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McCormick & Schmick’s.

John, my experience with very old, shrunken corks is that they shrink from the inside (wet) end of the cork, not the end exposed to the air. This would imply that something in the wine (acid?) gradually eats at the cork. I have never seen a cork shrivel up on the outside while maintaining a good sea...

Kris Patten wrote: ↑
January 17th, 2020, 8:18 pm
I live in Seattle and haven't heard of them, their LLC is DDF Wines which is a residence in Capitol Hill.

Let us know how a transaction goes.

Ditto

Craig G wrote: ↑
January 16th, 2020, 5:55 pm
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LOL my friggin’ ass off! Better than Gary Larson’s boneless chicken ranch.

Opened a 2007 Charvin tonight. Initially pretty chunky on the palate, but with 30 minutes or so of air time, the nose started showing kirsch and the palate softened somewhat. Labeled as 15%, alcohol in balance.

Sales tax has nothing to do with it, although WA does have a high sales tax rate (due to no income tax). Troy, the excise tax is not added at the retail level, but at an earlier tier, raising the cost at each tier, and getting marked up at each subsequent tier. The net effect might be more like 40-5...

Chuck, WA may have high taxes, but when it comes to Champagne pricing, they are a small pimple on the ass of Godzilla, ie, irrelevant. Dan Kravitz Not following the logic here. Yes, we are a pimple, but whatever amount of Champagne we sell here in WA, no matter how small, is taxed at a fairly high ...

Maybe because they are in WA state, home of some of the highest alcohol taxes in the nation. On wine? I thought I was told WA had high spirit/liquor taxes , but not wine. If there is a high wine excise how does Garagiste exist- they are in WA I thinK? Yes, still high. More than 4 times the rate of ...

Why not? I searched and found a thread on the topic I wanted to discuss. Damned if you search, damned if you don't. :) I ordered from them once because I wanted to try a wine that only they were importing. I found their customer service, packaging and accompanying materials really well done. That s...

James Billy wrote: ↑
December 30th, 2019, 4:58 am
How about if we just whisper?

Maybe just speak easy.

Because it's very cheap to grow corn and wheat and you can grow them almost everywhere, have you ever been to midwest? Grapes require much much more TLC and better the land higher the prices. 1 acre of land in midwest is from $5k to $10K for prime land. Prime land of vineyard costs you upwards of 5...

Interesting that the paperwork says ‘Not For Retail Sale’. I wonder why that would be.

Wow! Even for 12, that’s too much A5 for one meal, IMO. I would cut it in half while frozen and keep half frozen. That way you get 2 shots at it, and can learn from the first time if the method isn’t perfect. I have no suggestions to help you prepare it, having never done anything like that.

The Costco in Redmond, WA is selling the Covap Bellota Iberico for $350 thru 12/31. Not sure about other locations.

Bill, glad it was a great bottle. About 10 years ago, I was given a magnum of ‘70 Latour as a Christmas gift by a very generous client. I decided to open it for my blind tasting group, where the custom is to bring 2 bottles each, usually with a theme. I opened it mid afternoon and decanted into 2 se...

Not really thought of as a mid/high end winery, but V. Sattui is set up for this. They are a tourist-centric winery that I believe only sells wine at the winery itself, which appeals to some more novice people. Tour bus stop, which is a negative for most experienced winos. They also have a wide vari...

Greg, my apology. I thought you had referred to gazillions, not just zillions. Zillions is extremely precise, while gazillion and bazillion have a more nebulous meaning. A gazillion apologies to you.

GregT wrote: ↑
December 7th, 2019, 3:44 pm
Chuck - there are zillions and zillions of tons of wine produced!

No, Greg, there were 293 million hectoliters of wine produced in the world in 2018. That is roughly equivalent to 38 billion 750ml bottles. The graph shows Italy alone produced approximately 6.9 quadrillion bottles.

I love these timeline graphs. Not to take anything away from it, but the unit of measure used has got to be an error, listed as ‘million tonnes’, and them one country alone produced 6,900,000 units? That would be 6.9 Million Million tonnes, or to say it plainly, 6.9 Trillion tonnes. That's impossibl...

Chick-Fil- A

You used a microwave?!?. Heathen.

So, I opened a 2001 and 2003 Rayas last night as part of my tasting group’s last monthly tasting of the year. They were opened about 5:30, decanted, and served blind about 6:30, a little earlier than I thought they would be poured. Initially, a little colder than I wanted and they hadn’t had enough ...

Not sure how you can extrapolate one corked bottle into your (invalid) conclusion. Feel free to peruse all the tasting notes on CT of 2015 Ceritas wines and see if you find a pattern. I did, you won’t see a pattern.

Nola, it is illegal to use USPS to ship alcohol. Other liquids like olive oil are legal AKAIK, but you must declare it as a liquid, have it properly packaged, and probably waive damages if broken.

