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What surprises me is that these numbers aren’t higher. For a huge industry $1mm to get favorable treatment in states with such high pop (Michigan, Ohio, Mass) is a bargain. Tennessee & Georgia are shockingly pricey, relatively. Our politicians are both corrupt and cheap dates!

Ashish funny that you visited them. How did you choose them?

Never had this producer before, ordered over dinner. Note below. Very impressive, great with Elk Ragu Papperdelle. P&P though deserves a decant. One of the best young Brunellos I’ve had. Intoxicating nose of dark fruit, earth, hints of smoke and spice. Very forward for a young BdM (the vintage?) is ...

Jayson Cohen wrote: ↑
March 14th, 2019, 9:55 pm
The only real temptation in past 24 hours: 2008 Hugues Godmé Grand Cru Brut Millésimé.

Yes that would be tempting. I really liked the 2006.

I was seriously tempted by some 2009 Gouges Le Saint Georges. Loved the 16s I just tasted and these are much less expensive. But — showed restraint.

I just picked up some 2001 Pichon Baron. I wasn’t in the market when this was released but seems like there are a lot of overperformers for this classic shoulder vintage. I’m a buyer.

Herwig, thanks for posting - really interesting to see how these are developing. I always enjoy your group’s blind tasting results - I have to look for that Carmes. Though I’ve been pretty reluctant to open 2000s because it seems too early, I have done a few comparisons with 2001. In a couple of cas...

This was a very nice event on the evening of Wednesday March 6 at City Winery, part of the La Paulee week. While perhaps a bit overcrowded (it was a typical walk around tasting, with tables of 10 or so bottles being poured), I was able to to taste nearly everything. There were plenty of tasty bites ...

Instead of posting all my notes (which is perhaps a not so useful wall of text), I thought I'd just add a few more notes to grow the discussion. The absolute great producers have already been covered fairly well. Details on a couple who haven't below, but keep in mind these notes are necessarily bri...

Much prefer the "alt" dinners. And how do you get invited to these? As I wrote above, it’s good old fashioned networking and footwork. One of the events I attended was put on by a retailer I buy from. A month or so before La Paulee week I emailed my reps inquiring about events. The others were with...

I skipped it and indeed had several wonderful alternative dinners. Definitely worth checking in with NY retailers you buy from to see if anything is planned. But my favorite dinner was a small gathering of friends, some of whom I met here :). Wine of the week? Very kind people did share some wonderf...

Yes. Agree. That’s why I consider these just relative flash impresssions. I don’t score wines generally - and here these are just flash impressions on tiny pours. Yes. I have no idea how anyone could give scores to the wines we had yesterday afternoon. Agreed, though in general I have a rough time ...

I’m still collating all my notes, will likely take a few days. La Paulee events, while crowded, remain my favorite big walk around tastings of the year. The food this year was great and readily available in small bites, allowing me to intermix food and drink and keep my palate perky. For the wines, ...

[cheers.gif] Agree but this is the single most expensive Gautreau in EU. More costly than 2005 Great wine it is Seems like Bordeaux from 2000 are consistently relatively highly priced. I’ve been focused more on 1996 (oddly lower) and 2001 (understandably lower). Some remnant of a good marketing cam...

Thanks for the report. Amazing this was still so good - but I think vintage mattered a lot more in the old days, and I understand ‘71 to be a top vintage.

Speed of payment in the auction market is clearly very market dependent. When I first got into auctions, the big players were running 6-7 auctions a year, with months passing between dates. Now most run monthly, with additional smaller/Internet only events thrown in (see HDH, Zachy’s, Acker). K&L is...

For those of you who like these with age, how many years do you like to give these? What do you see as the transformation that takes place. Btw I’ve been experimenting with Willi’s anywhere from current release to 15 or so years from vintage. Much pleasure to be had across this age range, but haven’...

After sharing this with friends over dinner, we had a discussion on the topic ‘where do we find bottles this tasty for under $25.’ Extra points for Cabernet Sauvignon or similar grapes. We pored over K&L’s (major California retailer) selection of hundreds of California red wines and came up empty ha...

