Wine Berserkers - international wine social media, online community, and forums

GregT

I’ve been BURNED one TOO MANY times on Wilfred Wong wine suggestions. I’m not sure if he still ‘works’ for BevMo...but his opinion...in MY opinion...SUCKS HARD! He left them a few years ago. Works for wine.com now. I never understood his rankings either. But having met him a few times he's actually...

GregT

Which is still about $166 more than most are willing to pay for something they've never heard of or tasted.

GregT

Steve Gautier wrote: ↑
January 19th, 2019, 5:12 pm
NapaCabLover on Instagram opened won tonight. Are they a Berserker?

that wood seem a fait accompli.

GregT

European wines are overpriced because they're priced in euros. Fait Main is an American wine with a French sounding name, which makes it suspect.

GregT

The usual culprits are high alcohol, low acid red wines, more often from places in Spain, Italy, Greece, etc. where not every winery is up to modern clean standards. Not sure I agree with that. Lopez de Heredia is an example of a wine that often has VA, Emidio Pepe is another that comes to mind, so...

GregT

As many as necessary and no more.

GregT

Yes but it kind of depends on who is in the tasting no? In other words, people who don't do it for a living but like wine vs people who do it all day long. It's somewhat akin to the argument that big fruity wines grab attention and "win" blind tastings or come out best when tasting many wines at one...

GregT

Turned out i signed up, i know its a cab but style wise what would it compare to. So you bought a $175 wine without knowing anything about it other than it was Cabernet-based? How did you choose it? By signing up. How else? But having signed up and presumably having some sample product, he's in a b...

GregT

Mich@el Ch@ng wrote: ↑
January 17th, 2019, 8:33 pm
Dead at retail

Dead where YOU shop!

GregT

No idea Poppy but don't assume those from the 1950s have no value. I love reading those just to get a sense of what people were thinking and liking in those days. I used to browse used bookstores looking for stuff like that. Never thought about selling - I just put them on my stoop in Brooklyn and t...

GregT

No idea why this is an elephant in the room. In any case, I would think that a wine over 20 years can start to be classified as old. Most wines won't make that mark and those that do will generally be showing some notes of maturity. Of course some wines can age far, far longer and be good. In blind ...

GregT

Since she's the trend-setter, does anyone know what wine she was drinking? Had to be something sold at Walmart, right? Perhaps Carlo Rossi and she lost the box somewhere? Useful containers those are. We know you can use it to boost your wi fi signal But if you have some spare time, and some spare Pr...

GregT

Is the question about etiquette or about how to make the determination in the first place? If the former, I'd get the waitress or waiter or busboy or someone to contact the somm and have a conversation with him/her. If it's about how to make the determination, that's on you. If you're doubtful, do t...

GregT

Not necessarily. You have to define "cheap" before you make that kind of statement because that is one of the most popular cooking wines in many restaurants. You don't think people are doing reductions with high-end wine or making Bœuf Bourgignon with real Burgundy! But here's how they can do it: Ca...

GregT

I gotta say, I've re-evaluated my opinion of SA over the last 15 years. The wines are better every year.

GregT

However, there is often an assumption that some extreme cases represent some kind of a "pendulum" rather than exploration by a few individuals. Just like every Cab in California isn't 15.9% alcohol, I'd be surprised if the majority of whites in Burgundy were under ripe. Not to quibble, but the aver...

GregT

Tue Jan 08, 2019 8:14 pm And you have very extreme winemaking going on in the Côte de Beaune to pursue this tangier, leaner, more minimalist style: one darling of this board picked his 2018s at around 11-11.5% potential alcohol and chaptalized to 12.5%. "Natural" wine. Shows the terroir better. As ...

GregT

And a tented cabinet. I wouldn't worry too much personally, but if I did, I wouldn't tent the cabinet, or if I did, I'd leave the cooling unit uncovered. It needs to vent.

GregT

I believe it is all 3 levels—importer, distributor, and retailer. Alan - in many cases the importers are also distributors. The third level would be the producers. In this case, if Mark is suggesting that the domaine prices are not out of line, and it's coming from the middlemen and prices are not ...

GregT

How is selling wine at retail possible? High level don’t have to give away trade secret.

Turnover.

There are plenty of restaurants that do it.

Justin - are you going to Coravin those or sell whole bottles? Maybe also seek out a few better producers selling half bottles?

GregT

Brian - sorry to hear about your problem. No advice here, just noting that you got a lot of advice that's all over the place and I'd get a few professional opinions based on your specific case. Spitting is probably an option, but that's a completely different experience than sitting back at the end ...

GregT

I've seen this at BevMo but haven't been tempted, partly by the price. Good to know that it's interesting though.

GregT

Great discussion. Jeff asked my thoughts; I absolutely think you need context, but what the definition and the quality of that context is interesting. The topic came up when one of my guests mentioned a very wealthy acquaintance who had just got into wine. He decided to go on a yearlong buying spre...

GregT

Well, if it were chocolate cake and you tasted it for the first time ever and you liked it, would you feel less enjoyment for not having had a bad experience before? I remember the first time I'd ever had beef cooked by a Japanese friend. I'd never tasted that combination of sweet and salty flavors ...

GregT

Exactly.

