The Internet has zero to little impact on wine sales say Vinexpo luminary

Who are these people kidding? Just another example of the old guard in denial about the impact of the new media, the internet (I was selling tons of wine via the internet in 2000, before all this social media was even a drop in the bucket!) has on wine sales. It is absolutely amazing how many people are still in denial about how will be sold in the future. Plus the guy is completely dismissive about all the interesting side shows at Vinexpo of natural, biodynamic and organic wineries. There's a ways to go before people have a clue. Look at all the wine Gary V moves. Garagiste. PC blow out special weekend pricing sales. When I was at CSW, we blew threw wine with e-mail blasts and e-mails back and forth with customers. Wine-Searcher? C'mon people!

Wineepedia entry of the day - Pouilly-Fuisse and Pouilly-Vinzelles

Thought I could give Pouilly-Vinzelles its own day but it's just so small and there is only one producer so I thought I would double dip with Pouilly-Fuisse. Does anybody know of any other decent producers of Pouilly-Vinzelles besides the Bret Brothers?

Wineepedia entry of the day - Flagey-Echezeaux

Your weekly dose of Wineepedia stuff is back with a little piece on Flagey-Echezeaux, the only village in Burgundy where the first name gets short shrift. I am backlogged and please comment if I am missing any producers you think are worthy.

Huet and Schafer-Frohlich

Had a lovely bottle of the 2007 Huet Vouvray Le Mont Sec which was raging on all cylinders. Le Mont Sec I think is always the most open of the young Huet secs. This had a piercing nose of salt, honeycomb, almonds and wet wool along with a steely element. Lovely purity and completeness on the palate with a surreal sense of balance. So easily drinkable but as this wine aerated over the coming days the minerality came more and more pronounced and either it shut down or will not last as long as I initially thought it would. The first night it was glorious but it went downhill after that. Huet, I find, usually improves in the bottle after a day or two in the cave. I hear Pinguet is using less sulphur these days. Maybe that is a factor?

Had a fascinating bottle of the 2006 Schafer-Frohlich Kabinett and as usual with Tim's wines it was a whirlwind experience. No one is making as fine Rieslings in the Nahe in my opinion. The character and purity of the wines is astonishing. This had the typical "funky" nose of a Frohlich wine with honey, wild yeast, reductive and slight sulphur aromas with red cherries and some pit fruit. The palate is a wild untamed monster on day one with good delineation but nothing near where this wine was on day three. Layers of sweet peach and apricot fruit, buffered by great acidity and purity is where this puppy finally landed. Maybe better acidity than '07? This is a Kabinett for the ages. My last bottle alas but if you are going to cellar a Kabinett I'd say SF should be at the top of anyone's list.

Oh yeah. Sorry for font change for this one post. Cut and pasted these notes and not in the mood to deal with changing it.

And now another edition of my favorite game - Top 10 google searches that found Rockss and Fruit

And by top ten I mean the top ten most curious, strange, funny, odd and just plain weird google searches that lead to Rockss and Fruit. This was the original post and because it was such a hit and the countless e-mails I have had to revive this popular feature without further ado here are the next top ten. I know, I'm excited too. With comments this time when I am clever enough.

• lyle fass bass phillip - that someone cares about my opinion on this wine in the world humors me
• what is a young red wine - one of those questions that answers itself upon asking?
• von beaune nach lyol - maybe from a foreign country . . .or the wetlands of Georgia?
• fruits that look like a dick - Unsettling Rockss and Fruit comes up . .
• nakel wild on - they also searched for "Wild on the Ahr"
• gisele nose - if you are googling gisele . . .nose would not be the first body part that comes to mind
• picks of fruit in ass - and why does my blog come up?
• www.vesuviosorrento winelist.com - total wtf
• terri oster fucking - had to get a dirty one there. Anybody know who terri oster is?
• 30000 - Why? So many internet sites with this number, why does mine come up?

