Neil Gilmour

Has anyone tried the Swanson Cygnet Merlot Left Bank 2007 at $14.99? I looked at the Swanson Vineyards website and they do not list it. Is this specially made for the PLCB? Neil

Katie, I thought I was signed up there, but I did it again. The Oyster House has been a favorite restaurant of mine for years. Neil

I missed out entirely on the sale this summer. How do I sign up for the emails announcing them?

Even when a store in my area show one or two bottles, I learn at the store that they are sold out. Looks to me like they have to clean up the store inventory reporting to eliminate the "orphan" bottles so that the wines will drop off the listing. That's not something I will hold my breath for. On the positive side, when I ask about a wine showing in the inventory, the store personnel have always tried to find the wine.

The Ardmore store is rapidly running out of Chairman's selections. I looked on the website for upcoming selections and there are only 12 red wines listed. It's going to be hard to restock with just 12 wines. I also inquired about the 2005 bordeaux, a legendary vintage that is arriving in the states. Ardmore only had 2 or 3 wines. Not a good sample compared to out-of-state stores that I have heard have over 100 different wines. What is going on in Harrisburg?

I just looked at the list of future Chairman's selections and there are only 10! Are they phasing out the program?

The wine shipped during the summer months could be in the store at any time afterwards! It does not all sell quickly.

People ask me about the storage conditions in the stores. I have seen the great new air conditioned display areas for the high end wines in Ardmore, Bryn Mawr and Narberth. But how are the wines stored before they get there? Are the distribution centers appropriately cool, are the trucks cooled and are the local in-store storage areas cooled?

I frequently look at the Mark Squires bulletin board which has a tremendous amount of highly credible information about wine. There are quite a few Pennsylvanians, besides Mark, who participate and many of them, including me, buy and enjoy the Chairman's Selections. They also have a lifetime of built up frustration with a beauracratic state owned system that severely limits the wines available to the consumer. Every store is stocked from the same inventory. How would we like it if every shoe store was supplied from the same inventory, or every department store? Its pretty limiting on the selection. What benefit is there to having a state owned liquor store system other than protecting the jobs of the current employees? Squires and others have given Newman many kudos for improving a poor system but the system is still inadequate in a world where we have numerous choices for every other retail product. The Whitehall Lane cab advertising looks pretty deceptive to me. If Chairman Newman selected the barrels to be blended, how can the wine be the same as WL's regular bottling and where was this bottling offered at $45? Misleading promotion aside, the real test is the taste and nose. I have not bought a bottle but the consumer reviews have generally been unispiring so I'm going to pass. I'm looking forward to the Flora Springs wines coming soon!

Hi again everyone, When I initially saw this in store, I had a bit of a double-take. 1989 is our marriage anniversary year, and it's tough to even find anything for sale anywhere that's a 1989, let alone for $20 per bottle. Add on top of that the fact that this wine was re-corked at the winery in March of this year (not sure I've ever seen that!). So, there was no doubt we'd try a bottle to see if a case was warranted. When I saw that it was re-corked at winery, I immediately was under the impression that this wine had some legs left and might last til our 30th anniversary! Unfortunately, I came away with the same impression as Mike. Thin, no tannin remaining, barely could tell this might have been Cabernet. I have to say that it was smooth, but that was due to lack of body/character. I am ashamed to admit, however, that due to the novelty of actually having something from 1989 in the cellar, that I went back and purchased two additional bottles. At least I will not be expecting too much when we open the next one in 2009! We'll have something else in 'Reserve' when we do so! Anyone else have a different impression of this wine? I sure hope these are just bad examples.... Cheers! ← I tried a bottle and was also disappointed. I won't be buying another bottle.

I picked up a bottle of the Conti d'Arco Pinot Grigio 2005 today to taste. I am looking for a dry white, without the buttery feel of a California chardonnay. Has anyone tasted the current white offerings and found one like that? Thanks

I keep reading how France is awash in unsold wine and that all but the top flight bordeaux producers are having a hard time. Will the PLCB be helping any of them out by buying some great bordeaux at discounted prices?

