Long time lurker comin out. Love the Cheese episodes Gary. IMHO there is nothing better out there that wine pairs with. I have never found any food (and this is just me talkin hear) that improves on a wine like cheese and the wife and I have literally drank thousands of bottles of wine over the years. I will usually sip on a glass of wine while cooking and not touch it again until after the meal is done. Anyone else out there like that?

Way to go Daniel! Your powers of foresight are matched only by your access to the final results! 8-))

What, Barolos and no Brian Chen throw-up? 🙂

Is Ryan V. brilliant or what-picking Zach. Let him pick a half dozen wines for you to taste! Keep up the good and informative work!

Gary,

I think you may be selling your wine drinking fans a little short as I find it hard to believe everyone of them expects the wine to taste exactly as you describe or as good as you describe. That goes for Parker and Spectator as well. The information the three of you provide does not tell me what to like, rather it provides information for me, the consumer, to make decisions about the wine I might buy. The more the consumer buys wines that the three of you rate and taste, the more the consumer can understand your tastes and make an even more informed decision. While the thrill of simply grabing a wine off the shelf and trying it blind is valid, I would much rather make an informed decision about my purchase, especially when I don’t have the money to throw around frivilously on random bottles. Now, if it turns out I don’t like a wine you, Spectator or Parker recommend, I don’t blame you or ask myself, “why don’t I like this?”. I simply chalk it up to experience and learn about my tastes and yours. I have a feeling many of your fans have the same sensabilities and infact do trust their own taste. Also, I would bet that people generally agree with your tastings much more than disagree.

To that end, thank you for putting your neck out there to make recommendations to us and giving us some idea of the profile for many of the wines you sell.

Regards,

Gary, other words you can use when you’ve mentioned profound too many times in one day; solid, virtual-realistic, enigmatic, “pounding”, throbbing…but this may give off the wrong impression.

QOTD I think some guy named Johnson won, so I can’t say.

Other ideas, I heard Dain will be in NY for some pinot fun, would love to see him on your WLTV exposé. What do you think?

Gary: Thanks for a great podcast. I’ve been learning a lot about wines from your shows.

QOTD: Some golf player, wasn’t it, Iron Man?

Top 150?

My computer is acting like an idiot, so I’m having trouble watching, but as for the QOD: I know some dude won (I don’t follow golf, never played…I prefer the working man’s sports like football and baseball). But, I watch Sports Center every morning and I still can’t tell you. I think when they started talking about the Masters, I went to the bathroom or something.

OK…see you later,
GO BEARS!
T

Way to go Ryan V (Comment #109) calling the Zach Johnson win.

Barolo and Italian cheese. You said it all!

I’ve only been able to watch today.

Keep it up, Gary!

Like I said,,,, QOTD Fellow Iowan Zach Johnson,,,,, Do I win something?

Great energy on that one!

Great Call Ryan V… Zach Johnson owned Augusta this weekend.

And Gary was right I did wuufff down a huge porterhouse and backed it up with a Pastrami Omlette later on in the evening! My wife cracked up when she heard Gary describe my steak eating habits!

Hi Gary,
This episode killed the lurker in me- he’s been running wild in head for the last 6 months. Like you mentioned, WSE is #1 if we all want to “GET IT”. I love what you do- you’ve taught me alot. Last year I was drinking “headaches in a bottle” kind of wines. Now it’s nothing but quality and every new bottle is an adventure for my taste buds. Thanks for being such a great teacher and for tasting wines while wearing cuff links. Excellent stuff Gary. Keep it up.
Cheers.
Ken [DC].

Since I’m reading this on Monday I’m going to guess Zach Johnson. so what do I win Gary?

As to wine tastes, I’ve been doing this a long time and have built my preferences little by little and have seen some of my preferences fade away as the wines aren’t made anymore. If you would have given me a fruit bomb cherry tasting Barolo 20 years ago I would have taken one sip and put it down as that isn’t the flavor profile of Barolo. What has happened is that the influence of the California and Austalian styles of wines has made many of these fruit bombs big sellers. If you want to sell a lot of wine you do what they are doing regardless of what the terroir of the wine should be. I get somewhat tired of tasting cherry cola in everything I drink. Went to an enormous tasting of Syrah or Syrah based wines on Friday. Over 150 wines represented and, for me the French Syrah based wines had the most authentic flavors. Yes, several of the Santa Barbara and Shiraz wines came out well but, for the most part, the CA and OZ wines were blown away in qualtiy. that being said, none of the French wines were close to being big sellers compared to the CA and OZ wines so what is a producer going to do? Make his/her wines like the better sellers. Most wine drinkers in the US are consumers of sugary, overblown wines and not because someone else tells them to like it. That’s what they like.

While I often don’t agree with Parker (I have attended about 12 tastings or shows over time where he has attended tasted and lectured, I respect him for his work. Wine Expectator though, I think shills wines more than evaluates them. Their advertisers seem to get the best reviews and are more often picked in their top 100 wines. That is why I respect your opinion Gary. You pan wines that are big sellers for you and pick wines that you often don’t carry. But I realize that this is still your opinion and I have to taste a wine myself to know if I’m going to like it or not.

Keep up the tastings and comments and we will all be more educated.

Kahuna comment #44 is best ever. What a dirty mind

No idea why, but I’ve tried to watch this episode about 10 times over the last 4 days. It stops about 1 minute in at the same spot each time and tells me “buffering” for as long as I choose to wait. Anyone else having problems?

Too bad, I love Barolo.

QOTD – I’ll take Zach Johnson!!

(That’s what you get when the videos come out with a one day delay)

Wow, I was really wondering why two bottle of the montevetrano igt were just about the best wine i’ve ever had in my life and the third was terrible. Guess it was variation. Guess it’s too late for me to say Zach Johnson will win the masters, hehe.

Woohoo! My alma mater produced somebody good at a sport! If you consider golf a sport, that is. Go Zach Johnson, Go Bulldogs!

Excellent episode today! I enjoyed the Friday casual feel today. Open shirt collar and everything. It’s a nice change up for a Friday. And we actually saw the spit today! Woo hoo!

Never heard the word “newbs” before. Or is it “noobs”? Ick. I’m glad I’m not a noob.

CONGRATS TO THE FELLOW IOWAN!!!

Nice episode, only seen a handful so far. Only one negative comment – the Prunotto isnt pronounced Prunatto. Its Prun (like prune)oh-toe. With that being said I suck at pronouncing French wines, especially Brugundies. Maybe we can touch upon that in future episodes?

Great segment on the importance of individuality. “WSE”? “CMFW”? LOL. Outstanding!

Gary, hold that vine! Sine Qua Non = ABSURD Fruit Bomb?!!? OK, “tough guy w/ the upturned collar” (lol) you lost me there…definitely different strokes, different folks/palates.
Although, I concur w/ the “over Niagra Falls except it’s not water it’s purple paint” description. LOL. His Syrah’s are very inky and viscous no doubt.
Accordingly, “old world/new world” preference makes no difference, those who view Bryant and Harlan as “gargabe”(??!!??) wine….IMHO, need to re calibrate their palates. WOW.

Moving on:
Couldn’t agree more on Prunotto…consistently good juice year in-year out.

Lil’ Xtra:
RE: Manfred Krankl/Sine Qua Non Wine:
http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Blogs/Blog_Detail/0,4211,899,00.html
http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Archives/Show_Article/0,1275,2599,00.html