Echezeaux

To answer Mr. Kolm's question about "performing".... I find that sometimes a wine will show particular characteristics more readily when preceeding samples lack those features. For example, a wine of a certain level of oak may strike one as extremely woody when the wines you've sniffed/tasted previous to it are non-wooded bottlings. The same wine will appear less oaky if tasted amongst a group of similarly oaked samples. A 15% alcohol Chardonnay may seem way out of balance if you've just tasted a 12% alcohol, non-oaked Sancerre or 10% alcohol German Riesling. But put that wine in a line-up of similarly-styled Chardonnays and it likely fits into the set of wines without showing up as hugely imbalanced. And that same Chardonnay will taste positively light and lively if you have it after a set of young, 2000 vintage Porto wines! As someone posted about the "measuring devices" we're using being "imprecise," I can't imagine that a wine changes so radically from one taste to the next...it's the context that helps determine or change one's sensory impressions. That's why I don't put a lot of trust in numerical scores...I'd rather read what a critic says in describing the wine than in simply the mindless score. By the way, do you prefer blind tasting to critique wines or do you taste them un-masked?

One of the major flaws of the 100 point scoring system is that it implies the wine will "perform" to some level of expectation each and every time. Clearly, wines age and change... That said, one major flaw is that the critics who publish tasting notes (far more valuable than a numerical score, IMO), print their scores as absolutes. What we as readers/consumers/wine drinkers are not told is : WHAT WINES WERE IN THE FLIGHT or TASTING? If I were to read someone's tasting results of a particular flight of wines, I could judge (better) their rating were I to have some idea of the wines in that group. I have seen a wine "perform" differently based upon what wines precede it, for example. While they're well-intentioned (for the most part), the numerical score is more a personal preference number than anything else. "92 Points...I like it!" But 92 points doesn't mean YOU WILL LIKE IT. An elderly friend of mine always has different tasting results when we're evaluating a set of wines. She's in her 80s. She doesn't give a damn if wines have aging potential. She wants something to drink now that's smooth. On the other hand, point-scoring wine tasters give more credit to wines with cellaring potential. You be the judge.

I believe Duckhorn has a far better "recipe" for Pinot Noir than the Floodgate folks. Had Floodgate done a fine job with Pinot Noir, they would not have sold the vineyard. By the way, Duckhorn is planning to have a more modestly priced wine on the market, with Goldeneye being the deluxe wine.

Weimax in Burlingame, California has this gin. www.weimax.com

Joy's book, though, was not well edited and contains many remarkable spelling errors: Names of some French producers were not checked, for example. And she writes about the grape "pomace" (skins) but it was spelled "pumice". Her enthusiasm is to be applauded, though, even if her dotting of the "i's" and crossing the "t's" is not.

I know some of those sneaky fellows! One friend sneaks the wine into the cellar through the garage, lest the wife see him bring boxes in the house. Another routinely buys bottles for himself and has them gift-wrapped (at an extra charge) under the guise of business gifts for associates. Most interesting!

I purchased this book and dragged it around France on a journey to what some might call "backwoods" locations. I am happy to say Jeffords does an excellent job in getting to the heart of the matter in covering current challenges facing various vintners. His profiles of many are spot on and his work is top drawer. I highly recoomend this book as a wonderful contemporary snap-shot of current winemaking and viticulture in France. In an era when so few journalists do their homework or are more fixated upon evaluating wines with numerical scores, this is a breath of fresh air.

Amer Picon is the property of either Diageo or Remy...no longer imported, though I saw bottles on display at various places in Paris this past year. Best to have someone bring back a bottle for you from there! Pity it is so much work!

I can tell you that some famous San Francisco restaurants CHARGE A RENTAL FEE if you wish to drink your Three-Or-Four-Times-What-They-Paid-For-It bottle of wine from Riedel stemware! I wonder if they'd charge you a "glassage fee" for bringing your own! Some of the stemware in well-known places here on The Left Coast, despite our being in "wine country," is hideous!