DaleW

Sorry re the TCA. I'm in the middle of the perception spectrum, but often wonder how many slightly disappointing bottles are lightly corked. I haven't had the 2001, but the Montelena chard is probably the CalChard that has most appealed to me over years. My notes from a couple weeks ago on the 2000: 2000 Chateau Montelena Napa Chardonnay - big Chard, apple and pear fruit, a little spice. Noticable oak, but not overwhelming. Good crispness (I don't think they do malo). At $26 this is worth cellaring a couple. B+/A

I knew that was the case with Champagne, but have never heard of 375s being filled from 750s any place else.

In increasing order of cost: For inexpensive (big parties) bubbly, the best cheap cava for my tastes is the NV Cristalino Brut Cava. For a little more, Zardetto prosecco (good Bellini base, too) Strangely, if I want a bubbly in the $10-12 range, I look to New Mexico (Gruet, both regular brut and blanc de noir are good) The Renardat-Fâche Cerdon-de-Bugey is indeed very different and very wonderful. At $20, Nicolas Feuillatte isn't bad for a co-op Champagne Among the big house NV Champagne, I lean to the lighter more elegant styles like Taittinger or Laurent-Perrier. There are a lot of fantastic grower (RM) Champagnes that to me outclass most of the big houses. Terry Thiese's portfolio has some good ones, I'd especially recommend the NV Pierre Peters Blanc de Blancs “Cuvee Reserve”

I never really thought of 1988 as that tannic a vintage, nothing like say 1986. I actually like both, but it's the '86s where I still have my fingers crossed re there being fruit left when those tannins subside.

I've used Access for years. I have fields for: ID Vintage Producer Wine Name Appelation Region Country Quantity Owned Price Paid My Notes Consume Others Notes Published Notes Type (white, red, dessert, sparkling) grape priority (I just code wines 1 to 5 in order of when I think they're ready) Bin location Obviously, not every wine needs every field. Blends don't need grape, a village Chambolle doesn't need wine name. And you have to be a little flexible (premier cru Burgs- the vineyard is "wine name", for instance). But it offers a myriad of sorting possibilities.

I agree with most of what LOS said. Lots of 2000 Bordeaux, especially on the high-end, is incredibly expensive. Some less expensive ones (under$25)that I expect to last 10-20 include 2000 Ch. Brown (Pessac-Leognan), 2000 Tronquoy-Lalande (St. Estephe), 2000 La Fleur de Boüard (Lalande de Pomerol), 2000 Chateau la Louvière rouge (Pessac-Leognan), and 2000 Ch. de Pez (St. Estephe). For a little more, du Tertre, Dauzac, or Giscours. If you're willing to go over $50, Leoville-Poyferre. 2000 CdP looks like a good vintage. The Beaucastel should last a long time, but at $50+ it's expensive. Le Vieux Donjon is another that should last, at closer to $30. I'd steer away from the 2000 Barolo vintage. Supposedly a good vintage, but in a riper style a la 1997. With WS hype prices will be up, yet with ripe vintage good chance agability will be down. 2000 Ports will be the absolutely safest bet. Any decent house Port will last 25-30 years w/o missing a beat. Plus, as you don't know if your child will appreciate wine, I find Port a safe bet- everyone likes a tiny glass. While I tend to recommend sweet or demi-sec Chenin Blanc as best bang for aging buck, 2000 wasn't great year. Same is true for most of Germany, but the higher Pradikat offerings from Dönhoff in the Nahe did well. 2000 was a pretty good year in Austria, a higher level bottling from Nigl, Brundlmayer, FX Pichler , Nikolaihof, or Hiedler would be a good ager. As to what to look for in tasting, there's always an element of chance. I look at track record of the property, then when tasting look at the balance of tannin, acidity, and fruit in a red, and acidity and fruit in a white. Best of luck,