Fake Wine Again

Interesting read on the New York Times Freakanomics Blog about the selling on e-bay of empty bottles of wine. Good article but the part that fascinates me is the comments section. It is obviously not wine people who are commenting and their complete lack of attitude that anything nefarious is going on was quite surprising to this reader. I have heard many may stories about fake wine and re-filling of bottles. What is scary is that these commenters really have no idea it is happening and as it is known that, awareness, is the key to start fighting any problem. Especially of this scope.

Old wines like 1982 Lafite, as the article mentions, and also new vintages of Cheval Blanc, and even such low end Cote du Rhones being filled with Algerian juice are all alleged victims of doctoring. I have heard from numerous sources the counterfeiting of new release wine is the sleeping giant crisis in wine that is just waiting to happen.

What good would it do if all these fake wine rumors came true, or even a small slice of them? It would be bad news for wine. Real bad.

Smif 'N' Wessun - Sound Bwoy Bureil

One of my all time favorites. This is the censored version unfortunately but you can imagine what they are saying. Love this song because of the clear vocals, the reggae influence. Never heard reggae in a hip-hop song before up to this point. I did love BDP but not as much as later in my life. A great mellow song about killing and threatening people. Love it!

Stereotypical wines

Had a lovely bottle of the 2007 Rudolf Furst Riesing "pur mineral" and it was showing beautifully. Lovely nose of petrol, apricot, white peach, mineral, fresh grass and some wet earth. Palate was pure and crunchy with lovely acidity and juicy explosive fruit and astounding length. Who says there is no fruit in Trocken? I still think 2007 for Furst whites is a benchmark at the estate.

Had an awe- inspiring bottle of the 2007 Ducroux Regnie. This is a David Lillie import and really is one of the greatest new Beaujolais I have had in a long time. Maybe since I first tasted Descombes. In a easy drinking, lighter style as the cru suggests. Color is a hazy ruby and I know I am in au natural land. Lovely aromas of wild berry fruit, earth and spice. Palate has great acidity and amazing freshness. Woodsy and berry-like flavors with great purity and to steal from Budweiser for a second, drinkability. A steal at $14.99. Good job D-lils!

Had an ok bottle of the 2004 Chateau La Grolet "Tete de Cuvee." I think it needed way more air as this bottling has needed days before. Classic Bourg nose of plum, mineral, earth and some unsweetened cocoa. Palate was good but kind of all over the place. Not much more to say except it was closed and I did not give it a chance to come around.

Had a very uninspiring bottle of 2007 Clar de Castanyer Xarello. It smelled like a pre-moxed white burgundy and tasted like one. Not sure what hey are going for here but it is not working.

Had a stunning bottle of the 2000 Bregeon Muscadet Sevre et Maine "Georgis" which was a wow wine. Really so different than the excellence achieved at Luneau-Papin and the Domaine de la Pepiere. This tastes like an oyster. The fleshy part. Not the shell as most Muscadet taste like. This wine has an incredible creamy, rich, almost white burgundian-like texture while really emanating the salty, sweet thing of a great oyster. Long and palate staining with the expected high acidity. This has years to go needed around an hour to open up. Comes from a unique soil-composition that is heavy on slate. Really impressive wine.

LOST and Bolivian news - A comic feast for the senses

Speaks for itself. Had me rolling.

People should check this out . . .

The 31 Days of natural wine blog-a-thon that Cory Cartwright of the blog, Saignee, started up seems like a cool way to spend these east coast rainy days. Cool stuff there. Lots to read and highly recommended.

Salcheto

I went to a tasting at for my friend David Weitzenhoffer's company, Acid Inc. Selections and wound up taking to a guy who owned a winery in Montepulciano. We chatted it up for a bit and exchanged cards and set up a tasting so I could taste what was in the market. Salxheto is on its way to being organic and biodynamic in a zone that does not have much in the way of biodynamic or organic producers so that is nice to see.

