Bruce — There are absolutely reasons for the shapes of bottles many of which have to do with decanting. But I’d need to cheat and look in some of my books at home for exact answers. I know you didn’t ask, but I’m convinced of the reason for the punt at the bottom of the bottle: when they blew glass bottles by hand, it would leave an unfinished bottom that tended to scratch a table — so they pushed in the end and that stopped the table from being scratched.

Number 100!
Almost as good as being Number 1.
Wasn’t 54 Marc Gastineau’s old number. I mark his tenure as the beginning (for me) of the slide to over the top celebrations on every play in the NFL. A famous typographer once said, “When you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothin.”
Chin chin

John Maki:

The Brits are notorious for drinking whites way over the hill!! I too, every now and then, enjoy well-aged white wine with that “sherry” character (I call it “maderia-ized”). Some California Chards, are built to age; those with no malalatic, little oak, and lots of acid. I buy a few to purposefully age: Grgich Hills, Chateau Montelena, Hanzel, Chalone to name a few. I like to age Chablis Grand Crus and Rieslings too – to bring out the magic that only age can bring to well-made wines – whether whtie or red. The aged whites, pair nicely with earthy dishes too, like mushroom caserol!

Joe

Gary,

For some reason I get these WLTV e-mails WAY later than everyone else. Perhaps it takes a while for your servers to connect to the mountain west. Anyway, need I gloat about my P-A-T-S PATS PATS PATS PATS!? That’ll do. Good luck against Buffalo this weekend, because another AFC East loss would be tough. Glad you hit the Calera Pinot Noir today â?? I’ll be opening a bottle of the Mills Vinyard ’01 tonight because my dad is visiting from Mass.

Perfect show: I like the idea of a blind tasting. Perhaps a competition with you and a few of your staff members to see if they can beat the great GV? It would also be interesting to see how opinions/scores of each wine varied between tasters. Later,

Nate

Gary,
great episode.
What was up with the comment about “it seems like only yesterday we met in the park…” is that some movie reference im missing?
QOD: How about the the grower champagne episdoe? I want to stop drinking the yellow tails of champagne and need some assistance.

gary,
great episode.
what was up with the “it seems like only yesterday we met in the park…” line? Is that some movie reference im missing?
QOD: How about the grower champagne epsisode you promised? I want to stop drinking the Yellow Tails of Champagne and need some assistance.

BOTTLE OF CRISTAL followed up by a nice big glass of LOUIS XIII….. LIVE LIKE A ROCK STAR!!!

NUF SAID!!!!

GV —

Not to pick at your scab, but are you making good on that Jets defeat free shipping offer? Your New England fan base eagerly awaits the coupon code.

Much love…

Rick
(Providence, RI)

QOD the shows I would want to see…

1. WLTV’s top 5 sellers..regardless of taste or price
2. apartment storage,celering, heat
3. vintage value champage…I know of not one good bottle for under $20
4. GV’s fav. 5 wines

Fess Parker was Davey Crocket and number 54 is Victor Hobson. GO BEARS!!!!

Interesting Pinots and I too have never tasted a soy sauce flavor profile in Pinot Noir and I’m not sure I want to. Soy sauce is not my favorite taste except with Wasabi in it. Melville has been doing very well and continues to make great bottles.

I second the bubbly episode but stick to higher end or unusual producers.

OK Gary – here is an episode theme for you: Full-throttle 91 point shirazes from 4 countries. You have all of these, all are 100% shiraz (except the Argentinian one, which has a bit of malbec), and all have been scored 91 points by someone. They are all between $20 and $40 approx, and all should be awesome wines, BUT they will also be unbelievably different, despite the shiraz comonality.

Sanguine Estates Heathcote 2003 (Australia)
Alcina Gabrielli Syrah 2002 (USA)
Guigal Crozes-Hermitage 2003 (France)
Luca Syrah 2004 (Argentina)

How about some predictions about what everyone will be buying a year or so from now…world class stuff that is flying under the radar. Give us 4 or 5 like that Pago del Ama that I had last night. WOW

Gary –
Perfect Episode — you pubish the wines a week ahead of time and we taste with you at the same time. Just think about it– we’d be RIGHT THERE WITH YOU!
Keep up the good work.
Luke

First time commenting, long time viewer (with a nod to NY Sports Radio)
Some suggestions for the 100 show, since that is such a sweet number, how about comparing sweet ot desserts wines from different countries such as a Sauternes (D’Yquem), a german Eiswein or Trockenbeerenauslese, a Tokaji and perhaps from some other countries. Another choice would be 100 point wines or perhaps revising the legendary “1976 Paris Tasting” that helped transformed the wine world. Other themes I’d like to see you tackle would be 1. French or other Roses 2.Southern Italian Reds such as Taurasi and Aglianico del Vulture 3. Wines from the Alsace. These would fit in with your mantra of trying new and different wines.