Great thread, very helpful discussion.

For the wines discussed here, how old do you drink them, and why?

With all the praise for the Bordeaux 2016 vintage, especially for the over-performance of the lower tier, I recently impulse bought a bottle of Puygueraud ($18). I didn’t know where the Cotes de Francs was, had to look it up! For reference what I usually drink fom Bordeaux is 20-30 year old bottles ...

Great advice from Tom. I learned a few new things. Don’t get cherry picked! I guess the real question on selling a large cellar is how to get the best price. Hugely dependent on quality of storage and specifics of bottles, yes. But I’d guess it would be pretty easy to move the kind of cellar describ...

I will take a slightly contrarian view. Yes, replicating that first amazing Burgundy moment can be both an impossibility and an obsessive expensive pursuit. A Holy Grail, truly. But. Burgundy is also the source of many many beautiful wines at a wide range of price points. Daily drinkers, weekly plea...

Jonathan, you are not nuts! Just your typical Berserker ;). I have taken a similar wine journey, and am just a few years younger. I started off buying only Grand Cru Burgundy but soon realized that both my budget and patience would be impossibly strained. What I’ve found now is that a mix of bottles...

Curious, I took a look at Krug’s site. Seems like there is one Edition per year in terms of the ‘latest vintage’ in the bottle. But each edition has many different bottlings. E.g. 166 has 22 different bottlings over a two year period (some of which are different size bottles). It’s not clear if thes...

I’d be shocked if the big auction houses weren’t absolute salivating to take your cellar, or at least a lot of it. I’d try HDH, and Zachy’s first, then K&L, Winebid, and Acker. So easy to send your spreadsheet and get a proposal. Heritage and others are out there but the ones I mentioned are the top...

I use SF Wine Center, and am very happy with them. They have moved to a new location at Sansome/Green and should have space. If this is a reasonable location then I’d recommend them highly. Great service, great people. They offer services that K&L doesn’t (e.g. free receiving). Not cheap though.

I consume more trocken (including GGs) German Riesling than other types. Mostly because I find those drier flavor profiles tend to match the kinds of food I want to match with white wine. But I really like the kabinett, spatlese, and ausleses as well. As I’ve been digging into these wines more deepl...

Of course, I actually think 2012 is better than either of 2008 and 2009 (which are both better than 2002) and is the best vintage of this century so far, but lots will disagree with me. Well, wow. Brad I always appreciate your insights here, packed with detail. But this surprised me (perhaps becaus...

Which three vintages are you pouring? I’m curious

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As likely non wine fanatics, you should expect your guests to not be that finicky about the different vintages, and to love your wines.

Thanks for sharing these notes. I'm really curious how things have or haven't changed at Arnoux-Lachaux since Charles took over wine making in 2012. I don't have bottles as old as the ones you opened but some pre/post 2012 future tastings will be fun. If anyone has already done this I'd love to hear...

When you add up all the variables, not least if which is your personal preference for how aged you like your wine, I think this is a question which resists a simple formula. My approach is to use this board, professional reviewer comments, and Cellar Tracker notes. The key thing is to do your best t...

Thanks for the notes Herwig, as usual your dinners amaze me. Where did you eat to accompany these delightful wines?

Also I very much appreciate the background and historical stories that Belgian Bordeaux collectors can still share. Petrus by the barrel!?!? Truly a different world!

One more thing: it’s obvious that food and wine pairing is first and foremost a profit-driving strategy by restaurants. In many restaurants, I’m sure the somm and chef put effort into finding good pairings. But $$ is the driver.

Wine pairing is mostly BS, especially for the mythical general consumer. Even for more Berserk types, or maybe just me, I find that pairing doesn’t really matter much. Almost any well balanced wine can go with almost any food. Most restaurant pairings that I’ve experienced were either generic (Chabl...

Back to the OP’s question - 2005-2010 was a very good stretch of remarkably good vintages in Napa. I’ve had many Cabs from these years and have had almost no duds. I’m still buying from this period for current drinking. - 2007 is probably the priciest because it was over-hyped at the time, and indee...

