer (1) struck me as an ama- zingly full and rich old-fashioned Burgundy at the unbelievable price of £5.50. The reason it is so cheap is partly through Berry Bros' generosity in treating every Spectator buyer as if he were ordering ten or more cases (some of the wines have an even greater discount than this 71/2 per cent), partly because 1977 is not a particularly renowned year and partly because since it became normal to import wine in bottle, people have grown shy of English hot- flings. In any case, the result is a really sound old Burgundy at a give-away price.
The second Givry, French-bottled by Prosper Maufoux from what would be Givry's leading premier cru if there were any premiers crus in Givry, struck me as less immediately attractive on first ac- quaintance. It was only on returning to it(2) that one appreciated it was, in fact, a deeper, better wine than No. 1, with its elegant, burned nose and more delicate style of old pinot noir. There is a certain satisfaction in knowing that a really good bottle of wine has cost only £5.50 which does not necessarily attach to a slightly better bottle which has cost £6.16. These two Givrys from an unfashionable year are quite good enough to make anyone feel happy and rich and well-loved. Les Fichots(3) is separated only by the breadth of a tiny footpath from the grand cru vineyards of Corton Charlemagne. This wine, from a classic year, has the classic Doudet-Naudin style of burned caramel and over-ripe figs which I happen to adore. It will probably go on getting thicker and figgier for the next 20 years, but in its present youth it will not shock the purists, presenting itself as a good, heavy, conventional burgundy for which the grow- ers of Pommard would charge exactly twice the price of £6.92 the bottle if they could still make burgundy. Next we have a bit of a price-jump, I am afraid. I do not suppose that many punters will be prepared to spend £10.42 on a bottle of 1977 Beaune 0) from Les Greves and I have to admit that on form it seems a steep price, even though it is listed at £12.00. But the form books which work very well for the vintages and châteaux of Bordeaux have practically no relevance in Burgundy, where wines from exactly the same climat in somewhere like Clos Vougeot, and from the same year, can taste as different as chalk and cheese.
It is a wonderfully rough and thick specimen, with an ancient, unsubtle pinot smell which one would call farmyard if farmyards could ever smell of pinot. It ends with an unexpected but welcome touch of acid, which makes me think it would be ideal to drink with grouse, or woodcock or snipe's innards on fried bread, or over-shot pheasant, or pigeon which has gone slightly bad, as pigeons d° from time to time. This may not be burgundy at its best, but it is burgundy at its strongest, which is nearly as good. The last two wines are superb. I offered the 1971 Charmes(6) two years ago in bottles, mentioning that my wife found the smell reminiscent of a French railway station in a novel by Zola. Mr Graham Greene submitted her comments to Pseuds Corner. I still have a few of those bottles, and they are just beginning to fade. The magnums, which are all that Berry Bros have left, are now plum-spang in the middle of their glorious prime, although I do not suppose they will hold it for more than 12 or 18 months. Talk of silk, satin, rose petals, any rubbish you like, but this wine will have any burgundy-lover weer ing. The 1971 Gevrey(5), French bottled by Doudet-Naudin, has the same weight and sweetness, an even more overpowering nose, while remaining a little rougher and more vigorous. I should guess it has longer to go — say four or five years — before it begins to wonder about retreating into blandness and fading at the edges. The same amounts of both are available. If one runs out first, the other will be substituted, unless orders to the contrary are given. I do not apologise for the price of £28.66 the magnum (£14.33 a bottle is probably less than you will pay for the same wines from the 1985 vintage, with 14 years to wait before they approach this glorious level' Theyare listed by Berry Bros at £32 the magnum, and a bargain at that price, too). You can either afford them or you can't.
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