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This wine will be dead at 27?

Read this: https://www.amazon.com/Tips-Cellar-Rats-Mary-Baker/dp/0557423627/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=cellar+rats&qid=1614394167&s=books&sr=1-1 A lot of inexperienced people have been hired almost incidentally. Like, talking with a winemaker at a tasting, showing interest and insi...

"In theory, underwater ocean aging offers a consistent low temperature and additional pressure to create a different aging experience" In theory, no it doesn't. Probably less consistent temperature than an underground cellar, or air conditioned above ground cellar. Same pressure inside th...

So the word terroir went from being something that seemed to have been fairly consistently understood, to something that had different meanings for each person who used it. Chaos! Umm..actually I would separate the word “terroir” as meaning the taste of the place. And gout de terroir as a parallel ...

Mature wines, classic mature wines, historic oddities, local historic wines, local current wines, well made examples of uncommon varieties, quality wines from exceptional sites. Not a fan of prematurely opening wines that need more age. Am a fan of wines that are great without age (and may not age w...

Rodrigo B wrote: ↑February 25th, 2021, 1:00 pm
G. D y e r wrote: ↑February 25th, 2021, 12:54 pm Man, that guy went to a lot of work writing >1k 'meal notes' just to troll us WineBerserkers.
The meal notes only started after Thanksgiving this year. I wonder what happened at Thanksgiving...

Baby steps. In another year or two surely he'll actually say something about a wine.

Lots of mature Burgs, Sauternes and Northern Rhones for dirt cheap.

What do you mean that French doesn't have a word for winemaker? What is "vigneron?" The fact that it doesn't have the French word for "make" in it doesn't mean that that isn't what the word means? It depends which definition you take e.g. Merriam-Webster: Winemaker: a person who...

The best example for me is the discussion of adding sulfites. In the genre of "natural wine" i have never understood why this is seen as such a special no-go for many, when it comes to the perception of showing true terrior. It is not like other choices had not effect... And what annoys m...

Such an open ended question. So many producers doing a great job with so many less common grapes. I'd suggest ordering a selection, tasting through them, and going from there. Some particular wines might really inspire what you want to explore next. Idlewild is an excellent high quality, low priced ...

Anton D wrote: ↑February 22nd, 2021, 6:20 pm They told him tomorrow, but it will actually be another 18 mos.

IMO, there's no point in posting notes on corked bottles. They're not representative and typically, they're not anyone's fault. Disagree. While it is no one's fault it is important to see if there was a batch of bad wine. I would think a wine maker would like to know this to look at future wine mak...

I see one of my points being made. A lot of the most visible representations of high-end west coast Pinot are the James Laube type of wines, and priced accordingly. When the market mostly recognizes ripe and oaky, guidance is required. BD participants are a good place to start. Seems like there's so...

Lots of good suggestions. Kutch has become mighty impressive. I think the best way to use "Burgundian" is noting that the wines are made in a way that site comes first. There's an immense range of site expressions and winemaking style in Burgundy. Trying to make wines that taste like Burgs...

Wes, Mea culpa to have forgotten La Crema. Rod Berglund, Bob Goyette, Linda Strickland and Rich Gibbons started LCV in the tasting room of the store where i worked. Acc to Rod, I made a snide comment (moi?? so out of character) about when they would declare Chapter 11...oops. But they made some gre...

Is there a possibility that maybe the general character ( repeat : general character ) of each of the particular vintage year - do not go well with the style of your favourite producers ? Then....there is a possibility that you are right in that your favourite producers ....made a bad judgement cal...

Wes, I once met one of Paul Masson's nephews at Pousse d Or sometime in the 80s. He was old, said his family had gotten some money when the winery was sold. ??? Not sure what that's a response to. Would love to see how those early Acacia wines are faring. We took some of those wines to Burgundy in'...

Unless/until I saw producers and the supply chain stop changing prices based on vintages, I'm not going to change my vintage dependent purchasing habits. It looks like the event that Asimov mentioned - where a bunch of 2011 Cabs are sampled - is the same one that got written up in the Robb Report a...

All useful stuff - thank you. I do wonder if it is TCA and that my "wet concrete/plaster" is somebody else's "wet cardboard". My reservation with this is that I had thought it would undermine other flavors in the wine, not just sit beside them. Fortunately, this doesn't happen v...

Assuming that Martin Ray was indeed one of the first CA pioneers to "get pinot correctly", does the contemporary company that bears his name still get it right? I see that they have an offering up on casemates now. They acquired the name, but there's no winemaking connection (other than t...

Sadly HMR went bankrupt around 1980. Daniel Daou is resurrecting the place. When I visited the property a few years ago Daniel told me Dr Hoffman was still with us...around 95 yo. I see that he died age 97. There was a period when people thought limestone soil was the sine qua non. (That was before...

I am becoming more hyper-focused on specific producers, and regions, so I assume I agree with Asimov's (can't access article) and your general premise. The crux is we should focus on the character of a vintage rather than compare with others, trying to rank by quality. That some gorgeous early drin...

Yikes! Per CT, someone paid 17 times at auction what I paid 3 years ago for my highest valued wine. Looks inflated by a few times, but then again, that's in the range of the two most comparable wines. Covid stalled a comparative tasting between those three a few of us have planned. (I lucked into a ...

Bdklein wrote: ↑February 12th, 2021, 11:47 am ^^ Anybody have any details , insight , etc ?

There's a long thread.

The same wine can get 98 points from one critic and 89 from another Both using the 15 points Parker system Years ago, Wine Spectator let their guard down and did an honest piece with blind pairings of OR PN vs Burgs. Not only did the critics often enough get which was which wrong, but they varied b...

