Exploring Your Wine Cellar
By Mary Margaret McCamic MW | General Manager, Karolus Wine Imports
The Bonneau du Martray team in the vineyards taking heed of social distancing.
As I write this, both Napa (my home) and Burgundy (home of Bonneau du Martray) are on strict orders to social distance and stay at home amidst the heartbreaking situation with coronavirus. My colleagues in France are adhering to these regulations in the vineyard, as the picture I received from my colleaugue Thibault Jacquet in Pernand-Vergelesses shows here.
The picture makes me smile while I simultaneously feel a strong need to help in these times. My father was a physician. In what seems like another life, I was a high school English teacher. I left teaching nearly 13 years ago to pursue a career in wine. My respect for those who work in such fields runs deep, always, but especially now. I have to remind myself that working in wine can be helpful in a different way — it puts smiles on people’s faces, it has the capacity to uplift them in dire times, and it is usually a welcome companion in times of celebration. Great wine can bring great comfort, and it is probably why so many homebound collectors and professionals are turning to treasured bottles in times of uncertainty.
I think of Madame Bollinger’s famous quote: "I drink Champagne when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it -- unless I'm thirsty."
So, without making light of anything going on around us, I will use this post (and others) to dive into bottles that might bring you joy, be it through their consumption or by way of the stories they tell. Perhaps you have some of these bottles in your cellar. Perhaps it will make you reach for a bottle that carries particular meaning for you and your loved ones. While Bonneau du Martray is almost always on the front of my mind, given my mention of Bollinger earlier, I’ll start there, because it is a Champagne house that holds great meaning in my life and in my cellar.
Let me begin by saying that I have always enjoyed Champagne Bollinger. Its style is bold and expressive. The NV Brut Special Cuvée is often quite distinctive in a blind tasting, with generous portions of pinot noir, barrel influence, and distinct autolytic qualities that presents as brioche and toast. This thread of course runs through everything they make. Bollinger’s more specialized bottlings, the R.D.,Grande Année, and the rare Vieilles Vignes Françaises are absolutely stunning. But this is probably not news to anyone reading this post.
Aside from my personal enjoyment of the wines, I formed a particular affection for Champagne Bollinger when I became a Master of Wine in 2016, when I was awarded the Bollinger Medal for the highest tasting score on the exam. I became the third American to ever be awarded such an honor, and the reward included several cases of Bollinger (of which now only a few bottles remain), and a trip to Champagne to enjoy lunch at Madame Bollinger’s home.
That lunch took place in July 2017, and was hosted by Etienne Bizot, Lily Bollinger’s great nephew. It was a rainy morning in Aÿ when I arrived; I remember worrying about being late as I ran through the streets from our hotel with the mist in my face. The tour was gorgeous, the wines brilliant, but one stood out the most, as Etienne sneakily poured a blind tasting for us to guess at lunch. It turned out to be a bottle of the 1973 R.D., which was disgorged in 1982 to mark the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. I remember it showing so much younger than it actually was, with lifted aromatics, a gorgeous yet delicate mousse, and a long, extraordinary finish. I still have the bottle and cork at home.
After the lunch, I was escorted into the sitting room by my now-husband, as everyone else went to get coffee (this seemed odd to me, as there had been ample service throughout our lunch - why would Etienne be getting coffee?) In a memory that seems almost like a dream, I remember my husband getting on one knee, proposing, and a flood of excitement as Etienne and the others who had been waiting at the door came in after I’d said yes. Surprise, elation, anticipation all warped together on that misty day in Champagne.
Several years later, as I sit here at home, thinking on the world, it seems like an awfully nice time to open a bottle that will bring me comfort and hope, and remind me of a time that we hope will all come soon — when we can sit together, share great wine, and rejoice. Despite my best efforts to squirrel away the cases of Bollinger that were so generously gifted to me, I must confess that I shared so many with others in celebration over the last three and a half years that I have few to choose from. But my sights have landed on a bottle of 2005 La Grande Année Brut; a year of warmth in Champagne, a year of excitement and anticipation in my own life as I began my final year of college, not knowing that fifteen years later I would be thinking back on that time with such nostalgia.
Yes, the 2005 La Grand Année will do just fine tonight.
I hope you’ll find something that brings a flood of good memories as you explore your own cellar, too. There are several vintages that come to mind from Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne, not least the 2005 and 1991, each for different reasons, if you’re lucky enough to have either on hand.
Cheers.