Understanding Burgundy - or trying to.

[David_Strange]

@Frank Deis

“Sideways” is not my favorite movie but I do like it when Miles is talking about how difficult it is to make Pinot Noir based wines. I believe it…

Hello Frank,

A frien… no… an acquainte… no… someone I’ve met (that is the only association I will claim with this person) told me with great glee about the film Sideways and how, as a Pinotphile, I would find it compelling viewing. I wrote the following review in my email to him after I’d seen the film:

@David Strange

It was really quite tiresome. If I wish to watch dysfunctional, middle-aged people dealing with their lives with laughable ineptitude I have a mirror, which will allow me to see much more handsome people. More importantly, surely anyone who really enjoys Pinot would not be such a miserable, irritating swine? Perhaps I am wrong. That it was a piss-boring film is beyond doubt.

I still remember being very bored whilst watching it, which is a damning criticism of a film themed on wine. If it didn’t tickle my fancy then whose would it?

Cheers,
David.

[David_Strange]

@Al Osterheld

Mature, great Burgundy from a great year, pretty much everyone likes. Decent village level Burgundy from a middling year is enjoyable and interesting to a burg-lover, but may not have broad appeal especially to New World palates. Also, as David mentioned, it tends to shut down not long after release. So, lots of people try a few and wonder what all the fuss is about.

-Al

Hello Al,

I quite agree. The best stuff can charm most people whereas lesser wines might have more appeal to already converted Burgundy nutters.

This ‘shutting down in middle age’-thing is terribly important. If you have a flash Grand Cru Burgundy from a top vintage and open it at the age of, say, five it probably will not provide much pleasure; it’ll be as tightly wound and impenetrable as a very tightly wound thing.

In days gone by when I used to buy the annual Parker tome of tasting notes it surprised me that the great man himself didn’t appreciate this fact. He called Michel Lafarge wines, “Depressingly inconsistent” when, as far as I could tell, he was tasting some wines when they were closed and wondering why they did not taste the same as when he’d tried them three years earlier.

My aim here is not gratuitous Parker bashing, more to state that even the great and the good of the wine world can not take account of this closed phase and so mis-judge wines (although anyone who criticises Lafarge for being inconsistent has to be some kind of arse).

Certainly, there is a lot to learn about Burgundy - good luck following this path, Dave.

Cheers,
David.

[Guillaume_Deschamps]

@David Strange

I still remember being very bored whilst watching it, which is a damning criticism of a film themed on wine. If it didn’t tickle my fancy then whose would it?

I find this particularly funny since I was having a very nice dinner yesterday night with a fellow Burgophile and it just so happened that we mentioned Sideways. He had not seen it and I encouraged him to do so. I’m a tough grader for wines, movies, or anything else really, but I enjoyed Sideways–not only for the wine theme or some unforgettable wine scenes, but also because I think it’s simply a good movie in its own right. Different strokes…

(or maybe it’s simply that your good taste in wines doesn’t translate to the big screen )

[Glenn_L_e_v_i_n_e]

@David Strange

It was really quite tiresome. If I wish to watch dysfunctional, middle-aged people dealing with their lives with laughable ineptitude I have a mirror, which will allow me to see much more handsome people.

more handsome than Virginia Madsen?

[Frank_Deis]

I think the problem with Sideways is that neurotic Californians probably have zero appeal to Oxbridge types. David might not get Woody Allen movies either…

[David_Strange]

@Frank Deis

I think the problem with Sideways is that neurotic Californians probably have zero appeal to Oxbridge types. David might not get Woody Allen movies either…

Hello Frank,

I dated a neurotic Californian lady whilst at Oxford. After a few months the suggestion of ‘zero appeal’ would have been a rather positive and up-beat assessment of the state of our relationship.

I do like Woody Allen films, he is responsible for one of my favourite quotes:

@Woody Allen

Good people sleep better than bad people, but bad people have more fun when they are awake.

Given how little I’ve slept of late, and the hilarious fun that I’ve been having whilst awake, I must be a very, very bad man. Good.

Cheers,
David.