Mark Sommelier

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.

Why would anyone want to drink Coche-Dury Corton-Charlemagne only four years after the vintage??? Some people don't like old chardonnay.

The advertising angle fucks everything up. That said, look at the food reviews that Steve Cuozzo writes in the New York Post, and A.A.Gills reviews in the Sunday Times of London. Both extremely entertaining.

I guess Hamburg and Frankfurt don't count, do they?

Unless the winelist clearly states "Order this at your own risk", the risk lies with the restaurant. Dark, maderized wine with no bubbles is not good Champagne. 1976 is not all that old, either. Moet is currently marketing 1973 Dom Perignon from their library and it is plenty lively. I have tasted Krug from the early 60's and it was full of life, also. Poor storage is most likely the culprit here.

Let's cross our fingers. I really can't see it happening. I would hasten to say it's already too late and we aren't even open yet. 6 hours 30 minutes until BDC, where my Valentine will be a hoegarden. Phew! Its over. I had fun tonight. The 3rd table in rang up a $3,000 check for 2, and I HELPED!!. Lots of very nice people came in tonight. They didn't all want to talk to me, unfortunately.

Trust me , Katie, there is no hope for him.

Let's cross our fingers.

Line up ladies so Rocks can take you too on a cheap date.

The consolidation of the distribution channels has been going on here in the Washington, DC market for several years. I believe that I use more distributors than anyone around - somewhere around 15. I am lucky to have several friends who are importers. In this area, they are allowed to hold distributor licenses also, so I can effectively cut out at least one of the middlemen. These small importer/distributors are an excellent source for good Burgundy and Rhone wine at very decent prices. To be fair, I do receive very good service from the large companies I do business with most of the time, but that's because I have been in the business long enough to have made lots of relationships with the management of these companies. The large company I deal with has incredible close-outs every so often, which small importers can't match. It all comes out in the wash.

no no no no no no Why can't she go shopping in Georgetown and have dinner at Tosca downtown? Georgetown has no really good Italian restaurants.

Graham's 6 Grapes or Warre's Warrior should cost you less than $25.

Makoto on MacArthur Boulevard.

Yes, Russ, We offer wine degustations with both of the tasting menus. The Chef Table is already $250 per person with the wines included, which sometimes actually do include first growths and grand cru Burgundy. I also consult with customers on glasses to match their entrees, if they wish. You're right: its a good way to expose people to wine they might never try, and for me to move some of my more esoteric items.

In today's Washington Post: Calvert-Woodley (the largest store in the city), $19.99 regular, sale $16.99.

Customer: Your wine prices seem high. Me: I could give you the wine for half the price if I could serve it to you in a plastic cup on a bare table. Think about it.

Since it became LVMH so has Yquem.

I'm talking about chipping pieces of Parmesan off a big wheel, not the thingies you cook up in a teflon pan or on a silpat.

There's a reason for that. Cloudy Bay is distributed worldwide by Veuve Clicquot/LVMH. They are not shy about charging.

Chablais, Neuchatel, Chasselas.

I was in Burgundy last November. I tasted whole lines of 2002's. When we were finished with those, I asked to taste the 03's out of tank. They were uniformly delicious. The malolactic fermentation was not even done, but the wines I tasted were chewy, fat and delicious. Burgundy makes California wine this year.

I'm sorry Jason, but if you notice, I did say a "small amount of caviar with creme fraiche". The parmesan chip thing I learned from Claude Taittinger, many years ago. Parmesan is salty. A small amount of caviar is also salty. Hence.......

Brancott has been described to me as the "Gallo of New Zealand". They have a very large output. I have used their wines in the past as by the glass pours, but Cloudy Bay is the more recognizable of the NZ SB's.

I always say that there is one question to ask when you taste a new wine: DID YOU LIKE IT?

One of the funnier/stranger syndromes we learned about in psych class in the 70's was called Prater-Willys Syndrome: children would open the refrigerator and eat the entire contents of it including whole jars of mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup.