Bought the Leoville and several others in my last future’s purchase so I have half a case of this and Las Cases and Barton. Weren’t the 2003 futures the ones with the big scandal about bogus sales etc? What disappoints me with the Internet is the inability to smell and taste what you are tasting to compare my notes. This also is one of the confusing points of wine. While it may not be fragile, wine tastes and smells different often depending on its storage or when it is opened and how long it is opened so when we have different tasting notes sometimes it is not a difference of opinions as it is almost a different wine.

Hey Gary

You say to you’d tell most people to skip this wine for good wine costs the same price for a case (start at about 6min 50 sec). Well what are those wines :)… You kill me with that.

-Sam

It’s shows like these where I wish that I could be there with you, tasting world class stuff. Instead, I sit in a messy office about to go to sleep because I am up late watching WLTV. Yes, Gary, I choose WLTV over getting my 8 hours of sleep. Who knew wine could be this entertaining?

QOTD: I find that the scoring from critic to critic is so confusing. It’s a shame that so much of the wine world lives and dies by what 2 or 3 popular critics think, which is why I am out to change the wine world with you!!!!

One of my local Boutique shops has a 1995 Vega Sicilia Unico and I always hassle them about it, turns out that it isn’t all it’s hyped to be–or maybe you had a bad bottle.

The most confusing wine region to me is Burgundy, Bourgogne or whatever. I’ve been doing tons of research and it still hasn’t hit home. We shall see one day maybe I’ll just visit and than get it figured out.

As far as understanding the classifications I find France to be the most confusing thing in wine. But really what’s confusing to me is discerning what’s in the bottle. Many wines from France, Italy, etc. don’t list the grape variaties or even give you A clue as to what might be in that bottle. You’ve really got me lusting after that Brunello but damn, i’ve had alot of bad experiences with overrated and overpriced brunellos.

QOTD: Labels from other countries. Ive gotten fairly good with German wines, but Italy and France can be downright confusing. Sometimes its like throwing a dart and hoping you picked a good one. How lucky are you to be tasting expensive wines like these? Damned lucky, thats what. Id love to sit in on a tasting like that. I would like you to do more white Bordeaux, however. Theres a very nice one they’re selling at Costco (a 2005) and I think I just might buy it. $55, though, so I hope it brings the thunder in a few years.

QOTD: I find French wines confusing. You need to have a map of France and a French dictionary to figure out just where a wine is from. Once you have that licked, then you have to realize that the various producers make different blends each year that may or may not taste anything alike, so your knowledge from last year is immediately out of date. You practically have to make it an obsession just to keep up. American producers specifically try to “commodify” wines to avoid this problem. That has some disadvantages, of course, but it sure makes it easier to follow for us amateurs.

One of my favourite episodes to date, it’s just an enjoyable episode and you can feel you are experiencing the wines vicariously (even more than normal!) plus the classic Vaynerchuk banter, “Bam! 40 bones, gone!”

I love this episode Gary!

“Bam! 40 bones! Gone!”

“So don’t pee on me if I waste a lot of wine!”

“If you find this in a bush…”

“Sort of reminds me of Lincoln Logs…” – I loved playing with these growing up! (Born in ’75)

Classic stuff!

QOTD: Without a doubt, Burgundy. Good God. And the prices. I enjoy Pinot as much as the next guy, but 60-80+ bones for a quality (90 – 90+) French Pinot?! After Burgundy, probably the disparity between critics in scoring wine. Obviously, each person’s palate is different. So that probably accounts for a chunk. But sometimes, they’re poles apart. For instance, 2008 Bordeaux. Parker is consistently 5+ points higher than James Suckling in all the reviews I’ve read, and probably a similar amount relative to Jancis Robinson on many wines (even though she uses the 20-point scale). I’ve come to rely on the tasting note more than the score itself!

Thanks for keeping all these old episodes in the archives. It’s fun going back and watching the classics. It’s like TBS or TNT showing great old movies you would never see anywhere else!

qotd: for the time being Greek wine.
Gary, can you put a vin jaune on the show please?

Good line up of wines..nice to own a wine store… QOTD-French and Italian wines due to their confusing labels. http://www.winelx.com