Most Chinon tastes like green bell peppers. I'm not a fan of it.

Cecil: Shoulda known you'd already tried it! My mentor!

HTown: Funny you say that about the peppers. The sommelier said that can happen if their canopy management isn't spot on. I'll try it out and report back.

It also tends to be a lot cooler in the Loire valley, and cab franc has trouble getting ripe if the weather isn't perfect. If you find a good one, let me know. Cab franc is one of those wines I like when it's done correctly.

Anybody see the movie/documentary "Somm?" I'd never heard of it but may try to find it online.

Another question: anyone been to any wineries around Munich that are worth a drive? I'll be there in 2 weeks for work but may squeeze in some play time.

what is this:

http://www.ninetypluscellars.com/

I've seen these labels in stores, but never heard of them. Do they just buy wine and put their label on it?

Matsui: I've never seen it. After some digging, found this on their site:

90+ Cellars was created because we like drinking great wine anytime we want. We wanted an everyday "go to" wine that tasted like one usually reserved for special occasions, a delicious wine that we could open any night of the week or whenever friends arrived. Unfortunately, that wine didn't exist or just took too much time to find.So, in the spring of 2009, armed with a copy of the latest Wine Spectator, Kevin called and emailed wineries with a history of high ratings and asked if they had wine for sale. Some told him to get lost, others simply ignored him, but in the end, he found a handful of willing wineries. The plan was this: They put the 90+ Cellars label on their wine, and we sell it for less. You may recall that the economy wasn't in the best shape in 2009. Demand for wines priced more than $20 a bottle plummeted and inventories were piling up. Rather than discount their wine and erode the value of their brand, wineries were willing to part with it for a reduced price. That summer 90+ Cellars was born. Since then, it's been our goal to seek out, bottle and deliver fine wine that costs you less money. The landscape has changed, but our mission has not. We partner with highly respected wineries around the globe to provide you with wine that will impress your friends and keep more dollars in your pocket.Saturday night taste. Tuesday night price. That's 90+ Cellars.


Interesting concept. I'd try a few bottles. Anyone with experience with these guys?

Yes, "Somm" is great. Really opens you up to that world. I realized I know so little about wine after watching that. The Master Somm's are really amazing at what they do and I have even more respect for them then before. It's truly a life long endeavor.

Thanks, jumper. Will search for it.

One of the Master's in Somm is Greg Harrington who is the owner/winemaker for Gramercy Cellars out of Walla Walla, WA. If you ever have the chance, drink their wine. damn good juice at an approachable price point.

Watched Somm this weekend on a flight. Unbelievable what a Master Somm has to go through. I rented it off I tunes

Got notification of the Realm release today, haven't taken my allocation on previous releases, what should I go for?

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Got notification of the Realm release today, haven't taken my allocation on previous releases, what should I go for?

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All you can

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Anyone else place their Rivers-Marie order yesterday? If so, what did everyone get?

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After reading all the rave reviews, I jumped on board. Me, dad, and bro went in on 2 SC Pinots and 3 Chards.

Question: how long do you guys hold wines in the cellar that were shipped? I've been buying a lot of wine off WTSO the last 2 years, and I've noticed that if I don't cellar them for at least 4 weeks they still have bottle shock, and really need 8 weeks to show out. Anyone else have any thoughts on bottle shock?

agree on the bottle shock, I'd wait 6 to 8 weeks.

of course if you are buying napa allocations you should be waiting a lot longer, but to get a preview I'd wait 8 weeks. I opened a wine after about 4 weeks around christmas and it just wasn't all there, I was bummed I had wasted a bottle of something I had ordered.

FWIW, from Wine Spectator:

Dear Dr. Vinny,
What is bottle shock, and is it true that a bottle that's been opened immediately after lying on its side for a while suffers from this condition? Should I let my bottles stand upright for a few hours before opening them?
Glenn L., Singapore

Dear Glenn,
"Bottle shock" or "bottle sickness" are terms used to describe a temporary condition in a wine where its flavors are muted or disjointed. There are two main scenarios when bottle shock sets in: either right after bottling, or when wines (especially fragile older wines) are shaken in travel. Usually a few days of rest is the cure. The evidence for this phenomenon is more anecdotal than scientific, but the theory is that all the complex elements in wine (phenolics, tannins and compounds) are constantly evolving, both on their own and in relation to each other. Heat or motion can add stress to this evolution, causing the wine to shut down temporarily.
Most wines are fine if you take them from a lying-down position to an upright one. It's the older, more fragile bottles that need special handling. When a wine hits the 10-year mark or so, there's probably a fair bit of sediment in it. Sediment is a byproduct of aging wine, as phenolic molecules combine to form tannin polymers that precipitate out of the liquid. Disturbing the sediment won't necessarily cause the wine to go into bottle shock, but it might be unpleasant to have all that gritty sediment floating around in your wine.
What to do next is a point not always agreed upon. Many peoplemyself includedwill stand an older bottle upright for at least a couple of days before opening it and decanting it off its sediment. Others say this will disturb the wine too much, and that the sediment will be so released into suspension it will take months to clear up. But if the wine in question is relatively new, without any sediment, you don't have to worry about it.

