TWENTY-ONE YEARS AFTER THE WATERSHED PARIS TASTING, THE CALIFORNIANS WERE BACK in the French capital with some of their best wines. But this time they came invited.
Jean-Claude Rouzaud, the 55 year-old president of Champagne Louis Roederer, organized the Paris event. After 30 years with Roederer, Rouzaud wanted to throw a party celebrating the anniversary. He and his PR-savvy team came up with the idea of inviting the owners of what Rouzaud believes are the world's top 30 wines.
For many of the wines, Rouzaud's criterion was sometimes just that he fell in love with them during a tasting or a dinner. "The list could have been longer; indeed it should have been longer. By definition, this is an unfair list," he said.
Half of his top 30 wines were from France. The other 15 wines consisted of four each from California and Germany, two from Italy, and one each from Spain (Bodegas Vega Sicilia Unico), Australia (Penfolds Grange), Lebanon (Chateau Musar), Hungary (Disznoko Tokay Aszu 5 Puttonyos) and Chile (Casa Lapostolle Merlot Cuvee Alexandre)
His French selections were heavily weighted toward Bordeaux, with nine wines from that region. These were chateaus Yquem, Cheval-Blanc, Ausone, Petrus and the five first growths: chateaus Margaux, Lafite Rothschild, Mouton-Rothschild, Haut-Brion and Latour. Four wines came from Burgundy (Romanee-Conti, Domaine Faiveley's Clos des Cottons, Domaine Leflaive's Chevalier-Montrachet and the Montrachet Marquis de Laguiche from Maison Joseph Drouhin). The other two French wines were E. Guigal's Cote Rotie La Turque from the Northern Rhone Valley and, of course, Roederer's cuvee Cristal Champagne.
"I'm a chauvinist and nationalist, and I prefer the great Bordeaux more than other wines of the world," said Rouzaud. He was 25 years old when he joined Roederer, which is owned by his family, in 1967, after finishing enology school. Roederer sells a little over 200,000 cases of Champagne yearly.
Everyone agreed that it took an outsider like a Champenois to gather such an international group in France. Someone from Bordeaux or Burgundy couldn't have done it.
Rouzaud's U.S. choices consisted of
From Germany, Rouzaud picked Joh. Jos. Pruem, C. von Schubert, Schloss Johannisberg and Egon Mueller-Scharzhof. From Italy, he chose two Tuscan wines: Sassicaia, made by Nicolo Incisa della Rocchetta, and Solaia, made by Piero Antinori. Angelo Gaja of Piedmont was invited but couldn't attend.
Before agreeing to participate, the Bordeaux first growths set some conditions, the foremost being that no comparative tasting with their international competition would be held. And Rouzaud and his people had to draw on their diplomatic skills to prod some of the Bordelais to agree to a group photo with their colleagues from other wine regions. But in the end, the convincing Rouzaud won them over.
"The photo was a social question, so that was easier. But getting the Bordelais to have their wines served with the others', that was out of the question," said Roederer marketing director Franrois-Xavier d'Halluin. "Maybe Petrus [Moueix family] and Yquem [Count Alexandre de Lur Saluces] would have agreed, but not the others."
"I understand them," said Rouzaud of the first growths. "They are sort of like a clan, a club. They have these rules. They feel that when you are first growths you are untouchable."
So the event took place in two steps: first, a dinner featuring the Bordeaux wines; then a tasting the next day with all the other wines, but no Bordeaux.
The 30 estates' proprietors and about 90 guests, many French and non-French journalists, attended the elegant dinner at Tour d'Argent on Sept. 8. As we overlooked the boats passing below on the Seine River and admired the view of the lit-up Cathedral of Notre Dame in the distance, we enjoyed a tremendous feast of caviar, foie gras, lobster, duck, more duck, cheeses and a dessert "refreshed" with Sauternes. With the various courses we drank Roederer 1982 Cristal Rose and 1979 Cristal (both in magnums), 1982s from all the first growths and Ausone, Cheval-Blanc and Petrus, 1966 and 1990 Romanee-Conti, and different vintages from the Bordelais, like 1986 Mouton-Rothschild and 1988 Yquem.
But no wine from Guigal of the Rhone Valley or the non-French producers. Their turn came the next day in the beautiful setting of the Louvre Museum, underneath the giant glass pyramid landmark. Here Anne-Claude Leflaive poured her 1992 Domaine Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet, an unctuous yet fresh wine with a minerallike, smoky character. Robert Drouhin served the 1989 Marquis de Laguiche Montrachet. They stood next to Egon Mueller of the Saar Valley in Germany, whose 1990 Scharzhofberger Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese was one of the most stunning wines of the two-day event: rich, thick and powerful, with loads of fig, dried apricot and dried pineapple flavors, and racy acidity.
John Duval, chief winemaker of Australia's Southcorp Wines, poured 1990 Penfolds Grange across the aisle from Serge Hochar of Lebanon (who served Chateau Musar from 1990, 1988 and 1972). Incisa della Rocchetta came with his 1988 Sassicaia, Antinori with his 1994 Solaia, Marcel Guigal with a sumptuous 1991 Cote-Rotie La Turque and Paul Draper with a deep, flavorful and complex 1991 Ridge Monte Bello
"Wines are without borders," observed Guigal. "Whenever people ask me what my favorite U.S. wine is, I always say Paul Draper's. To stand here next to him, that's quite an honor."
Such a welcome touched the Americans, and nobody had hesitated to accept the invitation. "To be invited as one of the world's top wineries, do you think I'd say no?" said Winiarski.
Even Joseph Heitz made the trip, although a stroke earlier this year has handicapped him. He came with his 1975 Heitz Martha's Vineyard, overseeing the pouring of the wine from his wheelchair.
"Joe first came to promote our wines in 1973," said his daughter, Kathleen, "and since then the attitude here has changed. To see such a change over one's lifetime, that's really exciting."
Paul Draper said the event came at a bad moment for him, with the harvest starting in California. "But the invitation was too much of a compliment to pass over. It tells us that there is greater openness in France, that they understand that we now live in a global economy," said Draper. "The French producers have spent time in the United States, and they have seen some vineyards like those we here represent. And we are dedicated to the natural process of making fine wine, not just industrial production. Everyone in this room is committed to that goal."
Still, some regretted that the Bordelais wouldn't show their wines next to the foreign wines. The Bordeaux chateaus do it outside France, at the New York Wine Experience, for instance. But it's uncommon in France. "They are cowards," said a feisty Al Brounstein of Napa Valley, who was pouring various vintages of Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill, Volcanic Hill Microclimate and Lake bottlings.