Sense and Sensuality

I once worked with a fellow who used to say, “All red wine tastes the same.” Sometimes I wish that were true; it would simplify my life.

The phrase came to mind the other day when, after tasting a number of 1990 Burgundies, I realized that many of the wines were so deep and dense they were almost more like Bordeaux.

The wines will be appreciated by those with little exposure to classic Burgundy, but the purist might be upset at their raw power. What the Burgundy lover really seeks is a silky elegance inside the deep flavors, an experience that is elusive and rare.

After my column on the ’90 Burgundy vintage last Thursday, I got a call from a Bordeaux-loving reader who expressed surprise at the prices mentioned. How could people who are reluctant to spend $40 on a top Bordeaux be willing to pay $80 for a bottle of an untasted Burgundy?

It’s a complex issue. But though some 1990 Burgundies are almost like Bordeaux, there’s a difference between the two regions, one that makes Burgundy lovers not just lovers but fanatics.

Two weeks ago I went to a dinner where two bottles of red wine were on the table, a Bordeaux and a Burgundy--both from very good vintages, both about 15 years old. We had planned to have the Bordeaux with the main course and the Burgundy with cheese afterward. Both wines were opened and we poured glasses of the Bordeaux to sip with the entree, but the Burgundy also was open and sitting nearby. Just to get a whiff of the aroma of the Burgundy, I poured a tiny splash into my extra glass and into those of the other diners.

That was a mistake. The Burgundy had a sweet aroma of cherries and plums with hints of anise and clove. We could smell it without even lifting the glass.

The Bordeaux went practically untouched, but we drank the Burgundy to the bottom and then went on sniffing the empty glasses. In the end we just passed up the cheese course and left the remaining half bottle of old Bordeaux for the chef.

This is why people go nuts for good Burgundy: With enough age, it shows a kaleidoscope of aromas--cherry and smoke, roses, plums, a bit of wet earth, notes of wood spices such as cinnamon, clove and sandalwood. And it offers silky tastes that absolutely defy description.

Wine author Bob Thompson observes that people who love Burgundy are far more passionate about their wine than are Bordeaux lovers. “They buy these things at those prices,” says Thompson, “because it’s a chance at real opulence. Burgundy, when it’s good, is totally sensual.”

Wine columnist Gerald Asher agrees: “Bordeaux is an intellectual wine, Burgundy is entirely sensual. You discuss a good Bordeaux, but you simply enjoy a good Burgundy.”

Master sommelier Ed Osterland once asked two other master sommeliers, Madeline Triffon and Evan Goldstein, on a tape in his audio series “Discovering the Pleasures of Wine”: “If you could have only one wine type forever, what would it be?” In separate conversations, both answered “Jayer,” referring not only to Burgundy but to a particular producer, Henri Jayer.

Wine merchant Kermit Lynch, in his book “Adventures on the Wine Route,” simply writes: “Good red Burgundy is the most captivating wine in the world.”

There is another, more mundane reason why good Burgundy is in greater demand than Bordeaux. It has to do with supply, and that has to do with history.

Burgundy made wine for centuries under church control. After the French Revolution, the huge church properties were seized, broken up and sold off. French inheritance law required that these properties be divided further among the heirs when an owner died, with the result that many of the finest vineyards in Burgundy were split up into a crazy quilt of tiny plots owned by a multitude of owners.

Some vineyard owners measure their holdings not in acres or even fractions of an acre but in numbers of vines. There are literally thousands of “winemakers” in Burgundy, many of them growers who ferment their own grapes. Since the production of many of these producers is infinitesimal, demand for a particular maker’s wine may be very strong.

Bordeaux is a newer wine-growing region that developed from aristocratic roots. Many of the vineyard owners were English gentry (which accounts for the fact that a lot of Bordeaux houses have names like Barton, Clarke, Palmer, Boyd or Lynch). Thus most of the prestigious Bordeaux properties are fairly large.

Chateau Latour, one of Bordeaux’s best-known houses, makes 20,000 cases a year, and every bottle will be the same wine, and fairly easy to get. But as Matt Kramer points out in his book “Making Sense of Burgundy,” a Burgundy producer like Christophe Roumier will make a total of 46 cases of Musigny from his two-tenths of an acre.

Finding great Burgundy is much more difficult than finding great Bordeaux. First, the wine must come from a good vintage. Then the producer is critical, and the location of the district is vital to understanding the wine. Wines from the Cote de Nuits are richer than the more elegant wines of Beaune.

To further distinguish the wines, Bordeaux is lower in alcohol and higher in tannin; Burgundy is generally low in tannin and high in alcohol.

And Asher says it’s not necessary to age good Burgundy forever. “A well-made Burgundy within three or four years of the vintage is just delicious. It can still have this ethereal, gauzy flavor and can still be intense, even if the wine itself behind it is fairly light, you get this remarkable flavor.”

The essential flavors of Cabernet Sauvignon and its sister varieties give Bordeaux a classic aroma of pepper, olive, tarragon and herbs. But Pinot Noir, the sole grape in Burgundy, has a bit more cherry with beet, spinach and meat-like flavors and sometimes perhaps a trace of what some people call a barnyard aroma.

Thompson notes that the differences in the wines start with the textural elements--”the fat, supple character you can get in a great old Burgundy, which simply doesn’t appear much in old Bordeaux.” He calls the effect “hypnotic” and says Burgundy fanatics are prepared to drink a lot of mediocre wine that didn’t age well for that one opportunity to drink an elixir that reaches a pinnacle Cabernet can never attain.

It is this rare sensual reward that makes Burgundy such a Holy Grail for some wine lovers as well as some winemakers.

Wine of the Week

1990 Murphy-Goode Estate Vineyards Merlot ($14) --If there is a wine midway between Burgundy and Bordeaux, it would be Merlot, which may be called the Burgundy of Bordeaux. This wine has a stylish cherry/cranberry aroma and fairly deep clove and cedar notes. It comes from 22-year-old Alexander Valley vines that ripen late but retain their acidity well into the harvest season, so it is tart and lean. Yet the flavors linger on the tongue for a long time. Because it has 24% Cabernet Sauvignon blended in, it becomes more complex with aeration.