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

How old is old? Post-2000 my failure rate is less than 2% - about what I expect. 1996-2000 it’s about 10% - and when dead it’s dead. Undrinkable after 5 hours, 24 or 48. Pre-1996 it’s more like 20%, with another 10% past/way past prime but not obviously damaged. I.e. old. All purchased after 2012, d...

Tim thanks for sharing that. It’s nice to get some good news!

Darn, I haven’t tried this one. But I was blown away by the 2019 Veldenzer Elisenberg Kabinett. Based on your description David, perhaps more Kabinett than Spätlese compared to the Fass 4? Would be fun to try side by side. But regardless, the MF Richter Kabis are sick QPR.

I think we’re in pretty clear agreement on which vintages to seek. Availability is another matter entirely. The very high end is out there, and somewhat wildly priced. However, the very good mid-tier and lesser wines that drink nicely early are stunningly absent from the market. If you could find to...

I have never tried wine from NJ, and am in no hurry to do so. But I am curious about the possibility. What makes NJ a bad place to grow wine grapes? Or especially good? Don’t you just need a certain amount of heat/length of growing season, hillsides for drainage, and crappy soil? Is NJ too wet in su...

I haven’t had many Beerenauslese but actually had this one last year. Served to some friends who like sweet wines. Minds were blown.

Fascinating, going to dig into this. I’ve always really enjoyed Ian’s writing, very curious about this new project.

Piedmont Nebbiolo is a lot trickier. The really special older wines are hard to find and a real crap shoot on storage. But the one I’d recommend for availability and better storage track record (in my experience) is Gaja Barbaresco. The 1989, 1990, or 1996 are all in a great drinkability zone. The 1...

Agree with Yquem. The 2015 is fantastic. A few Bordeaux I would consider: 1989 Lynch Bages or Pichon Baron 1996 Pichon Lalande or Ducru 1998 Haut Brion or La Mission Haut Brion (maybe outside your price range) And, there are many back vintages of Ridge Monte Bello that are on the refined side, at l...

I sympathize with the rule followers here - just tell me the rules and I’ll follow them. I don’t want to have to guess at secret rules, or deduce the subtext for rules. Yes, I so much prefer that! But the now of 2021 is a time in which the rules have clearly changed. What are the new rules? Not enti...

I’m one to BYOB most of the time and I’m inclined to keep doing that. But I also want to support restaurants, especially ones I love, so will look for ways to do that. You could take the ‘it’s their business it’s their problem’ position but with a little more flexibility a lot more restaurants might...

@Sarah - thanks for those comments. Post-Covid recovery (and its implications) is the point of this additional discussion: it requires additional consideration.

Sounds great, what a fun tasting. I have a bunch of ‘13 and ‘14 L-Gs, maybe time to open a few.

Is it arrogant? Only if you think it’s arrogant to tell people how to behave. If so, then all of the Internet is arrogant, not to mention much of the discussion on this board. Here’s a quote that captures the essence of the article: “But with this new era of in-person dining comes a new set of etiqu...

Tom R W wrote: ↑April 3rd, 2021, 2:24 pm I can’t read the article through the paywall- but in the 5 second glance I got at the first paragraph the author seems to outright state that it’s rude to BYOB right now? Did I get that right?

No, she does not say it’s rude to BYOB. She instead gives reasons not to do it.

Interesting article by Esther Mobley in the Chronicle: https://link.sfchronicle.com/view/6038681318b5477936352e1adxn1o.tni/7bf06a38 Honestly I’m torn. My pre-Covid habit was to bring bottles to restaurants nearly always, and I would follow most of the ‘rules’ that Esther mentioned. But now things ar...

Yea very pretty pizza! I’ve really been impressed by many ‘16 Langhe Nebbiolos. All very dense and engaging. Some have been quite open and inviting (Fratelli Alessandria, Vajra). Many others have been structured, intense, and wanting some age (La Ca Nova, Burlotto, Giacosa, Sandrone). Perhaps most b...

I flew over to Prümtown in my helicopter and Kat sold me the entire run. Sorry but helicopter flying is thirsty work! I’m going to store these in my new Greenland underwater storage facility. Guaranteed temperature control and sure to attract lots of crabs and lobsters into my neighboring traps.

Thanks for sharing. It’s a “the more things change the more they stay the same” piece in my mind - lot of interesting but conflicting evidence. My favorite conclusion is “The older wines are the ones most likely to benefit from breathing. They are also the ones most likely to suffer from breathing.”...

Agreed. Very good solution. Only significant problem is the opportunity for Berserker-like buying. All that room! It’s a truth universally acknowledged that any wine storage in possession of unused space must be in want of several cases of tasty vino (deep apologies to Jane Austen). So you might wan...

Great line up. Probably best to skip the Adelaide surgeons for the rest of the afternoon as well!

I opened this thread with trepidation. The topic is is so likely to lead to pointless debate about personal taste preferences and unknowable guesses about the future. Instead I’ve found it pretty interesting, filled with lots of valuable tidbits. Lots of posting by Marcus and it’s a good thread [che...

Great tasting John, interesting to see such a wide range of Burgs. Coincidentally my local tasting group also only began doing blind tasting this Covid year when we switched to a Zoom/bottle exchange format. I find blind always fascinating and indeed sharpens the (tasting) buds but is a very intelle...

Agreed with others here. Some of my friends knock down 2009 for being excessively fruit forward and unbalanced but I have not found that to be the case. Some of the wines I’ve opened (Bertheau, Lafarge) have been downright delicate while also showing tremendous depth and intensity in the magical way...

To answer the OP - based on limited early reviews I don’t see any reason not to buy my regulars for 2020. I’ll go lighter than ‘19 for sure, but will make steady cellar additions.

