Honed in on Burgundy

I was really looking forward to meeting Becky Wasserman-Hone in Burgundy, and she did not disappoint. The lady is funny, opinionated and whip-smart. 

But I was equally impressed by her husband and business associate, Russell Hone. Over a long lunch -- I suspect the Hones have no other kind -- at Les Caves Madeleine in Beaune, he gave a great explanation on why the wines coming out of Burgundy are more consistent in quality. Among the reasons cited by the eloquent and loquacious Brit ex-pat:

*More education -- the classroom type -- for the younger generations of grape growers and winemakers. That means more knowledge in the vineyards and the winery. One example: Burguindians used to tend to throw in all the grapes they had picked, no matter the ripeness level. "They figured the green ones provided acidity and the overripe ones added more sugar, so why not?," Hone said. Now they sort carefully and eschew underripe and overripe fruit.

*Better technology, and a clearer understanding of when and why the old ways of doing things work best, and when to go the 21st-century route.

*More exchanging of information. Burgundians have been notoriously tight-lipped not only with outsiders but among themselves for, well pretty much forever. In recent years, they have been in a more sharing mode. Gone are the days when, as Hone recounts, he would go to the house of a grower, ask where to find a certain local negociant and be told "never heard of him" -- only to find out that the negociant lived next door and was a good friend of the grower's. Nowadays they share not only the who but the how and why, Hone said.

*The weather, of course. Warmer growing seasons make for more even ripening, although there have been recent scares brought on by very warm springs, including this year.

Some of these factors are inter-related, of course, and the information exchange plays off all the others. 

Earlier in my Beaune trip, Philippe Drouhin had said that his father Robert "would say that we don't do any better with the really good vintages." But there's no question that Philippe and his younger peers have ensured that the bad vintages are probably a thing of the past.