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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May 23, 2007

ol_fezziweg
When I saw “bringing the thunder,” I thought this episode was about the chili I made over the weekend. I’m glad it was only about expensive wines.

QOTD: Italian wine classifications. They’re even more confounding than German wine classifications.
May 23, 2007

Michael Z
I sure hope I get to try that Bordeaux someday! The meeting of the two worlds, huh? Pretty exciting! I’ll be in Chicago this weekend visitng family, so maybe I can pick something special on the wine list and they can pay for it …

QOTD: Probably Bordeaux in part because I’ve never been there so I can’t begin to wrap my head around it.
May 23, 2007

eatapc
QOTD: Burgundy confuses me. Between the growers, the wineries, the negociants and the importers, it requires a professional to decipher it.

I’m also confused by the high prices of most Burgundies — totally undeserved.

Which brings me to my last confusion: I don’t “get” red Burgundy (and most pinot noir); it just doesn’t bring the thunder for me. I remember not being surprised by the big scandal of diluted Burgundy being sold for high prices a few years ago. I haven’t bought any this century — don’t intend to — and I haven’t enjoyed a red burgundy since the late 1970s. I appreciate the thought when friends pour it for me, but I just smile, nod my head and bite my tongue when they ask if I think it’s great.

Great bordeaux can be worth the high prices. Great Burgundy is an oxymoron. (Maybe I’m just speaking from ignorance because I don’t have enough experience with it.)

So to answer yesterday’s QOTD: What I’d most like to taste is a great Burgundy to prove myself wrong.
May 23, 2007

Lars
Great ep! Crazy arse wines. 2 bottles for $250 each? Do you offer financing with that? For one of those bottles I could buy 10 1/2 cases of Two Buck Chuck. That’s a bottle of wine every third day for a whole year.

Just razzin’ ya. Thanks for “taking one for the team” and doing these wines.
May 23, 2007

FTboomer
Thankss for emailing us back during our Bern’s dinner last night. We missed you, you would have loved it. We have the 1955 Leoville Las Cases and a 1961 Pavie. EXTREME pleasure! Even better sharing it with TampaSteve, Kahuna and TimF.

QOTD: The middle portion of the “brewing process” is what I don’t understand.
May 23, 2007

Adam
QOTD:
How does one person (RP) have such an effect on the entire wine world? It is the only industry I can think of that is effected by one person.
May 23, 2007

Dave-from-Katonah
BTW – how do I get my Gravatr working? Can you have one of you IT guys help me out here? I did register with gravatar.com, but to no avail.
May 23, 2007

karl satirev
QOTD: The German system for categorizing wines is not easy to decode.
May 23, 2007

Dave-from-Katonah
Yea GREEN BAY!!!! Thanks for the shout out for the mecca of the NFL, Titletown, USA!!

Loved this episode for the wines. Hated the “in your face” waste of good wine and “40 bones” worth for a double rinse, no less. I have never knocked you for the wine rinse and waste, since afterall, you are doing this whole thing for us loyal fans and it is your dough. Just don’t be a shmuck on WLTV, it discredits what WLTV is all about. LOL!! Give the leftover to Chris Mott or Eric or the cashiers!

Loved the way you did not spit out the Ch Leoville! Loved the CDP in the leadoff spot as a way of bringing the thunder.

One of your best efforts. An instant classic. Great TNs.

QOTD – What confuses me most about wine???? So many things – so little time to write them all down…Wait: What confuses me most is when you tease us loyal Vayniacs with a contest to win the new pickle shirt (which I love), but then forget to talk about it!!!! LOL!!!
May 23, 2007

Mojo
QOTD: Burgundy by far. Its like a black hole where my money gets sucked in, never to be seen again.
May 23, 2007

Harold
QOTD; My own palate. Sometimes I can’t tell if I’m tasting, blackberry, raspberry or currant and then other times I bark out “chain link fence” or “creosote”. What’s up with that? I’m not even entirely sure what creosote is so how am I tasting it in a wine?
May 23, 2007

MikeyB
qotd: most confusing thing is – what does one winery do so differently from another to make one wine be great and one be bad. i mean, if you have neighboring wineries, you take the grapes and crush them up and then what is the trick for making a wine great?
May 23, 2007

Brandon M
QOTD: Labeling, especially Europe.
May 23, 2007

Smith MBA
QOTD: It is all pretty confusing, but I think the most confusing is why a wine purchased in a vineyard tasting room can cost 30% more than a wine in a retail store. Are there negative transportation costs? I don’t get it.