I made a really delicious carmelized carrot soup in my IP for Turkey Day. It was the hit of the meal. Simple and easy, only a few ingredients, including a little baking soda, which enhances the mailliard reaction. Basically carrots, butter, baking soda, a touch of salt. Under pressure 20 minutes, pu...

Re: 2001 Rayas. I am opening my only bottle on Tuesday and will let you know. However, several recent CT TN’s mentioned tertiary, advanced characteristics.

I would think about double deep racking the entire length of wall 1, and NO racking/storage along wall 3. Your room is fairly narrow, and if you have single deep along both walls, the center will be tight and you’ll be bumping into bottles on one side or the other, with no room to turn around while...

I would think about double deep racking the entire length of wall 1, and NO racking/storage along wall 3. Your room is fairly narrow, and if you have single deep along both walls, the center will be tight and you’ll be bumping into bottles on one side or the other, with no room to turn around while ...

Make sure to have some insulin on hand.

Rayas

Seems kind of inconsequential (maybe). You plant, but can’t label the wine Barolo. It’s a 3 year ban. Most vines aren’t producing much in the first few years. Unless they mean forever, then maybe. More details needed.

It’s a weird pricing structure, IMO. But they can price how they see fit, and you can either adapt to it or move to a different facility. It sounds as if you are in a managed facility as opposed to self storage.

Neal, an employee would still have to open it, even if had been previously opened. Nice loophole to a poorly worded statute.

It’s hard to tell in pictures, but the color looks kind of dark, and the fill just OK. The storage conditions you describe are less than ideal. Personally, I wouldn’t disagree with what Tom said, but I would never pay $500 for a crap shoot. My advice is to talk to the other parties that have an inte...

Ron Slye wrote: ↑
October 25th, 2019, 6:04 pm
Ugh. Our deep freezer died a few days ago -- everything has thawed, including a number of Flannery steaks. Not clear how long it has been thawed, so unfortunately it is being thrown out!

I had that happen once as well. Very painful.

Sounds right Chris. My flannery mismatched arrived defrosted....I know I saw a discussion in a thread here with a similar scenario. Were they supposed to be shipped frozen or fresh? Regardless, I saw a YouTube video of some guy that did a blind taste test comparison of a set of meat ranging from fr...

Andy K wrote: ↑
October 17th, 2019, 1:40 pm

Greg K wrote: ↑
October 17th, 2019, 11:45 am
The 2011 Rupestris is drinking great, and that’s a very nice price for a restaurant.
That is pretty much a great price anywhere right now!

I will report back!

Thanks again.

Apparently Andy suffered amnesia after dining at Canlis and has forgotten to report back!

The Ramonet reds are a hidden secret, and that’s a fair price. Enjoy, and then buy some blanc as well.

Try Lambrusco for another.

I always thought that airport customs didn’t collect duty since it was pennies per liter, and not worth their time. Tariffs are 25% of the value, not per liter, and could be a significant dollar amount. If they are authorized to collect tariffs, I have a feeling they will.

It might help to know the vintage and where you are located.

They spelled your name wrong. I’d never buy from them again.

Not too long ago, I had a client send off 6 bottles each of ‘85 Jayer Cros Parantoux, Echezeaux and Richebourg to auction. I guarantee they were authentic, but I also guarantee they didn’t hammer for $250!

Crux has a charcuterie board that is killer. Also, while not a brew pub, check out a place called Primal Cuts. It’s a butcher shop on one side, and the other side has maybe 30 taps from all over the PNW, including when I was there last, a tab pouring a Heater-Allen beer. But the highlight is a sandw...

Good sale prices, but I was honestly surprised at the regular non-sale prices they showed. Did people actually pay that much for Bonny Doon or did they inflate it to make the sale look better?

Never heard of them. After 30+ grammatical errors that I caught without working too hard, I am s k eptical of anything they represent. Claiming 6 locations and 60 employees for an outfit I've never heard of makes me even more s k eptical, but I look foward to being corrected by others with direct e...

If Canlis is about anything, it is about service. This is a long-standing family owned restaurant, and their goal is to make everyone’s experience an ideal one. I have only dined there 3-4 times, but every one has been exceptional. If it isn’t special for you, they WANT you to give them feedback and...

I took a few friends to one of my favorite places, Nell’s at Greenlake. We started with an off the menu special order app of Chimney Smoked Lobster. Always special. We all did the tasting menu, I ordered a Champagne off the list, and brought in a 2000 Fichet Meursault Chevalieres and a 2007 Dujac Co...

Sh@n A wrote: ↑
September 10th, 2019, 6:29 am
I believe you have been searching for offsite for some time now; the offsite will offer insurance as well.

Not universally.

Not trying to be pedantic, but everything that is warmer than air will be affected by "wind chill". In other words, the wine that's in front of the blower will cool fairly quickly since there's high air flow + lower temperature. So it could be conceivable that the liquid is actually fluctating in t...

i think you would get slightly cooked or stewy before you would get to maderized.

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