Carema

I love when dead cows and mustard sauces laugh at wines that resemble jasmine flowers, bananas, and buttercup stamen, in that particular order. Dry Viognier works particularly well with toasted almonds, like good pastis, and IMO not much else. I rarely pair it with food. What do the folks there have it with? It has always reminded me of voracious, unctuous perfume, the kind you cannot rid yourself of, oddly compelling and not for every day. Maybe that (and the fact that the grape is so supceptible to all sorts of disease) is why there is so little of it.

Most things I have found, Colgin Bryant Grace Family etc are overpriced for what they are. Uncellarable and unbearably pretentious. I think I know what the bottling of Heidi's discarded wine is, I cannot remember it at the moment I will get back to the forum on this. For the most part, when wine ups its ante at the prices, I let go and let other people sell them. I cannot bear this kind of elitism. I agree with LOS- if these kind of bucks are up for grabs, spend it in France. Or buy 80,000 bottles and get the world drunk on good cheap table wine.

An incredibly balanced wine, a thouroughbred, like good St Aubin from America, and worked with tomatoe sauce and butterscotch pudding. Not quite ripe pink lady apples and bartlett pears abound and it smells like wine, not dessert which is always refreshing. I was puzzled by the elongated yet slightly dissatisfying finish until my eight year old pointed out to me that it was corked. And indeed, the lowest level of TCA ever detected by a human was found on this particular bottle. Now I keep sniffing it, smelling all the regular good stuff yet now unable to get past that miniscule, tiny TCA bit that is ruining my night. How did he get that? I thought I was queen of cork. I must relinquish my crown. I hope he is ready at eight. We are going to visit in burgundy soon. God help them all. I still recommend it, for its restraint and poise yet now I need to try an untainted bottle. Christ! This is why we call him Jr smeller.

Was not sure if I should reply here or in the Philly forum. Since I have never been to Philadelphia and been here often, thought I would reply here. A couple of points I just want to mention. A $175.00 Malbec is outrageous. Was it the Hobbs Bramare? If so the mark up is out of control) Malbec to Shiraz is not an easy bridge, especially after noticing the food choices (mainly not so Shiraz friendly) Malbec tends to have extremely low acid with a muted earthy character- Shirazes tend to be more in your face oftetimes with RS, acidities ranging from low to medium high and bright focused fruit. The birthday girl could have excersized more decorum, especially after you (the host and taster) ok'd the wine. It puts the server in a spot if you say ok and then another says, horrible like mucus. What kind of mucus? Mucus as we know is a viscous slippery secretion chock full of mucin and protein. Clear easy gluey kind like allergies, or the wretched green yellow sick kind that comes from a viral load? Snails often trail muscus, that is a little more briney of a mucus. All in all sounded like a bad experience. But as a person who waited upon people for years, large birthday groups excersizing conflicting opinions can be hard to deal with. If you are sure your group behaved with a modicum of manners, then the restaurant was truly at fault. Upon reading the narrative, I felt there might have been a little of both going on. However since you all were so very young, there is plenty of time to have other meals at other places with more gracious hosts. To be honest, since you had the decency to choose the wine and attempt to find her something she liked, she could have least demured to your choice even though it reminded her of seasonal allergies or sickness.

Please excuse me if this topic has been covered before. Mr Buxbaum suggested I post this inuiry here, alors.... My 8 year old son and I are going to be in Paris at the end of January for 5 days. I would love suggestions for moderately priced lunch and dinner places with a) great food b) more than servicable wine lists. I am a sommelier, my son is in 3rd grade. He has mucho patience, and I can eke by in French. Wine shop and food mart suggestions would also be greatly appreciated. We are willing to travel all across town, are not afrid of the dark and are all about the metro. I am from chicago, so paris always seems small in comparison. Thanks in advance. carema

you were dining avec les chats? How many kitties were there? Did they wear little travel scarves and berrets? Was there a tabbie present or all Cornish rexes. Please expound upon the pussies!

Sangiovese grosso ahhhhhhhhhh. Carmigliano yum. Anyway, all you value folk out there do not forget about the declassified Brunello, baby Brunello if you will (like Donkey Kong Jr only you can get drunk off it) Rosso Di Montalcino. Young vines, juice not quite up to standard, still at 2/3 cost of Brunello and released years before, a wonderful buy from any decent maker. The baby is beautiful, drink it!

