No tasting note given. There are two sides to every coin. While top vignerons are estate bottling more and more of their production, the flip side is the increasing difficulty negociants are finding in acquiring quality wines and grapes. Bouree's 1995s seem to indicate that the Vallet family, which owns this old house, are victims of this shortage. When coupled with the fact that their traditional winemaking techniques (older barrels, two finings and filtering of the whites) need to be modernized and the cellar cleaned up, the results are unexciting, austere, sometimes dirty, and often tannic wines that lack the freshness and thick fruit of the better producers. This note is the result of tastings I did in Burgundy between January 7 and January 29. The wine was tasted from cask, not bottle. Pinot Noir, a fragile varietal, reacts poorly to fining, filtration, and careless bottling techniques, I recommend caution when considering buying a red burgundy based on cask samples. I called it as I tasted it, and hope the bottled wine reflects the quality of the samples I was provided. Importer: Classic Wine Imports, Boston, MA; tel (617) 731-6644.

One of the newest entries in the Bouree stable is their excellent Premier Cru Beaune Les Epenottes, of which the Vallet family now owns one-fourth a hectare of old vines. The 1988 is deliciously supple and smooth, and crammed with black cherry and raspberry fruit. It also exhibits a touch of toasty new oak, unusual for a Bouree wine. While I am rarely ever enthralled by Bouree Pere et Fils' white wines, the red wines are of extremely high quality, particularly in the top vintages. They are very traditional burgundies that are vatted for over three weeks, kept in old oak barrels, and bottled unfiltered. In fact, the Bouree Pere et Fils may be the last firm in the Cote d'Or to bottle their burgundies in a top vintage. This firm maintains a surprisingly low profile and its prices are extremely reasonable considering the quality of their wines. Burgundy lovers should search out some of their excellent 1988s.

I think one of the wines to seek out in 1987 will be the Beaune Les Epenottes, which shows gobs of rich, velvety, ripe berry fruit, medium body, and a soft, velvety texture. For those who lament the fact that burgundy does not taste the way it used to, Bouree will change your mind.