Great tasting Paul, thanks for sharing your notes. And Mike - good perspective. I’ve been drinking a lot of ‘89 the last few years and it really is a remarkable vintage. The few I’d put in the class of these wines are Cos, Pichon Baron, and Troplong Mondot.

In great vintages, entry level wines often are the biggest over achievers. Not to say that the top tier wines aren’t also great. But if every barrel in the cellar is excellent, That travels all the way down to the basic wines. +1 The only challenge is telling the difference between great vintages a...

Hah, missed this one. It’s a fun idea but I try to live by it not just “once a year.” Hopefully this inspires folks to enjoy those precious bottles any time. Most WBers have (far) more bottle than they have special occasions!

I think it could be worth a bid, if you like rustic aged old school right bankers. Winebid is a real melange of stuff, some attractive (eg. those 1989 Gruaud Larose are tempting me) but mostly their prices seem a bit high. Then there are oddballs like https://www.winebid.com/BuyWine/Item/6926176/199...

Ian Dorin wrote: ↑
February 14th, 2019, 9:15 am
Is this the 2015 offer? These wines with Graeme making them are on a whole other level. A good friend of mine was there recently and was absolutely floored by the quality.

It’s the 2016 offer.

Oh the self-flagellation! Gosh you all are failing as true berserkers ;). I have to admit, I'm truly embarrassed by my utter lack of knowledge of Riesling, and my meager comprehension of Burgundy. As long as I'm self flagellating, my French pronunciation is shameful. However, I think I'll survive t...

Oh the self-flagellation! Gosh you all are failing as true berserkers ;). It’s a big big world with so many (a million+?) wines produced. I am most interested (I hesitate to use the word ‘focus’) in/buy regularly from Northern California (Napa Cabs, Sonoma/Mendo Pinots), Bordeaux, Burgundy (rouge an...

Denny Marin wrote: ↑
February 13th, 2019, 7:32 am
My email was a "save the date" and said the offering is next week on the 19th. Is it a tiered release?

Must be. Previous year buyers opened yesterday.

Alpine and Horsehoe PN for me. I love these wines. For a while I tried to buy some of every Cru but clearly not sustainable. How long to age? Depends on vintage and vineyard, but most are pretty attractive after 6-8 years. Swan, Skyline, Hillsides ... time will tell.

Alan/Craig, thanks for that thread. Lots of interesting material there, though also interesting how some of it is out of date. In just a few years Volnay has turned to a number of young guns (Clerget, Rossignol, Bouley, others) advancing quality on their domaines. But seems like d'Angerville and Laf...

What a great response from folks a lot of very useful information. The dilemma now is what to do interms of a tasting. Do you pick one site (eg Champans) and a bunch of different producers, or or one producer and a bunch of differentsites (eg d’angerville)? I realize I’m not helping much here. Agre...

Thanks everyone for the thoughts and input. Clearly I need to drink a few more myself. What got me interested were some Lucien Boillot Caillerets and d’Angerville 1ers. I was also very impressed by the ‘15s from Clerget at last year’s La Paulee. As a (generalized) characteristic, I’m very attracted ...

According to CT, these are the largest represented producers of Volnay vineyards (2015 vintage, number represented is bottles in CT) Domaine Marquis d'Angerville 19.9% Bottles (3,413) Domaine Michel Lafarge 8.1% Bottles (1,386) La Pousse d'Or 6.9% Bottles (1,190) Bouchard Père et Fils 6.1% Bottles (...

I haven’t tasted the wine in question, but I have only gotten perfect customer service from PGC. Also my tasting there a few years back was excellent, super friendly casual, lots of yummy bottles opened.

I’m a fan as well, had several bottles last year. Early maturity, but mostly fruit-filled and expressive. Interesting comparison is the ‘95 L’Eglise Clinet which is a clear step up in complexity. Probably age longer as well, but all mine are gone. ‘95 Right Banks in fact are all gone from my cellar....

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