A very small quibble, Gary. You give the Caves de Colombes Pommard the benefit of the doubt and say it needs time. You observe that it’s structure is such that comparison to the more overtly fruity Chasseur may be unfair. I agree with that. I can’t help but wonder though if your benevolence towards the Caves de Colombes might not be influenced by the obvious fact that you folks at WL seem to have a large stake on Caves de Colombes in that you have done several big promotions, presale offerings, etc.
I bring all this up because you extended no such benefit of the doubt to the Chehalem. There is a certain stylistic difference between Oregon typicity and Russian River, but notwithstanding that, I GUARANTEE that in five to seven years time the ’02 Chehalem Ridgecrest will blow away that Chasseur with graceful power and complexity, while the Chasseur will be fading then. If you want to say that FOR CURRENT CONSUMPTION the Chasseur is drinking better than the Chehalem, I have no problem with that. If you say that those in the audience who prefer California pinot with upfront clean fruit over Oregon pinots with more restrained fruit and a bit more earthiness should buy the Chasseur and not the Chehalem, again, no problem. Hell, you can even say the Chasseur is more suited to drinking as an appertif, stand-alone-wine while the Chehalem begs for food (as well as age). My point; as with the Caves de Colombes vs the Chasseur, comparing the Chehalem to the Chasseur is a bit unfair.
Many, but not all pinot fanatics eventually find Calif pinot’s upfront and obvious flavor profile a bit tiresome, and migrate in their preferences toward Oregon pinot and Burgundy.

drink wine everyday.

GV —

For a while I thought I would have to start cutting back on my drinking, since I was up to around 4-5 bottles a week. What your question of the day has taught me is that I actually need to kick it up a notch to keep up with the rest of the lushes, er, connoisseurs. Thank you for showing me the light.

BTW, I’ve been a customer/fan of WL for over a year, which leads me to my question for you: what ever happened to that commercial for Wine Library you guys did a while back where youâ??re all tasting wines in the back room? You had it on your website briefly, but now I can’t find it. It may shed some light on your sense of humor (even before you became a big vlog star).

And by the way, if you just did the same thing every day without trying to inject some personality and fun (and teasing) into these videos, I would have stopped watching about 65 episodes ago.

Keep doing what you’re doing…

I’m curious to see Gary’s response to Mitch (#48), as I too have noticed that WL has a big bet on Caves de Colombe wines, in fact one of the earlier WLTV episodes was (#3 I believe) based on a Caves de Colombe CdP.

Mitch/KJB yes we do buy and sell a lot of Caves DC and the Pommard was by far the one that was selling the best and so I wanted to try it again. I am sure as you watch it again you will see that I was stunned that it wasn’t drinking sooo well at this point, I was expecting more, but it’s middle palate and tannis structure was much more complete then the Chahelem and that was what I based my cellaring comment on. Mitch I understand your point but not only did the Chassuer have great up front fruit, I really think it has the “gutts” to last. I know a lot of people think Cali wines breakdown. We will see over time. Trust me I think I hurt our sales of CDC yesterday more then helped, eitherway I have really no thought of sales when I do WLTV, trust me I got killed on The Frog’s Leap Zinfandel and am still sitting on tons of Miner cab and we have cases and cases of other wines I have panned! I am hear for you guys and am treating WLTV as a different world form what i do day to day.

7-1o X/W Thx agaian for your wine reviews!

I TOTALLY agree with comment # 32. That would be an AMAZING episode, as the effect of heat on wine is on everyone’s mind. Gary I usually drink about 3 bottles a week. I only drink red wines….I don’t like whites. I love California cabs, and cab blends. I also love Chilean wine.

Gary, Please do an episode on the effect of heat on wine…..not only heat (as in a hot day), but heat as in storing wine at room temp rather then 55 degrees. I bought a wine cooler to keep my expensive wines at a constant 55 degrees for long term storage, but if we keep a wine in the kitchen at room temp (72-76 degrees) will it really have an effect on the taste.

