I am a big fan of dessert wines and certainly one of the best I ever had was a 1997 Yquem, but I’ve had a few others worth mentioning: 1963 Fonseca port, 1996 Pierre-Bise Coteaux du Layon-Beaulieu Les Rouannieres,

Oops, to continue, 2001 DeBortoli Noble One and a 1999 Royal Tokaji Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos.

BTW, I would like to add that I thought it was a very good episode. You are getting better at describing the wines. I thought it was interesting that the Jackson-Triggs Vidal had the classic Riesling characteristic – Petrol, which none of the Rieslings showed. Also, I thought that Vidal was a cross of Ugni Blanc and Rayon d’Or.

Great episode. Love dessert wines/ice wine. Would like to hear your idea of the best temperature to serve these wines…

QOD…Kracher #9…tastes like creme brulee…

sheila

Julius — You are correct. Vidal Blanc is a French hybrid (mixing American and French grape varietals) created from Ugni Blanc (AKA Trebbiano in Italy — used as a blending grape in Chianti) and Seibel (hybrid created by Albert Seibel). One of the clones (Seibel 4986) is called Rayon D’Or.

Seyval Blanc (several vines of which are growing in my back yard presently) is a cross between two Seibel hybrids — one of which just happens to be Rayon D’Or…

BTW – I am regularly humbled by the magnitude of wine information there is…

Thank you Joe. I wish I had another bottle of the ’90 Baumard too. We drank the last one about a year ago.
On a different front, I second Arnold’s request for an Episode on Chablis! Show us some wet-dog and barnyard funk Gary. You could have some more WWF action figures as co-hosts.
Many folks here love Port, as do I, so an episode on that would be very cool as well. QUESTION for you Gary: Will you please give us a hint and prime our palates on what you will do for Episode 100? We’re on the 10-Ep countdown now…

great episode, glad to see someone showing some love to Canada.

during your sign-off today, what was that thing you did at the end with your fingers? Were you throwin’ the WL gang sign of something?

You’re such a gangster.

TimF – so sorry about your’75. I am always very wary about buying old port retail – especially if you find it standing upright. One simply never knows how it has been stored over the last 30 yrs. http://www.thevintageportsite.com/ says that the ’75 is close to the end of its viable life and even then only if it has been stored well; they say “This young wine should be allowed to age in its own bottle for at least 15 to 20 years from the time it is bottled to achieve its optimum maturity.” so chances are your bottle was over the top. Sorry.

BigBen – THANKS for the link to episode 48!

Grant

Tammy #82 – You may be the second person from Iowa watching. I’m the first. I have watched from Ep #1. Your bird question – That has been addressed. I’ll let you discover on your own this one and many other things as you watch the episode.

I agree – Iowa may have the WORST selection of any state I have been to, but one good thing is that almost every state will ship to IOWA. I travel for work 2 weeks out of the month, so I either ship in by the case, or pick up bottles while traveling. Note: Even if you can find it at local shops in IA – many times still less expensive to pay ground freight and ship in from NJ, NY, CA – Keep in mind you dont have to pay sales tax on orders from outside state. Just keep weather conditions in mind and also I like to order on Fridays – They tend to fill, and ship order on Monday and it should arrive to you later in the week. Avoid having them ship on Friday – Sit in truck or warehouse over the weekend and then start making the journey. I have ordered 100+ cases in and have only had 1 problem. UPS forklift truck went into side of box. Only one bottle of 2003 Beaujolais ($10.99) broke – all other bottles were fine. Company handled claim, shipped me new bottle and they handled claim with UPS. Freak accident. Anyways – i do tend to let the wines I ship in to “Settle down” for at least a month as I believe that in shipping they can bounce around and show a little awkward right after. Also – since I ship mostly in the spring, fall and even winter – I let the bottles reach room temp very slowly (Many arrive very cool) by opening the top of the box and taking the styrofoam cover off, but leaving them in the box. This some how insulates them and it will take a good day for them to settle in, but I try to avoid any drastic temp changes. Good luck!!!

Grant – It wasn’t bad — it just had no oomph. Not anything you’d expect from a vintage port. Part of the problem may have been that we had a bottle of Old Codger Tawny before we had the 1975. The Old Codger had tons of fruit flavor and the 1975 was a joke in comparison. Supposedly it was well stored — I bought it from a place with a cellar where they had to go get it for me not a retail store. I’ve got another bottle of it left to try. I just think the 75s are done…

**** Tammy #82 – You may be the second person from Iowa watching. I’m the first. I have watched from Ep #1. Your bird question – That has been addressed. I’ll let you discover on your own this one and many other things as you watch the episode.