Pumpovers? Whats the point?

French Oak vs. American Oak? Why the difference?

Why no national retail wine chains? I don’t count COSTCO.
May 23, 2007

PMN
QOTD: I find German and Alsace wines most confusing…

Does this mean I no longer lurk?!?
May 23, 2007

mcj
QOTD: Definitely distribution laws. How come Wine Library can ship to Kansas, but it seems nobody else will (wine.com, direct orders from wineries, etc)? Not that I’m complaining about WL…
May 23, 2007

wayno da wino
Yo Gary,

Can ya hit me wit a loan, so i can get somma dat wine?
i want somma dat “dirty dead mouse” wine for $255, yummy!!
May 23, 2007

Bill
OK – the dumping out of this quality wine is truly, truly tragic. Criminal almost. Humour aside, why can’t you just raffle off the honour of some viewer being “Gary’s Drinking Assistant” for episodes like this? And don’t tell me you have to rinse the glass for God’s sake, at this price you would be well ahead having a NEW Riedel glass for EVERY wine, then – if you want humour – SMASHING the GLASS (Russian vodka style!) afterwards!! This way you could just pass over the glass to the “assistant” when you are done and he/she could finish it off (perhaps even sparing the glass)! There would be another massive plus in this: you could entirely get rid of the huge spit bucket from on the table, leaving more room for the bottles instead of Gary being behind them more and more as the show progresses. I mean a show like today – you would have had to beat them off with a stick if you had suggested this as a possibility for your viewers beforehand. I could NEVER afford any of these wines, and I am not watching another show where you chuck this stuff out!!
May 23, 2007

Doc Dan
Way to bring the THUNDER Gary!! I love these BIG tastings! I have always wanted to know about Leoville Poyferre. Would love to see you review Duckhorn, Decoy, Goldeneye.
May 23, 2007

Rempshaker
AWESOME…you threw away wine like it was water and then yelled at us after doing it! LOL!! AWESOME
May 23, 2007

glenn
got to watch it today with 0 buffering! have to say my new issue coming from The AV Pinot fest i attended is cooperage.

lots of underlying respect paid to the coopers up there in Anderson Valley.

i am interested to talk up copperage now. may be picking some brains on the 31st.
May 23, 2007

xBigDanx
Wow… nice episode.

If there was any doubts that Wine Library TV has turned very profitable, today crushed them. Rinsing with $40 worth of wine? Must be nice

QOTD: Nose. I am getting better with taste, I can pick out the flavors when I taste. But when I smell a wine, I still just smell….. wine. I try and pick out other smells but unless it is very obvious it is lost on me. And this is after ramming my noise in the glass and inhaling a ton, almost to the point of burning the noise from the alcohol.
May 23, 2007

daniel von trier
Thanks for tasting that Leoville Gary and for your commentary on it.

QOTD: What interests me most but what I don’t know a lot about is wine-making itself, from the time the grapes get picked until the time they end up as wine in the bottle. That confuses me, because I know generally what goes on, but the specifics I would like to learn more about someday.

We are all so lucky! (I say this now that I’m back in Trier after a year away…)

DvT
May 23, 2007

E
That reminds me, I never got around to answering the question did I. So here we are: even out here in the stix, I can wander into a retail joint and for a reasonable price find me a nice, if not terrific, wine from France, Italy, Germany, Australia, South America, and so on. And of course from CA, WA, and maybe OR too. And of course, that’s before we even factor the internets into it.

So then why is it so difficult to find stuff from the rest of the USA–TX, VA, CO, GA just to name a few. I know there’s decent stuff in a lot of these places, but I had to go there to find out. And I’m not sure some of these places would even ship to me in any case. That’s what I find confusing.
May 23, 2007

Tom T.
Excellent ep, Gary. Thanks so much. We are all indeed very lucky.
QOTD – probably most of the bigger areas like Napa, Bordeaux, etc. Just the map of Bordeaux that you guys made for us was a bit intimidating. It’s amazing how much wine there is in just that area.