Craig Camp
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Posts posted by Craig Camp
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Grapes - the wine company in Rye, NY lists the 2001 Oreno at $56.99
Abalat in Petaluma CA lists a pre-sale on it at $52.50 with mags for $105.50
I can't find any Canadian listings on the 2001 yet.
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I checked quite a few prices on Wine Searcher.com and those were the numbers I generally found. Have you been seeing higher prices?
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...consumers that like the modern Tuscan style should take a serious look at Oreno and Crognolo. Quality is not something you will be giving up.
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I have to admit that I don't mind drinking full throttle Cal Chards alone as a cocktail. To pair chardonnay with food, however, it is always Paul Pernot Puligny or Marc Colin Chassagne for me.
This is the question isn't it. What the hell do you eat with those big, oaky, alcoholic, semi-dry, full-blown malolactic California chardonnay wines? It's easier on the palate to have a second Cognac than a second glass of one of these.
The strange part about these California (Australia, Sicily, etc.) malolactic chardonnays is that then they have to ADD acid back in to get any kind of balance in the wine.
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Retailers don't ALWAYS pay lower prices than restaurants. Certainly giant retailers and chains get maximum discounts on major brands because of quantity purchasing, but small independent wine shops and restaurants pay the same price.
It is also worth noting that very high profile restaurants (like Citronelle Mark) get special discounts because the distributors are dying to have their wines sold there for several reasons:
1. Mark you and people like you sell a LOT of wine for the number of customers you serve. A high profile restaurant sells more of certain categories of wine than all but the largest wine shops. I am sure we could find a quite a few wines that you sell more of than anyone else does in your market.
2. The distributors suppliers beat the crap out of them to be sure their wines are sold in the best restaurants so they make price concessions just to make placements. Every month the distributor has to send the supplier a depletion report showing where their wines are sold and you can bet they are always looking for your name. Both the producers and distributors consider placements in high-profile restaurants to have a "billboard" effect that helps promote their brands.
3. Especially in California many wine producers consider the retail business somehow dirty as compared to the elegance of a fine dining restaurant. Let's face it - do winery owners enjoy their time more visiting MacArthurs or Citronelle. This anti-retail prejudice has led many wine producers demand that distributors sell over 50% of their wines to restaurants. This demand forces distributors to offer good prices to restaurants to be able to accomplish this requirement.
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from the article:
First there was phylloxera, then the glassy-winged sharpshooter. Now a third sap-sucking insect is menacing the fabulously valuable vineyards of the Napa Valley: the vine mealybug. Like its predecessors, the mealybug is minute and easy to overlook -- until vines start declining. -
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As there are many professional wine buyers that both lurk and post on eGullet it would be helpful if we could post the names (and market) of excellent small distributors here so that serious buyers can better find them.
Also for those not familiar with the three tier system of distribution you can read Wine Camp: Salmon and Merlot which outlines how the system works - or perhaps "doesn't work" is a better phrase.
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1. Campari in all its forms. My favorite - shakerato.
2. Prosecco with a generous dollop of Aperol.
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Michael made this post on another thread, but it is so outstanding I felt it deserved its own star billing on its very own thread - bravo Michael:
Any guidebook will recommend the Uffizi and the Duomo and (I hope) Baptistry. These recommendations are well-merited but the crowds may be excessive. The last time I was there, it was possible to go to an office and buy a ticket for the Uffizi in advance. But you also have other options. The Pinacoteca at the Pitti Palace is also a great museum, and it is likely to be a good deal less crowded than the Uffizi. (If you walk across the Ponte Vecchio to get to the Pitti Palace, stop in at the church of Santa Trinita, where immediately to your right on entering, you will see some weird, wonderful frescos by the Mannerist artist, Pontormo, but you have to look for them.) Also, the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo is not to be missed. It's across the street from the back of the Duomo and contains originals of a whole bunch of great sculptures that used to stand in the Duomo. It may be that the tour bus routes still haven't reached that museum. The Bargello is also a great scupture museum and is liable to be less crowded than the Uffizi. Unfortunately, as of 1998, the Accademia, where there is a great series of sculptures by Michelangelo, was already crushingly crowded.It's also worth visiting other churches. At a certain point, I decided that my favorite church in Florence was not the Duomo, though it's great and should not be missed, but Santa Maria Novella, across from the train station. Have a look and see if you agree. Among the artworks inside is a Trinity by Masaccio. There's also a separate entrance for the cloister (chiostro). If it's open when you're there, it's worth going to. There are weird, great frescos of the Story of Noah by Paolo Uccello, a radical Mannerist.
Another great church is Santa Croce, which includes frescos by Giotto. They also have a Museo dell'Opera di Santa Croce, where you can see a flood-damaged but still beautiful Crucifixion by Cimabue, Giotto's teacher. Also part of the admission fee to that museum is a trip to a perfectly symmetrical neo-Classic Renaissance building, the Pazzi Chapel. I found my trip to that chapel very meditative.
Finally, while you're in Florence, you must go to the Piazzale Michelangelo on the Oltrarno side, for the view. After looking at the view from all angles, climb up higher and go to the top step of the church of San Miniato al Monte. The view is even better from there. Then, go into the lovely church. Look around and then go upstairs. On the right side of the 2nd floor, you can enter a room (or was it two rooms?) that contains a great fresco cycle by Spinello Aretino.
Another lovely thing to do is to have a picnic lunch in the Boboli Gardens, but I remember they instituted a fee for forestieri (out-of-towners) at a certain point.
Some other less-traveled and worthwhile things to do include:
A visit to the Cenacolo (Last Supper) di Santa Apollonia, a fresco cycle by Andrea Castagno, for which there is free admission!
If you like Last Suppers, there's also a lovely one by Andrea del Sarto at San Salvi.
You could also take a bus to one of the Medici Villas. The one with the best artwork is in Poggio a Caiano, which has a room of frescos by Pontormo. The trip is pleasant, as is the villa.
Otherwise, walk around a lot, and if you have enough time, you could do a whole lot worse than taking the bus that goes to Fiesole (don't expect an absence of tourists there, however). Your view of Florence will be more distant than from Piazzale Michelangelo and may be affected by haze, but Fiesole is the ancient Etruscan hill city that was there before Florence existed, and the archeological museum and ruins and the old church are worth looking at, though not "must-sees" in the context of a city that's just chock-full of things to see.
Everywhere in Italy, be careful about checking in advance to see whether a church or museum will be open, and even then, be prepared for some surprises. If you're going somewhere just in order to visit a church or museum, consider checking ahead or asking around.
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Michael A. Laderman, aka "Pan"
Professional flutist and teacher of music, amateur gastronome
Forum Host, New York
pan@egullet.com
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Once a bastion of wide-open competition and independent family-owned distributorships, the invasion of the Godzilla-distributorships, like Southern, Glazers, and Charmer, has reduced competition to a trickle and created a huge problem for small wine producers and consumers who want to buy those wines.
Click below for Wine Camp:
The Wine Chain - Enological Darwinism and the birth of a new species
Be sure to check The The Daily Gullet Home Page daily for new articles (most every weekday), hot topics, site announcements, and more.
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...but at halftime during the Super Bowl I was the only one at our party who wanted to drink it....
IMHO this is more than enough of a reason ot open it! Open first - ask questions later.
...also the perfect situation - more for you.
Bringing Great Italian Wine to the UK
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