Great episode, even though the wine sucked. 😉

#2 Today…I’m getting there!!!…but I gota go watch the vlog.

My funny wine story:
During a big tasting at a winery that shall remain nameless, I managed to confuse the spit bucket with the communal water bucket. Both were in dark containers, so my mild inebriation is only partially to blame. I poured my remaining wine into the water; luckily, no one saw this. In my kindness, I figured ‘hey, I managed to get away with that, I don’t need to tell anyone.’ So, my apologies to whoever rinsed their glass/mouth out with that water. I’m sure I have bad wine karma coming my way.

This is the third episode I’ve caught, and I just love this podcast. It really says something about Gary’s integrity that he’s willing to go 0 for 4. Thank you!

I was at a winery in the finger lakes with my girlfriend and her two sisters and the girl pouring there was very nice. She did not charge us for some extra wines we had in our tasting, so I decided to leave her a tip. I mistakenly put the two bucks into the spit bucket instead of the tip jar, and everyone started laughing. Instead of leaving them there, I immediately stuck my hand in the half-full bucket and fished out my two bucks. I didn’t have any other small bills on me, so I just put my spit-meritage covered bills back into my pocket and exited without leaving her a tip. Oh well.

Every time we go out after work for drinks, we go to a place that really isn’t much of a wine place. So everytime we go, I order a bottle of wine (or two or three). I know, it’s not a funny story, but all of my coworkers think it’s hysterical.

Also, I don’t think you’ve done a show on Port. In my opinion, a great vintage port is one of the greatest non-sexual pleasures one can experience in life…

Okay, funny story; we were coming home from Cape Cod with a case of Angelini (my wife’s favorite), which we can’t seem to ever get in NJ, and got rear ended. My wife’s first comment . . . “THE WINE!”. Not are you okay, not how bad’s the car, just “THE WINE”. I’m glad to say it survived.

Funny (well more tragic) story:

Wife and I are moving out of our apartment. I fugure, I’ll just wheel my small cellar out with the wine in it. Cellar hits a crack in the sidewalk on the way to the moving van. Out comes and ’82 Mouton Rothschild. Yep. Smash! All over the sidewalk. Advice: always box up your wines if you’re moving. Ugh…

Gary,
My wife and I were touring wineries in the Clare Valley. We stopped at Jim Barry Winery and were the only people there. Behind the counter was a little 75 year-old woman pouring wine. We’d tasted the four wines that were poured for us … and I asked if we could taste the Armagh. She said that it is not available for tasting. After telling her that we’d come all the way from the U.S. and had hoped to try the Armagh, she said, “Well, hell. I own the place, so I guess I can serve anything I want. Plus, I can have the rest of the bottle with dinner.”
Seems that we were talking to Jim Barry’s wife Nancy.
She cracked me up…and the Armagh was the nicest, smoothest Shiraz I’ve ever had.

My wife and I were married 2 months (1988)and deceided to have a bbq.We grilled up the perfect rib eyes and sides and I opened one of my first “real wines” a 78’Renato Barolo. The wine was massive and earthy,a delight. It was at this time when”Uncle Frank” deceided to come over to say hello,he couldn’t stay yet would love a glass of wine. New to the family I did not know what I was about to be in for. I poured a glass of this great wine approaching it’s peak, handed it to my new wine family and watched him drown it in coke and ice cubes. I must of had the “priceless” look on my face because my wife kicked me under the table several times to keep my mouth shut. I still think I have those bruses all these years later.

Gary,

As soon as I saw the wines, I knew that you were going to go 0 for 4. All four of those producers have significantly dropped their quality of late. Mid-level Cali Chard has been virtually wiped off the map. If you go onto any of the wine forums, you’ll never hear any of the more experienced wine folk speaking of these wines, except with utter contempt, that is, unless they are reminiscing about when they were great……..like the ’92 Far Niente. Nowadays to get good Chard, you’re having to go for the Kistler, Pahlmeyer, Loring, Kongsgaard, Peter Michael, Newton, Marcassin, or Brewer-Clifton. If you’re looking for something in a lower price range, the Hartford Court Stone Cote, Williams-Seylam, and Beringer Sbragia are all pretty good for under $35.