Overall the wines had great Sangiovese character and barely any interference from wood tannin. There were not thick and rich nor gooey and had brusque acidity. Good solid Sangiovese wines. I liked them very much. Here are the notes. Owner of winery present during tasting. Just recieved the 5th of 5 Gold Rolexes, so now I can start on the piece.

2006 Rosso di Motepulciano - This sees no new oak. There is a small amount of Merlot in here. I wouldn't have put it in as I think the quality of the Sangiovese is great but Merlot does "smooth" things out which is what many people like these days. It has a lovely nose of dark cherries, spice, well water and some wet earth. The palate is rich and ripe with lovely purity and silky tannins. My favorite of all the wines actually. A nice value as this should retail for around $19 a bottle. Lovely wine from a category not often seen but can offer tremendous value.

2004 Vino Nobile de Montepulciano - Pure Prugnolo Gentile here. Fantastic wine with big, hefty tannins, long on acidity and much much fruit. This had lovely red cherry fruit, earthy sweetness and a deep dark nose. Wonderful Tuscan character with wet earth, high acids and silky yet chunky tannins. Needs a bit of time but really shows the class of Sangiovese in 2004.

2001 Salco Evoluzione - This is a reserve style Vino Nobile de Montepulciano. Bigger bottle. Artist label. There is some new oak. The new oak has had a chance to be absorbed and what comes across is a lovely concentrated wine with perky acidity and silky refined tannins. There still is some oak tannin. Still has a while to go but all in all a nice wine albeit pretty big still. Not my style but very good in the style that it is in.

2004 Salco Evoluzione - Same wine as above but the 2003 version. Exactly as you would expect from a 2003 Tuscan wine. Very very overripe on the nose. Like mushrooms slathered in overripe black cherries with a hint of super ripe licorice. The palate was not what I expected. Low in acidity but not at all jammy and what acidity was there held the wine together and avoided the cliff-jump to over the top land. For me too much of everything but what I was impressed was is that is still carried the trademark and style of the house despite the freakish vintage. Some producers cannot do this. Had a 2003 Desvignes Javernieres at the estate last February and it was undrinkable and did not resemble Beaujolais let alone Morgon Javernieres from Desvignes.

Wines are very good. For readers of my blog I would recommend the Rosso 2006, Vino Nobile 2004 and Rose 2008 (I have not tasted, but hope to soon) and the Chianti Colli Senesi (which is all traditional grapes and I also have not tasted but can imagine it is very good). The Evoluzione is nice wine but not for me stylistically speaking.

Wineepedia entry of the day - Chambolle-Musigny

Here is the Wineepedia entry on everybody's favorite Burgundy appellation, Chambolle-Musigny.

The Whale is Gone

This is an article I wrote in January of 2009 in the full swing of the economic crisis. I wonder if it still rings true today.

Boy has wine retail changed since September. More in New York than the rest of the country but the rest of the country is not off the hook. Why has it changed? Well…duh…the recession. But this recession as has been said is not like any other. It has a ripple effect, as I like to call it and runs deeper than any other recession of the past 100 years.

Now the wine retail stores I am talking about are “destination stores.” What are destination wine stores? Simply put they are stores that you make a special trip to go to or order from because they have items that your normal neighborhood joint does not have. Anybody reading this blog post knows what a destination store is as I am sure all my readers shop at them.

What is a whale besides the obvious definition of the largest mammal on earth? They are the lifeblood of these destination wine stores. These are the guys who buy those 2 cases of DRC or 1st growth Bordeaux every month and pay your bills so you, as the buyer/owner, can buy the wines you really care about. Every store I have ever worked in lived and died by the whale. They spent their money easily as they made it. Even though behind closed doors, retailers sometimes bitched about the whales, we all were thankful that they existed.

Now who is the whale? In New York they typically came from Wall Street or the real estate game. Sometimes they were lawyers or doctors, but as a result of the real estate bubble and the stock market bubble of recent years, the Wall Streeters and the real estate guys were the major players during the wine boom. Obviously there were exceptions to the rules, but these were the major players in the market.

