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Vintner shares relative opinions

The Moueix family is uniquely qualified to compare the wines of Napa and Bordeaux.

By CHRIS SHERMAN
Published January 10, 2007

A real estate agent would say the differences between Napa and Bordeaux are location, location, location.

The Beach Boys might sing it better as sun, sun, sun.

But is it so simple? Let's ask a young man, Edouard Moueix, whose family owns a very nice piece of each.

His grandfather, Jean-Pierre, revived an old estate in Pomerol, the heart of French merlot country, and built Petrus into the most famous wine on Bordeaux's Right Bank - and the most expensive.

His father, Christian, branched out to California to start Dominus and Napanook, now among Napa's best. From their perspectives in California and in Bordeaux, they have confronted the old prejudices:

Indeed, warm California sun is key in wine's geography. Napa is hot and dry all summer and early fall, so grapes ripen easily. In Bordeaux? Not so much.

Location is reflected in consistently good harvests in Napa year after year: some great, rarely terrible. In Bordeaux's clouds and chills early and late, each vintage is distinct: a few great, a few unmentionable.

So location plays in the strategy of American wine buyers. The rich chase California's cult brands year in and year out. But for French wines, big U.S. buyers bid up wildly for hyped "great vintages" and spurn the rest.

That's the book, but the Moueix pronounced moo-wex family doesn't buy it. And with three generations of experience, their long view is worth hearing in a century still in its early years.

"California is anything but the same every year," Moueix says. Other Napa winemakers have come to agree since the dicey '98 vintage, which needed careful thinning.

Shaped by the media

He can't complain about mad buying of hyped vintages. The Petrus from the vaunted 2005 now brings upwards of $2,000 per bottle. But he despairs at the simplistic myopia that overlooks "lesser" French vintages, which are often better buys.

And don't get him started on the pro-pinot/boo-merlot slam in the wine comedy Sideways. Though the film was released in 2004, the digs still worry merlot makers in France and the United States. (He notes that the hero's most treasured bottle was Cheval Blanc, a largely merlot blend.)

"This movie shows how fragile wine is today and that it's fashion," he said.

Sideways was another wake-up call on how silly the wine market can be. "The morning after the 60 Minutes show (which reported in 1991 that red wine allowed the French to eat more fat but have fewer heart attacks), a friend of my father called him from New York. He said Americans are going to start drinking red wine. My father said, 'How can that be?' "

Not that the Moueix family are stuffy traditionalists.

Prestigious Petrus, for example, is kept in decidedly unromantic concrete, not big barrels of priceless oak. "It's not as beautiful as a row of 15 big wooden tanks, but beautiful isn't always what works."

In Napa, Moueix's architects pioneered an eco-friendly winery with thick walls of black stones piled in wire cages.

In full sun the loose rock - there is no mortar - keeps out the sun's heat but lets light and breezes filter through. During a visit to the winery, the interior felt wine-cellar cool.

A personal choice

Yet the family's thinking is unfaddish, according to the youngest generation. "We may be slower but we want to think through changes. We all discuss it. With wine all our decisions have to be for the future. We must be very stubborn."

That philosophy extends from high-priced labels to the middle ranks of Napanook ($40) and very inexpensive French wines including an under-$10 Christian Moueix Merlot made from villages near Bordeaux.

By the way, Moueix is not keen on cheaper wines from Languedoc but says, "the Cotes du Rhone is fantastic."

And ultimately his interest is in sharing a generous approach to wine (Petrus and Dominus sell themselves, thank you).

Though the youngest Moueix at 30 can affect the tweedy look of a Town & Country squire, he was more comfortable in a Brad Pitt fringe of wispy black beard when he came to Tampa last month for a grand dinner at Bern's Steak House.

He shuns wines too powerful in flavor and alcohol. "People are hit by the wine, not caressed."

He encourages drinkers to sip wine and savor for 30 to 45 seconds, not gulp. "Or we forget about the pleasure. Enjoy your glass for yourself and your friends, not for the label." But then he does own a big one or two.

"You do share a bottle," he explained, "but your taste is your own. You do not share the pleasure. It is a very private pleasure."

[Last modified January 9, 2007, 11:04:52]