By Lettie Teague

Daniel Johnnes’ La Paulee.

There is never a shortage of Burgundy wines in New York.  And this week there are plenty of Burgundian winemakers too. That’s because it’s almost time for La Paulee, the eating and drinking Burgundian extravaganza that Daniel Johnnes, wine director of the Dinex Group (aka Daniel Boulud’s group) has organized for the past eleven years.

But before La Paulee begins this weekend, various importers and distributors host their own Burgundy dinners and tastings all around town.

I attended one such dinner last night at Oceana where top winemakers, including Antoine Vincent (Chateau Fuisse), Eric Rousseau (Domaine Armand Rousseau) and Patrick LeFlaive (Domaine LeFlaive Freres) were all presenting their wines.

While many of the wines served that night were memorable (2007 Chateau Fuisse Pouilly Fuisse Vielles Vignes; 2007 Daomine Sylvain Cathiard Nuits St.-Georges Les Murgers and the 2007 Domaine Armand Rousseau Clos de la Roche), the same couldn’t be said of the winemakers’ speeches.

Most of them cited the size of their vineyards or thanked their fathers – except Oliver Leflaive, who did thank his brother  for letting him come to New York. He also counseled the assembled group of writers, sommeliers and fans that his wine, the 2008 Leflaive Corton Charlemagne, though delicious, was far too young to drink.

“If you drink it, you will kill the baby,” he said at one point.  I can’t say I liked that line but I liked the one that followed: “Leflaive will not solve all your problems, but it will bring you interesting new ones.”

At the end of the evening I realized that somewhere between dinner and home, I’d lost my hat. But I don’t think that’s what LeFlaive meant…

By Lettie Teague

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to field the kind of question that every wine professional dreads being asked: “I have a bottle of fill-in-the-blank that I’ve had in my cellar for the past 30 years and I’m wondering if the wine is any good.”

The answer is almost always “No” and this time was no different. The wine in question was a 1965 Pouilly Fuisse. The questioner was a musician-turned-educator named Barry. Not only was the wine he had somewhere in his house in New Jersey no good, it probably wasn’t that good to begin with, I told him. The vintage wasn’t exactly stellar to start and added to that was the fact that some 97% of the wines in the world are made to be consumed right away. Fortunately, Barry didn’t seem that surprised or even sad, though he noted the bottle had once belonged to his dad.

And so the other night, when we had Barry to dinner, I decided to open the oldest bottle of Pouilly Fuisse that I had – a 1996 Chateau Fuisse Pouilly Fuisse Vielles Vignes. It happens to be the only Pouilly Fuisse that can actually age. A Chardonnay made from vines up to 80 years old, it’s really more old white Burgundy than a mere Macconais. I hoped it would show well though I feared that 14 might be pushing it a bit. The wine was actually pretty good – goldish in color and tasting a bit like brioche and almonds –  not the least bit oxidized or over the hill. I was delighted at how well it showed. Barry seemed pleased enough though perhaps not as impressed. “Nice,” he commented. “But I don’t know much about wine.”

Then just make sure you drink any wines that you buy now within the next year or so, I said.