As a retailer I was always aware of the whale but had little interest in selling to them as it was much more rewarding to me to sell Riesling to college professors or book publishers. I started off my retail journey in Boston, maybe that’s where my tendency to prefer selling wine to academia came from. The whale existed in Boston but not to the extent it did in New York City. At my first retail gig, I was shocked to see huge orders from random people I would never see for huge amounts of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhone, high scoring Parker Italians, Aussies and California wines. The whale did not like to be seen and did most of his shopping over the phone with the owner of the store. The whale likes to be coddled. If they are spending 10K on wine they need to feel good about it. It does not matter what they buy as long as they feel good about it. In itself, spending 10K on wine for personal consumption is folly anyway.

The more stores I moved to the more I saw the whale was actually the key to business. Yes walk-in and Internet business were and are important but that $30,000 order for 19 bottles of wine was pretty sweet. Everybody would celebrate and maybe a special bottle would be opened for the staff. Happy happy joy joy.

Eventually I started selling to whales. I was quite good at it. There was really not much to it. I tried to keep the ass kissing to a minimum and make them feel good by making them think they were buying wine from someone who actually knew what they were talking about. They were!

Soon whale sales started to become bigger and bigger and become the foundation for many retail stores in NYC and the rest of the country. It was a joyous time for retail and many stores rode that wave very successfully. No one thought it would end. The money was easy and you could almost price the wine at whatever you wanted. It would still move. Of course 2005 in Burgundy and Bordeaux helped. I’m not sure what happened but market conditions went crazy. Real estate and wine almost mirrored each other. People were wowed by $1,500 per square foot numbers, as they were by DRC 2005 trading at $15K a bottle only months after release. There was promise it would never end or people never wanted it to end, as they were in such denial that it could end. The whales were important in 2000, 2001 and 2002 but not nearly as important as they were in 2005, 2006, 2007 and the first part of 2008. There was acceleration in the market for the whale. They were also being marketed towards more. Whales were happy, retail stores were happy and everyone was on top of the world. Boy, how things can change in a New York minute.

September 2008. A month that will go down in infamy. Lehman dies. Market goes down 777 points in one day. The whales go into hibernation. They still haven’t come back. As the recession became worse and worse a new fiscal reality was thrust onto wine stores. The good times were over. The whales were losing money, houses, jobs and much more. Then the ripple effect started. The whales could not justify spending $500 on a bottle of wine much less a case at $500 a bottle. That business vanished right during a time of the year, the holiday season, when sales were expected to grow and many retailers were thirstily awaiting a record breaking holiday season. They were ready to get all those corporate gift orders and pound on the whales. They had to spend their bonuses somewhere and what is more fun than dropping 50K on wine? Records were broken, but not the ones retailers wanted to break. With no whales, sales dropped in record numbers. There was also a tremendous backlog of high-end inventory that was eating away at retailers’ bottom lines.

Then a cultural shift began to happen. With the economy in tatters and getting worse by the day excess started to be frowned upon. Junkets to Vegas, expense account dinners, Brioni blazers, weekends in St. Bart’s were looked upon as unnecessary excesses in this time of grave crisis. This trickled down to wine retail in that the over $100 category pretty much died. I mean honestly speaking the over $30 category died, but those people who spent $30 - $100 on a bottle were trading down. So that category at least was being replaced by other purchases. But over $100 was hurting and over $1,000 was just unheard of and still is.

Why is the whale gone? Right now there is an expendable income paradigm shift happening in this country. It is becoming less acceptable to spend outrageous sums of money on fetishistic objects like wine, clothes, food, etc. The longer this goes on, the harder it is for things like $1,000 bottles of Harlan to come back into fashion. The longer this goes on, the more embedded this thought process becomes in our minds and the less and less acceptable it becomes to engage in the behavior of the past previously thought of as acceptable. The more recent the past is, the easier it is to recapture that vibe of excess. These are minimal changes compared to what will happen in the future when the children of today do not have social security when they retire. So the longer this recession goes on, the bigger the risk of the whale completely disappearing. What does that mean for wine retail?

