The Wines : Leaning on the Burgundies

When Maurice Peguet and Roland Gibert assembled the wine list at Tulipe they cheated.

After doing a nice job on the California portion of the list, complete with prestigious names like Trefethen, Sterling, Raymond, Calera, Saintsbury and Chalone, they put together a huge part of the French side of the carte de vin by simply calling up Martine Saunier and saying, “Send us the best red and white Burgundies you have.”

Perhaps that’s not cheating. Perhaps it is simply evidence of savvy. San Rafael-based Martine’s Wines is one of those little import houses that used to exist in profusion two decades ago, before the giant distilleries began to control the flow of imports.

Martine herself is a legend. Burgundy-born and reared, the elegant lady began importing wine into the United States ten years ago, delighting in finding tiny producers of small quantities of great wine and then marketing them to those who’d understand them best. It turns out that Maurice too hails from Burgundy and he knows Martine. And he clearly knows wine.

As soon as I got the list from the maitre d’ I realized that Martine had been in to see the folks at Tulipe; the restaurant stocks 1987 Muscadet Cuvee One from Louis Metaireau, one of the most reputable small producers of Muscadet, and a house that is exclusively handled here by Martine. The wine, at $18, is fairly priced. (Retail price is $12.50.)

Then I glanced at the White Burgundy section, a dozen wines long and ranging in price from $18 (for a Saint Veran) to $115 (for a Batard-Montrachet). Every wine on the list was from Martine’s collection. As were the four Loire Valley whites. And among the 15 red wines of Burgundy (ranging in price from $23 to $60), Martine was the exclusive supplier.

You will not find any of the more familiar Burgundy names--such as Drouhin, Jaffelin, Jadot or Latour--on this list. Martine stocks names, such as Guyot, Bouzereau, Voconet, Dubreuil Fontaine, that are not exactly household words.

You won’t find any Haut-Brions or Lafites on this list either; the 20 Bordeaux were chosen for value, not prestige. The most recognizable name is Chateau Pichon-Lalande, the 1985 version of which is offered at $67. Since this wine has a suggested retail price of $62, at Tulipe it’s a bargain.

Most pricing is fair, about 2.5 times wholesale. But with the French red and whites, pricing is closer to a reasonable 2.2 times wholesale, and a few wines are actually priced just pennies above retail.

And there are wines in a wide range of prices, too, so those on a budget can have an $18 Chardonnay (1987 Hidden Cellars) or a $15 Zinfandel (1986 Hidden Cellars) and have superb wine without wincing.

Nitpickers might point out the few misspellings (one is funny: “Chateau Neuf de Pape”); there are no producers’ names on a few of the wines, a number of key designations are missing (which Sonoma Cutrer Chardonnay is it that’s $27?), and vintage dates are missing from a couple of wines.

But all this can be fixed in the next incarnation of this list. Meanwhile, you get excellent service and glassware that’s large enough to swirl.

And Martine’s personal guarantee that the Burgundies will be good if not recognizable.