Thanks for your input Bularry.

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HTown, what is your bottle aging philosophy? I have 2 CdP a 96 Pegau and a 98 la Nerthe .i should probably drink. You seem to drink your Bordeaux early as well. Thanks in advance.

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It comes down to personal taste for me. Most of my aging experience has to do with Pinot that I collect. For most pinots, I like to drink them about 3-4 years after release. I like for the red and black fruit flavors to subside a little to allow for the cola and bacon fat flavors to come through. I'm not a huge fan of aged Cabernet based wines, so I tend to drink them earlier, with a few exceptions, those bring cabs that are too tannic to drink young. 3-5 years on napa cab is typically my sweet spot.

I'm prefer just a little more patience with my wines. 5-7 years on pinot, 7-10 years on cabs. (general rule of thumb). With the wines that I'm buying these days, I'll be aging them for 15-30 years (more structured Napa cabs/Bordeaux/Burgs/etc), but those are one-offs. I'm still much more of a seller than buyer.

Thanks HTown and BSD. I think deciding when to drink a specific bottle is the hardest thing for me to figure out. I know year the wine produced / wine makers style/ region and grape variety all play a role in when to drink. The 2 most disappointing things, that I think a wine drinker can do is wait too long or open a bottle in that dumb phase that differs from wine to wine. I have noticed that it happens more in French reds ( Bordeauxs) They can be good upon release but from year 3-7 they get into a funk only to emerge graceful post the funk phase.

I've only had a very few bottles of well aged Cabs or Bordeaux, but found them sublime. I have quite a few that I'm aging for 6-9 years and a few that are on a 15-ish year hold.

But, as to when to drink a particular bottle, I find myself subject to a sort of "collector's syndrom" of sorts, for if I drink a particular bottle I won't possess it anymore. Anybody else ever have that emotion?

You only live once, Cecil. Drink 'em up!

So what are y'all doing Saturday night?

If you're bringing wine over, I guess I'll be drinking a glass with you.

I'll get to try these on Saturday:
2012 Booker White
2012 Booker Remnant
2011 Antinoro Tignanello
2011 Futo OV
2010 Jones Family Cabernet
2009 Catena Zapata NCZ

Jones Family is a great under the radar Napa cab. And I'm always a fan of Tignanello! Enjoy the tasting.

Does anyone use VinoCellar? If so how do I tell it I drank a bottle and it is now gone out of my cellar?

cecil, I hear ya on that conflict of emotion. I have a couple of bottles I look forward to tasting, but I don't want to drink them because then I won't own them anymore. it is quite the emothional quandary, kinda funny.

thankfully, I don't really have many bottles that are like that so my conflicts are few.

I look at consumption as an opportunity to free up some space to purchase more wine,".

I need to adopt HTown's philosophy . I am more like Cecil. My big problem is finding the right occasion or crowd. Tried the Burgess merlot, and I really enjoyed it. It had chewy tannins to go with the fruit not typical of CA Merlots . Really good QPR. Thanks for the suggestion .

Yep- I'm a hoarder. I do the same thing with stocks. Great at buying them, just have no exit strategy- and pangs of guilt and anxiousness when I reduce inventory

My other quirk is what I can "unicorn hunting". Say I have a glass of wine- the best wine I've ever had. Ill enjoy it, appreciate it, then spend the rest of my life trying to find a different wine that's just like it... Figured this out with deschutes' mirror pond ale. Was at a bar asked the guy what was on draft, he listed them, mentioned the MPA, I asked if they had anything similar to MPA- he said: no, that's why we have it...

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Does anyone use VinoCellar? If so how do I tell it I drank a bottle and it is now gone out of my cellar?

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I use CellarTracker because of this thread. Has that functionality.

The cellartracker app is pretty amazing. UPC scanner, multiple inventory locations, free community scores, and the most comprehensive wine database. Plus, their app is free. If you make a donation to cellartracker, you get all the critic scores too. The app is named cor.kz.

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Jones Family is a great under the radar Napa cab. And I'm always a fan of Tignanello! Enjoy the tasting.

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I'm a big fan of all these wines. Hence, why I'm going.

Make sense to me!

And Cellartracker is a great tool for a wine collector!

Italian red wines, anything good between $15-$30?

Avignonesi Vino Nobile di Montepulciano was always a favorite of mine in that price range and it's easy to find. It's a sangiovese from Tuscany, just west of Montalcino. Montepulciano is a fun town, too.

Nice, thank you.

