Mark Sommelier

Dom '90 is drinking really well right now. I would have it with parmesan chips, gougeres, and blinis with small amount of caviar and lots of creme fraiche.

At least they are cheap.

Brown-Forman is another conglomerate along with Diageo, Allied Domecq and LVMH who think they can dictate what happens in the market. At my level, I avoid them like the plague. I haven't carried Sonoma-Cutrer since they took over. Their reps used to come to my restaurant and ask why it wasn't there. "Too many other chardonnays", I said. Truth is: I was the first guy in DC to buy S-C, I was the first guy to pour it by the glass. Its boring now after 20 years. Trouble is, to have a "well stocked bar", you have to buy their liquor.

a) It is system set up to benefit giant liquor conglomerates at the expense of everyone else. b) Probably true c) If restaurants could buy directly from the source, they would compete with retailers for better prices. In most places, they can't. d) Retailers are charged less by wholesalers because they will generally take larger case drops than restaurants. Remember, too, that each state has its own tax structure the penalizes the sale of alcohol/wine. e) Restaurants are in a different business than wine shop/liquor stores. The object of the wine store is to sell the wine immediately. They employ a few guys to do this. A restaurant employs many people to sell not only wine, but to do all the other jobs necessary. A bistro may carry $10,000 of wine inventory. A restaurant like Daniel may carry an inventory of $500,000 plus another $100,000 in the accoutrements to serve the wine (glasses, table clothes, etc.).

What do you think a reasonable price is for Petrus? "Reasonable" has to take into account the kind of restaurant you are sitting in. Just curious. excellent question! however, i am not in the wine or food business; therefore, it is difficult for me to answer specifically. but, i would pose the following: there is too much evidence, a la frank prial of the ny times, robert parker, & many other professionals who have publicly stated THEY believe wine prices in restaurants have been & continue to be unjustifiably high!! for myself, its simply knowing retail prices, & also knowing that restaurants pay LESS THAN retail, but they begin their pricing on retail, then arrive at some multiple. THAT multiple is what we are discussing, n'est-ce pas? every business is "entitled" to a profit. what that margin is - is determined by the marketplace. IF restaurants can charge excessively high margins AND we pay those margins, then it is the public's fault that we allow this to happen because we continue to pay & pay, & gripe & gripe, but continue to go & go!!??? re: YOUR question: Petrus's price is as ridiculous as a 1963 ferrari 250 GTO that sold for $10mm at auction, but is now worth much less - THE point? someone paid the price! the same as someone will buy the Petrus! MY point - consult P.T. Barnum's famous quote: "there's a sucker born every minute"!! as for the kind of restaurant... yes, sitting in Daniel is different than sitting in a Les Halles; however, i'm just not sure that a $25 retail priced wine should cost $75 in Les Halles, & $125 in Daniel? i don't mind paying for all the things that differentiate restaurants, but adding the kitchen sink mentality is just too much. and by the way, for all of daniel's hard work, he doesn't appear to be suffering economically. i assume there is EXTRA margin in his pricing Retail stores pay less at wholesale than restaurants, not the other way around. Also, I always like to point out that the restaurant is merely the last one in the chain of distribution to take a mark-up. When you buy a little $4.99 bottle of Vin de Pays in the store and along the way it has been marked up by the broker, importer, supplier, distributor and then the retailer, how much do you think the original bottle sold for from the vigneron? Pennies I would guess. Food for thought.

La Perla opened last year. It is one block from my house, so I was interested since our friendly neighborhood resto Donatello crashed and burned. The chef/owner is Vittorio Testa, whose last big DC restaurant was called Da Vinci at the Georgetown "Harbour". The intererior is quite faux lavish. Tom Sietsema mentioned that it reminded him of Las Vegas. When they opened, their hours were noon to midnight, straight through. Now, most days they are dark and closed by 10:30. One meal there did not encourage me to return.

What do you think a reasonable price is for Petrus? "Reasonable" has to take into account the kind of restaurant you are sitting in. Just curious.

Terry Leighton ("Mr. Kalin") is a friend of mine. I believe he is the only winemaker in California who does not release a wine before he thinks it is ready to drink. His '94 pinot noir was just released, as an example. His current chardonnay vintage is also '94 or '95. His wines, like them or not, always have character.

