Bringing the Thunder – Episode #240

May 22, 2007

Today Gary brings out some serious wines and shares some thunder with you.

Comments on this episode(184) Leave a comment ›

“I love this episode Gary!

“Bam! 40 bones! Gone!”

“So don’t p…” by John D.
“One of my favourite episodes to date, it’s just an enjoyable episode a…” by richardvinifera
View all 184 ›

Wines tasted in this episode:

2004 Roger Sabon Le Secret Des Sabon Chateauneuf Du PapeChateauneuf du Pape Rouge
1999 Frescobaldi Castelgiocondo Riserva Ripe Al Convento Brunello Di MontalcinoBrunello di Montalcino
1995 Vega Sicilia UnicoRibera Del Duero
2003 Chat Leoville PoyferreSt Julien

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184 Responses

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August 22, 2009

John D.
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!
July 27, 2009

richardvinifera
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!”
June 30, 2009

Phredd
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different blends each year that may or may not taste anything alike, so your knowledge from last year is immediately out of date.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.
July 9, 2008

Dessert Wine Nerd
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.
November 18, 2007

vivaitalia
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.
July 19, 2007

Kelly
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.
June 14, 2007

Mason
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!!!!
June 8, 2007

Sam I
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
June 4, 2007

Lawrence Leichtman
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.
June 2, 2007

desmaic
qotd – European labeling with the region instead of the blend contents and grapes used…. it almost seems pretentious and maybe that is where the fear and lack of understanding came from.
June 2, 2007

desmaic
i want to find some world class wine laying in a bush somewhere.
May 24, 2007

Matt the Lurker
QOTD – France! Someone once explained to me that French wine is much like the French language… you have to know what something means already in order to understand it. Basically, if you don’t already know then you never will. Lame.
May 24, 2007

JayZee
OK, so it was great episode. I can afford the occasional $100 bottle of wine and I even bought (somewhat coincidentally) a bottle of 1982 Poyferre this February when I was in Geneva, Switzerland for about $150. I am hopeful that this bottle is superb as well.

QOTD: What I find most confusing is the absolute disconnection between price and quality. While it has been my experience that a $30 bottle of wine is better than a $12 bottle from the same region and the same type/vintage, there are just too many variables involved. Usually, you do pay an incredible exponential premium for a 95 point wine versus a 90 point wine. But there really isn’t anything close to a good “rule of thumb” let alone a “sure thing”.

And again, nice wine spill on showing the color – that’s twice this month!!

Most of the commenters need to post their questions (that’s what most of the QOTD “answers” were, actually) to the Ask WLTV board so people can answer them. However, since Bordeaux is my fave, here is my answer to John BlueLabel and many others: Yes, almost all Bordeaux are blends of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc and petite verdot (at least the first two and often the third or fourth). How do you tell what varietals are present in the blend? Yeah, that is a problem. Basically anything from the left bank of the Gironde River (e.g., Medoc, Haut-Medoc, Pauillac, Saint-Julien, Saint-Estephe, Margaux, and Pessac-Leognan) is predominantly cabernet sauvignon and anything from the right bank (e.g., Saint-Emilion, Pomerol) are predominantly merlot and cab franc blends.

Gary, I think I added more than 2 cents today.
May 24, 2007

Robert F
I could never imagine spending $250 on a bottle of wine. $100, yes, but not $250. Maybe when I win the lottery.

QOTD: The marketing/distributing is really confusing to me. Importing, exporting, 3 tier system, shipping laws. There’s no uniformity in the US. I think they should regulate it so we can buy from whomever we want from wherever we want and pay the same liquor taxes in every state!
May 24, 2007

Julius
What does viscosity smell like?
May 24, 2007

Jimmy B
QOTD: It is so confusing to me as how wines can be so expensive and taste terrible and some of the cheaper wines can bring so much satisfaction!
May 23, 2007

Susan
Gary-
Fabulous ep!
Just can’t afford ANY of these!!!!!!!!!!!!!