As far as Merlot and Cab go, Duckhorn and SLWC have simply been left in the dust of the many excellent Napa wines that deliver much greater quality at the same price point. Duckhorn delivers some decent wines in its higher price categories ( Estate Napa, Monitor Ledge, Patzimaro ), but een those cannot compete since they run around $100 per. As far as SLWC, their time in the limelight ended in the early ’90’s. I think now they are surviving only on name recognition and an uninformed mass of new wine drinkers….but hey, thats what you’re here for, right?!?

Looking forward to tomorrow’s episode.

Wilks

Hi Gary,

This is kind of off topic, but I’m wondering if you can do an episode on value Spanish reds, especially since you just came back from Spain.

I don’t know if you were aware, but about a couple of months ago, RP began writing a column each week in the Business Week called “Executive Life: Parker on Wine” with a few recommendations each week.

This week’s topic is “Spanish Reds, Incomparable Value”, and he’s got one of his seven buck 90 pointers, along with other value Spanish reds, listed. I have personally been more often disappointed than not with RP’s cheap 90 point recommendations in the past and wanted to get YOUR opinion on these, if possible.

The wines on his recommended list are:
Bodegas y Vinedos de Jalon 2004 Vina Alarda Old Vines 90 Points
Finca Luzon 2004 Luzon 90 Points
Bodegas Mas Que Vinos 2003 Ercavio Roble 91 Points
Senorio de Barahonda 2004 Monastrell Tinto 90 Points
Celler de Capcanes 2003 Mas Donis Barrica 92 Points
Bodegas Castan 2003 Solanera 91 Points

Now I don’t even know if you carry these (I’ve bought the Capcanes and Finca Luzon from WL before), but can you put the available ones to the test along with the Panarroz that was just aweful, in my opinion? Thanks in advance !

Wow, I was shocked to see so many highly regarded wines not show as well as you thought they would. You referred to the Far Niente as a “commercial” effort. Do you think that some of these bigger name producers are thriving more off there name than the actual juice now? Or is this something of an enigma? As for my classic wine story. A few years ago, my friends and I throw a huge party at our house. We bought 3 kegs and quickly ran out of them playing beer pong. At the time, I was drinking mostly 5L boxes of Franzia to appease my gf when she wanted wine. Long story short, after we ran out of beer, we had 50 people jam packed into our living playing wine pong with like 4 half drank, old boxes of Franzia. Needless to say, the next morning I awoke with a massive headache and swore off box wines forever after that.

you guys have been out of jordan for a while…

My funny story. At a world famous Las Vegas casino, I was working in one of their fine dining rooms late one night when I saw a few sommeliers from the other fine dining rooms enjoying a bottle of 82 Petrus in the resturant lounge. I enquired as to what was going on and I was told that a sommelier had served a 82 Petrus to a comped player(high roller) and as soon as they pulled the cork they realized it was counterfeit. They decided to serve the tasting so as not to reflect badly on the casino and assume the guest would not accept the wine. The guest accepted the wine. Later on, a second bottle was ordered and this bottle was legitimate. The guest declined the bottle. A third bottle was presented and again the bottle was counterfeit. The guest accepted the bottle. So now the sommelier had an opened bottle of 82 Petrus and being a generous soul they shared it with the other sommeliers. This sort of thing happens because casinos buy private collections and some collections have fake bottles of prestige wines.

Here’s a good story.
I am a personal chef but I also do wine, cheese, beer, etc tastings for my clients. Two years ago Christmas I was doing a multi-bottle wine tasting for a super client of mine (party of 8). I had set up quite the seen with little bowls of coffe beans, chocolate, pepper, tobacco, leather, green apples, apricots, and so many other things that could be found in the nose and the mouth of the wines that we we’re to be tasting.
I started the tasting and I was standing in front of my clients explaining the first wine that we were going to taste. I picked up my glass and started to swirl the wine…all over my white shirt!!! 1st wine, cabernet, on my chest! It was a moment of grace.
We all laughed so hard we were crying. It was funny but also a great start to a very fun evening. It was the ultimate “ice breaker”.
So that is my funny story. By the way if anyone cares…Mr. Lee (my dry cleaner and best cleaner in Douglasville, GA) got the wine out and saved my shirt 😉

the 8) symbol is actually an 8

Can you please do an episode on Ports. You don’t like ports? I have bought some great ports in the past and the last one from Benziger in Sonoma was awesome. Thanks, A

Too bad on the wines. Not surprising as thousands will be opened tonight (Saturday) and people won’t have a clue as to how bad they are, but they recognize he name, and isn’t that what’s important? There is a reason that the Jordans, Cakebreads and tthe like are top seller every year.