For the main event, we had Madiera-braised turkey with fried sage stuffing. But some of our guests eat fish but not poultry or red meat, so I grilled a nice side of salmon which a teriyaki-ish marinade (soya, sherry, ginger, & garlic). There was also another pan of stuffing/dressing with shiitakes, leeks with chestnuts, green beans, mashed potates, sweet potatoes, and more. As you can guess, no one wine would match with everything. Wines included: 2001 Kurt Darting Dürkheimer Hochbenn (Pfalz) Riesling Kabinett was floral, sweet, and a bit softer than most 2001 kabs. But very tasty with loads of pit fruit flavors. This was supposed to be a segue into a Christoffel kab, but as we never finished this one (light drinking crowd) it was the last Riesling of the night. The salmon gave me an excuse to open a Pinot Noir, the 1994 Michel Lafarge "Clos des Chateau des Ducs" Volnay 1er Cru. Spice and cherry nose, nice medium-bodied wine with rich red fruit, good acidity, and a very long spicy finish. Very good wine from a crappy vintage. I put out an array of reds and gave the only guest who cared re wine the options of a Rhone, a Zinfandel, or a mature Bordeaux, he chose the 1982 Ch. Potensac (Médoc). Actually showed as reasonably young- good red fruit. But while smooth and pleasant, lacking in secondary aromas and flavors. Other bottles of this recently were better. While the pumpkin and sweet-potato/pecan pies were being sliced, passed a variety of cheeses. As there were several blues (St. Agur, Montbriac, and Stilton), it seemed a good time to try the 1982 Martinez Vintage Porto. Immediately after decanting I was concerned about high levels of VA, but it seemed to blow off. Cinnamon-spicy with some chocolate notes in the fruit, seemingly fully resolved tannins. Not at all hot, actually seemingly a little light for VP, but very pleasant.

While I am not a BN fan, I agree with those who say that Beaujolais can be very good wine. In addition to the already mentioned Coudert (Clos de la Roilette) & Brun (try his Beaujolais Blanc!), I've had good luck with Breton, LaPierre,& Thevenet. Been a while since I tried a BN, but I think Brun makes one- might try just to see.

Oops, I was actually referring to the Viña Alarba Old Vines Grenache. Super Savers, not SuperCellars?

I love Protocolo and can get it here at Table & Vine in western MA for $4.99. Pepperwood Grove Zinfandel ($5.99) and Cabernet Franc ($6.99) Pepperwood Grove also makes a decent Syrah for $6-7. A couple of other Spanish cheapies I like a lot are the Borsao and the Viña Alarba (I've seen both as low as $4). I'll look for the Protocolo. Interestingly enough, though I'm usually willing to spend more for a great bottle of red than white, I find it harder to find a really palatable bottle of under-$8 white.

I'm with Jim. I personally enjoy reading the more poetic descriptions. And have found that they can be a pretty good guide to what the wine will taste like, once you've gotten to know a poster's tastes (Florida Jim is a prime example - I get a very clear view of a wine from his posts - though I can seldom find them as cheap!). I don't post notes here, but I do elsewhere. I'm afraid my notes are mostly of value just to me, I'm not an especially talented taster. But I post on public fora because: (1) it is a good way to archive notes (2) I enjoy comments (agreeing or disagreeing) re the wines, and I learn a lot (3) it serves as a bit of a journal (I'm afraid my notes are extremely "non-Wilfried Knapp compliant" -a joke from another forum) (4) I get to know other posters and they me- sometimes I meet folks at offlines and it's like they are old friends I don't expect that folks agree with, like, or even read my notes. One quickly learns whose notes one finds valuable, and which ones are maybe best ignored. But I do feel that more notes, whether analytical, flowery, terse, verbose, or whatever, are valuable. Let a thousand...... As an aside, some of those apparently wierd flavors (wet rocks, leather, etc.) are clear descriptors when my warped brain reads them.

Exactly. The guy doesn't suffer from excessive reticence (there was a funny - to me- thread on another board with an over-the-top venomous reply from him when CWC was accused of gouging). I've never actually bought from CWC, though their prices on some Austrian stuff is certainly tempting. But they do seem to have some hyperbole about how good their pricing is. Is $25 for Pol Roger really such a deal in NC? Glad I moved!

That's pretty much my sense. While I find some of these practices bizarre, there's no arguing that these producers turn out a lot of quality wine. Below is a list I posted on a Usenet forum recently of biodynamic prooducers - I think this list is mostly accurate, though very incomplete. For the most part not a bad list of producers! Though some of Chapoutier's lower end stuff doesn't impress me. Austria: Nikolaihof France Burgundy: Leroy, Lafon, Brocard Alsace: Deiss, Zind Humbrecht ,Frick , Ostertag, Weinbach Loire: Coulée de Serrant, Huet, Breton (both?), Clos Roche Blanche, Rhône: Chapoutier Provence : Sainte-Anne USA : Frey Mostly serious quality producers.

