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

I don't know if his palate shifted, but I do know that he picked up some really good Barolo at full retail back in the 1970s and 80s and that was definitely not over-oaked and super ripe. He had a broader palate than he's often credited with. I don't recall a major review of Barolo and Barbaresco u...

Quite a sight to see at night - but also note many adjoining properties w/o smudge pots and how did they fare? Yes, you have to wonder if the areas that did not have smudge pots aren't the smaller land owners. I wonder to what degree fires in adjacent vineyards help. They certainly would create str...

I've commented on this here and there, but Galloni has one particular tic that drives me nuts -- his tendency to sum up his note with, "It's as simple as that." Definitely one for your bingo card. For example: This is a phenomenal set of wines that confirms Fèlsina's standing as one of the great est...

Yes, I mentioned the chocolate in post #541. Plums also come up a couple of times.

Popped this tonight looking for something that would stand up to leftover lasagna. All blue/purple cherries and red pomegranates, dense with jammy fruit still at age 12, tannins completely resolved now. Preferred the 07 Baker Ranch we drank a few weeks ago, this is just too domestic even for my hea...

Jordan - Most of the suggestions here sound right to me. One thing I'd add: Go out of the tourist season, and accommodation will be much cheaper. Most places in Europe, rates are lower from mid-September through May. (One exception if Piedmont, where the peak tourist season is in the fall because of...

Robert, I don't think Parkers palate changed over the years. I think the wine world changed a lot – some wines were suddenly called "modern" with more new oak, later picking, higher in alcohol etc. Some people like this style and others less so. Parker likes or liked many of these new wave wines. B...

I just came on these photos on Twitter from April 13-14.

Anton D wrote: ↑
April 22nd, 2019, 2:11 pm
I wasn't going to look at this thread, but I succumbed. Glad I did! It isn't about Washington state wine, at all!

Gary York wrote: ↑
April 22nd, 2019, 2:45 pm
We all learned a lot over there, some good some bad. But one of the most important things we leaned was to move on.

Now I'm reading the other critics on the same wine, all in a K&L e-mail. The amazing thing is that there is virtually no overlap in the aroma and flavor descriptors, save for a recurrence of violet/lavender, blackberry and chocolate. But James Suckling gets orange peel and Neal Martin gets more red ...

Sometimes I wonder if LPB has an assistant researching new descriptors. In some cases, it looks more like a random descriptor generator: 100 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate The 2016 Vieux Château Certan is blended of 85% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc and 1% Cabernet Sauvignon. Deep garnet-purple i...

I think I have even read that there are some white Burgundy producers that somehow want to oxidize out particles early on or some such thing (that I don't really understand) and who believe that winemaking that is too reductive leads to premox. Hopefully, someone understands this better than I do. ...

Howard Cooper wrote: ↑
April 22nd, 2019, 8:03 am
Isn't the summer temperature more important. 2003 on this chart, for example, isn't that high.

Did you read my comments?

And these are winter temperatures. Note that '03 and '09 are below the trend line, though they turned out to be warm vintages as those years progressed.

I know. And you are not alone.

Some food for thought (or drink). Here's a chart that the American Association Association of Wine Economists just tweeted out . (This will eventually go up on their website , but their charts go out via Twitter first.) https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D4wbF0GWAAAnuGG.jpg Average January-March temperatur...

How many 2004s have you had lately? Most are not good. And, I have never said the issue is ladybugs and am skeptical that this is the issue. If you want some 2004s, I am happy to sell you some. Only a few, served to me blindly, and I rather liked them, as did the Burgundy-loving friends who brought...

Fascinating that after over 20 years, the oak had not yet integrated. I'm not knowledgeable on Burgundy, so forgive me if what follows are dumb questions. In this case what causes this? Too much oak to begin with, or simply not much for the oak to 'integrate with'? Something else? I don't know Roty...

Thanks for the very evocative notes, John.

93 red Burgs were originally scored 57 Cote de Beaune and 63 Cote de Nuits. And Rovani adored the '97 Burgundies. I tasted there for several days in 2000 and the producers were like, "WTF?" See note from tasting yesterday 1997 Roty Charmes. Yes, I chuckled when I read your note. Did Rovani score th...

If a critic shies away from calling out problems in specific wines or wineries, why would anyone pay for their reviews. How can their subscribers rely on their reviews in making purchases. Shouldn’t their first allegiance be to subscribers, not producers. Because, as William made very clear, diagno...

Pat Martin wrote: ↑
April 20th, 2019, 8:17 pm

Craig G wrote: ↑
April 19th, 2019, 9:27 am
Did someone just open a time capsule from 2010?
OMG, that is really f-ing funny.

Bringing up eBob here is like reminding someone of a marriage gone bad. Just when you think the pain and bitterness has been exhausted you discover there are new wells of it.

alan weinberg wrote: ↑
April 20th, 2019, 4:28 pm
93 red Burgs were originally scored 57 Cote de Beaune and 63 Cote de Nuits.

And Rovani adored the '97 Burgundies. I tasted there for several days in 2000 and the producers were like, "WTF?"

$40,000 in 2019 dollars translates to roughly $2500 in 1999 dollars [I can't imagine that a then-recent release of a DRC-RC, or a JJ Prum Auction TBA, sold for much more than $2500 in 1999 - maybe $4000 max]. You're off by more than a factor of 10: $40,000 today is equivalent to about $26,000 in 19...