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agree on the bottle shock, I'd wait 6 to 8 weeks.

of course if you are buying napa allocations you should be waiting a lot longer, but to get a preview I'd wait 8 weeks. I opened a wine after about 4 weeks around christmas and it just wasn't all there, I was bummed I had wasted a bottle of something I had ordered.

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Thanks for the confirmation!

Thanks for posting '87, I always liked the Dr. Vinny segments. I had a spectator.com membership for a couple of years, but recently cancelled it and got the magazine sub. Love the magazines, definitely worth the money. I do miss some of the .com content, but paying 2 subscription fees to the same company seemed wasteful.

OK, here's a topic a don't remember discussing.

How much wine do you drink?

A glass or two per day? More? Less? Weekends only? What?

For a long tine I wasn't a Wednesday night wine drinker. But I find that I am now. More nights than not, my wife and I have a glass or two. Is that abnormal?

I typically drink a half glass via coravin most nights. I seem to rotate through Cabs, Pinots, and Sauternes throughout the week. On the weekends and occasional Thursdays I'll open a bottle or two with friends.

I love baudry. Make great chinon. until I tried their wines, I didn't think cab franc could stand alone and be great.

Averages about a glass a day.

re: Baudry,... Is that readily available, e.g. Spec's, HEB, etc.?

re: the NY Cab Franc bought this week, I was surprised. It was decent. Light on color, consistency and flavors but, after all, it's not a Cab Sav. For $15, a nice drinkable wine for "everyday." Think it would be a good summertime wine.

Will pop the French Chinon tonight, for comparison only of course,...

re: how much do I/we drink,.... about a box a week.


j/k

Answer: more than I should, probably. I have tried to only drink Thurs-Sun, just for calorie management, but I'm quickly failing at that. We end up at maybe 2-3 bottles per week. (Boy, that sounds pretty bad when I actually type that!)

we were about a bottle or two a night on weekends. If it was one bottle, then we probably followed that up with a beer. We rarely drank during the week.

Nowadays...ugh, a glass a month.

how much I drink? probably too much.

for calorie management purposes, we try to only drink 1 bottle during week (Mon-Thurs) and then we might drink 4 or 5 over the weekend depending on what's going on.

Probably a year ago we were drinking a bottle a night. that was hard on the pocket book and the waistline! wife wanted to lose weight so we cut way back. been drinking more since November.

bottle a week

A bottle a night Thur, Fri and Sat. Sunday is 50/50 depending on if we cook a good meal. Monday through Wednesday we don't really drink.

BSD, a question: For home and socially with good friends, is tasting and spitting (like the pros do) an option? Or just not worth the tempation?

If my wife and I are drinking, we can do a bottle a night without thinking about it.

HTown: We need to get together!

Has Robert Parker rated the about to be released Realm allocation?

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HTown: We need to get together!

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We drink cheap stuff during the week, and I'm in Austin, not Houston.

Well we like cheap stuff too! Your name obviously threw me. We can still get together and break bread.

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BSD, a question: For home and socially with good friends, is tasting and spitting (like the pros do) an option? Or just not worth the tempation?

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I try to pick and choose my battles. If I know it's good wine, I'll taste. I'll typically have two tastes. If it's a lot of good wine, I'll have to spit since I really shouldn't be drinking. But if my wife tastes it and thinks I won't care for it, I'll just pass without a taste. She knows what I like and there's no point in me tasting something that I won't like. I'm actually getting better about being around people drinking without feeling like the fat kid at the junior high dance sitting in the corner. Bless my friends' hearts, though. They feel bad about drinking around me even though I'm OK with it.

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Has Robert Parker rated the about to be released Realm allocation?

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I think Crane got 100. I'm always a buyer of all 3, though. The Farella these past few years have been awesome.

Speaking of Crane, the '06 Crane is one of my favorite Napa cabs of the last 10 years.