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I could live with (and afford) just Marie Courtin, but if I needed a second it would be Vilmart.

We're not drinking more, but we are drinking better. We used to drink current vintage Goodfellow WV and Cameron Dundee Hills Chardonnay during the week and now, for example, we drank 2014 Walter Scott Cuvee Anne, 2013 Cameron Clos Electrique, and a 2014 1er Cru St Aubin over the last three nights.

Just as a point of reference, we closed our Tap Room until April (at least). As far as we know, no one at the Brewery has COVID-19 (there's only six of us), and we'd like to keep it that way.

Maybe you should take Vegas off the itinerary Todd!

We have a trip to Italy planned for May. I am less worried about the disease than I am about sites being closed and a possible two week quarantine on our return. We have travel insurance, and so far everything is refundable except a couple of train reservations and the flight over. We'll probably ma...

Unfortunately, as Marcus said, I missed the event. I need to talk to Amy about picking a different weekend...

I think there are many more similarities between Burgundies and Oregon Pinots than there differences. I've had too many times when wines from the two regions were indistinguishable when tasted blind. I do think that some Burgundies can have a hard edge that I find appealing. I think this is a water...

I think there are many more similarities between Burgundies and Oregon Pinots than there differences. I've had too many times when wines from the two regions were indistinguishable when tasted blind. I do think that some Burgundies can have a hard edge that I find appealing. I think this is a water ...

My substitute for White Burgundy is Oregon Chardonnay from a select (but growing) group of producers. Right now, Eyrie, Brick House, Walter Scott, Cameron, Goodfellow, Vincent, and a number of others scratch that itch at significantly lower price points than good White Burgundy. As far as other vari...

Temps in our area going to almost touch 70 degrees on Friday. Everyone but guys like me will LOVE it. This will be one of those mid winter 'false springs' that commonly happen. Early plants like plum trees and quince will start to pop. Ill just hope my vineyard won't be paying much attention. Up in...

I've been working through my 2005-2009 Camerons over the last couple of months (still have quite a few left), and I've been surprised at how even the Dundee Hills bottling isn't showing that much age. I've been a firm believer in drinking Oregon Pinot in the 8-10 year range, but I'm having to change...

You should try the smoked version.

Scott, your posts brings up a number of issues that are important for Craft Beer. I'll try to go through those that I find important below: Provenance - I think this is the most important issue. The speed at which beer deteriorates doubles for every 10 degrees C increase in temperature. This means t...

We got an email from someone who had a bad Bobtoberfest. Lisa wrote him back apologizing and suggesting that he check the date on the bottom of the package. It turned out that the Bobtoberfest in question was in a bottle, and we've been canning for the last nine months, meaning the bottle in questio...

Thanks Scott! I think Jeff wrote that because Lisa beat him up about discussing big regional brand lagers that came five years after us in an earlier piece he had written. I contend that the demand for lagers was always there. Most craft breweries didn't make them because they used a lot of tank spa...

Buy less than I drink and drink less than I did last year.

2008 Vilmart Coeur de Cuvee Rick, How was it? That was one of my WsOTY in 2019, despite it's youth. Happy New Year, Warren It was great! Clean, high acid (I'm a bit of an acid freak in Champagne), minerally, some yeasty notes, but not overwhelming. It tasted like GC Chablis with bubbles. Even thoug...

With Rack of Lamb:

2008 Vilmart Coeur de Cuvee
2017 Walter Scott Chardonnay X Novo
2013 Cameron Chardonnay Abbey Ridge
2015 Bedrock Ode to Lucien
2002 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Rose

Goodfellow - Chardonnay
Walter Scott - Chardonnay
Cameron - Pinot, Chardonnay
Brick House - Gamay, Chardonnay
Martin Woods - Gamay
Bedrock - Zins, Ode to Lulu
Ridge - Geyserville, Lytton Springs

Willamette Valley (base level) Chardonnays from Goodfellow, Cameron, and Walter Scott. The prices on these have held steady while the prices of the white Bourgognes that I bought in the past keep creeping up a few dollars a year. These three wines are better tasting (to me) and increasingly cheaper....

We are "gifted" beer at the Brewery all the time. Usually the really good stuff gets taken home and drunk immediately. The rest tends to accumulate and take up cooler space. Last Sunday the younger folks drank through about 40 bottles of various things that had collected - mostly sours (no one at th...

Love the 96, though it's not a champagne for everyone...

The Takeout: Nation’s oldest craft brewery saved in the nick of time. https://thetakeout.com/boulder-beer-company-brewery-saved-by-sleeping-giant-di-1840204597 I'm not sure if this is really saved. A contract brewer is taking over the label, and whenever someone else is making the beer, it will be ...

Most of these large breweries were way more interested in getting big than they were in making money. Most acquisitions are done at a multiple of barrelage, and ownership's exit strategy was/is to sell to someone bigger. More barrelage = better price. Brewing (like wine-making) is a difficult busin...

Most of these large breweries were way more interested in getting big than they were in making money. Most acquisitions are done at a multiple of barrelage, and ownership's exit strategy was/is to sell to someone bigger. More barrelage = better price. Brewing (like wine-making) is a difficult busine...