Well one thing it means for wine retail is that people like me, who bring added value to a store, will no longer have jobs or will have a significantly reduced role in their current retail situation. At my last retail job I was hired with the idea that I would get a cut of the profits from the whales I would bring to the store. I thought this was great. I made a lot of money and was happy selling wine to these whales. Never did I think in my wildest dreams that I would lose my job as the economy went in the tank. But I had a high salary and a high bonus structure and as a result, I was not bringing added value to the store anymore. I was a money vacuum. So I was rendered jobless.

I also have a friend who has a wholesale license in Massachusetts, but his specialty was buying from auction and Europe and selling to wealthy collectors. The regular wholesale part of the business was really not his deal, but he more than added to the bottom line with all of his sales that exploited the inefficiencies of the market. Now, since the economy is in the crapper, may you ask what he is doing? Dating a lot. Looking to get into the music management business as his business died. He dealt with the ultra high end aspect of the market and that is all about dead right now.

A new business model has to be developed. A result of this business model change will affect everybody in the distribution chain all the way up to the producer. If there is less high-end wine to sell then the producer will eventually make less high-end wine. We are years from that but I predict that will happen. There always will be people with money and there will always be expensive wine for them to buy.

Retailers will also have to change. They cannot depend on those 2 or 3 big sales that make the month easy. There needs to be a new strategy, as the whale is not coming back for a long time, if ever. I do not have solutions but I suspect it will be a combination of more aggressive marketing, less high-end wine in inventory and a return to the back to basics approach used before the money became this easy. It won’t get easier for the retailer but I am sure it will be more rewarding as they will have to work harder for their money and know that the wines they believe in are putting a roof over their heads.

Braucoul anybody?

Had a 100% Braucol the other day from the winery Chateau de Mayragues based in Gaillac. Braucol aka Fer Servadou is a grape I have always loved from what little I have tasted. It has a wild, gamey, brambly, light-bodied and very sauvage character. Domaine du Cros is the one that is seen most often and they are a great producer with their Vieilles Vignes bottling being a killer wine and great value to boot.

This producer intrigued me because of the inexpensive price tag, $10.99 I believe, and it being Demeter certified, which means they are 100% biodynamic as certified by THE organization. Pretty rare to see a Demeter certified wine from SW France.

This might have been the best Fer yet with wild black licorice and blue fruit flavors on the nose with a gamey, sauvage, tea-leaf aromas under it all. Complex nose and very pretty. The palate had deep raspberry and licorice fruit while having freshness due to its very vibrant acidity. Surprisingly this wine had a long finish and lasted into day 2 with gusto. I loved the combination of the licorice fruit with the freshness, clarity and acidity. That is what makes this wine special. That contrast is interesting as hell to me. Highly reccomended and can be gotten at Chambers Street Wines. I have no affiliation except being a happy ex-employee. David Lillie DI'ed it himself. The man has a great palate for wines like this.

Eminem - Stan

His new album may be the same old recycled shit but Marshall Mathers has never made a track as ridiculous as this. By far the greatest thing he has ever done. Towers above almost everything else IMHO. Great video too. We remember what videos are right. Not feeling content besides videos for now. Notes, Wineepedia, and more!

Cypress Hill - How I Could Just Kill A Man

In honor of Puerto Rican day parade in NYC, my favorite day of the year, here is the most Latin thing I could come up with involving old-school hip-hop. A great song with a monstrously awesome Chuck D. sample.

Inexpensive Wine

Just a couple notes on two inexpensive quickies.

