SFJoe

Torakis, All the mushrooms you cite are cultivated, so careful growers can supply them clean. If you are picking matsutake or porcini in the woods, you have a less controlled environment. Best, Joe

Can't let a couple of bugs getcha down. I think the proper procedure depends completely on the type of mushroom. Black chanterelles, for instance, I usually dump into a filled sink and rinse with gently running water. Dirty morels benefit from a quick plunge in water, but I don't like them to soak. Their little concavities can't really be cleaned with a brush. You can put either in a salad spinner after you wash them. Button mushrooms, shiitakes, and so on I clean with a brush and sometimes a damp paper towel. Chanterelles sometimes require judicious water, but they can soak it up pretty fast, so I only apply it to some spots on some mushrooms. Hedgehogs (Dentinum repandum) are damn near impossible to clean well, so you pretty much have to pick them clean. If rain has spattered mud up onto their teeth on the underside of the cap, you will lose most of the mushroom cleaning it. They also absorb very large amounts of water if you soak them. The water from very wet mushrooms need not be cooked down with the mushrooms themselves. Wet chanterelles, for instance, often dump a bunch of water after you begin to heat them. You can fish out the mushrooms at that point, reduce the liquid 90%, and add the chanterelles back to continue cooking. That way you don't boil them into mush, so to speak.

Perhaps we should consult: Sabre action

This does not sound like a bad thing.

They come in single serving packages for a reason. If you can't clean your plate, drink instead high acid European white wine that will improve in the fridge: good artisanal Muscadet, Vouvray, Montlouis, Austrian riesling, Sancerre, and so on. These will often be better the second or third day. But it's risky. Much better to be safe and drink up.

I think that is mostly the Neanderthal element. Most of the industry thinks oxygen is the enemy, and that it must be excluded. Good corks do this, lesser corks don't.

I'm not going near any '98 CNDP in my cellar for a few years. Several over the last 6 months have had the shades pulled and the lights off. OTOH, I had a very nice experience with '89 Gardine a few months back.

Chave '97 is shutting down, in my fairly recent experience. If anyone out there is thinking of blowing the big bucks on me, please pass on 1996 Jim Barry The Armagh and 1998 Noon Eclipse. I raise that not to diss carpetbagger's taste, but to echo Craig and note that tastes vary widely. I'll diss the wines in a separate thread . A case of Domaine de la Pepiere Muscadet, OTOH, wouldn't cost much more than $100 and my birthday is coming up....

Dang, is it Spring already? Doesn't look like it with the snow on the ground in NYC. lizziee, where are your shad from? Personally, the best match I ever had was old demisec Huet Vouvray. Or perhaps I should say middle aged. Alternatively, Grand Cru Chablis with some age, old white Burgundy, German riesling spaetlese......

See also: 'http://www.wineloverspage.com/cellar.shtml and Gold's Book: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=glance&s=books Edit: Hmmm, I haven't done this right, I'll have to come back later and fix it. Got the Garr thing right, but can't seem to do the Amazon thing on Gold. Have a look at: How and Why to Build a Wine Cellar 3rd Ed. by Richard M. Gold Ph.D.

You go, Katie.

Many importers in that era (and this, for that matter) did not refrigerate in transit. Many of them didn't have air conditioned warehouses, either. They shipped in uncooled trucks. To shops with hot storage. To customers who left the wine in the trunk on a hot day. On the way to their warm home. Years later, the customer got religion and put the wine into professional storage. Then, when they auction off the wine, its provenance is described as "removed from professional storage." Most of these problems persist, but some in the trade are now more careful.

that's when library selections on wine lists seem worth the extra money. You betcha, although not everyone in Chateauneuf has a good cellar either, I hear.

Well-stored bottles of '81 Beaucastel can be astonishingly delicious. Unfortunately, there are few well-stored bottles in North America. The distribution chain back then was much worse than now, and lots of the Beaucastel was heat-damaged along the way. I have no idea how BC takes care of its wine, or where it gets the old stuff, but it could be great. The wine is certainly at or near a peak, I would try a bottle fairly soon if I were you. Drank all mine years ago, sadly.

How do you taste Brett past all the wood and manipulation?

