Go with the Wine Chick’s strength and taste the Portuguese wines. Yeah, I think up to 2% or wines with corks are tainted with TCA.

Amarulla! I’ve watched the crazy video watching animals getting loaded on it, its awesome! Also we’ve carried it in our store from time to time. As for the cork v screwcap, I think about 90% of wine should have a screwcap or non-cork enclosure. The only wines that really demand a cork are the super high end, and they can hopfully get non-corked corks from the producers. Having had say a New Zealand Sauv Blanc in a screwcap is incredible, so much freshness! Add in ease of use, and its a no brainer for me. Also, I think the 2% of corks being corked is about right, but with corks you can also get excess oxidation/leakage, which is a pain too.

Wonderful to have a female guest who is knowledgeable about wine and who has lots of opinions.

QOTD: I’ve had Amarula liquor – we have a friend who’s Afrikaans who let us know about it.

1. Cork taint is not an absolute value, it is a gradation. It is simply not the case that a wine is or is not corked, and that if it is it is MASSIVELY corked. A wine with a small quantity of cork taint will not necessarily exhibit corked characters, but the result will be a dumbed-down, tasteless wine, leading most people to just rag on the wine instead of identifying cork taint.

2. It is poor myth that seepage of air allowed by cork benefits the aging process of a wine. 1 in 1000 times, a cork in an old wine will have done what it was MEANT to do, which is provide a near-perfect seal and prevent any exchange of gases. These are wines that have aged PROPERLY, and while having evolved in complexity, will also maintain an inherent freshness that it should have. Oxidisation, whether occuring quickly or slowly, it the destruction of the wine. It is simply a result of habitualisation that we consider an oxidised old wine to be a good old wine, mostly because most of us have never tasted a properly sealed aged wine. Those who have know.

3. Vineyards here in Australia have been experimenting with screw-cap vs. cork for 20 years now. Comparitive tastings of aged wines using both seals consistently show screw top to have kept a FAR superior result.

Sorry Gary, but I think you sounded like a patronising sommelier (or wine providor) who doesn’t give the customer’s or consumer’s palate its due credit in identifying corker wines. Sure, there are probably some wankers who might make it up to sound impressive, but they would be in the extreme minority. As I’m sure you’d agree, different palates are differently able and skilled at identifying different wine characters in differing degrees. Perhaps your palate just isn’t that great at identifying low quantities of cork taint. But don’t just assume people are making it up.

The sooner every wine in the world is under screw cap, the better.

1. Cork taint is not an absolute value, it is a gradation. It is simply not the case that a wine is or is not corked, and that if it is it is MASSIVELY corked. A wine with a small quantity of cork taint will not necessarily exhibit corked characters, but the result will be a dumbed-down, tasteless wine, leading most people to just rag on the wine instead of identifying cork taint.

2. It is poor myth that seepage of air allowed by cork benefits the aging process of a wine. 1 in 1000 times, a cork in an old wine will have done what it was MEANT to do, which is provide a near-perfect seal and prevent any exchange of gases. These are wines that have aged PROPERLY, and while having evolved in complexity, will also maintain an inherent freshness that it should have. Oxidisation, whether occuring quickly or slowly, it the destruction of the wine. It is simply a result of habitualisation that we consider an oxidised old wine to be a good old wine, mostly because most of us have never tasted a properly sealed aged wine. Those who have know.

3. Vineyards here in Australia have been experimenting with screw-cap vs. cork for 20 years now. Comparitive tastings of aged wines using both seals consistently show screw top to have kept a FAR superior result.

Sorry Gary, but I think you sounded like a patronising sommelier (or wine providor) who doesn’t give the customer’s or consumer’s palate its due credit in identifying corker wines. Sure, there are probably some wankers who might make it up to sound impressive, but they would be in the extreme minority. As I’m sure you’d agree, different palates are differently able and skilled at identifying different wine characters in differing degrees. Perhaps your palate just isn’t that great at identifying low quantities of cork taint. But don’t just assume people are making it up.

The sooner every wine in the world is under screw cap, the better.

I enjoyed the guest, she seemed knowledgable about wine. This show makes me want to drink some portugese wines.

Loved the debate. I have no preference, but i do like pulling corks
QOTD: I have no idea. I am not an elephant and I don’t really care for liquers

Glad to see the interview format back. And a knowledgeable one on top! Nice random selection of wines. I added the Bleasdale to my list of wines to try.

QOTD: Without doing a Google search… First gut guess would be banana but I honestly have no idea 🙂

Bee Guy!!! “Ay yay yay! Naranjas en la cabeza!”

Did you just call me a jerk-off jack-off? 🙂

I love the cork debate. There was a bit of editing in there, you must have said something really bad.

