The Vinferno - Bonny Doon Vineyard

“If they truly noble Greats are, how came they here
And not to a finer, more exalted place?
Noble lives they led only to now reside in eternal drear.”
“The Great Ones enjoy a modicum of grace,
But barred from further ascent, expecting no more,
They abide here, grateful not to have ended up a burned-out case.
“This is Wine Limbo, where reside the brilliant vignerons of lore,
Masters who came B.S. (Before Spectation)
And were never awarded a numerical score.
“Thus, never qualifying for vinous salvation,
They gather around de Limbo Bar (how low can you go?)
And discuss the state of de vine on Earth with great consternation.” 11
I caught a glimpse of Dr. Jules Guyot, 12
Himself pruned back to a mere stump of the powerful man he was,
Conversing with Ronald Barton with significant brio.
There was a rather powerful buzz that came across
In conversation between two great Bourguignons,
René Engel and Dr. Barolet, anent the latter’s “secret sauce.”
There were the Greats from the Côtes du Rhône–
Rayas’ Louis Reynaud and Jacques Perrin from Beaucastel,
Debating whose Estate was finer, who really had the Stones.
“The wine business has really gone straight to Hell,”
This opinion voiced by M. Raoul Blondet. 13
“There is no more finesse, it is all late-harvest zinfandel.”
“If we could only have gotten then the prices we see today.
Today’s consumers are fools to pay what they do!”
A sentiment shared by Chafee Hall 14 and Madame Ferret. 15
“A hundred dollars a bottle for an unknown cru?
No track record, no terroir?” pondered Count Haraszthy.
“It’s given a high score and consumers don’t say boo.
“I’d say the practice is downright ghastly.”
“Calma, Count,” counseled the Veuve, Mme. Clicquot.
“You are, perhaps, over-reacting vastly.”
I had so many questions to pose to her and to my other heroes
Viz. “What were the pre-phylloxera wines really like in their prime?
Were they really so special, imbued with much greater mojo?”
The widow: “I didn’t really appreciate them so well at the time,
But let me give you a lesson, young man, and mark well:
While ‘tis true les grands crus d’antan were truly sublime,
11 They are particularly agitated about such high-tech “solutions” as reverse osmosis.
12 The most widely used vine training system, “le systeme Guyot” or “cane-pruning” as we know it, bears his name.
13 Legendary maître de chais at Mouton-Rothschild.
14 Proprietor of Hallcrest Vineyard in the ‘50s and producer of extraordinarily elegant wines.
15 Certainly the greatest producer in the appellation of Pouilly-Fuissé.