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Does anyone use VinoCellar? If so how do I tell it I drank a bottle and it is now gone out of my cellar?

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I use CellarTracker because of this thread. Has that functionality.

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VinoCellar does too apparently. And apparently I was being an idiot... Gotta be smarter than the app.

regarding Italian - I don't drink it a lot but in general I think you can find about anything you want from Tuscany. Lots of interesting Bordeaux varietals (super Tuscans) plus grapes from other AOC's (is that right? whatever the Italian ava equivalent is) grown there.

You can get some interesting Nebbiolo's from Lange for around $30.

I am a huge fan of Nebbiolo . I think an aged Barbaresco has to be in my top 5 bottles of all time.

What do you all think of minerality? I think it is a french marketing tool with little or no scientific basis. Eric Asimov column on Chablis has me scratching my head again and then this piece was forwarded to me today, so I thought I would share. http://princeofpinot.com/article/1570/

There's something to it, and it really shows itself in Chablis. I notice it most in young wines with high acidity. Because of this, I'm of the opinion it has more to do with the grape as opposed to the dirt.

I think taste profiles arises from altitude,sun attitude,hours of sun,ripeness at the time of harvest and some other items. I just can't buy the limestone in France is that much different from the caliche in west Texas.
It is funny that the term minerality mainly shows up in white wine. The author of that blog points out the white burgundies use that descriptor while the Pinots grown on the same soil aren't referred to as mineral driven. I really do like Chablis and I know they taste different than other Chardonnays, but I am not sure the factor that you mentioned a long with the ones that I mentioned aren't responsible for their unique taste.
Bottom line it is fun to think about wines nuances and discuss them with fellow enthusiast .

reload, I tend to agree with you on the limestone stuff.

I find minerality to be as much about texture as flavor, and good, dry, acidic wines seem to show it more, although not exclusively. I think that comes from how the grapes are grown, which encompasses all the elements of the harvest like weather, brix when picked, hang time, etc.

I find minerality to be more common in whites and had just assumed this was due to skin contact, or lack thereof. I think red wines possess a bit more richness and tannin in body. And the flavor in your more finesse reds like pinot, nebbiolo or even syrah is earthy instead of mineral. does that make sense? that's just my take on it, no real good professional opinions to back that up.


I will also admit I have a very average palate.

Agreed bu. Those reds you mentioned have a woodsy mushroom appeal to me.

Had a 2007 Clos Pegase Merlot today. Found it in a clearance cart at Spec's. If I has known what this wine would be like, I would have laid it down for a year, but no more than that. The tannins were still very pronounced, but the fruit and acid was starting to fade a bit.

Check the clearance bins at your stores every so often. You can find some hidden gems there.

Any of you have a soft spot for a particular wine that started you on the joys of wine ? For me it was a bottle of Gigondas with a great meal.

it was probably 10 years or so - my wife (girlfriend at the time) had a big deadline she was working against with her team, a few midnight nights in a row - at the end of it her boss said she and I should go out for whatever dinner we'd like it and he'd pass it on an expense report. living in DC at the time, there was a new restaurant on M St. called the Mendocino Grille. That money was "no object" we ordered away and requested recommended glasses with each course. i had some sort of lobster risotto and they paired it with a Tablas Creek Viognier. that one meal and pairing in particular "enlightened" me to how the right wine can elevate a good taste to an incredible experience. year later we came across a Tablas Creek GSM and the waiter commented on them being one of the premier Rhone Rangers. that kicked off my penchant for the Rhones.

sometime in the last 7 or 8 years, we'd hosted a party and had all sorts of gifted bottles by the end of it. sometime in the following weeks or months, mrs. rononeill went out of town and i proceeded to house a bottle of Razor's Edge (some sort of GSM) by myself. i'd had a glass or two with the steak i cooked, but just couldn't stop drinking it - it was sooo delish. it was probably a $20 bottle of wine, but it was a treat. i even remember the hangover - and recall the next day telling myself it was worth it

Tablas makes some great wines. Their whites are great with food. When you were in D.C.., did you have any of the VA Viogniers? The Veritas version is fabulous and probably one of the better wines made east of the Mississippi. Viognier is definitely VA signature grape.

When we were in dc, we were a little more focused on chasing down the best miller lite happy hour deal. That said, we did go to the VA wine festival one year and before it turned into a drunken sht show for us, I recall it being very nice. There was one viogners I remember really enjoying bc it was like $6 a bottle- governors blend or something like that...