Salut et merci pour tout, Marcel.
- Thread starter Brézème
- Start date
Florida Jim
Florida Jim
A life well lived, yes?
Best, Jim
Best, Jim
lars makie
lars makie
What unfortunate news to wake up to on a Monday morning. I never met the man, but I imagine him to have been as joyous and lively as his wines were. It seems like he had a deep influence on many. Best to them and his family.
Kevin Roberts
Kevin Roberts
Oh dear.
That is sad news indeed.
That is sad news indeed.
Joe Dressner
Joe Dressner
Several of us are organizing a tribute to Marcel in New York. A small event. I'll let anyone know who is interested.
scottreiner
scott reiner
thank you
Steve Edmunds
Steve Edmunds
I met him eight years ago. He seemed a very kind spirit. I feel lucky for the chance to drink with him.
Steven Spielmann
Steven Spielmann
I suppose this is as good a time as any to confess my wine conversion experiences. They are recent, and involve Beaujolais Nouveau, so I don't tend to share them in this sort of rarified company, but here goes.
For many years I was a grocery store bargain hunter. I drank under $10 Spanish and Italian reds, and when I found a good one I would buy a case, because most of them were mostly just useful for, well, drinking.
Then I married into a family with an Italian connection, so I started drinking the local peasant wines in the part of Tuscany her family lived in. These were un-complex, low alcohol, fresh, and alive, and about a euro or two a liter to drink, always from this or the past years' vintage. If 95% of what I drank was this sort of thing, even today, I wouldn't complain. But I don't live in Italy.
One year at Thanksgiving I was depressed so I wandered into a local shop that carries a lot of Kermit's wines. "Give me something that smells of springtime," I said to the clerk. She sold me some Dupeuble and Chermette nouveau, which I absolutely loved. This was the point at which I started really trying to learn about wine.
But I still wasn't obsessed.
A year or two after that nouveau, still poking around, I got convinced to spend I think $25 on the 2005 Lapierre Morgon, which seemed an inconceivable amount to pay for a bottle of wine at that point. But I was assured it was good.
It was more than good: it was breathtaking. The bouquet was like nothing I had ever experienced, so full of fruit and flowers and so achingly beautiful I couldn't have imagined anything like it beforehand. It's a reference point wine for me. I bought several more bottles of this 'insanely expensive' ($21 on the case? - felt like a fortune at the time) wine and shared it with everyone I could find. Many of them, grocery store bargain hunters as I had been, fell over themselves in awe: easily a dozen people told me it was the best wine they ever drank.
Who knows: maybe some of them are your customers today.
Those scents are etched into my mind forever.
So, I didn't know Marcel Lapierre, as I don't know most of you. But his wine changed my life. So I thought I'd post my regrets, and also say what I often say when people like this pass on: we should all be so lucky to have done with our own years what they did. Death is sad, but it is the price of admission for life, and a vigneron like Lapierre touches more of us during his time here than most.
For many years I was a grocery store bargain hunter. I drank under $10 Spanish and Italian reds, and when I found a good one I would buy a case, because most of them were mostly just useful for, well, drinking.
Then I married into a family with an Italian connection, so I started drinking the local peasant wines in the part of Tuscany her family lived in. These were un-complex, low alcohol, fresh, and alive, and about a euro or two a liter to drink, always from this or the past years' vintage. If 95% of what I drank was this sort of thing, even today, I wouldn't complain. But I don't live in Italy.
One year at Thanksgiving I was depressed so I wandered into a local shop that carries a lot of Kermit's wines. "Give me something that smells of springtime," I said to the clerk. She sold me some Dupeuble and Chermette nouveau, which I absolutely loved. This was the point at which I started really trying to learn about wine.
But I still wasn't obsessed.
A year or two after that nouveau, still poking around, I got convinced to spend I think $25 on the 2005 Lapierre Morgon, which seemed an inconceivable amount to pay for a bottle of wine at that point. But I was assured it was good.
It was more than good: it was breathtaking. The bouquet was like nothing I had ever experienced, so full of fruit and flowers and so achingly beautiful I couldn't have imagined anything like it beforehand. It's a reference point wine for me. I bought several more bottles of this 'insanely expensive' ($21 on the case? - felt like a fortune at the time) wine and shared it with everyone I could find. Many of them, grocery store bargain hunters as I had been, fell over themselves in awe: easily a dozen people told me it was the best wine they ever drank.
Who knows: maybe some of them are your customers today.
Those scents are etched into my mind forever.
So, I didn't know Marcel Lapierre, as I don't know most of you. But his wine changed my life. So I thought I'd post my regrets, and also say what I often say when people like this pass on: we should all be so lucky to have done with our own years what they did. Death is sad, but it is the price of admission for life, and a vigneron like Lapierre touches more of us during his time here than most.
Jay Miller
Jay Miller
To have brought so much enjoyment to so many people is certainly something to aspire to.
Joe Dressner
Joe Dressner
Tomorrow at Ten Bells, 7 pm. Lots of Morgon.
Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
Well said, Steven.
Thank you, Brezeme, for letting us know. A sad day today.
Thank you, Brezeme, for letting us know. A sad day today.
Joel Stewart
Joel Stewart
Nice words, Steven. He certainly has brought joy into my life with the wines of his I've had. We'll celebrate his life with some of his Morgon here as well.
Jonathan Loesberg
Jonathan Loesberg
A beautiful post, Steven. Thanks.
Zev Rovine
Zev Rovine
What a great post Steven. His wines have always felt so true and real to me. I feel lucky to have enjoyed such a true visionary's work. A sad day indeed.
Oswaldo Costa
Oswaldo Costa
So happy to arrive in France and so sad to hear this.
Steven, thank you for sharing that beautiful story.
I had a similar oenopiphany w/r/t Lapierre -- two of them, in fact -- but I was already a wine geek and neither story is as interesting as yours, so I'll let them be for now. Suffice it to say that the wines were important to me for reasons beyond their quality.
And thanks for sharing the sad news, Eric.
I had a similar oenopiphany w/r/t Lapierre -- two of them, in fact -- but I was already a wine geek and neither story is as interesting as yours, so I'll let them be for now. Suffice it to say that the wines were important to me for reasons beyond their quality.
And thanks for sharing the sad news, Eric.
William Piper
William Piper
A sad day for the wine world, for sure. His wines were among the first to show me the beauty of Beaujolais, and combined a conviviality, purity and seriousness in an seemingly impossible way. I have never met Marcel, nor have I visited Beaujolais, but to meet him and get insight on his wines and method had always been one of my goals. Again, I don't think we can overstate his importance - to our understanding of wine, to his region, and to wine itself.
nigel groundwater
nigel groundwater
Thanks Eric & Steven, Marcel's wines definitely brought me back to a Beaujolais long forgotten.
However for those that wonder about the future it seems as though he had an excellent grasp of the need for continuity and for years Mathieu has been very much involved in the 'art'. A king may be dead but hopefully lives on RIP.
However for those that wonder about the future it seems as though he had an excellent grasp of the need for continuity and for years Mathieu has been very much involved in the 'art'. A king may be dead but hopefully lives on RIP.