Gary – You’ve got to let us know which wine celebrities are watching. I’m guessing you’ve got Andrea Immer and Michael Chiarello watching. I doubt Hugh Johnson knows how to use a computer. C’mon, fess up…

Hey Gary. I don’t know that I have “one” winery that I would like to visit…..I have many:) I have the fortune to go to Italy this summer. If I had just one choice of an “wine area” to visit it would have to be Montalcino. I was like a kid in a candy store driving around going to one winery after another. I could not believe the amount of wineries in such a small area. Can’t wait to visit again…….

Gary – I’ve now moved out of the troll category, this being my first posting.
QOD – I’m going with Jaye – if I had only one place to be it would be Tuscany. Anywhere would be fine with me given the combination of wine, food and surroundings.
I plan to visit the store today on my way home from work and look forward to picking up some good bottles for the weekend and beyond.
Go Giants!
Nick (BTW another New Yorker – from Brooklyn)

This post is partially a test to see if comments this far down get read by people other than Gary, but I really do want some suggestions. This question came to mind while I was reading posts 16-47 this morning before starting work.

I am going to Seattle for a business trip in October and would like to stop at a winery or two within an hour’s drive of Seattle while I am there. Any suggestions from people in this forum?

QOD- Ch Latour, or Petrus-best two wines i’ve ever had

For Jaye- I would seek out Reininger, though i’m not sure exactly how close it is to Seattle-they have a great track record with their reds over the past 5 years

Hugh

I’m a lurker… don’t bite me, please! Love your show, Gary.

Gary,

Website issue…. Can you keep the wines you reviewed listed under the episode titles. As of now, when you scroll through the listings of episodes, you must enter each episode to see the wines you reviewed. Does that make sense?

Thanks

DF

GV,

You have got to be kidding me? DA Bears are going to run away with the NFC North division (I know, I know, it is weak to begin with) but more importantly they are going to stomp all over the Jets. Since I am in NJ and am a Bears fan, I cannot benefit from free shipping to Chicago after the Bears whoop up on the Jets in November but if by some miracle the Jets win, you will see me in the store buying a bunch of wine to make me feel better……….

I have never been to any great wineries (just local ones in NJ and Long Island) so I would love to go out to Italy and tour some top brunello di montalcino vineyards. One day perhaps……….

First off, GO BEARS!!!

On to the subject of lurkers, I’ve been following Winelibrary TV since episode 1. However, IMO I don’t find the comment system conducive to questions and answers. Once new episodes are available it is natural for people to comment on the latest episode and not really able to participate in past discussions and those great discussions get â??lostâ?. Also there is no easy way to search past discussions for questions or answers.

Has Winelibrary looked into other methods for community involvement like a message board?

—
Josephc in Chicago

My advice to Sue is unless you are fluent in French don’t go on the Guigal tour. You are kept down in a dark dank basement for an inordinate amount of time while the tour guide babbles on and on in French about who knows what. Another highlite(?) of the tour is spent at the bottling line. The only redeeming part was to finally get a chance at the end to taste some wine, and considering some of the great wines that they make, the selection was not that good (no Mouline or Landonne).

This comment section is getting better and better. Of course, lurking down here in the 50’s no one will probably see this.

I agree with Jason (#39) that these comments should be more of a message board format. I would have posted this sooner, but it took me another ten minutes to scroll through all the comments so that I could list where to find Jason’s.

Also, thanks TimF (#25) for the winery reviews. This is exactly the type of info we should all be sharing. I especially liked hearing about the positive Whitehall Lane experience–their ’01 Cab is one of my favorite wines of all time.

And Jaye (#48), how about visiting the granddaddy of WA wines–Chateau Ste. Michelle? It’s about 15 miles northeast of Seattle.

Oh, and great show Gary. I was never much of a white wine guy, but your conviction is starting to turn me.

This comment section is getting better and better. Of course, lurking down here in the 50’s no one will probably see this.

I agree with Jason (#39) that these comments should be more of a message board format. I would have posted this sooner, but it took me another ten minutes to scroll through all the comments so that I could list where to find Jason’s.

Also, thanks TimF (#25) for the winery reviews. This is exactly the type of info we should all be sharing. I especially liked hearing about the positive Whitehall Lane experience–their ’01 Cab is one of my favorite wines of all time.

And Jaye (#48), how about visiting the granddaddy of WA wines–Chateau Ste. Michelle? It’s about 15 miles northeast of Seattle.

Oh, and great show Gary. I was never much of a white wine guy, but your conviction is starting to turn me.

I forgot to mention, you know how I’m from the Basque Country. Yet I’ve never heard of or tried a Godello. I look forward to it. I wonder if it resembles our Txakoli?

