Gary,

One thing I find confusing is knowing which wines need decanting…

At first I thought it was all Cabernet based wines, now I am under the impression that all red wines would benefit from some aeration?

Thanks.

Gary

I really liked the focus on a single wine in this episode. It gives your the time to give a deeper background on the wine’s region, producer, and even the food pairing aspects.

The most confusing thing for me is the surprising lack of correlation between price and quality. I’ve had many great $15 bottles, and unfortunately too many mediocre $50 bottles.

Besides Swiss wines, what other unknown regions, styles, or grapes do you recommend seeking out?

Nick

Gary,
I have another question…
Could you get me some wines from Caduceus Vineyards? http://www.caduceus.org I am a HUGE Tool (the band) fan and love the ideas that Maynard James Keenan has for his wines. I really would like to try his wine but I live in Georgia. Do you have any answers?

WL-TV is a great idea. Being from Texas, I look forward to your upcoming episode on heat-related issues. How about saying a word or two about bottle-shock (myth or reality?) when you do this. Last year I accepted my first shipment in November, and probably should have ceased before the end of April (gambled on one more in early May). I really admire the cooperation I get from the WL shipping dept about holding wine for me as long as it takes. I will say that I get occasional e-mails saying that my 30 days are almost up, and that I will be charged after that. I feel obligated to respond every time, but have always been assured that I should disregard such messages.

Gary,

Another great episode!!!

The most confusing thing for me has got to be Burgundy. All those different appellations, classifications, growers and those ridicously high prices for wines that can be medicore in some vintages. Its got to be the most inconsistent region in the world. I believe the whites can be more reliable. Can you do another episode on red Burgundies say… around $50 a bottle from some of the more well known regions.

Thanks
Bobby
Richmond,Va.

Hi Gary,

As usual another great episode. When you introduce me to something new and good it is a cool thing. I was in your store last night to pick up an order and have to admit to looking around for you to ask some questions. You are becoming a star 😉

Probably my biggest problem with wines today is storage and more specifically heat damage. The other day I opened a bottle of 2002 red that was in my hot apartment for a few months. After uncorking it and letting it breath a while it did not taste right. I’m into cigars and have a humidor for them which keeps them nice. Do wines (especially red) need special climate control?

Thanks,

Tom

P.S. How about an episode on Port wine?

what’s most confusing is the three tier sstem of winery, wholesailer and wine merchant. Could you explain this further.

Hi Gary V! Love the show, wish I could listen at work , but I have two ?s that I don’t think anyone else has brought up on the BB for awhile.

What can I do to get the most value out of wine tastings? Here in Chicago (great wine city, lots of independent stores), there is a tasting almost every week. I enjoy attending but sometimes find them very overwhelming (since I can’t afford to buy every wine I like!)

Secondly, do you find that some wines just naturally “taste” better due to the season, holidays, etc? Would love some examples from your experience!

Douglas

I find one thing confounding and that is when I go to tastings of large numbers of wines I find that producers have turned out many bottles that are just bad, poor extraction, doing funny things to the wine to try out an idea that doesn’t work out, poor choice of grapes, etc. No one apparently tries to make a bad bottle of wine but based on your tastings here and on my own experience I’ve had a lot of bad bottles. Why?

A second question is corks. Why are they still there instead of screwcaps other than aesthetics? Many New Zealand wines are coming with screwcaps and they don’t suffer and I’m not going to get a corked wine from a screwcap so why is the industry so resistant?

Gary,

Please explain the difference between tannic and acidic. Also, I’m confused between bouquet and nose.

MBG in FLA

Great show, thanks for the answer to my question. I agree by the way. When my wife and I are at home enjoying a nice bottle taht we had shipped in from New Jersey in the spring, it tastes a little different than when we are at a friend’s house drinking the same wine.

I fine it odd, though perhaps not confusing, that most wine tasters use a 100 point scale, but then only use the last 20 points. As I understand it, a wine gets 50 points for just showing up, and another 30 points if you can drink it without gagging.

Why not use use a 20 point scale?

Cheers!

Dan (In Houston)

Dan – Others probably have thoughts about this, but I think it’s generally accepted that Robert Parker came up with the 100 point scale. He wanted people to be able to relate to the scores they earned in the classroom. So essentially 90-100 = A, 80-89 = B, 70-79 = C. That was his idea and now it’s permeated the entire community/industry…

Gary – just ordered 6 bottles (I have trusted your opinions in the past and been mostly delighted with your picks). When would you suggest this wine should be drunk by (a year from now, 2 years, more?) Some will get drunk right away, but I don’t drink nearly as much white wine as red, so I would like to know how soon I should think about finishing these bottles.
Thanks! Hope you read comments this far down the list!

