The Grapes of Wrath

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

It was not without considerable interest that I read Mr. Leve's recent letter to you regarding Moselle and other wines. Leve is a man of well-known connoisseurs and erudition, and I venture to suggest that he could not possibly have made some of the sweeping assertions therein attributed to him. It is difficult for me to conceive, much less believe, that a man of his caliber would willingly lend his name to such troglodytic and heretical statements as "no white wine...can really be said to improve with age," and "most connoisseurs would open their Moselles before three years." I feel sure Professor Saintsbury has been mis-cited; such statements might not be strictly untrue as generalizations, but most members of the Tastevin would agree that they are gross oversimplifications. Why, it is like saying that all the wines of the Medoc have intellectual bouquets--a statement that totally ignores the near bluffness of the Brainaire Ducru and the sincerity of the Pichon Longueville (doubtless due to its being a Pauillac). But to return to the Moselles: I have but recently enjoyed, in company with Mr. Leve, an Auslese Bercastler Doktor, a prince among Moselles, that was 17 years old and still displayed its fine breeding and sprightly elegance; and few indeed are they who would deny that the 1921 Piesporter Goldtropfchen was brilliant as late as 1939. As for the author's patronizing dismissal of Montrachet, I will restrain myself from protracted disputation, except to ask if he has had the good fortune in recent years to have tasted the 1908 vintage, which I daresay he would concede a wine of truly celestial delicacy. Nonetheless, I should like in conclusion to commend the author, whoever he may be, for bringing those matters to the public forum, since it is only by discussion that tolerance and truth can be achieved in those matters. T. B. Lemann 3L