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

John S

I don't chase epiphanies but am certainly always hoping to find one. Mainly I look to learn about interesting wines. The latter is more my primary focus but both experiences are welcomed any day. Expectations of anything, including wine epiphanies, are fraught with disappointment. What has changed f...

John S

I am confused here. Is this a passive or active cellar?

John S

I have had some grass fed beef including thru finishing. Distinctly more gamey, tougher, and much less fat than grain finished beef. It was from a lady who raised her cattle next to us at 8,000ft and was sold as a half or full cow. We got a half. Not the best flavor for my tastes but still good and ...

John S

I bought this cuvée in the 98 vintage and tried a couple other vintages around that time including the 00. For me just a great example of where many CdPs back then went wrong with more oak and culling out a special cuvée. It always seems glossy and slick, neither are words I would often use for CdP....

John S

Cool, I may have drunk one of those eons ago at a Caymus vertical when I learned the first few vinatges were made by Randy. They were super good. Yes, we miss CO a ton. We move back West summer 2021 when our youngest kids graduate HS. I spend much of the winter at our ski place near Vail so I can't ...

John S

Hi Don,

Wasn't this made by Randy Dunn or was that just the next few vintages. Take care

John S

When I lived in Colorado, which is super dry, I always ran a humidifier. The kind with wicks is best as it does not leave white dust and does not add heat. Basically is a small evaporative cooler but the amt of cooling is trivial. Search for "evaporative humidifier" on Amazon. I had a Vornado. The w...

John S

FWIW I think any horizontal racking is not going to be very cost effective for the bottles stored. Plus if you do double deep on wall 1, you'll want that 30" open to wall 3 to work in. You won't want to be bumping up against those horizontal bottles all the time. 30" is enough space but really not t...

John S

Your max capacity (with good functionality) is to simply rack all of wall 1 with double deep racking. Leave the other walls open. You will have approx 30" of space between rack and opposite wall which is OK to work with (I try for 36" but 30" is fine) so you can get that double deep racking in. If y...

John S

If it were me I'd just do the entire wall across from the door in single bottle (champagne sized) double deep racking. That way you get lots of storage (i.e. the double deep part) and with it all champagne sized you don't have to worry about will this 750ml bottle fit here. I also organize by region...

John S

Pine, as I recall, can warp and worse yet mold and be weak over time. It does not last as along. Most people use redwood since in a cellar environment (humid) the material works great and last a super long time. It needs no finish and none of mine have discolored. Search engine and google are your f...

John S

If you are going custom, I have purchased clear heart racking from these guys 4 different times. Always great to work with and reasonable pricing. No affiliation. They have no website as I think they largely contract to cellar install pros. They ship vertical ladders of racking and you need a finish...

John S

If you rack everything for champagne sized bottles it will accommodate pretty much any 750ml sized bottle. FYI, Krug does not fit in that. You will loose some maximum capacity but gain a lot of flexibility. Yes I always go double deep.

John S

Nice to see this note. Drank all mine probably 20 years ago. The same vintage Cuvee Centennaire was flat out fantastic for a long time. Been a while since I had one of those as well but it was best for my tastes at under 20 years old.

John S

Enjoy Phish. I will be there as well and have never been to Charleston so look fwd to that.

John S

I have done the day trip snowmobile excursion into Yellowstone. It has been ages but it was super fun and well worth missing a “regular” day of skiing. They supply the gear including the one piece suits and yes it will be cold but honestly with the warm hand grips etc I was never real cold. Super fu...

John S

I had never heard of this outfit and just tried the 2016 mokelumne Syrah. I have never even heard of the area where the grapes seems to originate, mokelumne river which is kind of close to Sacramento, I think. It was a recommended by a wine guy at Cortis in Sacramento and is quite good. Well made, c...

John S

Pass. I've had about 3 bottles and every one was corked or bad leaker. Used to be many notes with the same experience.

John S

On that note, I would grab anything that would taste good that night to share with whoever I was staying with.

John S

Had to evacuate while living in CO three times. Never grabbed any wine. Pictures, hard drives etc.

John S

As John K mentions I always simply put myself in the Somm’s hands there. I have been going since they soft opened many moons ago and never even open the wine list. The wine folks there generally know my palate but if there is someone someone I do not know I just say I would like something with chara...

John S

That is a great story Tom. I'll share one as well. We used to live in the foothills above Boulder CO at 8,000ft elevation. We bordered National Forest on two sides on the property and had lots of "wild" wildlife in that the critters that came around were generally not very used to humans. Anyhow at ...

John S

Not familiar with LAX but anytime I brought in cheese or similar food items I had to go thru that secondary line. I'd always assume that is the case when travelling with that stuff thru US customs. I got where I would not bring it back as it was a PITA to wait that extra time but I am not the most p...

John S

They are strikingly beautiful and majestic creatures to see in person. Super rare to see them in person and I've been in the right place and time 3 times in my life and always consider myself amazingly lucky. I keep it quiet for fear someone will try to find them and kill them. And yeah, they may be...

John S

On the temps noted above you will get differing opinions. But if me and I had a good slug of expensive wine I would not want them to get that hot over 10/20/30 years. That's why I went active even though I had pretty good year round conditions in that cellar at 8k elevation. A cost effective solutio...