Kevin: You've made some striking points here and we all should take them seriously. I too must venture over to NJ to pick up readily available favorites not offered here. I do think, however, that those of us who have lived in PA for over 20, heck even 5 years can attest to the obvious changes instituted by Mr. Newman and some other key people with less recognition (Deidre, are you listening?!) I think besides the Chairmans program and many other non CS buys, the level of employee education and yes, motivation by local lcb stores (at least specialty stores) has been nothing short of incredulous. It wasn't all that long ago that my experience in the Newtown store was reduced to "if it's not on the shelf, we don't have it". I think anyone who shops there now will agree- complete turnaround for the better. To your point, is there more work to do, clearly there is and Jonathan would be the first to tell you this, in fact he told me just that during the RX Chairmans diner last year. One must walk before one runs is my perspective. Anyway, I just ordered 2 cases of the elusive Kaiken Malbec this morning from Harrisburg due to arrive in Newtown next Monday! I won't be reselling any of them. Even with shipping and tax it still comes out to around $9.00 bucks a bottle! ← I'm going to chime in here just to underscore a point I occasionally try to make by calling everyone's attention to New Hampshire. The question "Why is the state in the business of selling booze anyway?" is a legitimate one, and a good case can be made that it should not be. But the defects of the old State Store system were not ipso facto due to state ownership and control as much as they were due to the philosophy underlying the system's operation. In my recently concluded blog, I quoted Steve Lopez's marvelous quote that summed up the old State Store philosophy: "This is horrible stuff. Here, let us sell you some." Historically, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board has emphasized the control in its name. It was set up after the end of Prohibition to keep the flow of alcohol through the Commonwealth as restricted as possible. The New Hampshire Liquor Commission (note the absence of the word "control" from its name), on the other hand, has always operated to maximize reveune for the state by selling as much of the stuff as possible, preferably to as many Bay Staters as are willing to drive up to buy it. They also make it very easy for other visitors to grab bottles by putting liquor stores on the turnpikes where one would ordinarily find gas stations and restaurants. Now, I'm not suggesting that the PLCB take over the service plazas on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, but it is clear that under Newman, the agency has moved a lot closer to New Hampshire's operating philosophy. And it has done so without forcing booze down the throats of Pennsylvanians who'd rather not have much of it--note that almost all of the Premium Collection stores are in the urbanized parts of the state. (Centre County being home to State College, it counts as "urbanized" for purposes of this argument. And even if you won't allow that, the statement still holds.) More could be done, true, but much has been done already, all of it for the good, and it didn't require the state getting out of the liquor business, either. Now if we could just rewrite those laws about beer sales... ← Mr. Newman has done a great job improving the system but it is still a state store system. I can go to any number of stores in my area of Montgomery County and I see essentially the same wines. That is only convenient when the Chairman's Selection I want has sold out in my favorite store. Nevertheless, the selection is the same from store to store. The website is also difficult to use for searching for good deals, especially with the inconsistent abreviations and spelling issues. Further, the inability to purchase bordeaux futures through the system and the generally limited availability of bordeaux in top vintages (eg 2000) is inconsistent with the pride that the PLCB has over its purchasing power. That power seems to extend to the large production wines and not to the limited production and highly sought after wines. One can complain endlessly about the system despite the improvements that Mr Newman has put in place. The PLCB still needs to be abolished to give us legal access to more of the wines available from around the world. Neil

Has anyone tasted one of the Silvio Nardi's? I believe the 1999 was available in the stores last year. Neil

I bought bottles of both the 2002 and 2003 Ridge Lytton Springs zindandel that the Ardmore store is promoting. I found the 2002 to either be an off bottle or it has an unusual, possibly medicinal, bouquet. The 2003 was much more typical for the Lytton Springs but not great. I decided not to stock up on either although the prices are pretty reasonable. Neil