The Official Wine Thread

Originally Posted by iammatt

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who is brett?

Something tells me you would probably like him, in small doses.

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

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That's pio's little nickname for brettanomyces
ah. gotcha. I don't like poop and barnyard as descriptors. I prefer gamey.

Has anyone opened a 2002 burgundy recently?

Originally Posted by johnapril

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Has anyone opened a 2002 burgundy recently?
Yes, a month or so ago.

Originally Posted by johnapril

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Has anyone opened a 2002 burgundy recently?

Had a great 2002 Charmes-Chambertin last march. Great wine was great.

Just got this WTSO email:

Hi ,

Today we are offering Domaine Louis Latour
Criots Batard Montrachet
Grand Cru 2004
95 Rating WE!

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Was thinking, "Great!I'll pick up an order and try myself my first Grand Cru Montrachet." Then read this:

originally priced at $259.99 and available now for only $129.99. Ground shipping is free with your purchase of 1 bottle(s).

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No, no I won't be trying it.

FWIW, that's a really great price.....

Originally Posted by johnapril

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Has anyone opened a 2002 burgundy recently?

Here was mine a little while ago:

Originally Posted by tattersall

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In honour of US thanksgiving we had a small bird last night and cracked open something special

Since I'm not a true baller like Petrus1/lucifer it's only a 1er cru but it ended up being a very nice one. I note that both Jancis and Hugh in their Atlas single out this producer as one of the better ones in Pommard so both team Pio and team Petrus should be pacified...

2002 Domaine de Montille Pommard 1er cru "Les Pezerolles" - the vineyard is very close to Pommard but the producer is based in Volnay, so something of an odd duck but it was really wonderful. A much lighter wine than I'm used to drinking but a stunning complexity and a great deal of finesse. I gather this would keep for a few more years and even improve but what the hell. This was not at all powerful (only about 12%) and you could certainly taste red fruit - I got strawberry mostly - and a nice minerality too. Would buy again if I could find it. Was perfect with roasted duck.

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

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FWIW, that's a really great price.....

Yeah, and I would love to try it. However, I won't go north of $60 on a bottle without someone, who's taste I trust, giving a personal rec. Remember, at heart, I'm a cheap bastard.

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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Yeah, and I would love to try it. However, I won't go north of $60 on a bottle without someone, who's taste I trust, giving a personal rec. Remember, at heart, I'm a cheap bastard.

Did you have to sell your post count for the sous-vide machine?

Originally Posted by holymadness

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It might have been overwhelmed by all the notes of white-out and baloney.
IIRC, you like wines from the Languedoc, right? They tend to have a good percentage of mourvedre, which a lot of people see as having this scent. I think in France they call it animale, which is a much better description. Much of it is cultural, I think, and in the US we tend, having no food culture at all, to see daring and shocking as sophisticated, and around these values have grown words we use commonly like "barnyard," "pig face" for pigs head etc. It is like a sign showing club membership, I think. None of this is a comment on the members here using it, just on how our own food and wine culture has developed.

I still smell funk and barnyard.

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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Yeah, and I would love to try it. However, I won't go north of $60 on a bottle without someone, who's taste I trust, giving a personal rec. Remember, at heart, I'm a cheap bastard.
You are way more prodigal than me.

Originally Posted by iammatt

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IIRC, you like wines from the Languedoc, right? They tend to have a good percentage of mourvedre, which a lot of people see as having this scent. I think in France they call it animale, which is a much better description. Much of it is cultural, I think, and in the US we tend, having no food culture at all, to see daring and shocking as sophisticated, and around these values have grown words we use commonly like "barnyard," "pig face" for pigs head etc. It is like a sign showing club membership, I think. None of this is a comment on the members here using it, just on how our own food and wine culture has developed.
I don't deny the sometimes-usefulness of wine nomenclature; I am just opposed its fetishization and elaboration to the point of absurdity. I agree that the more esoteric and deliberately repugnant labels are often wielded like status symbols of superior discernment ("What, you can't smell the cat piss and wilted rhododendron? How odd."). This exists in France as well as in the US, though I have noticed far fewer armchair experts here than back home. The average French drinker seems to accept wine as a normal fact of life, not as an object of study.

Pio writes, "In fact, if you think the grape is Pinot Noir and are having a hard time figuring out if it's New or Old World, the presence of barnyard on the nose will tell you it's most likely a Frenchie." My response is, who cares? That is not an end in itself. I am much more interested in whether the wine was good or bad, what is good or bad about it, and when I should drink it. All the more so because he and I don't share a nose, and because aromatics change over time. I find these sorts of details largely superfluous. To know what wine's second fermentation is called or which Bordeaux were classed in 1855 is simply not very interesting except to a hobbyist.

Originally Posted by holymadness

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You are way more prodigal than me.

I don't deny the sometimes-usefulness of wine nomenclature; I am just opposed its fetishization and elaboration to the point of absurdity. I agree that the more esoteric and deliberately repugnant labels are often wielded like status symbols of superior discernment ("What, you can't smell the cat piss and wilted rhododendron? How odd."). This exists in France as well as in the US, though I have noticed far fewer armchair experts here than back home. The average French drinker seems to accept wine as a normal fact of life, not as an object of study.

Pio writes, "In fact, if you think the grape is Pinot Noir and are having a hard time figuring out if it's New or Old World, the presence of barnyard on the nose will tell you it's most likely a Frenchie." My response is, who cares? That is not an end in itself. I am much more interested in whether the wine was good or bad, what is good or bad about it, and when I should drink it. All the more so because he and I don't share a nose, and because aromatics change over time. I find these sorts of details largely superfluous. To know what wine's second fermentation is called or which Bordeaux were classed in 1855 is simply not very interesting except to a hobbyist.

Jesus, I had to spend $500 for a master sommelier to teach me that and I gave it to you for free.

Sorry, I didn't mean to be dickish. I actually know relatively little about wine culture. I do most of my buying by tasting everything in sight at one of these.