Had a pretty good bottle of the 2005 Chateau la Grolet "Le Plateau" (Cotes de Bourg). This is an organic/biodynamic estate in Bordeaux. They also use native yeasts and are pretty small production by Bordeaux standards. This the first time I have had the "Le Plateau" cuvee always being more familiar with the "Tete de Cuvee." This was nice enough albeit a bit rough around the edges. Good acidity, but a touch hot and the fruit was a touch roasted. Rustic to the point of this really needed food. But nice enough wine with silky tannins, juicy acidity, some slightly over-ripe fruit and bouncy acidity. I have the '04 Tete de Cuvee on deck and am excited for that as the '02 was an unreal wine.

Also had an ok bottle of the 2007 Richaud Cotes du Rhone "Terre de Galets" which had good purity of fruit, a bit too licoricey for me, bit nice southern rhone funk and good enough acidity. Silky tetxure but the heat would not go away. Not that it really annoyed me bit it was ever present and did not go away the three days it was open. That is the main reason I don't drink much CDR anymore as they are usually unoaked, tank-aged, high-alcohol, somewhat obtuse and unfocused wines with not much character. There are exceptions bit the exceptions still show alcohol.

Wineepedia entry of the day - Fixin

I know you all have been getting a hankering for a little Fixin so here is my best shot. Really a appellation that should be more well known. Rustic wines of great charm and character that taste and smell like Gevrey but are not as polished and obviously don't have quite the breed. Maybe even a bit more sauvage than Gevrey. But however you want to classify them they represent some of the better deals in the Cote de Nuits. Although Gelin's pricing did get out of hand in 2005. Just a blip though.

Wineepedia entry of the day - Cote de Beaune

Here is the latest Wineepedia entry on the illustrious Cote de Beaune and all of its little subsidiaries. Remember this is an ongoing project so all feedback and guidance will be greatly appreciated. Think of Wineepedia as the wikipedia for wine except I actually know what I am talking about and am not doing this from a pure research perspective. Oh yeah, I write about my favorites first, so all of you expecting Chile, that will take a while to get to. But who comes here for South American wine reviews anyway?

Breaking News: Rose will stay the same way

You heard it here first, so go out and buy yourself a biodynamic, naturally made Loire rose. And celebrate the day!

Ruining Rose?

So the European Union is voting today whether rose wine can be changed in the way that it is made. From a short maceration to extract color from red grapes to what I thought it was when I was six years old, a blend of white and red wine. As a purist I am appalled by this and hope it does not go through. As a pragmatist and a retailer for many years I don't see it as such a big deal as most of the audience for rose doesn't care how it was made or if it is pink Kool-Aid. More than ever rose is a trend now and gaining momentum by the year and the French have a lot of excess wine that would probably go to distillation so it is a way to generate revenue that was not there. I am iffy about as the producers I care about when it comes to rose, not many have you, will still make it the right way as they always have. Baudry is not gonna change and neither is Lucien Crochet and neither is Domaine de la Belliviere so it's fun to watch on the sidelines but I don't care what's gonna happen either way. Enjoy the article from the NY Times from today's Op-Ed page.

Wineepedia entry of the day - Cote Chalonnaise

Here is the latest Wineedpedia piece on the Cote Chalonnaise. If you cannot wait I also did the piece on Bouzeron too but that will be rolled out later this week. Enjoy and also please click through and let me know if I am missing any producers to reccomend in the various sections. Thanks and hope this is slightly informative.

As an aside I was looking at the Wikipedia stuff for wine and it is pretty sorry. Seems not much at all written by people who have a clue about wine.

Redhook Winery

On a rainy Friday morning I headed out to the first and only winery in Brooklyn, the Redhook Winery. This is a project involving Mark Snyder, a wine importer in NYC who sells principally California wine, Abe Schoener of Scholium Project and Bob Foley of Robert Foley, Hourglass and also used to make the wines at Pride Mountain where he cemented his reputation. They source fruit from Long Island vineyards and are allowed to manage some of the rows they use any way they want. Otherwise they make the wines ion this small winery on a non-descript street in Redhook.