Just wanted to say thanks for the videos. Its a great way to start off the day at work and gives me some ideas to look for when popping by the wine store on the way home. I know this is a veyr broad question but what woudl your top 2 or 3 “weekday diner” be?

Rick E- your comments ARE being read. Jaye- yours too!

TimF (and anyone else interested)- email me with your email address and I will give you some info about the Virginia wineries I have visited.

TimF- sorry I didn’t leave my email address- jhu_gas@hotmail.com.

Steve- how long does it take for gravitar to approve your picture?

OK session. Would have liked to have seen a few of the rejects as you are just as interesting panning as praising a wine. Will have to try the Godello wine as it sounded great.
To Blii Nelson, Rosenblum’s tasting room in Healdsburg is nice enough but the wines aren’t. What they had for tasting was candy and not real Zinds. I go to few tasting rooms in Napa and especially not in the summer. Most of the larger ones are zoos. Also why go to a place like Chandon when they don’t have anything to taste you wouldn’t get at your local grocery store. Go to the smaller places that carry wines you can only get at the winery like Elyse that is 6 blocks from Chandon. Chandon does have a great restaurant though. For my time Sonoma is a better deal and friendlier and more knowledgable pourers. That said I have two wineries I would visit over and over. Turley in Paso Robles and Elyse in Napa. Can’t narrow it down to one.
Going back to the offer Gary made for free shipping, as I am stuck with the Redskins, no fair. We should get free shipping if the Redskins even win a game this year much less beat the Jets.

NEW WEBSITE…
I agree with the need to change technology from time to time but it should be done to enhance or add funtionality (which, to your credit, the Avitar feature does) WITHOUT dropping features. There were two features of the former site that I found very useful.

1)Below the video screen there were hyperlinks to each of the wines your were tasting or talking about. This is a MUST feature as it allows the viewer to jump directly to the shopping area of the wines you mention, especially when you are scrolling through archived video to find a specific wine. Which leads me to the second point.

2)There used to be links on the left that allowed you to jump to archived webcasts. I would have asked to have those features enhanced (like having a WLTV-only search bar so if i am looking for a video on Bordeaux i can type in “Bordeaux” and search only your broadcasts instead of the entire site) However,instead of enhancing those features they were dropped. The reason I like the ability to easily navigate through previous episodes or having the ability to search those videos is because when i refer someone to the WLTV site for the first time, it’s usually in regard to a discussion about wine I have had with them at a party, on the phone, etc. and I often use your comments to support my opinions about wine subjects.

Overall technology change is good, but it should not detract…

My APOLOGIES!
It appears that the links are there now.
Did I miss them or were they added later?

If I had to visit one winery Iwould choose Rosenblum. Ilove his Zins-diverse and different tastes. He also makes excellent Syrahs and Viognier.

Gary,

Even though my nickname is DaBear, I am not a fan of The Bears! I am actually a _________ fan. I am a fan of the team that most Jets fans hate the most.

Anyway, great show. I still think you should do a blind tasting with a wltv viewer for an episode. Or, maybe tasting with one of your lucky staff members. (am not one of your staff) 🙂

Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte, Bordeaux-Martillac, hands down. Went there during harvest in 2000 with my future wife and rode bikes all around the area. The thing I remember most, besides the wines, were the four peacocks perched on our balcony every morning and the smell. The smell of the land was this insane, sensory preamble to the wine that patiently sits in my cellar as we speak.

We went all through Boreaux and this is one place I would love to go back to…

copy and past the URLs and check it out…

http://www.dougf.com/photo/france/lesSource06.jpg

http://www.smith-haut-lafitte.com/indexUS.html

D

QOTD: i would like to go to the vulture area of italy…looks like pretty county…paternoster has a few vineyards there.

QOTD: i would like to go to the vulture area of italy…looks like pretty county…paternoster has a few vineyards there.

Hi Gary,
I am definately a troller, watching your blogs and definately in your amazingly beautiful store in Springfield. I used to go to the little cramped original store and be amazed, and now, I have room to troll in the current store and be even more amazed. I sometimes feel like the store employees think I am a spy because I can be there for upwards of an hour sometimes.
I do not comment mainly because I know about as much about wine as rocket science, so I am watching and learning and being entertained at the same time.
Being a wine rookie(but a beer veteran), I prefer semi-sweet wines and have a hard time adjusting to the dryness of most quality wines. I have visited Glenora and Lakewood Vineyards in NY and have no problem liking what they have to offer, and really like the tastings at the WL, but don’t have as much luck there. So my question is, are there semi-sweet wines that are considered quality wines, or are they just for us wine rookies to consume and enjoy? Thanx and keep up the great content!!