Hello,
Yes, the cost aspect. Last summer, self, Xina, and 4 of our friends visited
a bloody lovely producer in Meursault. Couche-Bizouard, to wit. Not
Couche-Dury (did not ask him but I heard they are kind of cousins). Wer had
called well in advance and booked a cellar tasting, MC-d by M Couche
himself. A lesson for anyone who believes there is no such thing as terroir.
He opens bottle after bottle, starting with the lowly but sparky ALigoté,
working his way up through the Bourgogne appelation system, the Bourgogne
Blanc, the lesser communes (St Romain, Auxey-Duresses), then homing in on
Meursault - the base commune cuvée, the lieu-dits, then, the premier crus
.... I asked about vinification. All the same, he said. 18 months in barrel,
no differences (except the St Romain, which was a 2003 and had only done 12
months in barrel). That bottle from a plot there and there, this from
another plot, 200 m closer to the Route National ... that one all of three
kilometers to the West ... all different, in some cases completely
different.
Anyway. The point. Yes. THe point. The point being that M Couche opened
wines (yes, he only poured from bottles he opened in front of our very eyes,
despite the fact that he had just held another tasting, and there were
half-empty bottles galore - these he just put on the floor, and pulled out
new ones, with the air of a MAgician, producing more and mroe complicated
rabbits ... I already said that in a previous post, didn't I? Sorry.)
The price of the bottles he opened, over the counter, amounted to somethng
like EU 400.
I don't know how much we shopped for, but I rather doubt it came out with a
profit for him. We did buy rather a lot (and self and Xina has been back,
later, and bought some more, without any tasting).
I get the feeling that our good wine producers are walking a very thin line,
at times. Some of the old ones said, several years back, that you could
always tell who were cheating with their wines -those were the ones driving
costly sports cars.

If you come to Meursault, please contact Couche Bizouard. I dare say you
will not regret it.

Cheers

Nils Gustaf
--
Respond to nils dot lindgren at drchips dot se