Pinball Number
Count: Bouchard Père 1923-2013

BY NEAL
MARTIN | APRIL 16, 2025

“One
two three four five, six seven eight nine ten, eleven twelve.” 

These lyrics
will be familiar to kids on both sides of the Atlantic who sat in front of the
gogglebox to watch “Sesame Street.” Having never travelled to the United
States, this seminal kids’ educational program, first aired in 1969 and going
strong today, was my peephole into a fantastical land where I might go to the
supermarket and meet the Six Million Dollar Man, Red Hand Gang or Eric and Ernie.
The segment that is indelibly imprinted upon my malleable brain, both visually
and audibly, is the “<a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOaZbaPzdsk">Pinball Number Count</a>” that taught viewers numbers one to
twelve. The surreal animated sequence of a shiny pinball ricocheting around the
machine heightened anticipation until that episode’s number was revealed. I bet
you never knew that the vocals for the show’s stone-cold killer, funky, jazz-tinged
soundtrack were performed by the legendary Pointer Sisters long before “Jump”
or “I’m So Excited.”

When we
next congregate at Château de Beaune for a numerically themed dinner of
Bouchard Père’s wines, I will recommend playing the “Pinball Number Count”
theme. We could all join in and shout out the number. Last year, we learned
about the number two courtesy of a 1952 Corton-Charlemagne, an 1892 Beaune and
a dozen or so others. This year, the theme was, you guessed it, the magic
number three.&nbsp; &nbsp;

It was
the same format. The two Frédérics, which sounds like a pair of tenors rather
than Groupe Artémis CEO Frédéric Engerer and head winemaker Frédéric Weber, raided
Bouchard Père’s treasure trove of back vintages that accreted over decades. All
bottles were served blind and, as it turned out,
not necessarily from Bouchard Père, since, unbeknownst to guests, Engerer smuggled
in bottles from stablemates Domaine d’Eugénie and Clos de Tart. This is not a
showcase for Bouchard Père, no greatest hits compilation. There is a higher
cause: to intermix the greats with less trodden vineyards and, in particular,
no-go vintages. An evening of contrast and consanguinity. This tasting is akin
to a large family gathering, with long-lost relatives convening and looking
each other up and down, from adolescents to great-grandparents, plus the odd
grumpy uncle. 

The
evening was almost over before it began. Arriving later
than other guests after a busy day at the proverbial “office,” I found the
entry door locked. Standing on tiptoe, I could see dinner guests milling about
the orangerie with pre-prandial glasses of Champagne, but the doorbell
made no sound. Waving my arms like a lunatic in the dark street was in vain. I
tried several other doors, all locked. In the end, I spotted a friend and sent
an emergency text. Fortunately, his mobile was switched
on. 

<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1744647659311-bouchard+bottles+full+line+up_Vinous.JPG">This is
an article where the tasting notes speak for themselves, but a couple of
observations: 

Firstly,
you can make great wine from even the most disparaged growing season. I recently
read Antonio Galloni’s <a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/2021-barolo-changing-times-changing-wines-jan-2025">Barolo
2021 report</a>, where he wrote about the danger of winemakers relying too much
on data and not enough on actually tasting the wines. I concur. Fine wine is
not a standardized product dictated by the growing season or winemaking
technique. To use a sporting analogy, knowledge of such background information sets
the bar and governs how high or low we predict a wine will perform. Yet we know
all too well that the high jumper might fluff their run-up and crash into the
bar or simply sail over it with ease. What determines
the outcome of any wine depends on a multitude of factors whose
inter-relationships remain partially known and do
not necessarily comport to statistics or scientific analyses.

A
cursory glance at meteorological data pertaining to a vintage like 1963 implies
that no wine from the mid-1960s would be worth drinking, let alone after six
decades. Yet up trotted the 1963 Volnay Caillerets Ancienne Cuvée Carnot
and it was sublime. This is a vintage when flowering did not finish until the
end of July, summer was a damp squib, and then, despite an Indian summer, there
was insufficient warmth to fully ripen what was a large crop. Some growers did
not finish picking until November that year. The 1963 Savigny-lès-Beaune Les
Lavières did not quite pass muster, but it was certainly no write-off. That
is the magic, the enigma, the unpredictability of wine, and long may that
continue. Also, I must mention the 1973 Montrachet Grand Cru, another
supposedly poor season due to excessively high yields. As pointed out at
dinner, the whites that year might have lacked ambition but have cruised along
without falling apart. 