Thanks again Gary!! Loved the show.

I am headed to Italy on Thursday, so I will be away for a while…..I’ll be enjoying some wine over there.

Drink mostly red – 2-3 times a week – work from home so open early and let most breath and have a glass while cooking, and finish throughout dinner – some now change – some amazing how it really opens up and gives you more. Some – wish you had not had a sip til the end….

I HAVE A QUESTION: SINCE GARY V. FORGETS TO ASK A QUESTION EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE (NO ONES PERFECT) – THE NEXT TIME GARY FORGETS TO ASK A QUESTION – I HAVE A QUESTION FOR EVERYONE: “WHAT WAS THE LAST (VERY LAST) WINE THAT YOU DRANK?” I love reading the comments and would love to hear what the last thing people drank and what you thought of it – post a score 0-100. This will help me expand my drinking selection as I am stuck on Bordeaux & Cabs. Thanks – Thank you for addressing my Bordeaux question – Makes me feel like a celeb..

Mitch (post 51) and Gary (post 55):

thanks for the insightful posts. Mitch you summed up my pinot life. I was hooked after “Sideways” on Santa Barbara pinot – – but now think that perhaps the style (although extremely pleasant and friendly) is perhaps too simplistic (overall comment – Sea Smoke as Brandon points out Smokes)? I have had some Burgundy which totally blew my mind. Burgundy is so confusing though. Gary – really what styles of pinot are you gaga over and which regions/producers should we seek out?
Joe

Every day. 99% red.

Gary –
Appreciate the candid response. I think you are handling things the right way, which given your position is not easy with all the various constituencies to please.

Every day with formal tastings once a week. Last wine I drank was the 2001 Pickberry Cabernet Sauvingon from Ravenswood. This last week a 1999 Torreon Rioja, 1990 Kalin Chardonnay, 1982 Pinchon Longueville, Pinchon Lalade, Beychville, Talbot, Ducru Becalliu to anwser the previous poster. This weekend is California Pinot Noirs.

Hi Gary,
Good episode on pinots. Perhaps an episode solely on red Burgundy would be good to explain the differences in regions. I drink wines about once or twice a week almost always with dinner, and once a month my neighborhood holds a wine tasting potluck dinner in which many bottles are shared. This Friday our potluck will feature Oregon Pinot Noir while the last one featured wines from Provence. All the best, Jim

Lawrence — How’d you like that Kalin Chard? I think I had a 93 last year and loved it…

The last bottle I had was called “Sexy”. It was a bottle of Riesling from Germany. It was enjoyable. Of course my wife bought it. When I saw it I said, “you’re such a chick”.

This is actually from my comment yesterday, seems more appropriate today:

I just got back from OR and WA where I got to taste a bunch of 300 case production pinotâ??s as well as some great reislings, zins, and syrahs. I had a great time. My friend was laughing at me in the tasting rooms, I was lining up glasses of wine infront of me and going back to them in order to see how air was affecting them. He thought I should be â??drinkingâ?? faster. I pointed out that if his glass was empty he couldnâ??t be enjoying the wine as much as I was.

Am I off base, was I tricking myself into thinking I was getting anything new from the wines?

What kind of glass are you using most of the time for tasting on the show?

If you read the biography on Parker (Emperor of Wine), the author explains that he lets the wines sit after he tastes them and then re-tastes them later on. He does this in order to guage ageability. Not exactly sure how he guages that or what he looks for later on, but that’s what the author wrote…

I could not believe all the horrible comments you got…this people are dark!!!. I’m sorry I’m a bit behind…been busy opening my own wine boutique. Just Open this past Monday (wish me luck!!). I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one who tries to tame the wine-geek in within and enjoys wine for what it truly is….

