The Best of Bruce Schoenfeld

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My sister called from Florida last year when her husband Ed was turning 50. He had been dropping hints that he’d like a wine gift.

She wanted advice on a half-case (six bottles) that would average $100 or less. I didn’t want to include anything as obvious as a Bordeaux first-growth from the affordable 1999 or 2001 vintages, or even a second-wave cult Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa. Ed could suss out those for himself.

But this was a 50th birthday, after all, so it also wouldn’t be appropriate to fill the gift box with underrated Chablis and best-buy Dolcetto. I needed skyrockets, marching bands, that sort of thing.

The Best of Bruce Schoenfeld

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Once every decade, meaning two-and-a-half times less frequent than a U.S. presidential election or a soccer World Cup, the governing body of Bordeaux’s St.-Emilion appellation reviews its classification of top properties. This is more often than the classification of Bordeaux’s Left Bank properties gets altered, which is once in its 201-year history, but it’s still not exactly a frequent occurrence. It happened last (September).

Before the Internet, it could take days for news to arrive about the various promotions and relegations. When Chateau Angelus and Chateau Beau-Sejour Becot gained Premier Grand Cru Classe status in 1996, I scoured newspapers for a week before finally calling France for an update.

Bruce Schoenfeld in Swartland, South Africa

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Every once in a while, I come across a winemaker with such confidence in his convictions, such philosophical purity to his techniques, that he’s capable of singlehandedly altering the mindset of his appellation.

Eben Sadie of South Africa’s Sadie Family Wines doesn’t have the renown of the Rhone’s Michel Chapoutier, or Burgundy’s Dominique Lafon, or California’s Helen Turley. But he’s every bit as certain as they are that he’s making wine as it should be made.