Years ago the magical pairings at one dinner were Rhys Alpine and Arcadian Sleepy Hollow Chards. For red, white or rose, I wouldn't want too big or fruity. Would want decent acid and tannin, but not something lean and mean. or shrill or overly tannic. Generally, I'd be looking at light reds for one ...

I understand your points and they are well taken however I guess my point was to simplify our current system and make it easier for the less informed wine purchaser. I still maintain that a rating system that essentially starts at 80 points and goes up tends to give a false impression in some cases...

My wife and I attended the Westchester Wine School some years back and one of the many lessons I took away from our many classes was that there is no wrong answer with wines. That being said I've always marveled at the point system for many reasons. When's the last time you saw a wine with a rating...

Interesting discussion for me. My perspective is a bit different than some. I did not become familiar with K&L until around 2014, when my daughter moved to SF to dance and I began spending a fair amount of time in SF. In comparison to Atlanta (where I live most of the time), K&L is fantasti...

I too have heard of this - as well as winemakers destemming, then drying out their stems in the sun, and adding back to the fermentation. Lots of different 'theories' out there for sure . . . At some point I heard Williams-Selyem did that. There does seem to be an era of their wines tended to show ...

Wines/regions I’ve found well-priced deals for in the last 12-18 months: -Brunello -Champagne (especially their direct buys) -Californian whites and non-cab reds - Austrian wines (not a big selection but well chosen) Any particular producers to recommend? Looking to expand the German & Austrian...

One stop shop. I can order this and that, at various times, or go hunting for themes, plus auction winnings here and there for any store, and consolidate it as a single pick up or delivery. Some wines cost a little more, some a little less. If something is enough of a better deal elsewhere, I can bu...

Yeah, my first thought after beer is Cru Bojo. Something happy that won't clash.

I'm not allowed to post on this thread. Some A$$hole Berserker said that I couldn't post because I had no skin in the game. I nominated that for the dumbest post on the entire site. Does anyone know what the % bankruptcy dividend is supposed to be? Oh, you just don't understand his business model! ...

Yes, and there's still another. (At least.)

A joke in the industry is once you understand what it takes to get a wine bottled you agree that effort is worth 50 points.

Btw, this is the first of three variable volume wine preservation systems I've seen. Started as a GoFundMe. I think all three have been posted about on here over the years. Don't recall the other names, and haven't tried any of them. People can look around, if they care. Ideally, you'd be able to &q...

I'll put it this way, I've never tasted a wine rated 89 points that I thought deserved a 98, (maybe as high as 95) but I've had plenty 98s that were sub-80 as far as I was concerned. Same. Another way to look at it is group blind tastings, where everyone ranks the wines. It's just normal for my lon...

I think the main problem of people who complain about the critics and/or scores in general, is that they don't know how to read and use the scores/notes. If you think just because there is a score, it has to be some universal truth, of course you won't be happy with the 100 point scale or anything ...

I don’t think anyone has ever claimed the scale was objective. Have they? Yes. That's why this forum exists. Parker violently defending his self-branding as the ultimate objective standard against a real world of imperfection and subjectivity. Anyone who bought a wine on his rec that didn't age wel...

Who knows if you'll ever exceed these numbers, but this is certainly a time small producers need the support.

If it works as promised, it’s ingenious! You aren’t limited to a fixed amount of wine to preserve the way you are with 125/250/375 ml smaller bottles, and if you feel like just a touch more, I would guess you can loosen, push it down a little further, tighten and pour off the amount you want withou...

Has anyone heard how Ridge fared in 2020? Not a lot. All or most of their Monte Bello parcels should be fine. The east side of the SCM was pretty much fine from smoke. Their sites are sloped, so there wouldn't have been lingering, settling smoke. Perhaps some channeled in, where specific parcels go...

Al Osterheld wrote: ↑January 28th, 2021, 12:48 pm Did you tell him that he's officially cute?

- Al

Only French women think he's cute.

In for a Nebbiolo 3-pack. I was weighing the vertical offer Bryan had floated a few months ago, but this is optimal for my budget and storage space! I have a 2013 and 2015, so now can expand that vertical a bit. More or less depending on what the 2 library wines turn out to be :) Shoot Bryan an ema...

Hey, Queen Theodora Is Ed Kurtzman your winemaker? I know you sell fruit to others like Halcon and Carlisle was a buyer for quite a while. Yes, he made these. (I bottle for him.) These are revelatory for what PS can be. Not the tannic beasts of the old greats like Ridge, but the intensity is there,...

Forget about how good a deal this is. The wine is top tier period! The 2016 Sandler Lazare CS is the only bottle of wine that I have ever had, where immediately after the first glass, I went to Sandler's site and bought what was available at that time (the 2018 Lazare). Only time ever. There's a so...

Think of it as more behind the scenes, where people would check on bottles to see if they were ready, then the grand tastings that got written about were comprised of wines that were ready. In a more exclusive world with rigid rules, one wouldn't cradle rob wines meant to age and talk about it or ma...

Is it possible that he did not leave voluntarily? Hard to see why one would leave Ridge voluntarily unless he gets an equity stake in his new venture. If he really wanted to make Napa Cab, why not get get Ridge to buy Napa grapes. No. He was planning to move on a few years ago and it was actually s...

Wow. I wonder how much of this was internal politics. Ridge was unique having essentially two, high profile winemakers sitting on the same level, with EB having maybe a slight advantage given he worked on the prestigious wines at Monte Bello. If it's not internal politics/friction, then this new op...

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