I'm with you on the taste of recent vintages. But how in the world could they have altered the cellar after the '88, when the '90 BC and Coudoulet are the Platonic ideals of stinky wine? Bob, I think the controversy about Brett in Beaucastel and Tempier is particularly heated because they used to deny its presence.

Oh, sure you can. It's just another yeast. You can grow it in culture medium in the lab. Now, controlling the infection in your cellar...that's a very different story.

This, of course, is because the aforementioned David Lillie has moved from Garnet to CSW. Along with the sometime assistance of Robert Callahan, who still does the CSW site. Garnet still has some good stuff, but the deep expertise has moved downtown.

I don't know if "modernity" is exactly my problem with Dagueneau, but it's not far off. The style doesn't appeal, I'd rather drink Cotat, or Nigl for that matter. Just checked the inventory and my Dagueneau supply is one bottle of '97 Pur Sang. I think you're right, time to drink up.

Really? Why? generally speaking, across the board (and perhaps because the production of P-F is so much smaller than that of sancerre), i find the majority of P-F more compelling than the majority of sancerre. plus, you get tired of people in nyc asking for a glass of sancerre every ten minutes, when you suspect that the majority of them would really prefer a glass of cakebread chardonnay if it were put in front of them. so "sancerre" feels trendy, and no i have nothing to back that up with other than personal experience. and i can be biased against trendiness for the sake of, blah blah. no, there's not the minerality in P-F that drives the wine in cotat freres etc. and have you tasted the top cuvees from crochet, the october 21st? (lucien crochet, sancerre) and there's another one that's slipping from memory now. so do i prefer a top sancerre prduction to a top P-F? well, it depends what i feel like drinking. but dageneau P-F i would not turn down. (although sometimes it sees oak, i think). Hmmm. What happened to my amusing reply? Posted it a couple of days ago and it's gone like a Nixon tape, as the John Hiatt song would have it. Didn't realize that Sancerre was so red hot in the NYC market. Prices are certainly high in France even for quite mundane Sancerre, and the red is seriously hot, but didn't know it had spread so thoroughly. Dagueneau certainly makes good, if occasionally woody SB. I may be biased against him because he seems trendy for the sake of trendiness.... Haven't had the October 21st. Is that a harvest date, or does it commemorate an important revolutionary date? I like his wines. though i'd usually rather have something from the damned hill than Bue'. These days I'm drinking Sancerre with pix of dogs on the bottle. Off topic, what do you make of red Sancerre? Personally, I think it's all a mistake--the stuff would all be better as rose.

Really? Why? Whose do you prefer to Vatan, or one of the Cotats, or even Thomas-Labaille? Lots of very mundane Sancerre out there, of course, but I haven't found a P-F to reach the same heights. Of course, I don't get out much.... I'm also more interested in the minerals than the fruit. Not that everyone has to feel the same way. Not that there's anything wrong with fruit. In California, I've had so-so stuff from Selene and Brian Babcock, but nothing I'd actually buy myself.

The hipsters go for the Salon des Vins in Angers. Texier is a great guy, but I'm getting off the bus before it gets that far south. The new gig demands a bit of attention. The dinner does sound hilarious. The Hind Parts' palate doesn't agree with everyone, I'm afraid.

I'm travelling with Dressner on his buying trip for 10 of the days. Mostly Loire, but I catch a couple of days in Beaune, too. Should be a hoot, except that without Mike Wheeler this year for balance, I'm afraid that we'll be overly influenced by David Lillie's sense of extravagance in dining and lodging.

Which hat band singer was it that Kinky Friedman used to refer to as the "Anti-Hank?" Was it Clint Black? IMO, the reason for Parker's continued dominance is that he somehow tastes a zillion wines a year and miraculously retains the palate of a talented newbie. He likes the same wines that people new to serious wine like (or such is my impression, I haven't subscribed in years). This makes it very difficult to market against him with a different palate spectral preference--you don't pick up the newbies, you only get the persistent geeky subset years later. A smaller market, and there you run into Tanzer, Burghound, Wine therapy, egullet, chambersstwines.com, and many other sources of info. Distressingly, many of these are giving it away. That's my guess on why we don't see the AntiParker out there.

You dissing my friends? They always speak highly of you, especially the importers and grey marketeers. Off to Mark Ollivier's for oysters this Sunday. Am beside myself with anticipation, which will likely make it crowded on the plane.