Brad Ballinger

Well, Brad doesn't say. Brad only quotes the price mentioned in the article from MSN. I wonder if it is $3.99 at one main source -- such as 2BC was the price at Trader Joe's, but cost a bit more elsewhere.

FYI, Landmark is a huge user of huge oak.

I think the "luxury" designation applies more to nations like the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom more than many other countries, and has nothing to do with diseases suffered by vines. In most mainland Europe countries, where wine is part of everyday life, many serviceable wines are cheaper than Coca Cola. I think is much more a lifestyle or cultural issue than a vineyard disease issue. You will hear the following phrase much more in this country than anywhere in Europe or Australia: "Oh, you're having wine. What's the occasion?"

For its availability and low cost, Basa Rueda.

I note you are from Ann Arbor. My guess is you are shopping at Village Corner. The staff should be able to help you very well.

Fred Franzia had been fighting the law which required wines with "Napa Valley" on the label actually be made with grapes from Napa Valley. His latest venture, Napa Creek, does that. And he's selling it for $3.99 a bottle. Article here.

I think you may have some difficulty with tasting German riesling wines at various degrees of "ripeness" primarily because in recent vintages you will find many kabinetten produced with grapes picked at auslese ripeness. The terms kabinett and so forth refer to the minimum amount of sugar in the grapes when picked and not the amount in the final bottled product -- although producers try to make kabinett taste like kabinett and not like auslese. If you go this route, I'd try to stick to the same producer in the same vintage. You may wish instead to focus on different regions -- Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Rheinghau, Nahe, Rheinhessen, Pfalz. This is probably the path I would take with all kabinetten or spatlesen. But you can also just get QbA wines (these don't carry ripeness designations), and you will find producers of these wines from all regions if your retailer has a good selection as you say. You can also try wines that are labeled trocken or halbtrocken. You can try wines made from riesling, scheurebe, huxelrebe, albolonga, sylvaner, etc.

I wish I had recent experiences with many of those wines. But I have some data points on a couple (and I think you know my palate). St. Innocent Seven Springs. I drank this way too young. This is one of the few domestic pinots that needs time. I would expect it to just be starting to open again. Grange. This was 3-4 years ago. In a vertical, the 94 stood out for me. Chante-Allouette. Nicely made but otherwise unremarkable. VT. I'm in the small amount of the population that doesn't bow down before this wine. I recall the 98 being an alcoholic behemoth. Maybe it's mellowig out, but I'm always concerned about how wines with a high alcohol profile will age. The percentage isn't extraordinarily high, but the wine did show as alcoholic to me. Montus. If it's the "normal" bottling, and not the prestige, it was still tight a year ago. But with some aeration, this wine should sing! Lynch Bages. I think there are several recent tasting notes on the WCWN board for the 89. I have the following in the cellar: 91 Phelps Eisele, 92 Fonseca, 94 Taylor Fladgate, 89 Lynch Bages. For the right price, I'll taste them for you.

Generally, anyone in the shipment chain can be fined for facilitating illegal shipments. For those players who've been "caught" and fined, it's not pleasant. And many choose to never let it happen again. It should be less of an issue if you are shipping to yourself, but many people still don't want to take the risk.

I've been to Arun's thrice, but the last time was in 2002, and the food had been a little bit more unimpressive with each successive visit. The third time, there weren't many people in the joint and our service was incredibly rushed. Not that I ever expect good service in a Thai restaurant on any scale, but that night it was very bad. I've had no plans to go back since. But I will add that the wine list was very well chosen and very well priced.

Peeled and deveined. I know there's some loss of flavor by removing the shells before grilling, but it's so much easier to serve to a larger group by peeling beforehand. Not butterflied -- too small.

Actually, with wines where you want oxidation, most of that takes place prior to bottling, and mbanu's question was about the beverage in the bottle. Many distilled spirits are also oxidized prior to bottling -- otherwise there wouldn't be a big deal about 12 year old scotch.

Humid air helps to keep the cork from drying out.

IMO, it's a fiar swap if not a better one for you if your preference wasn't for a wine as old as the 1990 both for its rarity and its character. I'm guessing the source charges more for the 1990 than the 1996, though, so I'd ask for an extra bottle or two or else some cash back.

I've been on a shrimp kick all summer. Part of it is because the shrimp truck from Fabian Seafood shows up several times during the summer. But I also buy plenty of frozen raw shrimp. I've hit upon an appetizer that kills at parties -- grilled shrimp served with chipotle mayonnaise. On occasion, I will be asked for the mayonnaise recipe, but I'm always asked how I prepared the shrimp, what I used for a marinade, etc. When I tell people olive oil, kosher salt, and cracked black pepper, they can't believe it. Half the time the follow up is "and for how long did you marinate them?" The answer, again, is I didn't. I brushed them with oil, sprinkled on salt and pepper and grilled them. I then tell them the only way to screw shimp up is to overcook them, marinade or no marinade. I've still fielded phone calls afterwards to the effect of "I'm going to a party and I want to bring those shrimp you made. What did you use for a marinade again?"