Gary,
Great episode!
ok- maybe I can get an award for being the slowest to respond!
THANKS SO MUCH for answering my questions about how much I spend on wines. That is very cool!:):):)
I am learning sooooooo much from WLTV. Also, just in case you haven’t figured this out, I am the original tight wad sooooooo…..Thanks for saving me time and money!

Gary,

Great episode although I find most Pinot Noir kinda watered down to my tasts.

You don’t seem to sell any Norton, the “Great American Grape” wines. Why not? I’ve tried several of these and find they compare well. How about an episode dealing with several of the more well known Norton wines.

I expect … this comment being #70 will likely never be read .. but just had a 99 Cote de Chalonnaise .. P. Villaine La Digoine.. talk about terroir! Tobacco, red currant, great mid palate and finish. Made my day!

Late to the party (as usual), but still up on Friday night watching WLTV (way to keep me involved).

So – how often do I taste wine? Not often enough … which is why I am advocating a new size – the demi-demi bottle … one glass, and I can try something new each night. Anyone?

Gary
you are a smart man and you know a great deal about the grape. Your knowledge or at least discussion of pinot, and particularly burgundy, to the extent that you dicuss it at all, is to my mind not up to snuff. 1st: What the heck is Cave de Colombe? Where did you find this stuff? I take it is a negotiant (as the name suggests). In any case, seems a little odd as representative of what Burgundy can produce. How about using Bouchard or Jadot instead if you are going the negoce route? Second, why a 2003? When you start talking about bacon in your tasting profile of pinot it freaks me out. Bacon is Syrah. In pinot something is up. OK so 2003 is the closest Burgundy will ever get to Rhone (or at least I hope so). In 2003 just about every wine tasted like it came from the south. Why not
use a 2002 or 2004, both relatively terroir driven vintages? Another thing, why have the Burgundy last? It MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE! of course it doesn’t stand up to the new world stuff. Neither does being caressed with a feather after you have been hit over the head with a baseball bat. That is why New World wines do well against old world wines in comparative tasting. All subtlety is lost.
Finally, the idea that you don’t take ageworthiness into account kind of bothers me. If I am to understand, you are recommending wines for immediate consumption. If that is the case, I won’t by anything you recommend that costs over twenty bucks because I don’t want to spend more than twenty bucks on something I am expected to drink now. A great wine (or even a really good one) should be ageworthy. You know as well as I do that your Russian River pinot (an area whose wines I know fairly well) won’t last more than two or three years. That, to me, makes it something I’m not that interested in. I’d rather drink a good $15 Bourgogne with some acidity to it and no “road tar.” Geez…why the hell have Pinot at all if they all are aiming to be zin?
Anyway, if you weren’t doing a good job (that is, interesting work) I wouldn’t watch or comment. Great show on the Germans, by the way.

Yuw Gary. Nice indeed. I have somewhat awkward feelings on Pinot but they can certainly be great juice. Still, man you have a very traditional choice of where your Pinot’s come from. Come on man, Pinot from Austria, the Spätburgunder thing, that’s nothing so special, it’s all over the *** place here! No, kidding. But anyway: why not a German Spät, an Italian Pinot Nero, a Hungarian/Romanian Pino Neru or even smth from NZ? I think they are mostly better in QPR, really, especially the Italian ones ;-), and I tell you this: Austrian Spät, I really never had a WOW-one, really never, Germans are much better in my experience (whatever …). Maybe there are some, but I haven’t had them yet, and oh, man, you don’t want to know how much of this Austrian junk I already drank. Barnyardy wine on skis, or expensive schnappsy disasters (like you had), yuk, yuk, yuk.
Great episode though 😀 . Had an Oregon Argyle Pinot 2001 yesterday, very, very profound bottle of wine. I was certainly intrigued.
QOTD: 5 days a week, the rest is beer time! Have a nice weekend, I’m gonna sip my Rochefort 10 (trappist ale) and play some music. C ya!

QOTD – Everyday baby!….. 6 out of 7 actually but as often as possible.

I drink about 1 bottle a day with my girlfriend.