I agree – Iowa may have the WORST selection of any state I have been to, but one good thing is that almost every state will ship to IOWA. I travel for work 2 weeks out of the month, so I either ship in by the case, or pick up bottles while traveling. Note: Even if you can find it at local shops in IA – many times still less expensive to pay ground freight and ship in from NJ, NY, CA – Keep in mind you dont have to pay sales tax on orders from outside state. Just keep weather conditions in mind and also I like to order on Fridays – They tend to fill, and ship order on Monday and it should arrive to you later in the week. Avoid having them ship on Friday – Sit in truck or warehouse over the weekend and then start making the journey. I have ordered 100+ cases in and have only had 1 problem. UPS forklift truck went into side of box. Only one bottle of 2003 Beaujolais ($10.99) broke – all other bottles were fine. Company handled claim, shipped me new bottle and they handled claim with UPS. Freak accident. Anyways – i do tend to let the wines I ship in to “Settle down” for at least a month as I believe that in shipping they can bounce around and show a little awkward right after. Also – since I ship mostly in the spring, fall and even winter – I let the bottles reach room temp very slowly (Many arrive very cool) by opening the top of the box and taking the styrofoam cover off, but leaving them in the box. This some how insulates them and it will take a good day for them to settle in, but I try to avoid any drastic temp changes. Good luck!!!

TimF – You really know your s**t! I didn’t think anyone would care about the Seibal hybrids. And in regard to one of your earlier comments about Macari, the best wine I ever had from Lomg Island was the Macari Bergen Road. Expensive for LI (~$35) but as good as any from Napa at that price.

Julius – I read an article this summer that said Macari is for sale. Too bad — they make some good juice. I just wish I had $9.5m sitting around so I could buy it…

Gary,
That episode was a lot of fun to watch. Now I have to go try some ice wine, tonight. My favorite wine is Port and one of my favorite Ports is the “83 Real Companhia Velha. I also enjoy Tokay.

Anyone want a good wine read try “The Accidental Connoisseur” by Lawrence Osborne. It’s a light read, like reading someone’s journal whose been on several wine tasting trips.

it;s funny – we’re all hovering around the site – salivating.. waiting for the episode to post. WAIT IT”S HERE… (kidding)….

POST 100 …YEAH ME I get FREE SHIPPING !!! 😉 JK new episode up in a few folks 🙂 Have a great weekend and thank you for all your support. Oh and pass the word, always looking for new WLTV HEADS!

I’m a bit surprised at the lack of mention of German botrytised wines. Here’s one to try: 1994 St. Urbans-Hof Ockfener Bockstein Trockenbeerenauslese. Essence of nectar.

Many years ago my wife and I were at Joseph Phelps and picked up two bottles of late harvest reislings that were only available at the winery, I saved them for some time and opened them on separate occasions and was just as blown away by the flavors as when we first tasted them years before. Nothing has come close to them IMHO but I am willing to try all comers and look forward to the tasting of these canadian wines, the Tokays I have tried are close but no cigar.

Besides ice wine, my favorite dessert wine: Castello Banfi Florus

Loved the ice wnie episode. Upstate NY is also coming on board with several ice wines from the finger lakes region. Might be worth looking into.
Lately I have been drinking CA wines from a winemaker named “Joel Gott”. He makes a terrific zin as well as a good cab. Have you heard of him? Would you consider a tasting that included him along with a couple of others who fall into that category of “wine maker” that does not own a vineyard.

THANKS,
djm

The very first dessert wine I tasted was Quady Essencia and it was like nectar. I was a brand new wine drinker (and, by the way, I was on a first date with a very knowledgeable wine guy) so the experience of it was really memorable. Since that time, though, I’ve tried Essencia again and it wasn’t nearly as magical (and, by the way, over time the wine guy wasn’t very interesting either! …a correlation maybe?!). Anyway, my favorite now is probably Dolce by Far Niente. I love that stuff.

Gary:

I’ve been on vacation and spent the last hour catching up on last weeks shows. They were all very good. 90-93 points!

Rick

Gary:

I was drinking the Twenty Rows 04′ Cab last night while watching the game. That is an awsome wine. I’m sitting on 24 bottles of it. I thought the Jets were going to come back and rob me of the free shipping! They look much better than I thought. Go Steelers!

Hi Gary

Loved the show.

I am one of the owners of Henry of Pelham along with my 2 bros Paul and Matt. Thanks for reviewing the Late Harvest Vidal and Riesling Icewine. While they’re great at dessert they’re also excellent before a meal with sharp cheeses like aged cheddar or blue. They’re also an interesting match with oysters on the half-shell (especially Malepeques from the East Coast of Canada) and especially foie gras.

There’s a bar in NYC (the Stir Lounge I believe) that serves a drink called a Frostbite — it’s basically an icewine martini: 2 parts vodka, 1 part Henry of Pelham Riesling Icewine. They’re a bit too good (as we used to say in college “a brain dart”) but there’s also another good way to drink icewine: We make a traditional method pinot/chard sparkling wine called Cuvee Catharine Brut (named after Henry’s wife — Henry and Catharine are our 18th century ancestors). 3 oz of the brut and a dollop of our Henry of Pelham Cabernet Franc Icewine (which leaves a reddish hue at the bottom of the glass, kind of like the sunny side of a peach) and you have a Kir Catharine. Now that’s good drinking!

Let me know when you’re next in Niagara and I’ll show you around.

Cheers!

Daniel Speck
Henry of Pelham Family Estate Winery

Ice wines and Peter Griffin, Freakin’ Sweet!!!
I love ice wines.
Have you tried Neige, the apple ice wine also from Canada?

Keep up the excellent episodes.

Gordon