Posts belonging to Category Value Value Value

Burgundy and Barolo are possibly the greatest red wines and certainly the most vexing. When they are great they are the BEST OF WINES. And when they are not ready they can produce more frustration than a Fox news host getting philosophical. Here is the Burgundy dilemma. They are rarely bad wines…with exceptions and we have written about those here. But they can simply be…not ready. Which is almost worse than being bad or flawed [ed. from Flod? near Bosche?] (more…)

Dionysus called and tBoW heard. We opened the email from our local wine retailer Woodland Hills Wine Company titled “Greek Night.” The thought there was wine to be tasted from Greece was enough to get our attention. We take WHWC events seriously. They never pierce the vinous veil between plonk and genuine oenophile worthy quaffesence. tBoW circulated the invite to the tasting team and snagged IGTY while Dotoré declined. Both made predictable references to the unlikelihood that decent wine could be made in a country so far south, so dry, so rocky and so…unworthy. Apparently it has been a long time since they located Italy on a map noticing its proximity to the Hellenic penninsula. Things were a bit different at the tasting bar. (more…)

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…)

ME..I WANT A HULA HOOP! Fortunately, Alvin did not help select the offerings of the day-long tBoW Open House. Dotoré and REL were first to arrive and nearly last to leave eight hours later. tBoW team tasters filled the front lines as veterans retreated for fresh glasses. All indulged enthusiastically on Christmas lasagna and an endless loop of corny cool Christmas music that competed for attention with what turned out to be a very nice wine lineup. The wines were especially intriguing because they included a couple of oldies (mid 90s), a pricey recent vintage white wine, and a slew of U20 bargains in white and red. I’ll tell you what – that was more than a party. It was a dang seminar. After all was poured and quaffed, the wines showed up the Chipmunks pretty well. The lasagna and butter cookies held their own. The next day we skipped the sales and headed for Santa Anita for more excitement!

2009 Dauvissat Chablis Vaillons Premier Cru $50: First wine this day so it had to be good. With palates alive we found the wine to be even lovelier than hoped for. Baking soda nose. Butterscotch already there although muted. Should develop with a few more years. Wish we had a few more bottles of this. Truly lovely Chardonnay from a supposedly underwhelming vintage in Burgundy. Hnnh. Supposedly from 50 y.o. vines. Maybe that’s why it costs 50 bucks. 13%

1995 Elio Altare Barolo $70: Carried por mano from La Morra in 2001 by Dotoré. It was just the two of us when Doc Holliday’s “heir-ator” apparent bespoke “pop that cork.” 1995 was a tough vintage followed by two magnificently seductive ones. This wine was rough-hewn right out of the bottle. The deeply lined face of Tommy Lee Jones comes to mind, along with his intriguing charm. All the tar is there. We knew the bouquet would open with time and hoped it would be the tell-tale Barolo roses. 45 minutes later the fruit is beginning to show along with meaty aromas and flavors. The wine did not completely bloom to Piemonte roses but the informed few like PTT8Y and T3 Tootsie-The-Taster, kept coming back for more until it was all gone. Nice work Dotoré. 13.5%

2007 Scott Paul Le Paulee $30: We have linked the two wines because a naive taster noted “these two wines remind me of each other.” We love an innocently stated astitution.

Barolo and Pinot Noir do share qualities and characteristics if not flavors. Usually takes awhile to get it…but not always. Screw top entry level from notable Carlton vintner Scott Paul Wright. 2007 got some negative early press that we now see was based on a misbegotten love affair with the over-ripe 2006 vintage. This wine is delightful and delicious. “Volnay, simply nice” says Dotoré in a good way. Forthright Pinot nose. No mistaking this grape. Not too ripe for which the 2007 vintage from the Willamette Valley is known and unfairly maligned. Really makes the case for the best domestic Pinot Noir coming out of Oregon’s Willamette Valley 40 minutes southwest of Portland. Nice effort. Could easily go another year if you see it anywhere near $25. But why wait? 13.1%

2010 Domaine St Antonin “Lou Cazalet” Faugéres $15: Garagiste posts another winner! With the 2 Rieslings below this brings the G. record to 4-1-1. Much better. This is the Languedoc blend we know we prefer: Syrah, Grenache, maybe some Mourvedre. Big, rough, middleweight red. “Blowsy” declares the suddenly loquacious Dotoré. This wine held up for 90 minutes before it disappeared. Call me hope-ful but I think the November election will go the same way as this day’s tastes. The voters will go back for what they like and forget about what they don’t like. Uuhhh…the wine. Here is an example of high alcohol level balancing out with enough fruit, weight and general presentation so that the alcohol is integrated. A U20 super value. 15%

2007 Schlöss Lieser Lieser Niederberg Helden Riesling Spatlese $19: Show me the apples! Just fab. I thought we were past the white wines and came the call…Riesling? Where’s the Riesling? This is a G. [ed. G. is Garagiste, soon we will have O.G. for Original Garagiste] winner. Just yummy. Light on its feet as we might expect. Dances across the palate. Amazing that after several hours of reds with the Chablis long gone and a Vinho Verde upside down in the ice bucket (excellent $5 Espiral from Trader Joes) this wine would still be able to call attention to itself. 2012 will be a Riesling year. 8.5%

2007 Reichsrat Von Buhl Armand Riesling Kabinett $13: Mouthful of tangy zesty lychee fruit. Kris-B thinks the wine is a bit simple. We got a whollop of tangerines on the finish after another 15 minutes in the glass and are happy Kris-B suggested we grab it. It is from the Pfalz which is a region a Mösel snob would eschew but this proves how biasing auto-preference can be. What’s not to like? A G. and a U20 winner. 9%

1994 Ferreira Port $87: We started the day in the mid 90s and finished there. Ask and ye shall receive a bookend finish on Christmas Day. These are good years to be opening the finest vintage since 1977. These wines are just perfect and still on the upward arc. This is ready to be enjoyed right now. Solid fruit with next to zero tannins showing. Up-and-coming team taster X captures the flavors: “chewy dried mango fruit.” Perfectly balanced. Complemented the cakes and cookies like the 4th horse in the 4th race. Another winner down the stretch. 20%

Sorry to blog and bolt but another year is already here and it is going to require our full attention. Happy New Year. We leave you with the last of the Krisses Mösel tour images, the Zeltinger Sonnenuhr vineyard.

Oh my gosh my golly. Took a trip to San Francisco (don’t call it Frisco) after the winds had purified the air and it was just cold enough to keep it all crispy. Here are favorite shots and a couple of wine reviews, too. (more…)