BEAUNE, France — I’m thumbing through the wine list at Le Conty, a charming bistrot with a killer cellar in the center of Beaune, the epicenter of France’s Burgundy region. There are many stunning bottles to choose from, but I keep returning to the section with the demis — or half bottles.
A demi of Bonneau du Martray’s 1993 Corton-Charlemagne catches my eye. This is a 13-year-old grand cru white Burgundy, a rare wine to begin with, but even more of a rarity considering it’s by the half bottle in a modest restaurant where I’m sitting on a folding chair and using paper napkins.
So I’m thinking maybe this is just dumb luck. Then I flip the page to check on the red wines in demi and spy an important wine from the Rhone Valley, the 1996 Jabloulet Hermitage ‘La Chapelle.’ I pinch myself once or twice just to make sure I’m not dreaming.
OK, I can do this. The Corton-Charlemagne is listed at 55 euro (about $70) and the ‘La Chapelle’ at 48 euro (about $60). The prices are very good given the quality and age of the wines. I can’t resist; I’m in for both.
The ’93 Corton-Charlemagne was impressive. The color was youthful, and on the palate the wine packed the signature Corton-Charlemagne power, firm acidity and extraordinary length. This was an absolutely remarkable white wine.
‘The 1993 vintage was a lean vintage,’ Frederic Drouhin, the president of Burgundy’s respected Joseph Drouhin negociant firm, told me. ‘The wines were not especially well received when they were young. They needed time. Our ’93 Clos des Mouches (blanc) is the same.’
And come around they have. The ’96 Jaboulet Hermitage ‘La Chapelle’ was an equally exciting revelation, although my expectations for the wine had been high to begin with. La Chapelle is one of the choicest spots on Hermitage hill and the wines are renowned for their power, elegance and longevity.
What I didn’t expect was the explosion of fruit. The ‘La Chapelle’ delivered an intense bouquet of blueberry jam and violets. The infamous Hermitage tannins were beautifully integrated into the wine and the palate was very long, smooth and complex. This was a superb bottle of wine, and it had to be to play in the same league with the exceptional Chardonnay from Corton-Charlemagne.
You may or may not be able to replicate this tasting, but the larger point is to trust the great terroirs of the world to produce wines that will age beautifully and hold up magnificently in half bottles (wines typically age more quickly in half bottles and more slowly in large-format bottles, such as magnums, double-magnums and larger). Those with the patience to cellar such wines will be rewarded.
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