Steinberger at it again: Drinking With The Enemy

[Joshua_Roberts]

Wine critic Mike Steinberger tries a '47 Petrus in awkward company." onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As usual, great article.

[Ken_V]

Excellent article, though I didn’t much care for the line “like most 50-year-olds, was past its prime.”

[Rob_MacKay]

I had to do a double take on your subject text… I thought that Yankees were about to make deals with the Red Sox over a bottle or two of Mouton…

[Eric_LeVine]

Whew, I had dinner with Mike a few months ago. Glad he was referencing a different meal!
Seriously though, he is very bright and an awesome guy. Perhaps, like me and and a few others, he is a little too obsessed with the Parker soap opera, but Mike has so much to contribute to wine on so many other topics and levels. I always enjoy his columns.

[Tom_Gutting]

Another excellent contribution from him on this important subject. He’s really followed this story well.

[G_D_y_e_r]

One thing that always strikes me with these sorts of tastings is the heavy lumber always shows up after a few bottles of less anticipated wine to warm everyone up. This is inclusive of the accounts of Rodenstock’s marathon tastings. Wine does tend to taste better after a glass, but by my count there were 9 bottles between 6 men. Getting towards the last several bottles, it has to be hard to keep your wits about you.

[John_Morris]

The import figures are almost comically revealing:

– “Import records show that Rodenstock shipped 31 magnums of the 47 [Petrus] to Royal between 1999 and 2008, an astonishingly large quantity of a Bordeaux that is now as rare as it is renowned.”

– “First up was the 1961 Lafleur, a wine that Rodenstock had also shipped to Royal in eye-catching quantities; according to the import records, he sent 29 magnums of the 61 to Royal between 1999 and 2006.”

Res ipsa loquitor.

[Gordon_ZenMasterOfZin_Ng]

@John Morris

The import figures are almost comically revealing:

– “Import records show that Rodenstock shipped 31 magnums of the 47 [Petrus] to Royal between 1999 and 2008, an astonishingly large quantity of a Bordeaux that is now as rare as it is renowned.”

– “First up was the 1961 Lafleur, a wine that Rodenstock had also shipped to Royal in eye-catching quantities; according to the import records, he sent 29 magnums of the 61 to Royal between 1999 and 2006.”

Res ipsa loquitor.

Perhaps sensing my skepticism, he[Wilf Jaeger] noted that Parker, Michael Broadbent, and other experts had raved about Rodenstock’s wines. “Do you really believe that all these people could have been fooled by a German rock music promoter?” he asked before answering his own question. > “No way.”

Word: “yes-way!!@!”

[Gordon_ZenMasterOfZin_Ng]

@G. D y e r

One thing that always strikes me with these sorts of tastings is the heavy lumber always shows up after a few bottles of less anticipated wine to warm everyone up. This is inclusive of the accounts of Rodenstock’s marathon tastings. Wine does tend to taste better after a glass, but by my count there were 9 bottles between 6 men. Getting towards the last several bottles, it has to be hard to keep your wits about you.

Say wha…u sayin John Kapon’s winepr0n is useless then? Big Boy is just a show-off then, wasting hundreds of thousands in wine dinners with 20+ wines? Say it ain’t so, did that argument come up on eBob about the Kapon 100 greatest wines of the century tastings…did RayT, ‘Angry Man’ attend those?

[Gordon_ZenMasterOfZin_Ng]

@Tom Gutting

Another excellent contribution from him on this important subject. He’s really followed this story well.

I don’t think so, the sidebar update is not accurate/up-to-date, and almost 1.5yrs later, nothing I could find via Google on the Koch/Rudy K case, wuzz up wit dat?

http://www.slate.com/id/2282437/sidebar/2282548/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

He is still pursuing claims against two others, Christie’s and > Acker Merrall> , as well as against Greenberg.

^Nope, and what about Rudy??? Just silence for more than a year???

Where’s the follow up from Steinberger on that? Surely anyone who knows anything about the court systems can go to the appropriate LA County court (should be in Central West by now, as a given ‘long-cause’ trial to be?) and get copies of records of discovery in that case??? What’s going on… strange???

Anyone notice there sure are a lot of collectors with the “The Dr.” alias? Over on Spectrum, they’ve been selling in multiple auctions “pristine” cases of Bordeaux from the collection of “The Dr”. Did you notice a case of 1978 Richebourg from IIRC Netherlands labeled import, Henri Jayer went for something like $133k last year> not too many collectors other than say, players in the lawsuits, have access to that kind of ‘extra’ cases, lol.

[Lewis_Dawson]

So the conclusion seems to be, it was recorked at the chateau, and a new label applied? Wouldn’t that also carry a label announcing the re-corking, and a branded cork showing the reconditioning date? Makes me suspicious.

[John_Danza]

@John Morris

The import figures are almost comically revealing:

– “Import records show that Rodenstock shipped 31 magnums of the 47 [Petrus] to Royal between 1999 and 2008, an astonishingly large quantity of a Bordeaux that is now as rare as it is renowned.”

– “First up was the 1961 Lafleur, a wine that Rodenstock had also shipped to Royal in eye-catching quantities; according to the import records, he sent 29 magnums of the 61 to Royal between 1999 and 2006.”

Res ipsa loquitor.

Ditto, but it would be interesting to follow up the Nicolas part of the story. The Nicolas holdings were significant, and they were a traditional buyer in that they bought barrels and stored them, bottling themselves. It seems possible that Nicolas did what the chateaux do, bottle the wine and cork it, but don’t put labels or capsules on until the bottles are ready to be sold. Even though Nicolas bottlings always have their name on the labels, these could have been bought out of the holdings without the labels, which were added later at the same time as the capsules. Again, that’s a lot of “ifs”, but it none of those things would surprise me to hear that they happened. Definitely more investigation needs to be done.