And why wouldn't you clean out the store if you could? If it's a great deal, you take it. The implications of your role in the market and the people you transact with are that you're a satisfied customer and they sold some inventory, which is why they're in business.

GregT

But I did not see the OP as asking these questions. I thought (and many others apparently did too) that it was asking whether there was some moral or ethical restraint on buying what one wanted -- whether there is some compunction to do the retailer a solid by buying stuff you wouldn't otherwise bu...

GregT

I have no idea what the original question was about - taking only the wines of a producer that you think are better than others, or taking the "better" wines from a store, etc. Why would anyone do anything else? Do you feel obligated to buy a second-rate car because the manufacturer had some design ...

GregT

The poster who referenced the oak knows as much about Spanish wine as anyone in the world and more than anyone on this board, makes his own wine in Spain, and knows Palacios and Priorat very well, and to my knowledge, has no beef with either. He was referring to a few US critics and their acolytes w...

GregT

I think the OP was selling a venture, or considering it, but maybe not. Otherwise it's a weird first time question. I can see people wanting to do it and know people who became proficient wine makers as a result of their desire to do it themselves. But that's true for everything isn't it? You can go...

GregT

I'm not sure how you could saber it while it's between you legs unless you were standing and then that would just be too weird anyway. As far as the bottle breaking, it's not common but it's not entirely unheard of for a bottle of sparkling wine to explode during handling, or sometimes not even whil...

GregT

There's no report that he was trying to sabre it. Seems that he was holding it between his legs simply to open it.

GregT

Exactly. That got thrown in there somehow but it's not at all what he was saying. Richard - I will absolutely defer to Carole and Wes and some of the more knowledgeable people but there are a lot of myths regarding vines and how they transport minerals, etc. The functions of roots are to store carbo...

GregT

Did she sell them or take money for them by passing them off as real? It is interesting - Clifford Irving got jail time for his hoax and then he published a book about that. I wonder if Rudy will publish a book about his dealings.

GregT

"I like Apothic Red. It goes well with almost anything (except seafood). It's bright red and jammy (can I call it sweet?), and the price is right. Just for fun, I like to call it Apathetic when I go to the store." His wit is as developed as his palate. Larry - you are entirely right. People in the ...

GregT

Cardboard tubes are dead at retail.

GregT

From. The problem with that was they made the "bottle" non see-through so you never knew what was in it. Hearty Burgundy was a better buy.

GregT

Do I detect a sarcastical motive here?

You might want to try some Zeller Schwarze Katz.

GregT

Cab has been planted around the world because it can make a pretty decent wine in a number of places. Maybe not always breathtaking, but often quite serviceable. In addition, as the wine world started taking off in the 1970s, France, and specifically Bordeaux, was seen as the standard in much of the...

GregT

Again, hard to generalize. With the various kinds of kim chee? No wine at all. With BBQ red meats, many more. If there's a fermented soy component as a flavoring, sherries usually work really well. For me, if it's a pretty spicy dish, wine doesn't really work too well, unless it's kind of sweet.

GregT

What a funny post Chris. I hadn't paid attention but you're right - people talk about red but often recommend white and sparkling when asked for food matches. Great observation. However, some matches just don't work and there's no point in forcing them. Surströmming and wine for example. Chocolate a...

GregT

When I looked at the article, I was far more interested in the sidebar.

Apparently Angela Jolie is thinking about running for president.

I believe I will subscribe to that site Tom, so I can keep up with all of the latest and greatest news.

GregT

What a great post Jim. However, in terms of a vineyard I think long-term exposure to a site and years of working with the fruit are far more powerful tools than any science book approach will bear. For instance, in our vineyard we have 21 individual blocks of Pinot based on vine age, clone, exposure...

GregT

I was more disappointed with Meadows however, whose credibility to me took a big knock by him seemingly puffing up quite a few sub-par bottles. And quite a few by Rudy. He was as taken in as everyone. When you have a famous label in front of you, you just know the wine is going to be good. But as h...

GregT

Not everything has been created in the niche European traditions of grape x in terroir y = foods z. Charlie made the point I would. When pairing with Asian foods it pays to focus on certain dishes. Trying to conclude wines from a certain region match foods from certain sorts of restaurants invariab...

GregT

Retail is dead at the store where you shop.

It was killed by drones firing 50mm rounds.

GregT

I agree with the folks who said that tea is a good accompaniment, but that's because I usually have the stuff in the afternoon or morning. However, we do sometimes have it for dinner, or some kind of Chinese dumplings, and we have all kinds of wine with it. Not all of it matches, but you don't have ...

GregT

You're right Ken - it isn't flavored. My bad. I was focused on the lemon, which a number of people in the LA area said was traditional, but honestly I'm no expert on the subject. And I've never heard of it from Chardonnay. But Angelica does have considerable aging potential. Cappelli compares it to ...

GregT

"Loire is dead at the retail store I go to"

GregT

Good stuff Wes! We need to do a tasting. And here's another thing - whites or reds?

GregT

Jim I believe that. I've done it myself in other places and the different sites are quite different. I don't know how your sites are situated, or whether there are strips of different rock types in the same vineyard, but I don't know anyone who can say with any certainty, on tasting a wine, that it ...

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