Carema

Ramey 2000 Hyde Vineyard. The finish was like one of those dreams that are so good you feel yourself waking up and the conscious and sub conscious are having a war...."come on let me kiss him one more time...." then you wake up and your goddamned dog is on the bed looking at you like you are crazy. With the Ramey- there is no waking up.

Editor was Jason Priestly of 90120 fame. Well there you have it.

Ain't nothin' like the real thing, baby. Sometimes there ain't no substitute. Well, you can substitute barrique for botte, but barriqueilicious was not as funny. Plus I like botte aged barolos a little more...............

A typical review of wine, In X goes like so: "Mr X Syrah, 2001 Santa Barbara CA A frothy, spicy, red powered-seductress of a Syrah, bootylicious with red currant with a finish like Beyonce's Bootylicious behind- it just won't quit." If the review were for Barolo, the review would be the same only the words bottylicious would be substituted for bootylicious.

Peter Dow (of cavatappi ) in Wa state has done the only acceptable version of nebbiolo I have ever had outside of Italy. It was a young and obstreperous colt. The southern varietals seem far better suited to the Ca turf.

A recent laundry load that invloved a baking soda and vinegar soaked jacket (in a film canister it becomes a sort of rocket) plus 200 Yu-Gi-Oh Cards in the pocket (net worth about 20 bucks) and then after, two hours of ironing the aformentioned cards (you will understand this if you have 8 year old male children) reminded me of a hazy night in 1989 where a 1985 DRC and a 1978 Jaboulet La Chapelle (net worth not sure of) were uncorked when really, everclear or Bush beer would have sufficed. What was the most expensive stupid thing you ever uncorked in the nightmarish fugue of a forgotten drunken evening? Unfortunately this happened in Iowa and we might have been eating Oreos.

This website tells you whyboobs don't suck. Bottoms up!

Shit and piss and blood are bodily fluids. Breast milk is a food you can do in your own Betty Crocker oven without a light bulb. I thought it was cool. And I tasted it. I was curious. It is not scat. PS sanctimonious hmmmm. Provocative maybe. Guilt inspires reaction. Just for the record jarred babyfood happened in our lives. I was just trying to bring a point up of how far we are- this separation between baby food and adult food. How can you teach someone to eat an apple if their only experience with an apple is a jar of puree. My comments did pretty much suck. I guess. However, I am a single mother, I worked as a sommelier when my child was an infant, and when I got home late at night I would steam food for him. Sorry if this is sanctimonious or pompous. This was important to me. I see a huge disconnect between real food and ready food. maybe another forum would be more appropriate. I know what it is to work and raise a family. I know it in my blood. I defied myself to cook. So there. What more appropriate forum than this?

Are they charging for milk? Cans of formula are mighty expensive/ about 10 bucks a piece and you need quite a few per week. But if you are implying that the cost is the hardship of raising the baby, let us remember who chose to have that baby. The milk is still free, the parents, no longer.

You are better man than me. Ok so I am not a man. Anyway I broke down this year, after 86ing KoBrand out of the shop- "Never return" could be heard echoing down the avenue, Cakebread went off 'restriction' (guess they couldn't sell all one hundred million cases to on premise) and I bought a case. We haven't sold a ton, but if the dude who does not want to be advised about Cabernet by a woman comes in, it is a safe haven for him. I charge an insane amount of money for it (think on premise mark-up). Maybe I will someday return to the nocturnal work of restuarants but I do not miss the hives. Plus the 6am wake up call on school days (make lunch, make breakfast, get two bodies dressed etc.) is pretty tuff when you are getting off work at oh say 1am PS my son is in charge of emoticons