Where I work, Valentine's Day has been booked solid since early last December because it is a Saturday night. That said, because of the way we book reservations, it is just like a normal night. Of course some of the clientele will be new, but everyone gets taken care of the same way. In good places, yes, it is too late.

After the sale of their property in Pessac-Leognan (I think it was La Mission Haut-Brion) , the Woltners purchased California property. They were the first of the high priced chardonnays in the 80's ($40 a bottle then was outrageous). Most recently, Ted Lemon had been the consulting winemaker at Woltner. Ted has mastered the French style and is a very fine winemaker with the great wines of Littorai as his flagship property.

I would narrow the list by cutting Childe Harold. BdC is fun and tasty. Kozy Korner? Where's that? While I am a big fan of and a regular at BdC, Childe Harold is also always fun and entertaining. Friday and Saturday their kitchen is open till 2 AM. A well known Georgetown character used to refer to the Childe as "Darwin's Waiting Room".

I think Ms. Burros answer was right on and correct. She had all of them before, she didn't want to have them again. Case closed.

I was lucky to just receive some Condrieu "Coteau de Vernon" , Domaine Georges Vernay 2002. This wine is, in a word, stunning. Elegance and finesse are the main characteristics. The floral bouquet is beautiful, the oaking is very slight. Not cheap, but a great example of great viognier.

Breakfast at Melrose is really, really good. I almost felt guilty eating truffled polenta at 7:30 in the morning. The 4 Seasons Hotel in Georgetown also has a knock-out breakfast.

Most of the French and German wine I am receiving now was paid for by the importers last year when the dollar was slightly stronger. The increases will begin to be obvious with the 2002-2003 vintages.

I agree. I have always had a good time at Cafe Asia.

I'm sorry that I have nothing to add. I only buy the top end examples of these wines. For viognier, the Californians to look for are DuMol and Alban. For pinot noir, I like Littorai, Dumol, Paul Hobbs, and Keller Estate.

Yes, it is quite good. I poured it by the glass for 2 months and had really good feedback for it. The Cuvee des Moines Rosé is also really good.

All that I have heard is that some of the grapes were getting burnt on the vine. Presumably this would affect those cepages with thinner skins (but am happy if someone can put me right). If this is the case then I would imagine that there is not a huge amount of acid about. Time, I suppose, will tell. I might be going to Girardin in 3 weeks time - if so I will try and get a straight answer re: 2003. If I can't make either my colleague or a good friend also in the wine trade (who is a great pinotphile) will be going so will get a report. I was in Burgundy last November and tasted with Laurent Borgeot in Remilly and Pascal Maillard in Chorey-les-Beaune. We tasted through all of their 2002's and they were uniformly delicious. Instead of moving to older vintages, they both let me taste their 2003's still in tank. The reds, both Villages and Grand Crus that I tasted, were chewy and sumptuous. At the time, the malolactic fermentation had not even completed, and the wines were very tasty. I think 2003 will produce some stunning wines.

These hotels in the far east are always named as the best in the world. They pick you up from the airport there in their Rolls. The BIG SECRET about their prime restaurant is that a BIG DEAL CHEF FROM NEW YORK was rumored to be the consulting chef. For a lux hotel, that sure is a strange location. Everyone who works there is mum at the moment.

Steve Cuozzo writes some entertaining and sometimes downright hilarious reviews in the New York Post.

are you suggesting that people are supposed to know how each place handles this? are the acceptable percentages different from place to place or something like that? or is it really true that one tip amount is all any place really needs. There is quite a difference between places that pool tips among the staff and places that don't. An example of the pool: You ring up a check of $500 and leave $100 tip for the good service. 33% is taken off the top to be split among the busboys and food runners, leaving $66. If the restaurant has 3 teams of captain and waiter, $66 is split 6 ways yielding $11, which becomes $8 after taxes, so the $100 tip you gave the nice captain actually puts $8 in his pocket.

To know him is to love him Next time you are there, ask him to expound on clams or donkeys.

I assume the NYC restaurant is Alain Ducasse NY. Nope, its Veritas. Coche CC is $1200 at ADNY.

(As I mentioned in a thread on the NY board): Corton-Charlemagne, Domaine Jean-François Coche-Dury, 2000 Fancy restaurant in Washington, DC: $400 Fancy restaurant in New York City: $1300