By Stephen Meuse, Globe Correspondent, 5/21/2003
Among Burgundy mavens - possibly the world's fussiest wine constituency - the Becky Wasserman Selection mark has long been a polestar, reliably pointing the way to traditional, high-quality, classically proportioned wines. Becky Wasserman's gift for unearthing and then nursing along promising young winemakers is legendary in the region, as is her dedication to the cause of honest, straightforward, no-fooling-around-in-the-cellar winemaking. Widely esteemed as the expert's expert, her palate and impeccable judgment haven't always translated into business success.
Now, thanks in part to a burgeoning American interest in pinot noir-based wines that coincides with a string of fine vintages for red Burgundy, Wasserman's company, SARL Le Serbet, is on firmer ground.
New York-born Wasserman, 66, drifted into the wine business out of necessity, she says. Her second marriage was looking ''iffy'' and, determined to find something that would provide a measure of independence while she was living in France, , she became the sales agent for a neighbor in Beaune, France, who wanted help selling oak wine barrels to an emerging California wine industry.
''I really didn't know how to sell anything, but Andre Tchelistcheff [then winemaker at Beaulieu Vineyard] helped by bringing a group of 60 winemakers - California's best and the brightest at the time - to my house in France for dinner,'' she recalls last week at the bar of a Boston hotel, where she and her husband and business partner, Russell Hone, had stopped en route to the Nantucket Wine Festival.
By 1981 it looked as if the barrel business was becoming ''a pretty solid thing,'' Wasserman says. Her first efforts as a wine broker were for the late Jean Troisgros of the celebrated restaurant family from near Lyon.
Wasserman says she has not encountered discrimination as a woman or as an expatriate American during her career in wine. ''On the contrary, in France there was a long tradition of women running businesses and carrying on with things because two world wars had robbed the workforce of men. And they assumed that as an American I would be able to represent them properly in the US.''
Among the first properties represented by Wasserman were Domaine Michel Lafarge and Domaine de la Pousse d'Or.
How does a young woman from the United States with no experience with wine develop a palate capable of navigating the intricacies of a Burgundian cellar? ''Small girls who are myopic develop other senses,'' she says. ''As a girl, I didn't have a huge appetite, but I loved the taste of food in my mouth. As a novice buyer I asked myself a simple question: If I encountered this wine in a restaurant, would I like it?''
To Burgundy experts, a Becky Wasserman Selection means something quite specific. Len Rothenberg of Boston's Federal Wine & Spirits characterizes the aesthetic as one that shows ''classic Burgundian restraint.''
''Becky's wines emphasize proportion and expression, not extraction,'' he says. ''These are reliable wines in the sense that you can count on them to be made in a traditional style and to be expressive of place. They are Burgundies the way the French understand Burgundies.''
''In the wine trade these days there's a tabloid-esque quality to the discourse, '' Rothenberg adds. ''You'll never get that language from Becky. She's too smart, too knowledgeable, and too honest.''
Today, the notion that the condition of the vineyard and the quality of grapes issuing from it are the key elements in well-made wines is universally understood and appreciated, if not always taken to heart. Wasserman says that when she started out, that wasn't the case.
''The revolution that has taken hold in Burgundy in the last 10 to 15 years has been mainly a viticultural one, started by a few members of the older generation,'' she says. ''Today the vineyards are visibly in much better shape. Yields are lower; the horse is back. There is a crise de conscience about the state of the soil. When visiting a producer for the first time, I go straight to the vineyard. I look at the soil. Is the area between the rows a desert? If so, I know they're using pesticides and herbicides heavily. Does the soil smell good? Is there life in it? Do the vine leaves look crunchy or limp?''
Wasserman says her ideal wine is one that is plainspoken and neither heavily extracted nor oaked - a wine made to be enjoyed with food. ''If it's not something we want to drink ourselves, we find that we can't sell it, even if it would be a commercial hit,'' she says.
Both Wasserman and her husband agree that ordinary wine drinkers in America may be confused and disappointed when they do not experience all of the sensory elements in wine that others claim to have identified. Americans, the couple believes, have yet to fully embrace Burgundies. That problem could be solved if more good-quality Burgandies were available in the $15 to $25 range.
Over the years, Wasserman's company has endured two recapitalizations - events she refers to the way one would unpleasant surgical procedures. But some new challenges are in the offing. Her son Peter recently joined the company in a sales capacity, something that pleases her immensely. And in January 2002, Wasserman was named managing director of the venerable negociant, or merchant, house Camille Giroud when that firm was purchased by a group of American investors including Napa vintner Ann Colgin and her husband, Joe Wender.
Wasserman is visibly delighted at the prospect of the new venture, in part because she gets to oversee the care and feeding of a 350,000 bottle cellar with stocks that reach back to the 1937 vintage - the year she was born - but also because she relishes the idea of working with the recently hired 24-year-old winemaker.
''We work really well together and I thank that when a 66-year-old and a 24 year-old get on nicely it's a good sign,'' she says.
It's a fair bet the youngster will succeed. After all, he's a Becky Wasserman Selection.
Stephen Meuse can be reached at onwine@attbi.com.
This story ran on page E4 of the Boston Globe on 5/21/2003.