As a consumer who has never had a “corked” bottle (bacteria, TCA, etc) pointed out to me, I can’t ever truly say that I’ve ever had a corked bottle. What would be interesting is if there were a line of wines that you could buy which were corked or have another flaw (for a very, very, very reduced cost). Imagine if wineries made that available. Granted special measures would have to be made to produce these off wines, but it would give a whole new world of information to the average consumer which would help with the negative mystery of wine.

QOTD: I had over 60 of my “jerk-off” peeps to already tell me that it is Marula.

Now…this, is a good guest!

I will never get enough of industry talk.

I loved the guest, especially her honesty, but I agree with you about the cork percentage. I work in a restaurant that sells at least a hundred or so “cases” a year of cork sealed wine. We maybe send back to the distributors six “bottles” in that same time. If ever it is more, it’s coming from the same item. Which is not necessarily the cork so much as the distribution and storage through the importing. I agree further that screw tops have the pole position in protecting wine anywhere on this planet that wine is consumed in the first few years.

QOTD: Yeah, unfortunately it’s a real easy Google to get to Marula fruit. That’s progress!

Great debate this episode, I enjoyed that very much. Thanks.

QOTD: Amarula, also called the elephant tree!
Great discussion about corks and screwcaps!

great ep! I liked the corked debate and am going to side with CORK. on another note, found myself goign back some episodes and only now discovered sir gary vaynerchuk when i searched for sancerre – excited to see him come back for a guest appearance one of these days.

qotd: strawberry tree

Good show, the guests always liven it up. I don’t like how Zimmerman has so many preconceptions about regions. If there are a “lot of exceptions” to an opinion you have about a region, doesn’t that tell you that maybe regions are too complex and multifaceted to base opinions about wine on?

But I have much appreciation for her being honest and making a case for her viewpoint on wine, and she’s a good critic for that. I can get value out of her writing whether or not our viewpoints are the same because she’s upfront about it.

QOTD: Something weird probably. Litchi?

Gary,

Love your show, I have been watching it since November of 2008, now I am hooked. I had lots of fun watching the beacon pairing show, good idea. One of my co-workers came across Biodynamic vineyards, specificly Bonny Doon – Santa Cruz. Gary how about doing a show specifc to Biodynamic certified wines, I hear there are alot to choose from? My “Question of the Day” is what are your thoughts on the Bonny Doon brand?

Martin from Southern California

Gary,

Love your show, I have been watching it since November of 2008, now I am hooked. I had lots of fun watching the beacon pairing show, good idea. One of my co-workers came across Biodynamic vineyards, specificly Bonny Doon – Santa Cruz. Gary how about doing a show specifc to Biodynamic certified wines, I hear there are alot to choose from? My “Question of the Day” is what are your thoughts on the Bonny Doon brand?

Martin from Southern California

Gosh that Amorim are good at giving people the touch up.
Cork is history. It’s not just TCA but random oxidation too amongst other problems.
Remember that saying “there’s no such thing as a good old wine just great old bottles” . that was the cork doing that.
Australia started with screwcaps in the early 70’s with Pewsey Vale Riesling. The public didn’t take too it so they stopped it. I’ve tasted those wines at 25 years old and they’ve certainly developed, but slowly and consistently into beautiful wines while their contempories under cork are long since dead.
And don’t give me the romance thing. I didn’t feel romanced when a bottle of Cheval Blanc came up stinking of TCA. I just felt devastated and considerably poorer.
And if 1,2 3 or 10% of your product is faulty because of the seal do you think your milk or soda supplier would continue using it?
There has been extensive studies made in Australia. Here’s a link to a good article. http://www.eldridge-estate.com.au/screwed.htm

Good episode! I like how she wasn’t afraid to disagree with you, unlike a lot of your guests.

QOTD: The thing about elephants getting drunk from marula is actually a myth. See
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/499983?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3dncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Hello all my thoughts on screw top are if they change to screw top there is going to be a lot of people doing mods to there cellar…..
KEEP THE CORKSS….

Good show and good guest, she pretty well held her own. Good to see.

QOTD – no clue but will look it up.

Amarula…not sure on the spelling…great after din drink.

Very good guest!

Love…hate…love…hate…she blinks a lot and dosen’t like to play, but Liza was a very real and honest guest, and I appreciate that.
I can’t believe you gave away your ultra secret ninja wine buying negotiating tactics on the show.

QOTD: Most of the people who posted before me got the answer so I didn’t even have to Google search at all. I’m happy Liza was prepared for the QOTD, but an open to interpretation question works best.

Good show. Strongly disagree about other countries such as Greece or Germany needing to make wines with friendlier labels. Maybe for the mass production kinda wines but I love the uniqueness of the different wines of other countries! I hate catchy labels! Wanna know that I am getting the real deal and not just another wine aimed at the American market.