Posts belonging to Category Rhone

We started “tasting wine” in 1978. We frequented a wine shop in West LA up the street from the Wine House which had recently opened. The shop was located in a bungalow that was once somebody’s home on Cotner. It was the outlet store for The Wine Merchant owned by Dennis Overstreet and located in Beverly Hills. His BH store had all the celebrity clients. The outlet spot was for the lumpen proletariat of LA’s budding wine scene. In 1978 the collector’s find was any Napa Cabernet from 1974. The first wave of Napa Cabernet producers was emerging that included Diamond Creek, Caymus and Ridge. Heitz Cellar was an old guard hot ticket along with BV Georges De Latour. The real sharpies were hunting down old vintages of Inglenook. The good thing about the Cotner store was the Saturday tastings which were loosely formed, spontaneous events. Once a sufficient threshold of aspiring snobs was present somebody bought a bottle and opened it right there in the store. The store clerks were not like the info-matics you find today in upscale wine versions of Target like Total Wine or BevMo [ed. he prefers Total Yawn]. The store clerks at the Cotner store were geeks, folks like the ones buying wine except they had to work somewhere and living in LA was still pretty cheap in the late 1970s so a wine shop was good as any other minimum wage shithole. And you could drink interesting wines when the air got thick with opinions and burning curiosity. (more…)

This is a story about a descent into wine madness albeit mild madness, we think. You be the judge. A conspiracy of circumstance and opportunity when everything just happened to fall into place at the same time. Kris-B introduced tBoW to Garagiste in January 2011. We looked. We read. We dipped. The first order was a 2009 Hautes Cotes de Beaune Debray that was all of $16 and change. We’re suckers for the region, vintage and especially the value price. As Sanni Bananny would put it…this was the gateway buy. (more…)

Papa Fred’s back yard was the perfect Southern California setting for a relatively spontaneous wine tasting with snacks and hounds and folks who really enjoy wines bearing relatively obscure labels. We also a couple of special bottles to taste. A late Summer-early Fall heat wave put us on the patio. We pulled a bunch of corks and paid more attention to the dogs than the football game. But we paid the most attention to the wines. Photos courtesy of Kris-A. Comments from Kris-B. Welcome to new tBoW team taster K2. (more…)

Let the Roussanne love flow freely. This is part two of what promises to be an ongoing love affair with the great white grape that thrives in the Rhone and SoCal [ed. find Part One here]. This diatribe includes a couple of warning shots to the bow of your glass so stay frosty. (more…)

The name is Ruxin, James Ruxin. Jim has been selling the most collectible wines to a select clientele for decades. Getting on his customer list was once a bit like getting the unlisted phone number for Ma Maison. Except, what Ruxin has to offer is much different than what you got at the old A-list venue. Today it is easier to see what he has to sell. Just email him – jumruxin@yahoo.com – and asked to be put on his Village Wine of Brentwood mail list. (more…)