First time commenting.

The 100 show should commemorate the great earthquake that shook San Francisco 100 years ago — foremost, because the event forever changed the wine industry in California and gave us the New World Wine Country.

A good deal of the marketable wine was stored in the city in those days (1906), but as the earthquake shook the city the wine fell with it — in reaction, the vinters moved closer to the grapes at their vineyards as a precautionary measure, thus birthing wine country.

We should remember those events 100 years ago with the 100th episode. Suggestions might be Almaden, Beaulieu Vineyard, Beringer Vineyards, Charles Krug, Concannon Vineyard, Gundlach Bundschu or Livermore’s Wente Vineyards because they were of the earliest vinters/vineyards to migrate to what we now know as wine country.

You can also read a little about this at the website below — one historian mentinos Italian-American families soaking blankets in wine to put out the flames on the roofs of their homes (wine and this even are linked in many ways).

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/13/WIGQWINEQUAKE13.DTL

What I would like to see – a great label vertical tasting. Perhaps a Mondavi (Opus?) or Dunn from CA, or a great estate Bordeaux across 3-5 years (or more if you have it in inventory). I would like your comments about what you taste in each year, how much is terroir influenced, how much winemaker influenced, how much age influenced.

Thanks – AlanV

for more viewer value-add:
i think it would be useful to see you get another qualified taster in the next room and splice in their reactions (un-influenced by yours) to samples from the very same bottles.

to stroke the upset chianti fans and add value to all viewers throw in the *occasional* show where you pre-taste and select a few chiantis (etc) you like and then do an episode with those wines and noting the pre-selection. i think most viewers would be happy to see episodes containing your favorites (particularly with wines you think are undiscovered bargains like the chilean pinot)

for a fun change of pace:
film a tasting at your next Jets tailgate or gv house wine party.

btw lately i had my first salice-salentino and another negroamaro/malvasia-nero based wine. very distinct strong stinky nose and strong earthy flavor that i believe would put off many drinkers but i loved them and they are very inexpensive. is this the expected character of these wines? and if so, how would you describe the general nose/flavor?

I was going to buy a Calera Pinot Noir next week, one of the high end bottles, but after seeing this episode I have changed my mind. I personally don’t like vegetable flavors in my wine and for $50 bones I don’t want to be extremely disappointed.

I might buy an Erath Pinot Noir instead, this is a bummer. I’m not sure where to go from here. I hate asking the guys in the store because they fudge over things and usually give you something they like or haven’t tried the wines. What a mess.

QOTD – This is easy. I want an episode on Seminal Bordeaux. Here is the lineup. 1945 Mouton, 1961 Latour, 1989 Haut Brion, 1947 Cheval Blanc. Do it for me….PLEASEEEE!!!!

Gary – you gotta give away some vintage t-shirts from WLTV if you have any left. That would be awesome!

“2 points for entertainment value” haha, love it!

QOTD: Could you do a show on Bordeaux wines from the Fronsac appellation? I’m going there for an internship and I’d like to know what you think about them. Sorry though, no Petit Verdot- only merlot, cab franc and malbec! 🙂

qotd: With all the epsiodes you’ve done, I’d looking for something you’ve never done before. I think a vin jaune episode would be perfect, and its pretty unknown. For a more laid back episode, a tasting on different charbono’s would be great.
I like David Canada’s answer too, that would be a fun episode to watch. But if you do his, you gotta throw a Petrus and a Romanee-Conti in there, why stop at bottles?

qotd: With all the epsiodes you’ve done, I’d looking for something you’ve never done before. I think a vin jaune episode would be perfect, and its pretty unknown. For a more laid back episode, a tasting on different charbono’s would be great.
I like David Canada’s answer too, that would be a fun episode to watch. But if you do his, you gotta throw a Petrus and a Romanee-Conti in there, why stop at bottles?

an early one.