I stared at that Bürklin-Wolf offer, read articles about past vintages, reviews, scanned this site, filled out a good sized order of village and 1ers ... then deleted it. Don’t know how I found the strength. Panzer has too many tempting offers.

It’s a year later. What have you found Brian? I know that you and I both have gotten hooked on Falkenstein. What else?

John thanks for sharing snapshots of Parker’s vintage summaries. Awesome that you’ve kept those scraps around for as long as you kept the wine!

Jason T wrote: ↑March 24th, 2021, 2:16 pm Easier, and the “feature” of exposing yourself to two different sets of fees and some new concerns around liquidity risk.

Well sure. I’m not recommending these vehicles, and I wouldn’t touch them. But if you really want to invest in wine this is an easy way to do it.

I wasn’t a buyer at the time so didn’t experience the hype. But I like both of these vintages. ‘95 has been consistently good in the right bank, and some left banks like Pichon Comtesse de Lalande and Margaux have been excellent. 1996 is even stronger. These wines are good now if still quite fruity ...

One problem we have here is lack of data. High growth wine prices have really only been a feature of the market for 20 or 30 years. Very few periods of high inflation during that time period. It would be great to actually see long term analysis of wine pricing growth vs inflation instead of hypothes...

If you're interested in Piemonte wines it's worth checking out this new I'll Drink to That! But this is one of the more unusual podcasts from Levi Dalton. The first hour+ (of this 95+ minute excursion) is not about Lorenzo Accomasso at all, but instead is a fairly meandering recount of Italian histo...

All the discussion about S&P is not particularly relevant. The topic at hand is alternative investments that can act as hedges. Investing in the S&P is not a hedge for the vast majority of people. The original question was whether wine was a good hedge against inflation. Certainly the S&...

I didn't define anything Henry - these are whatever Acker is defining as "Indices." Probably data from the one or two places you can actually invest in wine without buying the bottles yourself. Yes, if you are careful, aggressive and lucky you can get good returns on 5 or 10 bottles and ma...

I guess there are allocations and there are allocations. Bordeaux 1st allocations are clearly built around managing (some would say manipulating) pricing, not on actual availability. Hot Burgundy is actually allocated and sold out. In vogue California lists are the same. Want more than zero bottles ...

btw, if you go to the acker auction site you can run a graph with fine/rare wines against sp500 and the results are amazing. as good/better with less volatlity. Ok, pretty neat tool, took me a minute to find it. Even though I'm a little suspicious because I don't know what the data actually comes f...

Back to Latour. Does anyone think the price on the 2013 Grand Vin is going to suddenly go up? Or ever?

to be fair, it was trading at £2200/6 within a couple of weeks. Had I wanted to sell it then, it would have substantially outstripped the performance of the S&P 500. And that will remain true of Lafleur for many years to come - 100% return in a day. The question, really, is how I get my hands o...

I really doubt that wine is a good inflation hedge. Lots of good threads here on whether wine is a good investment at all. Add to that the unpredictability of currency movements and inflation, and this seems like a weird risk. Of course if someone can point to long term research that shows how wine ...

HenryB does have a good point. ‘First tranche’ release prices are not about volume, availability or distribution limitations. They are literal market testing. If the Chateaux see high demand, the next release is more expensive. Low demand and releases are dribbled out slowly so that even the low dem...

True, true. When I got into fine wines I thought that such premiums are purely because of the label and I wouldn't ever pay them. Then I joined some high profile wine groups and did Bordeaux horizontals for quite a few vintages. These were always blind tastings and we all scored the wines and perha...

Wine Cellarage also had 2015 Les Forts for $219. Perhaps more in line with the vintage quality, this still seems over-priced to me as a second wine. Is this the Latour for bargain seeking label displayers? It’s challenging to understand the pricing of a product that commands such market premiums and...

Brian, thanks for the note. While I drink a lot of Prüm Kabinetts very young, I usually hold the Spätleses for a while. I think the youngest one I've opened recently is 2005. I appreciate the reminder to not get too impatient with the babies snoozing in the cellar!

I’m in the same boat. At around $75, would you pick up the Produttori or more of the Vajra Bricco delle Viola or Ravera? It’s a fair question. I bought over a case of the Vajra Barolos. At $66 (what I paid for Asili and Rabaja on Wine.com using various discounts) I was happy to have a few of the 20...

Jay Miller wrote: ↑March 22nd, 2021, 12:16 pm
A. So wrote: ↑March 21st, 2021, 7:10 pm Is there seriously an alternative that won't leave me ROFL?
Letting your offsite storage company manage it.

Yea that works, until they update their online app to make it unusable.

I travel with older bottles. Often on airplanes where I’m not around to obsessively keep them upright. So I try to plan for some less sediment-y bottles the first night or two and give the more finicky bottles 3 or 4 days upright. If I was going for a 2 day trip I’d probably just not bring older Bar...

Vinocell looks interesting. Not switching from Cellar Tracker, no chance.

I really liked this wine, thought it was a pretty good value at $47. Yes, it would be nice if it were cheaper. I’m curious what red wine you guys think is better in the $30 - low $40s. Not better value, but actually better, or even as good. Looking through my notes I did find a handful of candidates...

I would never compare nebbiolo and aglianico. Tannin is the only thing they have in common. Aglianico is dark and dense, and the aromatics bear no resemblance to nebbiolo. Yet in a blind tasting with seasoned Italy drinkers everybody guessed first either Barolo or Barbaresco when it was a 1970 Mast...

Wow that's a nightmare Jeremy. But that Cepparello is a wonderful recompense.

I've had pretty bad luck with older Barolos more than any other kinds of wines I've bought. I just don't think the older storage on them was very good. But that '95 Margaux is more unusual. Very disappointing.

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