Anyhow. Years ago (early 80s) when first married I would go to Christmas holiday at the in-laws home with great bottles of Bordeaux. Some quite memorable. My brother-in-law would pour his wine into a glass, add ice cubes and a little Coca-Cola!! I would cringe. My mother in law knew I was taking it rough and together we devised a plan. We keep the great wines (which she was a great fan of) in the kitchen behind the micro-wave, and on the table put a Bolla Bardolino. Perfect for the ice cube gang. We got away with it for a few years until the offending relatives started doing Christmas eve with the in-laws, and Christmas day at my brother-in-laws parents home. Sure enough, the Beychevelles, Pichons, Leovilles and Pape Clements (mostly all from the 60s and 70s) made took their rightful place alongside the Chateaubriand. Bottom line. He could care les what was in the glass, as long as he can add to it, even putting peaches in it for dessert.

Gary, Gary … you SUUUURE you didn’t plan this episode as a 0 for 4 when you started?

You SUUUURE you thought you’d like those wines?

Just wondering …

😉

Doug huge fan of these wineries , I really am. So yes I am SUUUUURE 🙂

The summer just after our college graduation, a couple of friends and I spent about 10 weeks trekking around Europe complete with the requisite backpacks and Eurail passes. About 2/3 of the way into the trip, we were in Venice and not really enjoying it: hot, smelly, rip-offs at every turn (I have been back since and loved it). That night, we bought a huge bottle of red wine. Not only was it a screw cap, but the bottle was plastic! We slugged it down while sitting at the edge of the Grand Canal heckling the “tourists” taking their evening gondola rides. Hours later, back at the flop house/hostel we were staying at, one of my friends succumbed to the charms of that wine and crawled out on the narrow balcony of our room to remove it, and his dinner, from his stomache. He wretched his guts out just above the heads of scores of oblivious revelers at the cafe’s below. To his credit, he managed to keep everything on the balcony so that no one below received a very nasty addition to their evening.

I thought that this I saw the other day was pretty funny. It’s another wine video blog site (sorry Gary!) but it left me in hysterics, so i just had to share it with you all… http://www.virtualwine.co.uk/virtualwineblog/?p=139

Gary,
This comment is off topic but this episode is GREAT for 2 reasons. I like your off-the-cuff style and honesty. I was taking care of my nephew on July 29th and he loved the part with the birds. He giggled, yelled and cheered for the birds. Well, we both loved the episode!:):) I like 2 for 1 deals!

Gary,

This may not be funny, but interesting. My wife and I went to the Charlotte Wine and Food Weekend this past spring. There were several big name wines as well as some unknown to us. We finished up at the Reynolds Family Winery tasting booth. I decided that they had one of the best wines of the show. At that time the show was closing and we had to leave. The next day I decided that I wanted to purchase a case of the wine but was not sure what I tasted. I contacted the winery and was told that they had served a cabernet and a red wine blend named Persistence. The problem is that I did not know which one we had. As luck would have it a local restaurant had a tasting that featured Reynolds Family Winery. My wife and I ended up going and paying good money to find out what I should have noted. The wine was the Reynolds Family Winery “Persistence”. I think this wine is exceptional and I would be interested in seeing if you agree. This winery has a great story and I feel that you’ll be seeing more of their name. By the way I purchased the wine from WL. You guys do a great job of finding unique wines. If you like Chardonnay they have a very good Chard. My wife and I don’t normally drink Chards, however we have made an exception for these guys and have you specialist ordering a case for us in for fall shipment. Keep up the great work.