QOTD: I am not mad at Pinot. How could I be?

Pinot has suffered the same way many great cigar brands have since the boom of the early/mid 90’s. Top notch brands (i.e. Arturo Fuente) of cigars, that before the cigar boom were 2-5 bones a stick jumped to close to 10 bucks a pop. Limits had to be placed by retailers on quantitiy per person and some retailers cashed in by gouging on the prices. Quality became a factor as fly-by-night outfits began making cigars and luring away experienced rollers from the established brands with more pay. Crap brands hit the market at super-premium prices but were total dog rockets (imagine the visual). Then people got fed up with paying the artificially inflated prices for the top brands (and many of the fly by night ones)and the crap brands brought a bad name to cigars in general. The boom ended, the fad died away and things went back to normal, or pretty much so. The prices never came down quite as far as the pre-boom for the established brands, but availability did improve.

I expect the same can be said for wine to some degree. Look at the whole Pouilly-Fuissé craze/boom/bust of yesteryear and the Pinot predicament of today.

I am mad, but not at Pinot (it’s not Pinot’s fault). In most wines there’s a rough linear relationship in quality to price point. Sideways created a hole between $10-$20 in Pinot. Pinots under $10 just aren’t very good normally. Any decent wine that would sell for $10 or more has pumped up over $20. Just my observation. I’ve found a few exceptions but my observation seems to hold in most cases.

QOTD: Mad is maybe over the top but it is unfortunate when the media pushes something beyond itself.

QOTD: I think the popularity of pinot noir and the rapidly rising prices has allowed some other wines values to emerge. So I guess I am not really mad.
However, my local wine merchant recently reduced the stock of all their other regions and varietals and quadrupled the size of the pinot noir section.
I used to be able to depend on them for at very least a great selection of italian wines. But, Hollywood is now determining what they stock. 🙁

As much as I love good Pinots, I do hate their high prices…It’s rare that one come across a good Pinot for less than 20-25$!!
Cheers.

Fantastic show. QOTD: Not that I’m mad at Pinot, but I have not been in the mood for Pinot for too long now. Scares me that I don’t crave for Pinot now anymore. 2006 was my Pinot Noir year. Ironically, I more often prefer a Merlot than a Pinot now-a-days. I ough to get back to Pinot one of this days. I do save some bottles of it in my cellar.

SCHPABONGOR!

QOTD: Am I mad at Pinot? Can’t say that I am. Was drinking Pinot long before the movie came out and will continue to drink it long after. (I prefer Merlot alot more any ways).

Great show GV.

–Rani

Love the Pinot with salmon, loathe the increasing prices. Usually easy to find great wine under $10, hard to find a good Pinot under $20.

QOTD: Not mad at the PN… I’m mad at the weak Americans that allow the media (fictitious media of all things) to influence their weak minds. We have freedom of speech in this country yet people allow fictitious beings to dictate their likes and dislikes. Maybe they are part leming and part human?!?! C’MON PEOPLE!!! And I totally agree… we need another movie that will totally trash the outrageous prices back down to earth so we can all move in and scoop up the nice deals 😉

PS… I’m the #1 lurker here… and I’m comin out 😉

Always felt the italian pinot’s were a little wierd. QOTD Not mad just pissed that much of the great pinot from burgundy is too $$ for my wallet.

Check the following that you are mad at:

_ French for any number of reasons
_ New World for phylloxera
_ Germans for screwing the 40’s
_ Americans for 80’s price Hikes
_ Japanese for Bordeaux as investments
_ Chinese & Russians for 2005
_ Robert Parker for price escalation
_ Sideways for Pinotmania
_ George Bush (if for nothing else making the dollar weak)

Me? No,No,No,No,No,No,No,No, and Most definitely yes (among many other reasons)

QOTD: No

QOTD: yes, as a recent college grad, i can’t afford a decent pinot at least whats available in PA.
but i’m moving to israel next week so i’ll be discovering and studying a new, up and coming old old world wine region in the levant.
sorry for my long absence once again Gary… crazy summer finishing school and getting ready for the big move.

Pig poop? Pig poop? That’s a new one for me.
What did you do in a former life to be able to identify that aromatic aspect?

Gary,

How can you do a show on Pinot Noir without 1 feature from Oregon? You’re way off the mark.

QOTD: What the hell did Pinot Noir do to you? Nothing. The question of the day should be are you mad at Hollywood? Are you mad at the folks who had no idea before Paul Giamatti waxed poetically on the virtues of this fickle and elusive grape? I guess one could be, but why complain about it. Give Pinot a break for a while. There are plenty more unheralded varietals out there. Find something else “profound” so that when the rest of the gang finally catches on, you’re ready to move on.

Thanks so much for doing a pinot episode! We’re having a WLTV-sponsored Pinot Noir BLIND taste-off on friday, here in Seattle. You should swing by after your show with Ellen.

Good episode on a bad wine. Everyone should move on to Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Gris. Pinot Gris stinks; it tastes like dirty socks. So everyone should give up their allocations of limited production Pinots. Send them to me as I will take them off your hands. They are too expensive. Go buy Sauvignon Blanc – it’s the new Pinot Noir. I guess I’ll just have to live with all that leftover Pinot Noir.

I’m new to the wine world so I have to admit that i have never had a pinot. It’s a bit dissapointing to find out that there has been a hike in the prices, but it’s not going to stop me from trying a few – and if i really enjoy Pinot, i’ll continue to purchase it.

Dang it, Gary, you’re always telling the Old World folks to leave the room; so, when I hear about vino that tastes like sod, I expect those candy fanatics to be treated the same way. 😉

QOTD: I’m mad only when Pinot makers riding the hype inflate their prices far more than is reasonable. I don’t mind getting killer Merlot at bargain prices though.

Have you recieved my Thundercats yet?

QOTD: Nah, I’m not really mad. I’m just a bit annoyed by some of the under-$30 pinot noirs I’ve tried over the last year or so.

I do remember when I could pick up a tasty pinot on the cheap. Not anymore (though I may have to seek out some of the wines you tried today—and hey, thanks!). All I can ask for these days is a pinot noir under $30 (hell, under $25) that doesn’t taste like a bowl of Froot Loops topped with 5 tsp of sugar, or worse. I don’t think that’s asking for much. Apparently some winemakers disagree, and I’m mad at the less-expensive pinots they’ve produced. I mean, why should I waste $10-25 on an unsatisfying pinot noir when I could buy 1 or 2 bottles of, say, tasty monastrell or *ahem* dolcetto instead?

Eh, pinot noir isn’t something I’ve ever had often anyway. It’s kinda silly for me to complain about pinot price hikes while I pay through the nose for Bordeaux.

Cheapass marketing-ploy bucket = priceless.

Hope you had fun with Ellen!

Qotd : Not Me G !!!

QOTD: I’m just mad that I have to work this weekend… And every other weekend that college football is being played. And when college baseball season gets here, I’ll be mad cause I’ll have to work a lot of those games as well.

QOTD: I’ve not tried a Pinot Noir before, but I rushing out to do so. And yes, the raise in price point just because of popularity does make me a bit miffed.