There should be a sense of place. It is what makes the wine experience interesting. If you find a wine or a style/region that you do not like then move on or try later when your palate expands. Good show

QOTD: I think we can have both at the same time. I think the regional expression of most Australian reds is “fruit-bomb”. Let’s keep it that way.

TO is a Buffalo Bill… Wow… Didn’t see THAT one coming! I thought it was a lock that Danny Boy Snyder would pay him eleventy billion dollars to be another overpriced vet on the Redskins.

QOTD: Great question and an excellent guest!!! I like the fact that Old World sticks to tradition in the appellations while New World has flexibility and the capability to act like “mad scientists”. Definitely keeps it interesting for people learning about vino and even more important to be an educated consumer when selecting wine to drink.

Hey Gary,

Fantastic guest !

That is a killer QOTD ! I could write about that for a long time

I believe that wine should belong to its terroir. Wines a full of tradition and history. When you make a wine, you are giving it your identity. I am sad, genuinely sad to see Italian wines trying to be Bordeaux, the overwhelming dominance of oak, the way Spanish wine is trying to be Californian, etc…

If you ask me who I am, I will tell you that I m proud to be Half French/half Scottish! I will not tell you I m from Italy or Germany. Wines and wine makers should be the same. I want to smell a wine and think “that s Pouilly fume” or “this tastes like a proper Sangiovese from Tuscany”

Wines are trying to put make up on, they are trying to be someone they are not. Take a New Zealand Pinot noir, if it pretends to be a Burgundy, the best case scenario is that it becomes a second best Burgundy-style Pinot. I would rather see a top New Zealand-style Pinot.

There is so much beauty in diversity, it really is a shame to spoil it for a couple of $. I want to smell and taste the same style of Burgundy Pinot that my grand dad had when he was my age, I want to feel the history, the land and the tradition! If you have always made big explosive fruit bombs, then I respect that, but I feel that I also want to protect the wines that are “dusty” “stinky” and that “taste like a blend of cabbage and broccoli”

I ll sum up with an analogy: If everyone eats at Mc Donalds, you ll loose your Italian, French and Spanish restaurants, and I don t want to see that.

A great guest. Possibly the best guest show(s) of all time.

QOTD: At the end of the day I don’t have a problem if wines evolve in the pursuit of whatever “delicious” is currently defined as by the culture. I respect the history factor, the tradition factor, but if it doesn’t add to the meal, the moment, whatever with “deliciousness” it really hasn’t done what wine is supposed to be on a fundamental level.

Again, great guest! Very interesting wines. Lots of education today.

QOTD. I HATE THE FACT THAT MOST WINE NOW IS MADE FOR ENTRY LEVEL DRINKERS WHO DRINK IT ALONE AND JUST WANT SMOOTH SWEET JUICE. IT SUCKS! I FULLY ACCEPT THAT WE NEED LOTS OF WINE TO MEET THAT DEMAND, BUT IT IS OUT OF CONTROL. I ADORE FINDING UNIQUE AND INTERESTING WINES AND TRYING TO PAIR THEM. I ACCEPT AND APPRECIATE THEIR IMPERFECTIONS, JUST AS WE SHOULD ALL ACCEPT AND BE THANKFUL THAT PEOPLE ARE DIFFERENT AND NOT PERFECT?

I dunno. Lotta inside baseball. And name dropping. And mumbling.

Way too cool for me.

Mighta got better in the last half of the 2nd part, but I didn’t last that far . . . and so, didn’t hear the QOTD.

QOTD: Guard the tradition, Baby! I want to be able to taste a place, the winemaker techniques, the difference in vintages due to weather, in sum, I want to meet a new, interesting, peculiar and exciting wine every time I pull up that cork. If the price to pay is that some wines might totally funky or just plain bad, I still want the challenge.

Yoooo, Dujac Clos da la Roche???? MUST BE NIIIIIIIIIIICE!!!!! 🙂

qotd: Yes, Yes, I Care, I Do, I Do……… 🙂

It was a loaded question and it’s not a black or white situation, but i have to go with maintaining the tradition. I’ve had a number of very delicious “manufactured” wines. But a funny thing seems to happen with those wines. I loved the first few bottles, but the 3rd or 4th one of many of these is suddenly not so delicious anymore. They just become kind of boring. That doesn’t seem to happen with the “real” wines.

QOTD: I have to say this was possibly one of the best questions that’s been asked to date. I would much rather keep things traditional. I am sure that there are ways to make wines “taste” better…but let them become special a special Cuvée. I want Chianti to taste like Chianti…and Barolo to taste like Barolo. I want my wines to taste like they come from “a place in time”. Something that is different each year, and causes one to pause and think.

QOTD: If I have to give a black and white answer, stick with tradition. A better answer is that wine makers should have some flexibility to improve hygiene, alter oak treatment, and even work with other grape varieties. The key is transparency.

Blending non-traditional grape varieties in Tuscany to create the Super Tuscans is innovation. Doing the same in Brunellos is fraud.

Wines are similar to people… individuals. Hopefully true to themselves, true to the terroir, and true to the character of the winemaker. Though what consumers ‘want’ may dictate how some wine is made, to me, the real joy in wine is allowing yourself to experience wine as you do a fascinating, intriguing, or original character… with an open mind and an open heart. (Feel free to apply this theory in learning how to appreciate Gary V as well!)

When it comes to wine, I’m much more interested in enjoying the company of things that are true to themselves… rather than trying to be something they’re not.

QOTD:

I appreciate tradition when it comes to wine making. I also think it’s important to encourage innovation though – so as is true with wine, balance is critical.

I don’t get the point of always tasting wines that are NOT AVAILABLE.
Seems to happen more than not on the show and gah it drives me crazy.