Most american people I know went through the Court of Master Sommeliers who have in their ranks as MSWs such luminaries as Doug Frost, Joe Spellman, and the soon to be famous Alpina Singh. Oh and Andrea Immer too. There are tons more but I cannot remember all their names. Anyway this international guild business looks like a good way to prepare for the court, but I am not sure their diploma means as much. The court diplomas do not mean all that terribly much either. Out of all those guys & ladies, only a few are working sommeliers- working in restaurants, at night, waiting on people, having to bus glasses etc. It is not that glamourous really. During the day you stock wine ( and in many restuarants this is usually in some nook and cranny that is difficult to access) and you do mass amounts of inventory. That is always a blast. Then at night you spend many hours trying to talk people out of Cakebread Cabernet Sauvignon. Lots of times if the chef is egotistical enough (and many are) he will make the ultimate buying decisions or what you want to achieve just doesn't cut it in the profit margin area. Gleaning the knowledge is fun and exciting but utimately, it is a small crowd that wants to hear of the soil & climate differences between the Pfalz and the Mosel really it comes down to- is it dry? will it go with pizza? is it under 20 bucks? Have you had that two buck chuck? No, I want the Brunello that is made of merlot grapes.

Recently we went with insane mad love crazy for the Le Salette, The regular old valpolicella was mind blowing (but how the hell do you sell a wine that normally retails around 10 bucks for 29 bucks) and then the Amarone was just heavenly. My tasting note is WOW!!!!!! It was so powerful I had to pull my lip from my tooth and chew an olive for a moment in order to become functional. The vintages were 2000 for Val and 1999 for Amarone.

There's one clue it probably couldn't go for much longer. The Ridges tend to have better acidity for some reason than other Zins (all those weirdo Sonoma microclimates) but when you get right down to it, most Zins are about heady fruit and mucho alcohol- to be enjoyed young. I usually do not recomend aging these things for significant amounts of time (and despite the hype alot of 1997s have begun to break down) unless you are an enjoyer of necrophelia.

You indicated to me once during a wine dinner in Chicago, that you had intentions of building a still of the coast of California somewhere, in order that those who wanted could row out and have some true absinthe without legal consequence. Are these plans still in effect? When can I reserve my canoe?

Probably. Just leave a bottle under the seat of your car for a week, like I did. We did not even bother opening it to wash - it went straight into the trash. And yes, you are supposed to taste it after thawing. That always gave me the creeps for some reason. Human breast milk is high in sugar and low in fat. It probably would not make very good cheese. It is amazing to me that everyone is willing to feed baby things that seem "disgusting, gross, or weird". No baby or adult human should really be eating that shit, should they? You can steam all manner of vegtable, smash it and freeze in ice cubes trays. You could even thaw these out in baby food jars if that would seem more comfortable. This is a food forum. Not a processed crap forum. What a disservice we are paying our children. PS: If you are not willing to taste human breast milk, what kind of a foodie are you. It is usually free (unless you take out an ad) and it is interesting and more disgestable than cow, sheep, or goat milk.

I was assured, upon reading your post and credentials, that you have complete objectivity regarding this subject. I still stand by the "spank decant" method for young wines; free, sexier and nothing to do with Chez Santa. cheers, carema

don't be surprised if you pick something common as your fav. It happened to me at a Thiese tasting. I picked Louis Roderer NV as my top dog. Then some artisinal champagnes ( all NV), Veuve was about 6 out of 10 and White Star was last. Something was corked and I gave it a higher score than White Star!

I took a look and the pickings are not just random. Lots of Wilson Daniels, KoBrand and William Grant products. These are huge, national 'brand management' companies who probably struck terrific deals with winebuys.com people. A lot of Pacific on there too, now a part of Southern Wines & Spirits which is a large monopolistic firm. This is a nice sight for those interested in the lowest price on some solid but large production wines. I do not think you will ever find small production, lovingly crafted wines here because there is not enough volume to 'do the deals'. But damn it was cheap. And the shipping prices are extraordinary. They will have do do an awful lot of volume to keep afloat however, the margins are pretty low. Time will only tell I guess.

hey me too. I thought it was a little harder than the theoretical portion (advanced) of the court of master sommeliers! But it was 450.00 cheaper too.