Jay, thanks for posting nice article. If you liked the 2000, you might be interested to know I ordered the '99 Girardin "Clos des Loyeres" Maranges last week from PremierCru in Emeryville for $11.99. Last time I looked they still had it.

Agree, nice wine. When I first started enjoying CC, someone told me "buy the Fs". One could have a worse strategy than buying Fontodi, Fonterutoli (sp?), and Felsina.

To me the Rutherford has always been the "sweet spot" of the BV line. Identifiable "Rutherford dust" at a fraction of the GdL price. I've got '94-'99 left, though I'mglad only a bottle or two each of the last few - who knows what TCA chances are.

I agree. Even in the less than stellar 2000 vintage I found nice Pinot in the Denis Clair Bourgogne-Hautes Côtes de Beaune ($12), Michel Gros Bourgogne-Hautes Côtes de Nuits($13),Claude Marechal Bourgogne "Cuvée Gravel" ($18), and especially the Michel Lafarge Bourgogne ($18). My personal opinion is that at every level on Burgundy, producer rules.

A few random thoughts re importers: I agree Terry T has a great portfolio. And his catalogs (Terry Theise Catalogs) for Germany, Austria, and Champagne are available for download from Skurnik . I believe this is what was meant by his book, it's really great reading. Funny, passionate guy. I also agree that Rudi Weist on a label is a good bet. While Valckenberg as an importer has some great names, beware the actual Valckenberg wines (where they are listed as producer). Mostly dreck. I'd second the Chambers St rec, as well as Premier Cru. Zachys has much improved their German line, though as usual unless you catch the right sale they're not cheap. Rochambeau, my favorite store overall, has dramatically increased their line (including lots of TT stuff) for '02 vintage. I've heard praise of Dee Vine, but never ordered myself.

The Ch. Montelena Chard does indeed taste like wine- Chardonnay wine as a matter of fact (if you don't define Chardonnay as butter, figs, and vanilla). I'm pretty sure they do no malo, there's some oak but with the crispness it's pretty well-integrated. And the Montelena can last a bit. On the cheap side, I liked a Santa Barbara called Zaca Mesa. Think it was also non-malo.

Melkor, I like your list. I think maybe you mean Qba, not QmP, based on price and lack of Pradikat. Vouvray isn't a bad idea for a match, but IMHO B & G makes about the worse Vouvray imaginable. Personally, I like dry rosés with Cajun as well as Creole food. Maybe a Tavel, a Provence, or the Il Mimo from Piemonte if available.

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............... I thought this was a print mag that folded a couple of years ago? If it's the same, totally useless reviews. No consistent viewpoints, descriptors chosen for their "hipness" rather than descriptiveness, frankly F#%*ing irritating.

These wines are young, big, and mostly pretty tannic. To me that means rare (bleu) meat, either beef or lamb

Mr Grahm, First of all, I'd like to say I thought your spring newsletter was funniest wine-related thing I'd read in a while. And I get a lot of nice comments on my Cardinal Zin Tshirt. Oh yeah, wine. I've enjoyed your Big House Red quite a bit. Why is it most US winemakers seem to have so much trouble making an under-$10 wine that shows some structure and character? I could list plenty of under $10 German, Loire, Italian, Languedoc, Spanish etc. wines I generally like. The US list is very short - the Big House, Cline Zin, Pepperwood Grove syrah, um...someone help me here, I'm faltering. One would think not having to ship across an ocean would give US vintners some advantage. Your thoughts?

Actually good prices on the '99 Tig and the Jadot whites, but again- where have they been?

Seems to be a lot of slow-selling wines there ('98 Cals, etc.). Which is to be expected at a close-out model business. But nothing jumped out at me. Some of the $5.99 ones I might try if they were in my local store, but I don't usually find it worth it to ship those wines. The Fed Ex rate is nice, but NY not on list My big worry would be storage. Most of these aren't current vintage. Discounted wine from a source I don't know - I'll wait till they get a rep.