The Art of unselling KRUG.

I am proud to make a consistent effort dissuading people from buying Krug this year. Why am I doing this? Because like many other champagne fans, I have noticed that the past few times I have tasted it, it in no way resembles the rich, golden, mouth filling elixir I remember from as recently as a few years ago. And at over $130, the wine ought to be mind blowing and memorable, right?

So here's how it works. There are so many superior champagnes we sell for even a third of the cost of Krug. I spot someone with Krug in hand or basket, ask them if they need any help finding anything, and then whether the answer is yes or no, gently suggest if they mind receiving an alternate champagne recommendation, one that I believe to be a superior wine and better value than Krug. Then I find another champagne. Recently it's been Tarlant Cuvee Louis, but most anything we sell is more interesting, tastier bubbly than Krug these days.

Two bottles of Krug un-sold month to date, and counting.

'The Poacher' Series

A few nights ago at Terroir, it was a typically wine trade oriented crowd: a distributor rep, an importer rep, a shop employee (me), a former importer rep. So the conversation was appropriately wine trade oriented. We geeked out, debated the quality of a certain national importer/ personality's champagne book, and then exchanged stories of one Captain Tumor Man.

There was the recent San Francisco trade tasting where, towards the end of the event, a late arriving merchant requested that a new bottle be opened, acted like a jerk, and in a moment surely to be treasured by long suffering salespeople the world over, was summarily told by our hero Captain Tumor Man to go fuck himself.

Then there was the time that Captain Tumor Man attended a competitor's trade tasting, declared most of the wines to be garbage, found the one producer he liked, and promised that he'd poach that producer in short order. Well, that is exactly what happened. You are so nice, Captain Tumor Man.

So I'm enjoying my day off today, sleeping in, eating baked goods, drinking chai and what not, and thinking that I applaud this brand of confidence bordering on cockiness occasionally shown by east coast wine importers. In fact, I'd like to commemorate their efforts by producing a few 'battle tracks.' You know, some seriously gangsta' wine lyrics (rapped by the importers themselves),or at least choice vocal samples, strategic scratching, hard drums. I will call it 'The Poacher' series. After all, if one can insult another's rapping ability, question his masculinity, or claim to have engaged in sexual intercourse with his girl, why not adjust the insults to the wine world: your palate sucks, you pal around with losers, I'll steal your producer. That's what I'm talking about.
the
'The Poacher,' vol. 1, coming your way some time in the '09.

UPDATE: While it's always fun to hear dramatic tales of the exciting and competitive wine trade, one needs to remember that often times they are not true. Such is the case in the suggested poaching incident above (see the thread of comments below). I would like to apologize to our hero for any misrepresentation of his hard work gaining the trust of many excellent winemakers and succesfully marketing their wines in the States.

Welcome to The Holidays

You may have noticed that the weekly posting rate has declined of late, as has the average posting length and overall quality here. Sorry. It's the busy season, which means that I am eating too much junk food, not enough vegetables and drinking a bit more than usual. At work, we are fortunate to be very busy, people are in a hurry, orders are mispicked, everyone's patience is running a bit thin. All of which feeds the unhealthy eating habits above; it's a vicious cycle. So excuse me if things are slipping a little here. After Christmas things should be back to normal.

To relax from the overall craziness that is retail during the holidays, I went to Terroir last night. Rolled in dolo (I think that's mid 90's QB slang for solo). I very much enjoyed an '07 Pinon Vouvray, the 'silex noir' bottling. So juicy and balanced. Terrific stuff. Then moved on to a '98 Wittman riesling spatlese from the Rheinhessen. Definitely into tertiary land now, some citrus and that brown sugared note I get in Rheinhessen and Pfalz rieslings. After that, a '94 Hauth Kerpen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese I brought in from work, which showed bigger, broader flavors with a deeper swath of acidity. Developed, but still developing. Finally a bottle of '95 Reinhold Hart Piesporter Goldtrofchen Riesling Spatlese, generously brought in by another guest. It was more primary than I expected. Golden colored and flavored. Appley, deep and just very vibrant and delicious. Apparently low sulphur too. Good bring, Michael.

OK, off to the bike to the Caltrain to the Camino to the shop, and then back again this evening. Have a good day.

Return of The Doobies, this time with the crew from...WHAT'S HAPPENING!

I apologize to those of you to whom the thought of listening to any Michael McDonald is somewhat repulsive - but this one was too good to pass up. Doobies, Re-run, Rog, Dee, Shirley. Are you kidding me? If you follow the clip after the Doobies' performance, you will see that the plot thickens.

Enjoy.

A Tale of two LVMH champagnes

Recently tasted some champagnes, mainly grower ones, though there were a few products sold by big bad Luis Vuitton Moet Henessy. I thought it might be fun to write brief notes on two of these, as each portrays a telling snap shot of a company's reputation (LVMH in the first instance, Veuve Clicquot in the second) at a particular point in time.