Here's what you can do with them, Frank (from this week's New Yorker):

The deletion of the epic Negam-Aki Thread was an inexcusable loss of modern financial market history. That was deleted? Have you reached out to ask if they have it in archive form? That was an incredible thread. I had PM'd Mark Squires, but he ultimately said that all old Social Hall threads would ...

I take it you haven't pulled the cork. I had an Eiswein ten years or so ago that had some invented brand name (Villa something) but had the real producer's name on the cork.

It made a nice living for Parker in the days when he had 25,000+ subscribers and hardly any overhead. Was that his subscription base at its height? Wow. At $100 per year, that’s $2.5MM. Not too shabby for living a party. I recall it was at about that level in the late 80s or early 90s. I don't have...

I can understand why they made eBob a subscriber-only board. It didn't make them any money, didn't enhance the brand and, in fact, served as a forum for people to dis Parker and WA. It was just a big headache to them, though partly of their own making. What's happening to the brand now is another st...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hungary-wine/at-40000-a-bottle-tokaj-winemaker-aims-to-revive-royal-heritage-idUSKCN1RU0LK Basically, they want Tokaji Aszú to be as revered as it once was. Today in the US, people think of Burgundy and Bordeaux as being the most collectable and desirable wines on...

It used to be vibrant and full of information. Now there's just a handful of people posting and it can be 2 or 3 days between postings. I wonder, are there are others here that have had the same experience at the Wine Advocate? Occasionally a WBer who subscribes to WA makes the same observation. Mo...

Thanks for responses. I will use the search function when I have more time. I would imagine that we would be walking away with a total of 6 to 12 bottles in all, so consolidating shipping to one source is what I’d be looking at. Shipping to Florida, so may have to look into cold shipping or hold un...

Nick Gangas wrote: ↑
April 15th, 2019, 4:48 pm
speaking of... what's the future of Allemand ? I had heard he was retiring soon. Then I hear he's going to start releasing a reserve. Doesn't sound like a guy who is retiring.

As I recall, said he was going to retire after he went through a difficult divorce. But that was some years back now.

surprised it'd have that much sediment. But a couple days should suffice at that age +1 At that age, I think standing it up a few hours ahead would be fine. It's only wines with lots of fine sediment that need to stand for days, and I can't imagine that fine sediment has developed in an '09 Bordeau...

Ah! That would explain it!

Kelly Flynn wrote: ↑
April 15th, 2019, 8:04 am
My Mom is a big fan of barolo, so her just-in-time decision to come over for steaks allowed for only a quick two-hour decant.

Is she opposed to capitalizing it on principle?

(P.S. Sounds great!)

There's a Doonesbury strip from the 1970s of a Ted Kennedy press conference, where Kennedy mumbles words and sentence fragments until some wag at the back calls out, "A verb, Senator, we need a verb!" Here I find myself shouting out, "A period, Allen! We need a period!" 2013 Coche Dury Corton Charle...

For a long time I would never drink white wine. Then I a few good whites at a restaurant and decided to try more white. I’ve had a Ceritas Chardonnay about a month or so ago and last night had my first Aubert Chardonnay different wines but not amazing. Maybe I just didn’t like cheap and crappy whit...

J a y H a c k wrote: ↑
April 13th, 2019, 12:47 pm
I have my cellar because my wife was sick and tired of having to move cases around on the floor to find the wine she wanted to drink! She made me build it.

I suggest you have that carved in wood and hung over the cellar door.

Phew! It sounded like you swapped bottles, which would have been a poor trade, I imagine.

Jay - I'm confused. Are you saying to put the cauliflower inside the incision in the steak?

Sarah Kirschbaum wrote: ↑
April 13th, 2019, 3:07 pm

maureen nelson wrote: ↑
April 13th, 2019, 1:09 pm

Sarah Kirschbaum wrote: ↑
April 12th, 2019, 4:34 pm
Somehow, I feel I should not chime in here....
Oh come on
I believe I might be a guest at this lunch, if I'm reading this right. Whatever Mark chooses is fine with me.

Uh... that sounds like all the more reason to speak up.

George Chadwick wrote: ↑
April 13th, 2019, 5:56 pm
The guys at the table next to me were drinking this (one of them is with the winery) and I swapped my 1990 de Montille Volnay Taillepieds.

Just a glass, I hope.

That's a good point; it isn't bitterness with fennel, but there is something there that I'm very sensitive to. Maybe I'm in an extreme minority with that one and it generally doesn't matter. Yes, endive, even roasted, tastes fairly bitter to me. Okra and dandelion greens are extreme. Palate destroy...

c fu wrote: ↑
April 13th, 2019, 4:11 pm
First post. Wants six btls of 16 allemand Reynard

Even Berserkers usually cut newbies some slack.

Later in the year, okra. I like the endive suggestion and also suggest braised fennel and also mustard greens. Or dandelion greens or collard greens. I'm very sensitive to bitterness, and these would all destroy my palate for wine. I think it's important to keep in mind that there might be other pe...

My kingdom for an editor! This isn't a tasting note, but it is the words of a wine critic: The news hit Piedmont (Alto and Basso) with intensity, thanks to a powerful realization that, metaphorically speaking, the Nebbiolo grape had suddenly been given more latitude. Roberto Conterno, owner of the v...

Karl K wrote: ↑
April 12th, 2019, 7:51 pm
I like the endive suggestion and also suggest braised fennel and also mustard greens. Or dandelion greens or collard greens.

Do endive and fennel qualify as green?

A S K R O B A C K wrote: ↑
April 12th, 2019, 5:20 pm
BTW, John, I'm back in NYC permanently. We should pull corks at some point.

Absolutely! Glad to hear that!

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