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I like these . They work great, and are under $.17@. Cheers, Warren These look better than the ones Scott linked in the next post. The positive about this sort of tag is the label always facing forward. The negative is they come off easily when moving wines around . I see the neck hole is smaller h...

+1 on the string tags. 1000 for next to nothing.

George Chadwick wrote: ↑
January 24th, 2020, 8:55 pm
I went. It was good. Wes walked us to a wine bar. It was good. Every bottle of Bordeaux was $20 overpriced. Tariffs.

Lots of Tariffic wine!

None of these sound overripe. They just sound fruity. So you don't like fruit and prefer the savory elements. You don't think sweet, porty and cooked fruit (the Clarendon) qualifies as overripe? That's kind of my definition. Ripe fruit is sweet. Cooking (or roasting) fruit makes the fruit sweeter. ...

That said, over the past 10 years, it’s been the producers and enthusiasts that rankle me the most. Too many superlative and gushing STORIES, too many backhanded comments about non-natural wines, and too many wines for whom there really isn’t an alternative style being employed(not always the case ...

I have a couple bottles of 2018 Pax Gamay Noir. Have not opened them. Anyone tried these? I haven't opened my lone bottle yet but the ct reviews are not promising. The older note is excellent, but describing a style he doesn't like. The green note is surely from the stems, which makes me curious. S...

Guys - All we have is Galloni's account, suggesting without explicitly stating that the wineries who banned him didn't like his scores. I have no idea what actually happened, but there might well be another side to the story. So you might pause before passing judgment on the winery owners. Consider...

...in the old days people used to soak corks before putting them into bottles, so they weren't dried out. Some home wine makers still do that. But you don't need to if you're buying commercial corks in quantity. Those are sanitized and have been moistened as much as they're going to be. They're oft...

A lot of people view the whole category of sour beers flawed. For people who like sour beers, there's still a question of degree. Some are much more broadly appealing and others more extreme, with a narrow fan base. Some "natural" wines show a degree of flaw, while some are not flawed. A lot of peop...

A good bottling line shouldn’t allow enough oxygen into the bottle to matter anyway. I think the better explanation is that you have twice the volume, but the same cork size, so whatever does get in over time is acting on twice as much wine. Also, if there is any contribution from the glass surface...

If no oxygen at all enters through the cork then why do magnums age more slowly than 750s? Explanation for that has always been that there is more liquid for the entering oxygen to diffuse through. Or is that a myth too? Because they start off with less oxygen in the bottle, so start off showing di...

Another category I enjoy that often has alcohol in the 15% or higher range is Zinfandel. I don't have much experience with long ageing, but have enjoyed quite a few at 7 - 20 years. Well, Grenache and Zinfandel are both grapes that ripen at high brix, and which grow in regions to which they are ada...

Rootstock choice can greatly effect the sugar accumulation rate. Canopy management can, um, manage it, to some degree. Virused leaves produce less sugar. Grape variety and site can be responsible for an abnormal disparity between brix and ripeness. (For example, we had a pick each in '17 and '18 th...

The problem with natural wine is the adoption by misinformed, "anti knowledge" kids who have single handedly made the category synonymous with faults. That anti-knowledge as a virtue was pushed by some of the loudmouthed natural wine evangelists. I saw one of my friends insulting praised for his ig...

Acidity and alcohol can be adjusted. As you can see from that link, if you pick past physiologically ripe you've allow allowed all sorts of "permanent" changes that will impact how the wine shows and its ability to age. You can't put Humpty Dumpty together again. But, it's important to note, again, ...

I love Cappellano, but no way would I categorize them as natural wine. Interesting profile here: https://www.rarewineco.com/producer/cappellano/ Native ferm, rustic old school winemaking, a block of own-rooted vines, staunchly traditional. The only question would be sulfite use. There's quite a ran...

" I've never had a natural red that I liked" find 2011 Paolo Bea Piparello Riserva, as just one example; mind, changed. If you can't find one, try any G. Rinaldi or Cappellano. I love Cappellano, but no way would I categorize them as natural wine. Interesting profile here: https://www.rarewineco.co...

Chris, I think it's more an exploration in one way or another for producers and consumers. For consumers, think mostly young people who'd only had fuddy-duddy grocery store plonk, then found some craft beers, then Belgian-styled ales, then someone suggested if they like those... Look at Nathan's pos...

The science is there. You can buy the text books. That doesn't make it easy to manipulate a wine in this regard without major negative trade-offs. How do you change a component essential for longevity without effecting longevity? Why would you do that? The incentive is to manipulate wines to make th...

One of the big debate points is where the line is drawn for which wines are "natural" and which aren't. Some of the darlings get allowances for their interventions that make them "less natural" than a large number of wines that aren't identified as natural. In other words, if I make up a number, "If...

Thanks for all your posts here, Wes. They've helped me (start to) understand why some big wines work and others don't. It's been clear to me back to the 80s that zins can do well at higher alcohols than cabernet, and may even be better for it (up to some point). Although grenache-based wines are se...

Add to that the fact that there is plenty of high alcohol Rhone wine and high alcohol Barolo that ages so well. I don't know for sure, but I don't think there was a lot of 16% CdP before recent decades... And I don't think there was much 15+% Barolo until the last decade either.... I agree John, an...

. . . Not a tremendous overall track record for "high alcohol wines and aging". . . . BINGO! Exactly my point. So why assume that high alcohol is synonymous with reduced aging potential? Patience is a virtue. Maybe Burgundy aged well for the past century because they added Algerian syrah or due to ...