Ruinart is marketed, from my understanding as a step up in quality from your basic NV champagne. At least the $59.99 price tag on the Ruinart Blanc des Blancs I tasted would suggest this. What an awful wine. There is no shortage of much less expensive sparkling wines, both bottle and tank fermented, that I would rather drink than this. Don't believe anyone who says that even lesser champagne is, after all, still champagne, and therefore worth the price. This was very reductive, with the tell-tale sulphurous nose lacking any aroma of fruits or anything other than sulphur. Sweet on the palate. And thin. Coarse. Billed as 12g/l dosage but it has to be more. No purity, nor grace, nor any flavors that I would ever want to re-visit. Shite.

On to another LVMH brand - the incredibly successful Veuve Clicquot. Now I am simultaneously as impressed and confounded by the orange driven power of the aggressively marketed and branded Veuve Cliquot as any other wine professional. Nonetheless, it is worth pointing out that Veuve Clicquot wines, the vintages and La Grande Dame in particular, used to be quite good! At least that is what I have heard - I have not been a drinker long enough to have experienced this first hand. So I truly was looking forward to tasting the 1988 Veuve Clicquot Rare Vintage (recently disgorged) champagne. It lived up to the promise of Clicquot's former reputation, and the reliability of the 1988 vintage in champagne (thought by some to be superior to the other great vintage of the '80s, 1985). Very complex on the nose, a bit sherried as one would expect, but in a good way. Deep, broad flavors on the palate, with recently browned apples and nuts. Amazingly silken texture, a gentle, lazy bead and simply terrific length and acidity. First class all the way, and for less than the price of a bottle of the recently mediocre Krug Grand Cuvee bottling, this one is absolutely worth it.

Funny how things change. And how a little (ok, a little more than a little) ambition to grow your business can detract from what made your business great in the first place.

The State of the economy/'05 California Cab Buying Guide

I recently celebrated a terrific November, highlighted by the loss of over 500,000 US jobs and the begging of our ever insightful, cutting edge US auto companies for more money to waste on developing and marketing shitty products, by tasting some top dollar, top ranking California cabernet! Mmm, delicious. Why figure out what you like on your own, when Tanzer, Parker, The Wine Spectator and Old World Old School can do all the work for you?

2005 Beaulieu Vineyards Georges de Latour Napa Cabernet Sauvignon - $89.95
At first tasting this was actually not too bad, but then coming back to it the wine showed a bit band-aidy. 81 OWOS

2005 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Napa - $89.99
96 WA and 94 IWC! Sweet! I meant that literally, this stuff is sweet. 74 OWOS

2005 Robert Mondavi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Napa - $109
95 WS and #9 in the 2006 Top 100!! My third favorite wine in this formidable line-up, it was perfectly well made and exemplary in its anonymous cabby character. 84 OWOS

2005 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon Napa - $129
96 WA, 93 IWC, 91 OWOS. That dark cab fruit did not prevent fragrant, inner mouth floral notes to emerge on the mid palate. The only elegant wine in this line-up, which is why I sort of agree with my esteemed colleagues here.

2005 Opus One Napa Cabernet Sauvignon - $159.99
Only 92 IWC and 90 WS. Save your $50 and get the 95pt WS Mondavi Napa reserve!

2005 Joseph Phelps Insignia Napa Cabernet Sauvignon - $179
93-96 WA, 93 IWC, 92 WS, 74-77 OWOS. C'mon now Joe, that all you got?

2005 Ridge Montebello Santa Cruz Mountains - $139.99
95 IWC. 93 OWOS. Love that higher acidity, blue/dark fruit, 13.5% alcohol. And that American oak! Ridge, as usual, keeps it real.

2005 Groth Reserve Napa Cabernet Sauvignon - $145
94 WS. 70 OWOS. Soft, juicy, sweet, oaky. What grape is this again?

2005 Caymus Special Select Napa Cabernet Sauvignon - $149
94 WS, 92-94 WA, 60-62 OWOS. Takes the cake for the most juggy tasting of this lineup.

2005 Dominus Napa Red - $119
96 WA, 94 IWC, 78 OWOS. Unfortunately, this was the last wine I tasted and my taste buds had already suffered considerably. Not so much so for me to realize that this juice ain't that good, though.

Hope that this is helpful to everyone out there. Support our auto companies, support our local wine industry. They really are trying awfully hard.

REAL HIP-HOP RADIO: Commercial Free 98.7 Kiss FM

Big shout out to anyone who grew up listening to 98.7 Kiss FM with the likes of DJ Red Alert, Chuck Chillout, and Latin Rascals. I'm not one of those people, so I'm just catching up on some required listening.

Set it off I suggest, ya'll.