QOD:
It confuses me why in the
USA there are shipping restrictions???????
What third world country is this?????????????????????????????????????????????????????
May 23, 2007

Nico
I’m on a mission to save and seek out a bottle from Ch. Leoville Poyferre! I’ve probably heard more about this bottle (in its different vintages) than anything else in Bordeaux.

QOTD: It confuses me why there are shipping restrictions on some states! (I’m still hoping some miracle saves Texas).
May 23, 2007

sharon
Thanks for the great episode. I will try those wines in my next life or two.
QOTD: It’s all a mystery to me the terrior, weather, remembering those names, Italy!(Italy is so confusing) and let us not forget the process. What DO they put into the wines besides grapes?
May 23, 2007

jbailey
Orion Slayer mentioned what I initially thought. How can one detect the slight taste and smell of various things in a wine? I can follow with cherry, oak, blueberry, etc. but when it comes to cat pee, locker room socks, stones, army ranger down the pants, how can one associate these random items to the smell or taste of a wine? The description is great and brings an “ah ha”, but where does this catalog come from? I’ve smelled cat pee….never tasted it. One must be able to really be intuned to smells, tastes of things that are rarely smelled nor tasted. Intriguing.
May 23, 2007

vibemore
If you keep dumping all of that beautiful vino into your Jets bucket you’re going to have to start giving us tasting notes on the bucket as well. (hints of saliva with a lingering tongue finish…that being said, 98 points)

QOTD:
I live in Seattle and the Puget Sound region (where I live) has to be the most confusing region to me. With so many great WA state wines (Red Mountain, Walla Walla, Columbia Valley) to drink I have no clue what people are growing in the Puget Sound region. And it is most definitely considered a wine region.
May 23, 2007

Orion Slayer
Watching today’s episode made me feel like when I was a little kid on Thanksgiving Day watching all the adults at the big table and longing to join them. I’m sipping the kool-aid and watching Gary drink Bordeaux! This is not a complaint, because someday I’ll grow up!

QOTD: What confuses me the most about wine is how people can detect all those things (leather, cassis, blue-stone, etc.) when they smell and taste wine.
May 23, 2007

lifestooshort
powerdrill of fruit in your face? Leatherface Meets the Master Somelier IV! lol. too funny…two things: hook us up with some sweet vs. dry in your notes and ya know, you actually *don’t* have to waste $40 in vino to rinse your glass. Just have four clean glasses for each one (I’d say that makes sense for tasting half a grand-plus of vino?). Just sayin, yo.
May 23, 2007

Clifford James
Thanks gary … great episode.

NOW, since I have learned that you sometimes do get what you ask for, and it’s always worth asking, how about you sending me the rest of that bottle of 2003 Chat Leoville Poyferre, since I am indeed one heck of a faithful Vayniac, and my girl Darcey loves you too, so: 1811 4th St in Radford Virginia USA 24141! I thank you in advance! Hey, go ahead and hit me up for the shipping if you want!

Although many may not be able to afford these wines (I am, sadly, near the bottom of that list … for NOW only, though), it is still educational and inspirational to see you taste them and to know what your reactions are to a 97+ wine! As always, it is a pleasure to watch you and to feel a part of the whirlwhind I do believe that you are creating.

QOTD: All the varieties of grapes out there can be confusing, sometimes with many different names for the same grape, but I’d have to say that I am still confused by all of the Bordeaux wines. They are how I learned wine originally, in the mid 80’s, yet they are such a mystery still compared to wines from the rest of the world, which seem relatively straightforward in comparison. BUT, that also makes them fun and interesting on some level too, so …

Thanks so much … and my girl Darcey thanks you too!
Keep it up!
May 23, 2007

Capt M
I’ve been so busy and thus behind on all, but I’m back. And this is a beautiful episode, thanks so much. BTW, I just got my bottles of Chateau Guiraud Sauternes. QOTD: Hmm.. perhaps South Africa. I just bought a bottle of South Africa Pinotage today; trying to get into them some.