And from Nürnberg there is also the option to visit the nearby Bamberg, a Unesco World Heritage Site and the home of the Aecht Schlenkerla brewery famous for their smokebeer (rauchbier). Great city to visit. Not just Schlenkerla either. Something like 9 breweries within a 2kms of each other. I part...

Hmmm, when I think of Pinot, I don't normally think of raisins and chocolate prunes...

It's really hard to make exceptional beer on an industrial scale. First, you need to find and train people that are passionate about beer so that you can produce something consistently. Then you need to figure out how to keep the accountants from f*ck up the beer. Then you need to find a nationwide...

Mayo was commonly used as the main ingredient in marinade for salmon over 30 years ago.

It's really hard to make exceptional beer on an industrial scale. First, you need to find and train people that are passionate about beer so that you can produce something consistently. Then you need to figure out how to keep the accountants from f*ck up the beer. Then you need to find a nationwide ...

My definition of a Craft Brewery is very different than the Brewers Association definition (which keeps changing so that Sam Adams can be a member). I think anyone making over 100,000 barrels is more like ABInBev than they are like a Craft brewery, and anyone over 25,000 barrels is suspect.

i haven't been to Provence in a decade, but we happened to stay in Arles during the Cocarde d'Or. It was magical. Most of the townspeople wore period dress (mostly 1650s-1800s - a lot of Huguenots lived in the area), with parades and a bullfight in their old Roman amphitheater (French bullfights are...

Several years ago a friend's wife used most of a bottle of Haut Brion in her spaghetti sauce. He said it was really good spaghetti sauce!

My wife is welcome to take anything out of the cellar that she wants, though she doesn't like to dig too deep...

Yes, but I would be very surprised if they don't approve it. New Belgium went from selling 955,000 barrels in 2017 to selling 849,000 barrels in 2018. The market share for large regionals has not been doing well for the last couple of years, and is unlikely to change for the better in the next coupl...

The consolidation of the beer industry continues...

New Belgium Sells out to Lion (Kirin)

If anyone didn't see it last week, Craft Brew Alliance is being fully purchased by ABInBev.

An insider with much better information than I have says that the next couple of years are going to ugly.

According to my sales guy whose parents live down there:
Wrenhouse
Goldwater
Huss Brewing
Beer Research Institute
Twelve West
Arizona Wilderness

Not that I have a ton of ponsot experience (but the 1988 CSD inhad about 15; years ago was incredibly delicious) but i note that these wines tend to bounce around the US secondary market. As a result I expect poor storage of some could encourage brett bloom. I know nothing about Brett. Is it a prod...

Yes Sir!

FWIW (and thread drift) - the Leopold Museum is an interest stop if you’re an art fan. It’s a shrine to Egon Schiele (the “Pornographer of Vienna”) and his mentor Klimt’s works, including “Life and Death,” which is pretty spectacular. Not for the easily offended, but definitely a cultural highlight...

Opened a 2017 OVZ. Nicely lithe and smooth. While it comes from all over, it tastes like Sonoma (Russian Riverish) to me - certainly not Napa, Lodi, or Contra Costa. Still a few tannins that need to resolve themselves but very good, particularly for the price.

That's a pretty good price. His cost would be around $7.50/ounce.

Andrew Kotowski wrote: ↑
November 14th, 2019, 1:16 pm
Killing me with that line-up!!!

I went predictable tonight, for the wife’s first trip to Munich.

Augustiner. Hofbrauhaus is OK but Augustiner slays all in Munich.

Will also throw in a vote for Brick House. He's been making that wine since 1996 so I think he has it figured out. Another wine to look for (probably NW only) is Martin Woods. Evan Martin is the former assistant at Belle Pente and his Gamays (he makes several) are stellar.

Andrew Kotowski wrote: ↑
November 10th, 2019, 1:20 pm
Pils and a local dark beer. Czech beer is gluggable.

...and you can pretty much drink it all night and not feel like shit in the morning. Nothing like 4-5% alcohol beers to make the morning feel better.

I once told a winemaker friend that I liked to go to the Costco wine section so I could see who was in trouble. He originally disagreed but later said that I was right. If someone is making a true "artisan" product, you won't find it at Costco. When you take the step of selling to Costco, you no lon...

I bought a bunch of this at the time, but drank it all because it was so delicious.

Kris Patten wrote: ↑
November 1st, 2019, 11:09 am
Anyone cracked a 2017 WS X Novo?

I've probably had it half a dozen times over the last 9 months at various tastings (my case is sleeping). It's superb but painfully young. The Seven Springs is also excellent and almost on a par with it.

Bloom was in early June, which put the sweet spot of 105 days towards the tail end of September. Folks that started early did so against miserable disease pressure. Folks with fine vineyard managers that picked on a reasonable schedule will be rewarded with pretty wines. Reminds me 1996. ...which w...

Rick, any of the Heater Allen/Wayfinder Rauchbier Hell coming to Seattle? If so, when? flirtysmile Also, that’s the beer I had in McMinnville a few weeks ago? That is the beer you had here. There are five kegs in the cold room that are going to Seattle next Friday. BTW, eight of those kegs went to ...

That was a number of years ago.

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