There is something special, at least to this lifetime New Yorker about tasting wine out of barrel while looking out the window and seeing MTA buses go buy, or an old abandoned warehouse, or someone picking up the trash in a garbage truck. Such a funny juxtaposition to what people's popular conceptions about what wine is. The label is really great too and hopefully I'll have an image of it I can post soon.

The wines are very interesting. Never a problem with heat as LI is very cool, sometimes unseasonably so. The wines are all from the 2008 vintage and are focusing on specific blocks within the vineyards they source from. 2008 was not a good vintage in LI and by all accounts seemed like a disaster but I was impressed with what I tasted. I did not take notes but I would group the wines in two different sets, the ones made by Abe Schoener and the ones made by Bob Foley. The wines are not that different as I was thinking going in. There is no new oak on any of these wines with the barrels being at least 3 years of age with some being as old as 12. Abe uses spontaneous fermentation with natural yeasts while Bob uses mostly commercial yeast. Abe uses only the minimal amount of sulfur while Bob is a bit more generous.

The varietals I tasted were Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Riesling, Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay.

The reds from Bob Foley were polished, juicy and balanced with a couple of them being a bit awkward due to malo or something else like that. The whites from Abe were all extremely interesting as expected with the Sauvignon Blancs and a botryized Riesling being the standouts. Many of Abe's wines carried the trademark, nutty, nougatey finish of low-sulphur wine, There were also some delicious Cabernet Franc wines from both parties. Abe's reds tended to be more closed at this stage but the fruit expression was nearly identical. It's also nice that Bob Foley was not making Napa wine in LI as his wines showed unexpected restraint. In particular there was a lovely Chardonnay that was long and mineral with electric acidity.

There was also the best Rose I have ever had from LI. It was a Cabernet Franc made by Abe Schoener and really harkened to Baudry Chinon Rose.

The production numbers will be small in 2008 of about 500 cases with small cuvees produced from within various blocks of the different vineyards.

A great Friday morning and a lot more than I expected.

Wineepedia entry of the day - Cote de Nuits

Here is a little piece on the Cote de Nuits. Not much else to say but for a pure selfish reason this Wineepedia is turning into quite a nice personal reference tool.

A thousand words might be worth some pictures

More pics that I like. Still Germany though.

The lovely terraced and green vineyards of Baden near Oberrotweil. I really like how foggy it was this day.



More green, terraced, foggy Baden.




Not sure where this is but looks like the South. I like the symmetry.



Weird statue outside a church early one rainy morning in a small town in Baden.



It is amazing how many pictures I have exactly like this from my trips to Germany. I'll keep posting them.



Hansjorg Rebholz on a foggy day talking in the Albersweiler Latte vineyard.



The unique pergola trained vines in the Albersweiler Latte.



The unique red clay and red loess or "Rotliegendes" form the soil of the great Kastanienbusch site.



A view from in the vines at Kastanienbusch. The sun I believe came out around twenty minutes later.



Again from within the vines in Kastanienbusch with the sun about to come out.

Profound wines of great complexity

2002 Fichet Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru "Les Referts" - This was boring. Nice minerality on the nose, but lacking real mineral stank and depth like a Roulot, Jobard, or even Carillon. Just a pretty nose. Palate was big and powerful with still some unabsorbed oak on the finish. Not complex at all. Just kind of dull and flat. Purity is good, but this Fichet, the stuff is always pure, but this wine did not excite me, nor has almost any white burg, less some '07's that I have tasted recently. I think my palate is moving away from white burg. The flavor profile does not do it for me any more and so little of them have that wonderful diaphanous quality that my beloved Riesling has. And when I find one that does it tends to cost more. I love Aligote though.