Secondly,
whatever Bouchard Père was doing in Corton-Charlemagne in the 1950s, they were
doing it right. Last year, the 1952 Corton-Charlemagne snatched wine of the
night, and this year, the 1953 Corton-Charlemagne was cut from a similar
cloth, so complex and mineral-driven, undimmed by the passing years. The head
winemaker at that time was Joseph Bouchard, father of Christophe Bouchard, who
was born in 1922 and tragically died in an accident in 1965. Weber later told
me that Joseph Bouchard was extremely respected. The wines made during his
tenure are a testament to a talent cut short. 

<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1744647685120-bouchard+1923+bottles_Vinous.JPG">Perhaps
one takeaway from the wines is that beauty can be found irrespective of age. I
found the first and youngest wine, the 2013 Chevalier-Montrachet,
delectable by dint of its elegance and refinement. Similarly, the oldest wine (after
they could find nothing suitable from the 19th century), the 1923
Beaune Clos de la Mousse, was astonishing for its ineffable complexity,
grace and purity. It was a pertinent reminder of how the most propitious
parcels in the Beaune appellation can vie with more illustrious appellations
like Vosne-Romanée or Gevrey-Chambertin. This was one of my wines of the year. 

Not
everything hit the spot, ineluctable when chained to numerical vintages. The 1983
Montrachet was compromised by that year’s notoriously wet weather, though
it had an intriguing petrol scent that was probably a result of botrytis in the
vines. When it came to the 2003 Clos de Tart, I was unimpressed and vocally
tore it apart. Overripe and burdened by excessive cassis scents that rendered
the palate one-dimensional, I found this almost sacrilegious given the monopole
in question, even taking into account that year’s torrid heat. This resulted in
a heated cross-table debate with wine writer Michel Bettane, who argued, in his
own inimitable way, that the absence of Burgundian traits is precisely what
makes it special. I rejoindered that if a wine bears no trace, no semblance of what
it should be, then it has forsaken its raison d’être? Just go buy an
alternative at a fraction of the price that will give you identical sensory
pleasure. Suffice it to say that some guests were shocked by my outburst. However, in the presence of such bottles and with knowledge gathered around the
table, surely there should be open debate and dialectic as to what constitutes
a great wine.

<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1744650138359-bouchard+three+stats_Vinous.jpg">Frédéric
Weber kindly sent me information pertaining to the vintages in question in
terms of harvest date and so forth.

I will
leave it there. The evening was a testament to the treasures that slumber in Bouchard
Père’s cellars. It was a privilege to drink bottles of such antiquity, bottles
that had gathered dust in the same bin where they were placed sometimes decades
ago. It proved the majesty of great vineyards like Corton-Charlemagne and
Montrachet, but also that a well-made wine from more modest vineyards can deliver
just as much magic. Few exercises compare to learning to count as a kid or drinking
history as a grown-up. Just as these wines from Bouchard Père have outlived
many of their peers, so “Sesame Street” has outlived practically every kids’
program.&nbsp;© 2025, Vinous. No portion of this article may be copied, shared or redistributed without prior consent from Vinous. Doing so is not only a violation of our copyright but also threatens the survival of independent wine criticism.<hr> You Might Also Enjoy<a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/the-lord-giveth-burgundy-2023-jan-2025">The Lord Giveth…Burgundy 2023</a>, Neal Martin, January 2025<a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/burgundy-2023-the-state-of-play-jan-2025">Burgundy 2023: The State of Play</a>, Neal Martin, January 2025<a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/future-memories-drc-2022-in-bottle-feb-2025">Future Memories: DRC 2022 In Bottle</a>, Neal Martin, February 2025<a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/2023-burgundy-supplement-feb-2025">2023 Burgundy Supplement</a>, Antonio Galloni, February 2025<a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/domaine-j-f-mugnier-musigny-retrospective-1993-2016-feb-2025">Domaine J-F Mugnier Musigny Retrospective: 1993-2016</a>, Jay McInerney, February 2025<a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/oldies-but-goldies-bouchard-pere-1892-2012-apr-2024">Oldies But Goldies: Bouchard Père 1892-2012</a>, Neal Martin, April 2024

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