Michel Bettane’s Wine Cellar: Rare Vintages Worth Discovering

Michel Bettane’s life changed when he smelled a 1962 Château- h aut- b rion Bordeaux. He had just turned 18. His somewhat obsessive nature turned love at first sniff into a lifetime quest, or almost. A French, Latin and Greek teacher by training with a classics degree obtained in 1975, he was bored stiff in the school where he taught in the Beauce, an area without vineyards. Wine guided the rest of his life. In the 1980s, Mr. Bettane learned everything he could and began teaching classes in a wine club, where he quickly drew notice. In 1991, the Revue du vin de France , a sleepy magazine founded in 1927, needed a breath of fresh air and a new wine taster. He toured vineyards around the world seven days a week until teaming up with journalist Thierry Desseauve in 2004. Mr. Bettane has an old-school professorial style with all the faults that go with it, which has made him few friends. But his devotion to wine is absolute, his influence decisive and his aesthetic quest steadfast. He believes that the time has come for him to part with some of his considerable stock of wine. “My job,” he says, “cannot be limited to judging and rating…