VINTAGE CRITIC

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

In your article on Rene Peroy, Harvard's fencing coach, the statement appears, "Peroy in action is proof that a fencer, like a good bottle of Moselle, can improve with age." This careless simile should not go uncorrected. Any member of the Tastevin can tell you that a good bottle of Moselle will only improve with a little age, say up to five or six years at most. There may be rare exceptions, when a Moselle has been found to improve in bottle for as many as 15 or 20 years, but this is strictly the limit, and cannot be compared to the improvement and age of M. Peroy. Most connoisseurs would open their Moselles before three years. Andre Simon believes that the best Moselle is a very young Moselle; Maurice Healey, following Professor Saintabury, will drink a four-year Moselle, but none older. It is possible that the writer of your article was thinking of a Hock, or Rhine wine, grown somewhat to the east of the Moselles, which does have a somewhat to the east of the Moselles, which does have a somewhat greater staying power; but it must be remembered that no white wine, not even a Montrachet, can really be said to improve with age. It is only the great red wines that do this. Harvey A. Leve SL