Good Lord. Sounds like pedophelia. Although on your second point, I found my kids rather liked the Brothers Grimm and other scary, violent children's stories. It's kind of the literary equivalent of a ride on the rollercoaster, or through the Monster Cave, or whatever. Which brings us back to food porn. As for the books, these were not Grimm's brothers things but more like repressed old school, English nanny warnings against bad behavior, which, when you raise your son listening to the Ramones, do not make any sense. For instance someone shrinking when they were naughty, or better yet disappearing entirely off the planet just because they didn't practise their trumpet. But tis not the topic at hand. I am off to check my chicken roasting to perfection, sweet potatoes and onions nestled beside its plump thighs, all the while swimming in silky extra virgin olive oil.

sometimes too (and this is often in reference to some type of ravioli or stuffed pasta) it is tender pillows (pillowy heretofore mentioned), nestled (also mentioned earlier) inside some kind of delicate crust. Then for sauce, the irksome trio of SMOTHERED, SWIMMING IN, SLATHERED WITH. The Chicago Tribune critic seems unable to complete a column without his favorite adjective "terrific". Then there is the whole infantilisation of food, like " Two winky wee tender pillows of basil and ricotta cheese, chuckling softly to one another, tiny lambs nestled in their blanket of perfectly cooked, thinly veiled sheaths of dough, smothered and swimming in a sea of bechamel so ethereal and velvety that the dining room was swathed in a cloud of bay spiked perfume, and I once again returned to thoughts of Madeleines...." It is like the horrible children's books my ill-intentioned, Scottish, ex-mother in law sent my son, with pictures of nodding children and violent texts which often referred to cruel punishments and sometimes death.

Got two words: Chenin Blanc preferably from the Loire Valley. A Demi Sec Vouvray from a good house and vintage would work well with this, get some Valencay (ash covered pyramid of goat) and you are set.

If this is what god sends then there is no god.

These kind of top lists are oh so very male in their quest to quantify. best tits, best tannins best acid, best ass- its all the same. People always come in and ask what is the best bottle of wine you ever had and I can never answer that question because I have had many great bottles in different circumstances and environment can make all the difference. Give me the best bottle of wine is another request- how the f***k do you do that? Like children, you love the ones you love equally. I love a certain Fiano, is it the best bottle of wine I have ever had- no but I gaze at it with love every day and refuse to be out of stock even though it is a less than stellar seller. It is like the poor Paloma Merlot which languished in a small distributor's book for years before finding national acclaim this week. Now all these guys are calling with hard edges in their voices because they cannot find #1 in Chicago and no other Merlot will do. I say put an end to the lists. But they never will.

This occurence of easter eggs in these threads is disturbing to me. I knwo it is some sort of allusion to techy things on computers I do not understand. One should not have to unearth nor search for treasures on a wine list, they should be staring you in the eyes, unblinking at every price point.

That was never my style of list construction. For me, the way you build a list (or store as the case is now) it is an expression of your soul. The point of wine lists is , yes to find those great bottles that will make money, but to also excite and delight people with choices and facings that they wouldnt necessarily have made on their own. Sure you always have to put a few pedestrain things on there that maybe you would never buy yourself, but I don't know- that guy sounds like a real ass.

On the left is a baseball bat for the very angry, very wealthy set

A glass? Was this at a restaurant? If you were poured a glass at a restaurant and it tasted as you described it had probably died allready. High alcohol, low acid wines such as the Footbolt are really bad choices for BTG programs because they have no shelf life. Unless you are going through a bottle every three hours and then making sure the next day you open a fresh one you are serving dead wine to people. I think your wine had aspirated its last rattly breath hours before you got a glass. You might have politely requested a glass from a freshly opened bottle citing reasons like "this one seems a little off" Most places worth their salt would have kindly accommodated you.

A while ago I posted about a Baumard Sav ('01 Papillon I think) that I had decanted into a platic Figi water bottle and accidently left to rattle around in the car for several days until I brought it in, set it on my nightstand and then groggily the next morning without the aid of specs, guzzled thinking it was water. It was INCREDIBLE. Agreed, major decanting will only improve this kind of wine.

There are five German Rieslings on the list. I do not have an '01 left in the shop. I am all on '02s. As for Germans, Advocate finally deemed them cool enough to rate so Speculum is now following suit. last year we had 11 of the top 100 wines in the shop. This year I am happy to report we have only 2. I am doing something right obviously. Right now I am drinking the Hirsch Gruner Veltliner 'Heiligentstein' '01. I am happy because I have my new toy, a la crueset 'decanting' pitcher. Gruner has never appeared on a top 100 as far as I know. Yet is is one of the great whites of the world. the whites on that list were awfully underrepresented. New Zealand SB- you'd have to have the palate of a lampost not to get those. This Gruner is so much more comnplex than most of those awful chardonnays they mentioned. And it went with madras curry turkey and rice AND a peanut butter cup covered in milk chocolate.

Just recently when I tasted Josh's recent stuff, the alcohol was so BITCHIN it hurt both sides of my brain. ouchy! Viognier at 15.6% is a double whammy before breakfast.