A bit late to this conversation, but I see the OP question as being about how narrow the quality gap can get. Nothing about this undermines the notion of terroir in my mind, but I would think it's pretty obvious that great care and attention lavished on "lesser" sites can close the gap to a sliver....

Last night, I had a 2018 grand cru Burgundy from a well known producer in Gevrey whose name I will omit to avoid giving him a bad rep. Raw, disjointed with no meaningful varietal characteristics noted because the harshness of the wine overpowered anything interesting that might have been hiding in ...

Either.

I've never had much luck with PS. In fact, the very opposite. What would be a good, fresher, lower alcohol producer in CA? As I mentioned upthread, the 3 from Theopolis Vineyard are excellent: Theopolis, Halcon, Highlawn. Differing takes that are all savory and open, and reward a few years aging. T...

Count me in.

But, a wine can be revoltingly undrinkable to one person, and just fine to others. That's the nature of wine. I see that all the time with our blind tasting flights. On reveal, when we talk about the wines, no one is apologizing for finding a wine disgusting that "everyone else" likes. We can discus...

Yeah, interesting there's no CT entry. Maybe a test batch. The first regular release from there is the '16, which is a field blend of Zin and Carig. Maybe a little PS? (Don't recall for sure. There's a lot of PS in the lower block, which Bedrock doesn't source.) It's the old Mary Carter Vineyard whi...

We ask for recommendations for other wineries to visit. That worked very well on our last trip. I know it’s normal, but I always felt kind of weird doing it, as they’re the competition. Nah. There's so much cooperation and cross pollination. This is the best way to get recs on what's most exciting,...

3. Gamay: This is one of the most exotic/unusual expressions of Calif Gamay I've had. Way far away from what SteveEdmunds does w/ this grape. It has an earthy/loamy character that speaks of SanBenitoCnty. Given it's vnyd origins, I would suspect it is OV Valdigue, rather than the GamayNoir a jus Bl...

I've seen the sort of posts that prompted Robert's OP. Hard to be sure how many were employing hyperbole or simply didn't bother to post details of how much of a try they gave the wine. I doubt very many pour a displeasing wine down the drain after just a sip or two. Maybe a flawed poll is in order...

Sometimes I feel like I come from a different reality than most here but when this happens to me I simply leave the cork in the bottle and pour the wine carefully. Am I alone?? That's what I'd normally do. If it's a cork or single big piece, it's not that big of a deal. The first pour you have to n...

Explaining it is what is hard, and also why Nate's post wasn't entirely wrong. A lot of people assert with confidence that this or that is happening, but that doesn't mean they're correct in their assessments, or that they have a clue. Some wines apparently do go through some kind of "dumb" phase, ...

Is it possible to make 12-13% wines from California anymore - with a few exceptions like as stated above. In other words, is this a question of picking decisions, farming practices, more efficient cultured yeasts, etc. (i.e, things that can be changed), or is it a question of climate change. Would ...

https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-3-Pronged-Bottle-Retriever-Handle/dp/B00DJXQTBO I usually bring it with me to tastings. I have one of those, and one of these, which I like better: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Corkfish+Wine+Cork+Retriever&i=garden&ref=nb_sb_noss (I've also used them to get bungs out ...

Exactly. The premise makes no sense to me. You can find more better values off the beaten path, but it still comes down to producer.

A. So wrote: ↑
January 1st, 2020, 8:10 pm
Looks like a glass manufacturing defect

Yep.

So, in theory, it could've contained some used wine.

My impression with this wine was it didn't make a big initial impact, but became compelling and drank very well. It speaks of Anderson Valley. It's the sort of wine that can suffer in a line-up, but is very enjoyable on its own - like, if you take it as it is, drink it in the context it fits, rather...

Wes, alas poor Duane Cronin...he made some great wines. But his example shows that the same vineyard in different hands can yield remarkably different results. A lot of people have sourced it, from Peter Ray on. Many examples require sleuthing, since many didn't declare the vineyard. It's a parcel ...

And I don't mean that to sound glib, but it just doesn't. You can have all the stars align but without human intervention to make it beautiful, it cannot be beautiful. And not all winemakers have the same talents too, so it just unfolds into a myriad of variables. That doesn’t make the winemaking p...

I have my own opinions about where Nebbiolo would do best in California, but the wines from Luna Matta, both the Wind Gap and the Giornata, have thus far proven the best to me. Have you been to a NEB event? It is grown all over, in small amounts. It's quite interesting to taste such an array of tak...

It's the price point that's outrageous. With that 40th Anniversary Cab, they got or lucked into Parker invoking label bias, so he gave a wine his notes describe as being 90 points, for him, 96 points because how he prognosticated it would age. To me, it tasted like a large production lower shelf Na...

It's the price point that's outrageous. With that 40th Anniversary Cab, they got or lucked into Parker invoking label bias, so he gave a wine his notes describe as being 90 points, for him, 96 points because how he prognosticated it would age. To me, it tasted like a large production lower shelf Nap...

Count me in.

If you can take grapes from one continent to another and call them natural, why not yeast? Some strains are isolated for the fruity esters they produce. That's probably the biggest difference in "style" between "Old World" and "New World" wines. If the native yeasts do their job in every way, there...

I have seen a couple of early tasting notes describe it as sweet. I realize that dosage isn't the be-all, end-all of sweetness in sparklers, but do people have ideas as to why a fairly low-dosage sparkler would taste sweet? Ripeness of the fruit and the level of dosage, it's the combination. I've h...

I think I got a sneak peek of this when Kevin was the guest of honor at a Rhys themed dinner back in September. It reminded me more of a Gose than a sparkler from a flavor profile. I like Gose in general. Maybe it was not a primo bottle. I didn't get that at all. It was a bit low key in an Anderson...

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