Craig Camp

I know that! What I want to know is what happens when you taste a wine like this and you think it is great - in perfect condition - but the customer wants to reject it?

Mark - just getting to taste all of those had to be the best tip of the evening. It had to be fun. Do folks that drop big bucks like that tend to include you in the discussion? Do they want your opinion on the wine? Also another question - what do you do when someone orders a wine like this and wants to reject it, but the wine is perfectly good?

Because other than Petrus the most famous classified growths are from the Medoc and use predominately Cabernet Sauvignon. As respected as Ausone and Cheval Blanc are by serious wine lovers - they are not as well known as Lafite, Mouton, Latour, Marqaux, Lynch Bages, Leoville Las Cases and so on - all wines where cabernet is predominate.

It's not so "vestigial". That's why they teach kids in school that wine and cocaine are equally dangerous. Just say NO! In Italy alcoholic beverages are cheap and easy to get. Kids can walk into a bar at age fourteen and order anything they want. It is not uncommon to see a group of teenagers sipping on beers in the square at night. The difference is they have just one beer not 15 like American kids do when they go on binges with forbidden substances. It is also common to see a working man in a bar at 10 a.m. having a mid-morning drink - just one. Yet, I have never seen anyone drunk. You never see winos passed out in the street. There is no one like 'Otis", Mayberry's lovable town drunk. One of the results of Prohibition and the three tier system is the dominance of spirits over wine in the American marketplace. Drinking vodka and drinking wine is a very different concept. I don't think this is what Martin Luther had in mind.

It is extremely cut and dry (dry being the appropriate word here). Your winery is either 'creatively' using the three tier system to ship to prohibited states or you are potentially facing felony charges in some states. "For extremely indepth reasons" says it all.

As mentioned Free the Grapes is the leading organization fighting this mess. Visit their website at www.freethegrapes.org (the image above is their mascot from their website)

I always wash my Reidel by hand. I figure if I spent that much money...

Taste is subjective. I like White Star. The times we have opened a bottle of champagne and it usually isn't White Star, but I don't agree that it is classified as "bad." As I know many that may never actually purchase or enjoy real champagne beyond Tott's/Korbel. Now sparkling wine, well, those are different occasions -- we tend to purchase Argyle or J. I admit taste is subjective. However White Star is a famous rip off. They use the cheapest wines available - it is almost all pinot munier - then load it up with sugar to cover all the faults. There are many Spanish Cavas that are far superior in quality and VALUE in a similar, slightly sweet style. Just compare a good fresh $10 cava (ok you are in Ohio so $12) and see which you like better.

The State of Ohio has made it a major pain in the ass for small importers to do business there. They even have their own state label approval forms - they must not trust the BATF. Then you have to register EACH wine with with state. In addition once you appoint a distributor they are 'franchised' or, in other words, you can't change distributors even if they do a lousy job. On top of this they have fixed mark-ups which make everything far more expensive than it would be on its own. Due to all this consumer protection on the part of the State of Ohio, they have one of the worst selections at the highest prices in the nation.

I am not sure if there is any truth in it (but I am sure someone knows) that certain European wine producers used to rinse their casks with cassis to add a bit of flavo(u)r A sad but true story. I have heard stories from Burgundy of adding it right to the wine.

You associate ananas (pineapple) with wood chips? Interesting and very possible. I will have to look for it.

Doubt that is available within the draconian, stuffy liquor laws of Ohio for purchase. Understand now why I enjoy White Star as an economical choice in champagne? Actually no. Why drink bad Champagne when there are perfectly good sparking wines available from a long list of locations? Most of them are cheaper and better than White Star.

OK if you guys really want to do this we can. I can coordinate and post the notes sent to me by PM. Please post your suggestions for format - NOT THE VARIETAL OR TYPE WE WILL TASTE - but how we will run this thing. I will take your suggestions put them into a basic format then we can 'vote' kind of on how we will do it and I will set the first one. Sound good?

I don't think anyone is insulting Robin or his excellent site, but questioning if these things are successful. It is only successful if it communicates well to all the participants.

Thank you! That's most kind.

I always liken using bad glasses to buying a great stereo system then using cheap speakers. Yeah it works, but not up to the potential of the equipment. I like the INAO glasses for tasting and also use them for sherry and port, but to me they just hold to little wine to use for serving at a meal. You lose all the theatre of swirling in a big glass and say what you will the INAO glass just does not show off bouquet like serious glasses. I do not recommend them for anything other than technical evaluation (and port and sherry). I use a large assortment of Riedel but got them before they got hyper expensive. I have enjoyed the Spiegelau glasses many times both restaurants and friends houses. There can be no doubt that Riedel has a better feel than any of the others.

I would love to join it if I could find any of them. I may have to drive to London. Otherwise I would love to watch.

My understanding is that most of the wine is going to England where an 'investment firm' is holding stock to sell at a significant profit in the future. Miani is almost unavailable anywhere but Germany. You can't find it in Italy either.

A federal report saying that state bans on Internet wine sales hurt consumers and don't prevent underage drinking has encouraged House members who represent California's wine areas in their uphill fight to overturn such laws.

PRODUCERS FEAR FOR PINOT GRIGIO

"Pinot is the Holy Grail wine for me," said Kevin Furtado, beverage director and sommelier for Larkspur restaurant in Vail.

Have you ever noticed that corky bottles seem to go in streaks? All of a sudden every other bottle in corked and then the next week none. Does this have something to do with the Zodiac or is there a technological reason behind this phenomenon. Perhaps the restaurant types out there who open many bottles of the same wine every week could comment on this.

When tommy gets to 666,666 posts the world comes to an end.

Great point Mark and compliments on a statistical tour de force by Echezeaux - you must be a baseball fan. However I would still argue that cabernet franc is still the key varietal in St. Emilion. You may want to argue percentages, but I would prefer to argue taste. I would argue that the various Bordeaux zones have an "indentifying" variety that set the flavor standard for the appellation. In the Medoc it is cabernet sauvignon, in Pomerol it is Merlot in St. Emilion for me it is cabernet franc. In Tuscany 10% cabernet sauvignon can overwhelm the other 90% of sangiovese. The same is true of cabernet franc in St. Emilion. St. Emilion is the home of the finest cabernet franc in the world and its character shows in all of the wines. That is except the Parker style modern wines who choose merlot to make a showy early splash. A lot of merlot goes into the second label wines and you should be more careful in naming actual blends based on the vineyards. They plant a lot of merlot as an insurance policy because in ripens early in their cools soils.

Matt - this is the best wine advice you will ever get!