I am afraid there has been a grave misunderstanding of my use of the term "bitching oak". Bitching could be interpreted like "cool" ie good ie, a well applied use of oak. Sometimes oak is good. Look at some burgundies. Y'all like burgundies. Sometimes there is bitching oak when it comes to burgundies. I fear I was not accurate enough in my description when I listed three good things about the Schwarz. As much as I love a stainless steel tank, sometimes it doesn't impart enough complexity. Enough as I love new oak barrels and their clean aromatic smells, sometimes they kill wines. As much as I love nasty old 200 year old foudre, the stank of yummy brett can be a little much (although bret rocks- it is bitching too). Sometimes those unoaked australians can be like pineapple upside down cakes- cakes are cooked in metal pans. Do not be afraid my bretheren of the bitch and the oak. Just be cautious. The world is lovely and full of wine. Do not disparage that which you have not had between your lips. Even if it is bitching and oaky.

When I went to Trio I was with my seven year old and explained that I couldn't have a lot of alcohol but wanted to try a bunch of things. They gave me tiny pours and charged a modest tasting fee for wine. Let us all remember while no-one here is advocating mass consumption of alcohol while pregnant, the thought that some one other than the woman holding the child inside is ultimately the desicion maker about these things is abhorrent and appalling. I drank tiny amounts of beer when I was pregnant and my child's IQ is alarmingly high; once in a trattoria (casual Italian) when I was nursing (under a blanket) I was asked to go to the bathroom. I told the GM he could go eat in the bathroom preferably off the toilet. The resulting incident and fit that I threw... well I just drove by and the restuarant is closed now . The point is Trio, mcDonald's wherever- no-one has the right to decide what you put in your body. If you are not showing I would simply ask for small pours and do what is best for you and your baby.

Some of the greatest wines in the world certainly come from places such as you described. Anyone who has felt a Mistral wind whip through their thickest coat can attest to this. People in Austria are having fun and making great wines. Where else in the world can Pinot Blanc (Weissburgunder) actually achieve more complexity than Condrieu and be imminently more friendly plus have daunting acid? I bought a glazed Le Crueset Pitcher today specifically for decanting Austrian whites. It is blue and very cute. The ceramic warms them up and the air calms down the spastic acid. Right now we are selling a bunch of Austrain wine. When people can have Kungsgaardesque whites with no malo and for only 30 bucks a bottle they are hooked!

Remember too that the gentlemen making this wine are surely not traditionalists. Manfred makes Pinot of oregon that measures on the 15% alcohol or more scale. And Kracher rates his wines 1-15/ 1 being like thin honey and 15 being like cloying good unmovable golden slow sweet puddle. Manfred has had most of his success with over the top Syrahs. Together they do a Zweigelt too (love child of pinot noir and gamay) that is out of control. Oak is being employed in Austria especially in Styria where a great amount of modern experimentation is in the works.

Until you have had this Schwarz in your mouth, you cannot dis it. It is not like Chardonnay in any sense. Chardonnay is very susepitible to Bot especially in these fields. I have drunk this wine a lot, and I am intimately familiar with grouper and pistachios. I stand by the rec. The sugar and acid far outstrip the oak on this one. I suggest Mr toast and Serve bag (*which incidently I love and you can do frico in) that you revisit Chardonnay in Austria.

You did not mention which chardonnay you chose. In my book, food pairing can go down two roads. Like on like, or compare and contrast. The Chardonnay I can imagine working with this dish would be the Schwarz out of Austria. Manfred Krankl ( sine qua non) and Alois Kracher (insane dessert wine man) make this together. It has: 1) RS 2) bitching oak 3) blinding acidity With oily grouper, nut and heat (from salsa) it would have been a decadent pairing. On the other side, something with acid and austerity would have worked too. I had Ribolla Gialla tonight from La Viarte that was complex and interesting. Ribolla is a white that grows in Friuli and had its heyday in the 17th century. It was almost killed off by phyloxerra and is now having a small comeback. I made a rich pork loin roast stuffed with walnut, fig, spinach and garlic and had on the side onions and potatoes that cooked in the pan with the pork and the fat. This wine more than stood up to this dish. It is my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. They went out the door together holding hands. My son is running a 102 F fever and only sipping miso broth. there is a lot of leftover pork and not much Ribolla Gialla. I have lunches packed for six friends tomorrow. I will probably never see a 40th wedding anniversary. Despite all the hollering in their house, everyone still is hanging on. When your children are sick they smell differently (still sweet) and their little cheeks flush and you can't help but loving them even more. I try to explain that fever is like a superhero coming to the rescue. BTW retail prices on the wines are as follows $36 for chard $20 for Ribolla