Mark Sommelier

Dear Kinseydude, I said that California is a toss-up place. It depends on what section of the winelist it goes. If it is just for listing on a menu, I would say: Albarello, Red Table Wine, H. Coturri and Sons, 2001 Mr. Kinsey, as to the second question, no, the producer is not the most important thing to list first, it is the grape or place name of the wine. Producer is always listed last. Yes, I am proposing this as the "official" way. I learned it 20 years ago and like it.

Craig, Chassagne has always been my favorite white Burgundy. Puligny is close behind. Staying in the village where Sauzet is just up the street was very cool. I will post a larger group of tasting notes soon.

I hate to disagree, but this is the wrong way. The wine is not called Nino Franco, it is called Prosecco Rustico di Valdobbiadene. It should be written as : Prosecco Rustico di valdobbiadene, Viticoltori Nino Franco, NV Likewise the others: Muscadet de Sevre et Maine sur Lies, Cuvee Vielles Vignes, Domaine Clos des Briords 2002 Saumur Blanc "La Papareille", Domaine St. Vincent 2002 Bourgogne Rouge, Domaine Alain Hudelot-Noellat, 2000 Moscato d'Asti "Vigneto Biancospino", Azienda Agricola Dante Rivetti, Piemonte, 2002 Pic St.-Loup "Le Rollier", Domaine Mas Foulaquier 2001 Hope this helps. I am a stickler about this stuff on my winelist.

I agree with Craig. Graham's is consistently good. I use more 30 year old tawny than anyone in town, and it always pleases people. Not cheap, though. Retail is around $100 a bottle. The 10 year is always the sweetest and best served chilled. 20 year is a good middle ground in that it is not too sweet and not too expensive. If you liked these tawny ports, you should also look into Madeira. Good Malmsey has similar qualities and is a whole lot less expensive.

I ate at Le Chassagne this week. I can tell you that it was really good and totally unexpected in such a tiny, sleepy and ancient town. A great find. A vigneron I was visiting took us there.

For French wines outside Bordeaux, I use this format: Muscadet de Sevre et Maine, "Cuvée One", Domaine Metairou 2002 Montrachet, Grand Cru, Domaine de la Romanée Conti, 1999 Volnay, "Clos des 60 Ouvrées", Premier Cru, Domaine de la Bousse d'Or 1990 Minervois, "Les Aspres", Domaine Cros 1999 For Bordeaux: Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou, St. Julien 2ieme Grand Cru Classée, 1982 California and Australia are toss-ups: Cabernet Sauvignon "Reserve", Robert Mondavi Winery, Oakville 1978 or Robert Mondavi Winery, Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Oakville 1978 Shiraz Reserve "Integrity", Marquis-Philips, Mclaren Vale, South Australia 2001 or "Integrity", Shiraz Reserve, Marquis-Philips, Maclaren Vale, South Australia 2001

I just got back from a week in France and two days in Burgundy. I would like to describe the entire 2 day stop to put the tastings into context. We arrived in the Beaune area after dark and headed toward our hotel, Le Montrachet in Puligny. Taking a turn down a narrow, dark road, we followed the sign that indicated Puligny-Montrachet. Going up a hill, the road turns. Peering out the window, I told my friend driving to slow down because something looked familiar to me from pictures I had seen. Stopping the car, I got out and looked at an ancient portal outside the vineyard. The inscription on the lintel: Le Montrachet, Domaine Baron Thenard. I got shivers down my spine. This was it. We continued to the hotel, which is totally charming and very beautiful and well appointed. Having had a rather large lunch on the way down, we went to Lameloise to cancel our dinner reservations and apologize to the chef. We came back and ate at Le Montrachet. The food was fair, but the wine list is what you come here for. The largest selection of Puligny,Chassagnes and Montrachets I have seen. We drank a Leflaive Clavoillons for a whopping 87€. The next day was tasting day. I had made arrangements to taste wine with 2 vignerons, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. Morning came and we set out to Remilly after breakfast to visit one of my favorite producers (and new friends), Laurent Borgeot. M. Borgeot is fairly young. He is a brilliant winemaker. He asked what we would be interested in tasting and I immediately told him 2002 and 2003. Laurent's domaines lie in Puligny, Chassagne and Meursault. He has no Grand Cru as yet. We tasted all the tank samples of his 2003 whites. Even though the malo is not completed, these were stunning and delicious wines. They reminded me most of the '97 vintages - floral, forward, balanced wines. The Puligny "Charmes" stood out from the group as being most delicious. The small amount of red he makes comes from Chassagne and Santenay. These wines were also robust and easy drinking. I made a joke about the "California vintage" and he just smiled. We then tasted through his white 2002. This is indeed a very great collector vintage. I intend to buy all I can. After tasting about 16 wines before 11:30 (and copping a buzz), we left. We had lunch arrangements with my friend Pascal Maillard, going to his cellar afterward. Pascal took us to Le Chassagne in the middle of Chassagne-Montrachet. This restaurant is run by the vingeron association. What a surprise to find a "gastronomique" restaurant in the middle of this tiny, ancient village. Over lunch we drank his superb Corton Blanc (not Charlemagne) 2001, Pommard "La Chaniere" 1996 and Corton-Renardes Grand Cru 1996. All stunning and showing very well. My Burgundy snails and main course of sole with langoustines were more than adequate. The cheese course finished us off. A delicious, gooey St. Felicien stands out. We then hopped in the car and made off to Chorey-les-Beaune where Pascal's winery is. Again, I asked to taste 2002 and 2003. Being half in the bag already (before 3 in the afternoon), we asked to only taste 3 or 4 wines because my boss was sleeping in the car at this point. Needless to say, the exuberant Pascal started dipping the pipette into barrel after barrel. He always starts with his village wine, Chorey-les-Beaune. Pascal's domaines are in Chorey, Meursault, Pommard, Corton, Beaune, Aloxe and Savigny. The '03 reds were uniformly delicious across the whole range, even though he told me that the malolactic fermentation was only 30% completed. The whites, clean, sweet and sumptuous. We then turned to 2002. We tried to put the brakes on with limited success. '02 Corton Blanc is a knockout. His Meursault Vielles Vignes a truly great wine. All the '02 wines possessed power, fine bouquet, length and finesse. At this point, I was happy to climb in the back seat of the car and sleep all the way to Lyon.