2007 A J Adam Dhroner Hofberg Riesling Spatlese - A J Adam is doing fabulous stuff in the Mosel. He also apprenticed at Heymann-Lowenstein, which is a top notch estate in the Lower Mosel. He makes Riesling using spontaneous fermentation with natural yeasts in a reductive style like JJ Prum, Rienhold Haart, Knebel, Clemens-Busch, Van Volxem and many more. The way their grandfathers did it. As a result of this I have had a high miss rate with Adam, but when the wines are one they can be absolutely ethereal. The Spatlese was good but just seemed clumsy on this night. Nose was mostly broad notes of botrytis and some slatey notes in the background. The palate was clumsy, but very elegant and pure. The acidity is what turned me off the most. Barely there. An ok wine on this night and either closed or in a mood. I am sure it has the material to be spectacular but it will take time to get sorted out.

2007 Descombes Regnie - Maybe my current favorite producer of Beaujolais. Amazing selection across the board and he makes great examples of some off-villages, with his Regnie being a great example of that. A wine that needs a decant as this has some serious stuffing. Lovely aromas of spice, orange zest, autumnal leaves, red flowers and some earth. Palate is juicy and pure with excellent balancing acidity. Gains heft and tannin over many hours and they are sweet and delicate tannins. This is a wonderfully constructed wine that I think will age for up to 10 years. Fantastic. I cannot wait to taste the Regnie VV in 2007.

2005 Robert Weil Kiedricher Grafenberg Spatlese - I do not like Weil at all. How's that for a full disclosure? They use commercial yeasts which make all the wines stay the same. They just have different weights according to pradikats and the fruit flavors are all the same. Some are more concentrated than others and they are a friggin' ripoff. The Gaja of Germany. They are also way too sweet for me. This had typical Auslese weight, dull citrus fruit and no flaws yet totally devoid of any real character.

2004 Keller Dalsehimer Hubacker Riesling Spatlese GK # 26 - This was a great bottle of Spatlese. Just perfect right now. So elegant and diaphanous with nice complex resin, pine, citrus, strawberry and stone fruits flavors that last and last. Buffered by stellar acids. Weightlessness and precision define this wine. Just perfect. I have one more bottle and I'll wait a bit as this will get better. It is not all about the Grosses Gewachs here.

Latest Garagiste article on my top ten producers

As may people who know me and readers of Rockss and Fruit can attest to is I love lists. Well check out my latest one here and chime in with your own or why you love mine or think it sucks. Too much non-conversation and a Derridaesque approach to "wine talk" on the interwebs these days so hopefully this helps bring it back to the basics.

Wineepedia entry of the day - Burgundy

Check my little piece on the wines of Burgundy. If you wish you can click through on the bottom and go further in to Cote de Nuits Cotes de Beaune, Maconnaise, etc. I will be revealing those in the upcoming days and weeks ahead as Burgundy will take a while and is completely ongoing. The list of notable producers for Bourgogne Rouge and Bourgogne Blanc I hope people will find helpful.

Wineepedia entry of the day - Reuilly

See what I came up with for Reuilly. Not much. That's a place you probably need to visit or live to really get an idea of what is going on.

Look for Wineepedia posts every day this week!

An outrageous bottle of Donnhoff

Opened up my lone bottle of 2004 Donnhoff Norheimer Dellchen Riesling Spatlese Auction which happened to be a Gold Kap too.

My note from the first day which In posted on a wine bulletin board goes like this - - - "Absolutely brilliant wine. Very open right out of the gates with a nose of lime zest, papaya, melon, canned peach juice and lovely pure minerality. A wonderful nose. So compelling and really smells like some place. The palate had exceptional breadth but altogether held by a lovely spine of juicy acidity. A truly breathtaking mouthfeel and exuberant puppy-like affectionate fruit. This wine is jumping in the window display of puppies yapping 'drink me, drink me!" It is that good. Not much complexity yet on the palate but I am sure that will come but this has a major drinkability factor going on."

Today the wine is maybe the best spatlese I have had all year. More botrytis on the nose with a palate of amazingly oure explosive fruits like mango, tangelo, cherry and apricot. So precise and so detailed it approaches the level of the so called "eilixir." Alluring and infinite complexity and no hard edges plus a divine texture. Really did not expect this from a Norheim wine.

Probably the most memorable wine I have had this year.