Burgundy Boom

Prices zoom for a great vintage

For wine lovers around the world, a momentous annual ritual is the wine auction in the Burgundian city of Beaune. Technically, it is a charity sale: for the past 127 years, the auction has been the principal source of support for the Hospices de Beaune, a hospital that has been in continuous operation since 1443. In practice, the sale of wine from its Premier and Grand Cru vineyards is a closely watched price barometer for all Burgundies. At this year's auction, in a hall bedecked with medieval tapestries, the needle shifted to "stormy" as 362 pieces (a piece is the equivalent of 25 cases of twelve bottles each) of the choicest 1978 Cms fetched prices that averaged just over 50% above last year's already exalted rates. By the time it becomes available in a Paris restaurant two or three years from now, a bottle of 1978 Pommard may cost as much as $50. "The Burgundy market is out of control," said Steven Spurrier, a Paris-based British wine expert and restaurateur.

Lovers of Burgundy can put most of the blame for this year's price panic on the vagaries of the weather. The summer, among the coldest and wettest in memory, was a cruel one for the Pinot grapes of the Cote d'Or, the narrow Burgundy slope that produces some of the world's finest wines. Lack of sunshine prevented proper fecundation, resulting in a crop that is little more than half the size of 1977's. Yet a remarkably dry Indian summer enabled vintners to delay the harvest two or three weeks and let the grapes grow plump and sweet. Louis Latour, head of the Burgundy Producers' Association, predicts that 1978, while a small harvest, will be remembered as a great year for Burgundies, "perhaps the best since 1961."

In the U.S., this year's Burgundies will not be available until early 1980 for whites and early 1981 for reds. They will be scarce, but wines from Beaujolais and the Cotes du Rhone, Burgundy's neighbors to the south, have enjoyed abundant harvests. As a result, the 1978 nouveaux are not only better than last year's but often cheaper." And there is good news from Bordeaux, which also had an excellent year. Growers there expect a price rise of only 4% for reds and 10% for whites, which will make Bordeaux a good value compared with those rarefied Burgundies.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.