I remember being in Cape Cod once and getting spectacular clam and lobster rolls from the Dairy Queen.

Lucky Dog!!!! How'd you get so fortunate? (by being in Lyon, not specifically drinking the DeBoeuf...) As in "very fruit forward and weighty"? I spent a week divided between Paris, Burgundy and Lyon. Will report more later. Jet lag right now.

I was in Lyon on Beaujolais Day, and the DuBoeuf was the one everyone was giving away. It was actually flavorful and had body! This is the vintage that will be remembered in Burgundy as the "California" vintage.

The Wine Clip! I love it. -Dick Oy, don't mention the Wine Clip!

Darren, I had a stellar dinner at the Nectar the day before you. Jarad was there, Brice was there, Alex was there. I was entertaining a restaurateur friend of mine. He was impressed. Dinner was impeccable. No faults. We had many of the dishes Darren Vengroff had.

The single most intensively "terroir" driven wine that I remember tasting recently, was a 1997 Coteaux de Layon from the Domaine de la Bergerie. An incredible honeyed nose, very good weight on the palate. The finish shouted flavors of minerals: chalk, magnesium and flint. The chalk was the most pronounced. This wine freaked me out.

Nespresso may change your mind about pods. These machines seem to be idiot proof. The coffee tastes good and comes out with perfect crema every time. They offer 9 different intensities. Check it out: http://www.nespresso.com

Britcook, Your opening diatribe sounds to me like someone who just took a wine course and has become a convert. None of the stuff you talked about is new or secret to those of us who know wine well. Terroir is best tranlated as "flavor". The best terroirs, whether they are La Mouline, Le Musigny, Chassagne Morgeot, Rutherford Bench, Coulée de Serrant, express themselves. Their flavors are there to taste. Here's a free tip: French grapes struggle with bad weather, no irrigation, hungry crows. California grapes are pampered with water, sun, heat. There is no question why French wines have more local personality than California wines.

He means Champagne produced by a grower of his or her own grapes, not purchased grapes. Well I hope that is what he means. Would not want to speak for Mark S out of turn......... PS I am too restarded to quote more than 1 person at once sorry..... Yes, Carema, You got it right. A grower/producer in Champagne. These wines tend to be more "wine like". They are not all about bubbles and yeast. There is terroir, subtlety, grace, elegance. RM wines deliver more consistently than the large house crap.

Caro Carema, Kind of like Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay, right? Where are you ? Still at $9.99?

In the past year I have used Roederer, Taittinger, Bollinger and Pol Roger by the glass. All were $19.99 a bottle except Bollinger which was $22. I have pretty much switched to Recoltant Manipulant Champagnes for my by the glass program. They are comparably priced, too.

It is called Komi after the Greek town the chef's family is from. I had some decent wood oven pizza there. The wine list is eclectic and they don't have liquor. We remedied that at the Fox & Hounds.

Don't know what prices you guys have to pay in tax but the cost price (or rather the one a very close supplier gets) of Veuve is about €17. I am sure that there are different prices for different companies. Then mark-up, shipping and tax makes up the rest. In this market the wholesale price to restaurants of Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label is $32. The deal price for pouring it by the glass is $27. This is much higher than all the other large Champagne houses who usually let the NV Brut go for around $20.

I stopped in Sunday night with friends and sat at the bar. The renovation is really stunning and dramatic. Crab soup was tasty. Sweatbreads were ordered in two different preparations and were sensational. I found a Martinelli chardonnay that was quite good. These are very hard to get a hold of. I can't wait to go back and try more things.

The "really good Champagnes like Veuve Clicquot "Yellow Label" ". Laughable.

Now, the owner of this place is a Stanford law grad, so he's well versed in antitrust and defamation law, and he doesn't have anything to worry about. But I thought this was so funny that I had to share it. Yes, it is funny. But, how much cheaper could they be selling the wines for? CWC is a retailer also.

Josh, Riedel now has several lines of glasses that are quite inexpensive. I used Spiegelau in the past but have since switched to Schott-Zwiesel. I prefer durable glasses. They have some very attractive large wine glasses that are very reasonable priced. The restaurant I work in uses Bernardaud as the main china pattern. Not the hotel ware, but the porcelain. It is extremely expensive. Our tableclothes cost $80 each and must be ordered in large quantities. All this stuff adds up. Wine is the profit center in upper end restaurants.

Nope.