This Is the Year That Will Be

France's Minister of Agriculture Edgard Pisani set would-be wine lovers fermenting last July when he advised colleagues at a Cabinet meeting to lay in a few casks of 1964 because it was probably going to be the best vintage since 1921. To insiders, however, this showed him about as wine-wise as a gas-station attendant in Marseille.

In the first place, 1921 was not all that wonderful, and no one can accurately predict the quality of a vintage two months before the harvest. Even then, prognosis is difficult. The highly touted 1959s, for instance, are already beginning to fade, while the rather rough 1957s are just beginning to achieve real quality; the 1934s, downgraded at first, became splendid in 1939.

But Pisani turned out to be a pretty good prophet after all: 1964, harvested, and much of it still bubbling to fermentation in casks of Bosnian oak, may well be a notable year as well as an abundant one. For all France, it is a happy relief after disastrous 1963--a summer so wet and sunless that many of the great vineyards, such as Chateau d'Yquem and Chateau Cheval Blanc, sold their entire harvest as vin ordinaire.

Noble Rot. Growth began about 15 days late last spring, but, once started, was spectacular. The summer was remarkable for its sun and dryness, with just enough rain in September to save the younger vines from drying out. Burgundy's Wine Growers Syndicate, keeping close watch on the balance of sugar and acidity in the ripening grapes, set the date for the beginning of the vendange (harvest) relatively early, and wine growers who did not delay were lucky. A solid week of rain that began on Oct. 7 stopped harvesting cold (wet grapes cannot be picked for fear that water may contaminate the juice) and halted the pourriture noble--:the "noble rot" -that is necessary for late ripening Chateau d'Yquem and other sweet sauternes.

Beaujolais, best drunk young and already on French tables, should be selected with care this year; the weather was so hot when the harvest began on Sept. 15 that vintners who failed to take the precaution of cooling their grapes overnight before squeezing them may have inhibited their fermentation, which ceases if the temperature of the grapes in the vats rises above 96DEG.

In Bordeaux the growers are delighted. "Really a remarkable vendange," glowed Henri Martin, president of the Interprofessional Council of Bordeaux Wines. "I never saw the vines looking so healthy." No responsible expert would dare say just how great the year will be, though Martin admits "the other great years of Bordeaux were not as amiable at first as 1964." The new vintage is extremely "supple" (low in tannin), therefore may "fade" more quickly than a "harder" wine.

Beautiful Harmony. But if the vintners are happy about 1964 in France, in Germany their cup runneth over.

"This is the year that the quantity-quality law went overboard," chortles round, ruddy Rudolph Ohl, one of Germany's 250 wine commissioners--responsible for tasting and grading the country's top wine. Swirling a pale yellow Niederwallufer Auslese in a clear thin-stemmed glass, then sniffing, tasting, chewing, slurping, gargling, and finally swallowing it, Ohl dared to rank 1964 higher than the superb 1959, which was, after all, "too one-sided; it lacked harmony."

The German "noble rot," called Edelfaule, was plentiful, making possible the fruity wine called Beerenauslese (selected rotten-ripe). Comments on the 1964 Rhines, Moselles and Rieslings ring the changes on the vocabulary of winesmanship. "There should be a great bouquet, and the wine will be well-balanced and round, not hard," said Top Wineman Friedrich Cornelssen. "It will have lots of body, lots of play-it will be rich in expression, healthy and many-sided. In short, 1964 will be one of the most interesting wine years in the past century."

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