Wine Gotha

Socialites of Manhattan's swank Brook Club tendered a test dinner last week to one of the chief arbiters of French wine elegance. M. le Baron Marcel Fouquier is president of the Academic des Oenophiles (wine lovers) which yields in dignity and discrimination not even to the Academic Francaise.

The Brook Club gave M. le Baron no wine from U. S. vineyards. "I have not tasted any yet, and I am sorry!" he exclaimed. "As a Frenchman I know that it must be California wines which will give your common people their first taste for something better than their beer, their whiskey or their gin."

Object of the Brook Club was to spread a post-Prohibition repast equal to any that Paris' No. 1 Oenophile can get at home. Next day, after mature reflection, M. le Baron positively affirmed that this had been done: "Never in Paris itself have I had a nobler meal. The whole perfect, even to the condition of each wine! And now, after so memorable an evening, I must really taste some California wines."

More to Brookish people's point is the fact that M. le Baron Fouquier has under compilation an exhaustive Wine Gotha or Who's Who among French vintages. Next year the Academic des Oenophiles will publish this Wine Gotha with its august imprimatur. Last week their president dictated a skeleton summary of French "good years," emphasizing that they apply only to the grand vin or superior grades of wine, particularly those bottled at the chateau. Good years, with the best in italics:

Bordeaux--1900, 1904, 1906, 1911, 1916, 1920, 1921, 1923, 1924, 1926, 1928, 1929.

Burgundies--1904, 1906, 1911, 1915, 1919, 1921, 1923, 1928, 1929, 1933.

Champagne--1900, 1904, 1906, 1911, 1915, 1921, 1923, 1926, 1928, 1929, 1933.

Such a list, valuable for general guidance, is of course only the groundwork of the Wine Gotha in which each subtle characteristic of each vintage will be described. Thus M. le Baron will write in part about the Bordeaux of 1916: "Good, complete without defects; will take a long time to become delicate but should become so. Very interesting to keep in stock."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.