Hey Gary,

Another fine episode. Not at 100 comments yet, but I’m trying to help a brotha out.

Oh yeah, and a restaurant like that would be sweet. I’d definitely make the trip.

Boy I think this thread will give Gary enough Q&A material for the foreseeable future… there are some great questions.

Gary, I second (or third?) that restaurant idea.. Seeing as you live in NYC, have you been to Landmarc in Tribeca? They have a great wine list with a similar pricing strategy. In fact when the New York times profiled them a few years ago they demonstrated that they had many bottles at, and some below retail prices using well-known wine merchants as the benchmark. And the food is great as well (which as others have pointed out is key)!

Exciting fun filled episode again, Gary. I haven’t seen this addressed, but for me, it’s an issue most basic and confusing.
It’s taste profiles in general. I realize, there are certain profiles that are familiar to everyone, but so many are quite distinct and unique. Lemon, tar, tobacco, those things I get,,but Quince, gooseberries, etc., kinda hard to get a base note on those. Are there ANY decent “tasting” kits available that are not artificial in flavor, or do I need to go on a wild “gooseberry” chase??
Thanks for your time, great job!

The last Swiss wine I bought I used in fondue. Thanks for getting me interested in them again.

I would love to know how you built your internet business, (legally I assume), where others had difficulty. I keep writing letters to Trenton to allow direct shipments from producers to consumers in NJ. Are you in favor of this, or do you like the current system?

Gary:

p.s. I LOVE the idea of a fine resteraunt offering wine for retail+$5 for glass service. GREAT concept. I usually try to bring my own wine, for the reasons you cited…and tend to go to the finer BYOBs. But if there was an outstanding resteraunt with wines at retail prices – – I would flock there. Also, in your episodes, I love when you taste a wine and speak to the food you would match it to. In your resteraunt you could have your menu items included your favorite wine-pairing recommendation! I would love to revisit so I could try every pairing you suggest.
Joe

Gary,

My biggest question currently is when to open my bordeaux and petite syrahs. Both are exceptional when drank at the proper time but can be ghastly if too young or old. Great episode.

Gary, great episode. How does one develop a “nose” for wine? I love complex wines but can’t put those pleasant aromas into words well.

Keep up the good work Gary. I have been a fan since before the videos started. DECANTING: How can I decant a wine for an hour or two at room temperature and still have it at the proper drinking temperature? AGING: will wine age the same with an artificial cork or a screw cap as it does with a real cork? PRICING: why do you show all your wines as being on sale? Your sale price seems to be your regular price.
Now I have to watch the new episode.

Entertaining episode Gary and I have to admit I have never had a Swiss wine. Not sure whether this is good or bad, but when you taste only one wine it barely fills my left WLTV cavity. Most confusing? I agree with others: France! My question of the day relates to a different aspect of wine “resiliency”. Parker has described a phenomenon called “bottle shock”. Do you believe there is such a thing, or is it a bunch of hoo-ha?

Gary,

Great show. I was expecing you to pull out the lobster. I have noticed that many wine raters say the wine should drink well for X years. The problem is there is no date on when they rated the wine. Does X years refer to the vintage year or the date of tasting? It would be a good idea for the wine write up to have projected dates of consumption at the assumption of proper storage tempetature. Am I missing something? Could you give some general guidelines for the typical dates of consumption base on wine types, etc.?

Most confusing thing â?? you can’t judge a wine by it’s bottle (or lable) which makes it difficult to choose a wine. For a consumer it isn’t always possible to taste before purchasing, Regardless of any review, critic or salesman suggestion, you have to taste the wine first before knowing what it is like (or being able to judge it for yourself). No other information will give you all the details, of course, the wine drinking experience is very important part of this.

Gary, Dede and I are in our kitchen, Dede concocting some kind of nice pasta dish, and we have just cracked Bovard Epesse from this episode (I’ll talk about the wine in a second). But first I must talk about the SS (the most important thing–wink, wink).

Besides using the SS to help pick the wines I like…I also use it to go back and view the episode when I’m tasting the wine for the 1st time. With all due respect to SS Chris and the copious tasting notes that he transcribes, it is still no substitute for actually watching “The Chuk”. We watched the episode while we were drinking the wine for the first time. The SS also helps to quickly identify the episode, and then, through the outstanding work of Sir Brian, there’s the direct LINK to the episode. I think you should share this “SS method” watching the episodes when tasting the wines for the first time.

Back to the wine….UNBELIEVABLE white…so, so good. I’m not sure if WL has some more because you stated that it was a “special order” at a special low price….but I’ll check it out.