John S

Mold in my experience does not start until the relative humidity is 75% and higher. I would target 70% in COand never any mold. Here in NC I have seen a bit but the cellar has gotten over 80% occasionally in the summer. So bingo. And of course mold poses no issues for the wine, just labels and resal...

John S

Mark, an evaporative humidifier does not add heat and actually cools a tiny bit. Just like a swamp cooler in principle. But I just assume no added heat in a passive cellar. If active any style humidifier is fine. Keep 8n mind adding moisture is not generally needed. In NC I need to remove humidity.

John S

I had a passive cellar at 8k elevation in CO for many years. It was well insulated (batting not foamed) and with a proper vapor barrier. It reached the lower 60s in peak summer heat. So that is probably a little better than one can do down in the flatlands with a perfect setup. I did eventually put ...

John S

Welcome.

The track record of the same wine/producer over history is the best gauge. This plays into all the points mentioned above.

John S

It has been a while since I have done this. Simple answer it is complicated especially if just a case or few bottles. If so it is really not worth it unless you carry them with you on a plane. There are quite a few US importers who do this and bring wines to the East and West Coast of the US from a ...

John S

Maybe too simple but is there any chance OP is tasting wines at a cooler temp from the wine fridge and warmer from the store? While this would not explain any vinegar flavors I'm just tossing out a super basic thing that would make a dramatic tasting difference.

John S

The Monopol the easily the best. Most others are pretty poor and priced accordingly.

John S

Seems like I have a contrary opinion in that we used to have a dual fuel 60" wolf. Something like one of the ones in the below link. It was the best kitchen appliance we ever owned. Yes, one needs to bend over to use the oven. We had the griddle which was quite nice. We sold that house or we would s...

John S

For me no on VT. My serious CdP tasting info generally refers to vintages 2007 and before.

John S

Yep, well made but riper in style and some have more new oak. But my experience with these is a bit dated.

John S

The list above is a good one. But I would not look for acidity or minerality in CdP. Charvin, Vieux Telegraphe, and Pegau being my regular priced go to ones. Rayas is the most distinctive and pricey. Oh, Henri Bonneau is great but quite different and pricey.

John S

Constructing these indices is super tough to do in any reasonably cohesive manner. Hats off to Dan and I know many assumptions and other data issues are tough to deal with when constructing a specific bucket of wines to track over time. The. You have to deal with some wines being added and some bein...

John S

FWIW, on weighting the index, marketvalue is the standard for things like this. Marketvalue is what defines the size of auction market and is the most common with equities as well (like the S&P 500). Knowing Nathan I'm guessing he would posit that the bottle value * #bottles traded to be an appropri...

John S

I saw this chart in a link I got from the economist yesterday. Nice data and I've never seen it broken down so well by regions. Yes, you can see a few articles free a month if you sign up at the Economist. That is what I do. I view this as simply data and any conclusions or interpretations are up to...

John S

I have read the hand grinders can do a nice job grinding but are very slow to grind much. So I would read up on that. Once you retire you chopper you won’t look back.

John S

Everyone's palate changes as they explore all the world of wine has to offer. And while it is a PITA, when/if that happens and if one has excess it is fairly straightforward to sell those and move on. This assumes it is not absolute swill and can not be sold. One needs to be willing to take a loss o...

John S

I just hit the under 1k for the first time in 15 years. I would never give advice on this as it all depends on your drinking consumption, $$ availability, interests etc. I drink less than I used to and my spouse no longer drinks. Plus I am moving in 2 years so slugging that stuff is a PITA and stora...

John S

I have no dog in the fight but do find it pretty interesting that quite a few people who like the wines and/or people involved quickly overlook these issues or point fingers elsewhere on environmental regulations as being too much. Anyone who has done any development in Calif know you need a permit ...

John S

I live in Chapel Hill and have done quite a few cellars. Unfortunately going passive here in NC is a dream. The good news is you have the correct setup to add cooling now. I did the exact same thing all closed cell and put in a mini split cooler which has worked great. You may be able to keep it und...

John S

I think what John says above is right. Gerhard comes across like that in the above conversation. But I try to just assume it may be a language or cultural thing and respond that is not the way it was intended. Onto wine, above I noticed that Gerhard says the '99 Rostaing Cote Blonde is to die for. I...

John S

For me, and I think I said this before, I'd take high end Guigals, Jamet, and Ogier over Rostaing. I also quite like, at times, Gallet (the Henri made wines so pre 2002 or something) and maybe even Jasmin but they are much more spotty quality wise but distinctive. I just don't find the Rostaing wine...

John S

I am not looking to join a fight. But asking for other producers who have been making CR for 40 years in kindof silly. Many small independent producers that we know today made no or very little own branded CR prior to the 80s or 90s. Guigal used to buy up most of that fruit to go into his more gener...

John S

I agree the '01s from CR are good to very good but it is not a great overall vintage like 1999. Better than 2000 and 2004. Never been much of a fan of the Rostaing style and have tried so many it is clear they just do not do it for me. Not unlike Chapoutier. Not that I dislike either producer, just ...

John S

Also not sure of your location but the Austin Wine Merchant is excellent.

John S

This is pretty awesome!!

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