This was a fantastic guest, Gary. There was a lot of name-dropping, but I feel like you explained yourselves very well for guys like me who might not know them.

QOTD: This is s brilliant, well-thought-out question. Do I think wines should remain traditional? I apologize in advance for being “caught up on the grape” like my old man Frank Schoonmaker, but I think the tradition needs to continue both in style and production, but in name.

In your book, 101 Wines, you mention a blend called “The Other”, and how we’re too hung up on names and that a wine that comes in as an “other” should still have a place to shine. I think the traditions *need* to continue, if only so that young people like myself can have at least a taste of the rich traditions behind this wonderful culture. However, I agree that there need to be “other”s. From the great winemakers of our time down, producers need to explore where we can go with wine at the same time.

Wine produced for its taste and wine produced traditionally are not mutually exclusive, but perhaps we should work a little harder at keeping them distinct and accurately distinguishing a wine’s origins. That way, we can keep our amazing history while exploring what the grape can become in the future.

One question for those who say that they definitely want wines to stay in tradition. If you were making wines yourself, and through technology you could make it taste like a 1er Cru Bordeaux, though you do not have as good as fruit to start with, would you do it? Or would you drink such a wine, or look down on it?

I am personally interested in drinking good wines, do not care where they come from, do not care who and how they are made. I want wines that are complex, challenging, interesting. I find it really interesting that many people have said that they want winemakers to stay in tradition, even if they do no make good wines…

QOTD: Tradition in traditional regions. Recognition of different traditions in different regions and enjoying their style of wine for what it is (ex. you should drink sediment in Vranac as intended to). Innovation in new world. Recognition of their efforts for what they are (ex. don’t compare new world Pinot’ with French Burgundy).

Great Shows guys!

QOTD: I think tradition is quite important. I love New Mexico wine, and it really bugs me when people try to compare the wine to California juice…it’s not all napa valley cab, stop acting like it is!

That being said, my very favorite thing about wine is tasting something totally off the wall (the other day I tasted pumpkin pie in an Anglianico) I think that while I respect the awesomeness that comes from Burgundy, Bordeaux, Tuscany, D.O.C. I think that sometimes the government of those countries getting involved with the way they make wine, might be a little backwards. Wine making, after all, is an art as much as a science.

I hate to say it but Gary you were a bit overbearing to this guest. I mean when he’s fleshing out a thought, you CONSTANTLY butt in and flesh it out for him, and it’s a bit overbearing. I honestly would let the guy finish his thought.

Dujac Clos da la Roche 1980 is very nice, and at $500-$800 a bottle it better be.

QOTD: I would rather the wine be true to itself (varietal, region, etc.), rather than conform to just being “juicy” and trying to appeal to the masses to increase sales.

The same question has been proposed for any product. For example, in cigars, the question is whether non-cuban makers should make the best they can from tobacco available from other sides of the world, or try and imitate cuban cigars. Well.. it was suggested that makers in Dominican Rep, Nicaragua, Honduras etc should stick to what they can do best. That was until superstar cuban cigar makers like Pepin Garcia and AJ Fernandez left Cuba and started making cigars in Nicaragua. Their cigars are now as good as cubans, some better. Same story with whisky. Japanese wanted to make good Scots-like whiskies, the Scots and the rest of the world kept telling them that they should not. They now have distilleries that make amazing whiskies, putting some traditional Scottish ones to shame.

I cannot see why if someone in Chille, Napa, Argentina etc should ditch the idea of making the best wine they can in the name of regionality and tradition. In some cases, there is no tradition, some New World countries have a tradition of a few decades of (mostly bad…) wine making, why should they stick to it, just for some of us to be able to a identify a (bad) wine elsewhere from France/Italy/Spain?

Gary…. First and foremost I gotta say the energy and driven nature you have is friggin awesome. Keep up the suggestions on the good places to check out for the wine savvy in the NYC area. Hope one day I can give off that energy without the help of expresso or adderel. haha

Yo that was some intense conversation there.

Tea rules OK. do a tea library every now and then, with a big semovar and boiling water! mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

QOTD. Well im all over the place on this. the short answer is YES i would prefer traditional, however nebulous the term, over some world brand. (isnt that kind of what the 90’s were all about? people all over the world reacting agains “globalization,” even white america is rediscovering it european heritage). But there are a lot of other factors to consider. The first that comes to mind, to paraphrase Wendel Berry, is that making wine is an agricultural activity. Its farming, and the farmer needs to make a living, no matter how much tradition he has inherited. The fact is the world IS very globalized, and consumers DO seem to prefer some tastes over others, so what is one to do? Now another thing is, what to do if one has no tradition? I live in the Hudson Valley NY and I am going to plant a vineyard soon. Ive got limited space, 10 acres, and maybe another 8 up a hill if the bedrock dosnt make terracing impossible. Now Ive got thousands of choices of what to plant, but what can I grow? what can I sell? the only thing i know for sure (what little tradition we have) is Seyval Blanc and Baco Noir. I have had EXCELENT wine made from both, but I think their absence in over 600 episodes of WLTV give you an idea of what the “real” wine world thinks of them, Gary has no love for the Hudson Valley 🙁 the whole consept of “Super Tuscan” makes me sick, so I dont plan on being the ass who invents Super Hudson wines. So basically I look at the colder growing areas, pick whats good, and hope for the best. its a lottery, mishmash hodgepodge. and if i try a particular grape, should i also use that varieties traditional viticultural practices? or its usual winemakeing techniques? will they be suited to the grape in a new environment? basically what im saying is some of us have to invent tradition. (But I promise Ill never make a Super Hudson style wine lol).