More French BS

Wine collectors, serious wine lovers and oenophiles in general, this column is for you. The French, who in the area of rating their latest vintages, are usually, to use the vernacular “full of it.” They have, in their infinite wisdom, declared that the 2009 vintage will probably be the greatest in 60 years and perhaps even then some.  When it comes to rating the quality of grapes grown and the wine that will be made from it in a specific year, they often do so in the most glowing of terms with little regard for the truth. If you are into wine in a serious way, you are aware that each and every year the French growers and grower’s associations laud the qualities of the year’s harvest and announce that it will be better than average. Then off we go, fat dumb and happy, to our favorite wine vendor and purchase either the actual bottles or put money down on “futures” for the wine when it is released. When we finally try the wine we find, as has been the case in recent  year’s, that it is mediocre at best or just plain bad: I was going to say lousy but my wife edits this.

The 2005 vintage of the Bordeaux and Burgundy wines was, to say the least, exceptional. That accolade comes from us, people who have consistently cast a jaundiced eye on any of the “better” French wines. First of all, they have jacked the prices up so high that some vintages require a chattel mortgage to be able to afford. They then tell you not to drink them for at least three to six years to allow the wine to further mature.  You wait and you wait and when the big day finally comes, your doctor has informed you that you must give up alcohol, in any form as it conflicts with the medication you are taking. So there they sit, waiting. You can’t sell them without using a broker because to sell wines without a license is illegal and secondly, the broker’s fee will break you. You can’t give them away because you do not know of anyone who is worthy of such a gift; especially your brother-in-law. There are only two answers; let them sit in your wine rack as decorations or suicide.

And now, amid the sounds of trumpets, drum rolls and cymbals, the French go completely ape over the 2009 vintage. They boldly announce the wines will be better than the legendary 1960 vintage and the equal of the wine of the century, the 1945 vintage, even though they have as yet not made a drop of wine. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my.

As for us, we will withhold our enthusiasm until the wine can be tasted and evaluated; and that can be as long as five years down the road. Until then, we will consider the French accolades just smoke and mirrors, to be taken with a grain of salt. These producers have lied to us so many times that it is very hard to take their word on anything to do with wine.

We are and have always been the champions of California wines, even though we would kill for another bottle of the excellent Les Amoureuses Burgundy or the Chateau Pichon-Lalande Bordeaux of the 1964 vintage, which began our journey into fine wines. We are not prejudiced or bigoted with the French wine, but after so many, many years of abject disappointment, we must look upon them with suspicion and doubt. The question arises, do we believe this latest declaration of quality and go out to order the wine now before it becomes too pricy or do we wait and let the prices skyrocket as it must if the vintage is as fine as they predict?

It is our fervent hope that the 2009 vintage will live up to all of its publicity and expectations and until then, we wait