I don't think you are beeing too hard on yourself at all. It's your money, and you should spend it on wine you will enjoy. Period. I do believe, however, that your palate will change over time and you will find yourslef enjoying wines of a different style five years from now that you may not enjoy today. Similarly, you may find that wines you like today won't do much for you five years from now. Nothing wrong with that. Happens with most, but not all, people. Regarding Coteaux du Languedoc, I've had wines from that appellation which are lovely and wines from that region that I would never put in my mouth again. The variation can be attributed to vintage, producer, grape source, and blend (the wines can be made from carignan, cinsault, mourvedre, grenache, and syrah -- possibly others -- in any combination).

The "aging" is a much different process with fermented beverages versus distilled beverages . Wine still has components that will change or develop chemically over time, even in the vacuum of a bottle. Bottle closures (corks v. screwcaps) play a role to an extent in that the cork ever so gradually allows oxygen into the bottle over a long, long time. Other factors that contribute to a wine's evolution (or deterioration) in the bottle include vibration, temperature, and humidity -- and I'm not aware of these having much of an effect on distilled spirits (though possibly temperature does, but I truly don't know). Wine is still a "living" product in the bottle. It is perishable.

What often gets lost in these discussions is that this is a workplace health issue, and not a consumer ambience issue. The bans are usually proposed for the sake of the workers. Keeping in mind that context, there are alternatives to a ban -- such as higher health insurance rates. But not all restaurants and bars will offer very good health plans to begin with, and bans seem to be a better "equalizer." In Minnesota this past year, several smoking bans were enacted at the municipality and county levels. Nothing statewide yet. The most ridiculous law happens to be in the county in which I live. A bar or restaurant can still be a place to light up if less than 50% of the revenue is from food. Some places have since cut back their menu offerings, kitchen hours, whatever, to get the food-related revenue below 50% so they can put the ashtrays out once again.

You may have seen this web page already and perhaps this one, too, which has prices included. And then they have their own web site. There are a wide variety of factors that can affect the price of a bottle of wine. I noted that production of the Pallagrella Nero was 8500 (cases), so it's not that the production is miniscule. But perhaps only a small amount is imported. I also read that the production was a "project" that began in 1990. Depending on how large a cash outlay was needed to bring these indigenous grapes back to prominence, that could play a part. Also, the wine could just be damn good, commanding a price the market will bear. Campania may be undervalued, but apparently this wine is not. I vacationed on the Amalfi Coast in 2000 and had a chance to try many of the local wines (the majority of which I could never hope to find in the U.S.). But I didn't come across this one. There were incredbily good ones for what was under two dollars American given the exchange rate back then. Campania, as a region, is one where many indigenous grapes are being preserved and made into wonderful wines.

Good discussion on wine glasses (Riedel and others) in this thread.

For a one pound fillet, split in half, I used less that one teaspoon of olive oil. I also seared in a dry, hot skillet. I like the center the same way -- it's like butter.

Really, the only rating system is one's own answer to the question "Would you pay the retail price for the wine [again] or not?"

2000 Brogan Cellars Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley. As I was bringing the Yukon River King Salmon to the table last night, planning on drinking water, I asked my wife, “Should we have some pinot noir with this?” She thought it was a great idea, which isn’t always the response to my suggestion of opening a bottle of wine for a weeknight dinner. The color of this wine was brick red. The nose showed raspberry, black cherry, a boatload of cola, some cinnamon, vanilla, and wood. Flavors of plums, vanilla coke, and allspice. Not much happening in the acidity department, the tannins were soft, and the wine had a tough time cutting through the oil in the fish. Actually, it just sort of laid there, then apologetically disappeared quickly on the finish. Not much complexity in the wine, and I’m not sure it will develop any. It may have been more interesting upon release, but it just seemed like a wine that was in the middle of breaking down.

I picked up a fillet of Yukon River King Salmon last night. This is line caught salmon from the mouth of the Yukon on their way upstream to spawn. The journey upstream is 2000 miles, so these fish store up a lot of fat for the trip. The oil content of these fish is around 30 percent, and the fish are very high in Omega-3 fatty acids. Incidentally, the salmon that travel up the Copper River only have to make a 300 mile journey. You need to do nothing to this fish other than a film of EVOO, some sea salt, and cracked pepper. I was going to grill it, but the weather wasn't cooperating, so I opted for pan searing. The flavor is unbelievably rich, and the texture luscious. It doesn't come cheap ($21.99/pound in my market), but it is only one time a year.

2001 H. Hexamer Meddersheimer Rheingrafenberg Riesling Kabinett, Nahe. Damn, I'm glad I have at least one more of these, but damn I'm mad that I didn't buy more at the time. This wine is hitting on all cylinders right now. The stony minerality on the nose and in the flavor profile is stunning. The acidity is lively and bright. The wine is just starting to lose what little sweetness it may have had. In addition to the mineral component, there is both floral and citrus on the nose. In the mouth lime flavors are a nice accent to the mineral. The wine finishes strong, long, clean and ever so slightly off-dry.