Living alone with a wine cellar: a small anecdote

I earned the right this week – past sins temporarily forgotten, cognitive dissonance is a blessing and a curse – to make myself tonight Safeway baby spinach sauteed with brown mushrooms, jasmine rice in an old $10 saucepan, and an over-salty marinated hanger steak.on the cast iron pan. Hanger steak is a gift from heaven but I am never buying it pre-marinated again. It was merely excellent. This was not Flannery, the meat was great but the marinade was not, yes I have Flannery hangers, unmarinated, it sucks he is a crime victim, please support him.

This is my wine cellar organization, my friends worry about me and don’t know this, confession time:

Separate piles, literally piles, in multiple locations: (1) junk. Very small pile. (2) Low end wines I can’t sell that I really like. (3) Mid-range wines that are ready to drink. (4) mid-range not ready to drink. (5) high end ready to drink, which too often means I bought a low ullage Grand Cru that tastes like mud. (6) high end not ready to drink. 2006 and 2008 red Burgs will all be sold . (7) Rhys Mountain. It’s a four foot high pyramid. (8) old Ridge, almost no Monte Bello and that is OK, try a 1970’s petite syrah and be converted. (9) theme- specific wines. My son’s name on the label. Etc.

Tonight I intended to go mid or high end but instead I went (2) which has a lot of Bonny Doon. I opened the 2014 Cinsault/Counoise. It was heartbreakingly beautiful but in an unusual way, it was all midpalate . I’m a big Randall Graham fan, he has tried so hard. This wine is meant to be without food, it’s its own experience. I love this wine but not with food. Totally different take from the Birichino/Harrington/Brand wines. Structurally fascinating. So I put the screwtop back on and went back to the cellar for a dinner wine.

I’ve been thinking about what do I sell and how I’m the biggest Aussie wine advocate I know among American friends . So I opened a 2005 Torbreck Les Amis, $$$, 98 points, I’ve had it before. I like Aussie fruit flavors. This had great earthy and jam grenache flavors in the midpalate. The entry and the finish were all heat, beyond my most pessimistic projections. And they call Torbreck the elegant big-wine producer. Schade. Cork back in. Might pour the rest out. I’m bummed because this extrapolates to other wines I have.

Background of what happened next : I’m a huge Gavin Chanin fan. In my life the two wines I’ve bought the most of, the only wines I’ve bought more than a case of, are (1) 1996 Leoville Las Cases, I bought ten cases I later had to sell in a divorce in 2002 (FYI I bought and had a bottle this year it is not ready) and (2) last week I bought four cases of Gavin’s 2014 Sanford and Benedict Lutum from LastBottle, it was his 2013 S and B I tasted at a massive Pinot blowout in Big Sur that introduced me to his wines. I might never need to buy a US Pinot again. Very seriously . Four cases. I’m very happy. I am not a Santa Lucia Highlands fan at all. I love the Santa Rita earth bite.

More backgound. Also in Big Sur at a different event, different year, I tasted Jim Clendenen’s wines for the first time and loved them, he is a genius and I bought a few Isabelle’s. So I bought last year three bottles of Chanin 2009 Le Bon Climat, I can only guess the connection, Gavin was 12 then. Opened one tonight as a mere data point. Nope, transcended that. Immediately I’m on another level. Unlike some of his newly-released wines almost no oak showing . Brisk. Too young! Ok trying it later:.there’s the oak, perfect oak, Pinot does not want much oak. Reminiscent of the 1995 Summa and 1995 Allen at last month’s Williams Selyem Burt Williams dinner. Beautiful lean ethereal wine. Possibly this bottling has my favorite wine label of all time, Gavin was a summa cum laude art major at UCLA and the perfectionism and creative urge immediately transferred into his winemaking, It’s obvious. OK now earth is coming out. I drink a lot of red burg. Reminds me most of a perfect 1993 Clos Lambrays but much younger.

Update another hour later: a little softer and substantially fuller, if I tasted this blind I would call it a truly great American pinot at the very highest level . How much of this is Clendenen and how much Chanin I don’t know.

I just wanted an OK wine with my bachelor dinner.

I have zero connection to Gavin Chanin, Lutum, etc. I met him once for 30 seconds. His wines hit my domestic Pinot g spot and I don’t understand how he makes such great wines from merely very good vineyards. But I’m grateful and really surprised that my domestic Pinot journey has found its Valhallah.

Sorry! Not a bachelor but wish I could share. I’d bring an ESJ. 2001 Wylie Fenaughty syrah.

My friends with better palates than I love ESJ. The man and the wines .

Lovely ramble. I too eschew the store marinades. So rarely do they meet my preference for balance of flavor and seasoning. My cellar organization is asymptotically approaching yours, but the Rhys pile is more than 4 feet and the junk is fewer than six bottles (that I’m aware of owning…). Happily, my Ridge pile has a lot of Monte Bello slumbering for future indulgence. It is my wife’s favorite wine, so I am encouraged to subscribe.

Cheers,
fred

That was a great post, and I could certainly relate. Lovely.

Rock on, Brother George, and don’t let that “Old Ridge” pile get too lonely!

Hey Dave! It’s mostly for Wes Barton’s picnics at the March April and May Monte Bello tastings at the winery way up on the mountain. March just got cancelled by Ridge.

It’s possible my last ever “theme” dinner will be old Ridge, no Monte Bello allowed, this autumn. Fly west!

It would be for a Wes picnic, wouldn’t it?

George, you put a smile on my face this morning, something that is becoming rarer in these days. Much thanks for posting this.

Maluhia,

Mike

And now you’ve all experienced what it’s like to sit next to George at an offline.

FIFY

Put ‘em upright today.

Funnest post (and thread) I have read in quite a while. I didn’t understand lots of it, but still enjoyed it. Indeed, rock on George.

Cheers,
Doug

That Stout is an incredible wine. Had it once. What’s the occasion?

None, unless you take a social distancing drive.

Wow! That’s a drool worthy lineup.