Pricing to be determined and yes, all egulleteers should recieve an extra special discount. As of now they seem to be hovering in the high seventy dollar range which kind of sucks since they can be had for Italy for around 40 but that is life in the states sometimes. I will keep everyone posted and if they wish to purhase they can private message me. The 1997 shall be tested next. I will keep you posted- literally.

It sat in the rack for about three days until my impulse control , or lack there of, got the better of me. So I fried some bacon and warmed up a little Tallegio and here is what happened: The color was more ruby than expected, rust orange only appearing towards the way outer rim of the glass. Upon first sniff the alcohol was a little out of wack- 13.5 on the label, but my suspicions were it was higher. I let it compose itself in the bottle and glass for ten minutes. My instincts were not to decant and this proved correct. After ten minutes, a rosy deep woodsy smell arose, along with cherry so deep it was essential. Most fruit and wood tannins had fallen away to reveal a pure and gorgeous Nebbiolo expression, mushroom, almondine, that lovely intense cherry and the delicacy of crushed raspberry with its seed. I love when tannins get to this point, unintrusive yet fragile enough to provide structure and flight- a cicada's wings. I just smelled and smelled it. I do not think it should be aged much longer, it really is quite lovely now. I drank half the bottle and then revisted it two days later. All that pure fruit has faded and there is some tannin again and it has returned to alcohol. So I will probably cook with the rest but I am definitely buying it for the shop. It made me happy- a one night stand you remember for year's afterward.

This whole topic really broaches the subject of child food vs adult food. Except, when did this divisive versus start? Why are there children's menus and why are there two meals being prepared? It is just in countries of over abundance and surplus that these issues come into play really. I have an eight year old boy. I have always brought him to restaurants and I have never brought baby food. the concept of baby food is gross to me. One can merely steam a variety of vegetables, poach fruit and fish/poultry/meat and baby will be fed. And do not tell me I have time to cook because I am a single working mother who barely has time to breath. But I make time to cook. Because it is fucking important. My son doesnt like acid. So when I make polenta with tomato sauce, his is minus the sauce. It goes like that. A restaurant can always simply pan fry a steak or a piece of fish for a child, or in the case of a vegetarian restaurant, boil some noodles with butter and add a plain veg or two. Who the hell has time to short order cook several different meals? I do not. But asking to microwave a can of so called baby food is disgusting.

The Australians have some of the least restrictive laws governing what can or cannot be added, subtracted, shoveled in, spooned out etc. So while I cannot offer you empirical evidence to prove my generalization, that is my story and I am sticking by it. And just to add another point, there are many places in the new world where it is uneccessary to add acid: NY, OR, Santa Lucia Highlands- I think climate is more the factor here rather than old vs new world.

Qunitessa is Fransican's high end pet project, originally a 333 (cab s cab f & merlot) and now a higher percentage of cab s. Phillipe Melka made is for awhile, now Sara Gott I believe. The 99 Quintessa, for the same attractive price would have been allright but no nasty Caymus, esp 98 which was weedy and green peppery. ew! Quintessa can be delicious, there is nothing to get it is just damned good CA wine- but pricey as shit too. I mean caymus Conundrum for god's sake for 30 bucks! The only Conundrum is why any jackass would pay 30 dollars for confused slightly sweet sauvignon blanc with a hint of muscat thrown in for extra cheapness. Lots of times busy GMs do not keep the wine list updated so the staff doesn't know- probably they just said, "Caymus Cab- I am in the weeds" and the hostess ran down there desperately trying to pull Caymus, for all you know the Special Select was there but no-one could find it. So they brought it up hoping you wouldn't notice. Or maybe they didn't notice. Who knows???

The guy had never heard of it. Do you think it will be good he asks. I totally poker faced him. "It is a little old" I say. But no, the prices are high so maybe I will be able to cut a deal. I know it is about 38 bucks in Italy so maybe it will be almost 2x as much here, we will see.