QOTD : Both of my boys were born, in 2005 and 2007 respectively, in the morning by a C-section. So after having spent the entire day in the hospital and giving my wife some time to sleep and needing to let the dog out, I spent the first night at home. I cooked myself a steak dinner (filet) and had a 2000 Pine Ridge Oakville Cabernet, and a 2001 Pine Ridge Stags Leap Cabernet and smiled from ear to ear knowing that both mom, and the kids were healthy. I assume the next great bottle will be when I give my first son a case of 2005 Chateau Giscours, and my second son a case of 2007 Chateau de Beaucastel, at the age of eighteen. My wife and I of course will have our own case that way no matter where any of us are on my boys’ birthdays, the family will at least be drinking the same wine for the next twelve years. Salute!!!!!

This guest was spectacular. I think he is in the running for the most charismatic and interesting guest ever on WLTV.

great guest. great show. ari. gato.

mjr
tokyo

Excellent show. Great QOTD

QOTD: A 1998 Gigondas Laurus from Gabriel Meffre, at L’Oustalet restaurant in Gigondas (overlooking the vineyards) in 2007 with my wife and 3 month old daughter. That wine gave me more pleasure than I had ever experienced with Mouton, Lafite, Haut Brion, Beaucastel…

We bought a few bottles that same day and have only opened one since… it was a big disappointment. As you said very well, it was all about the moment, the people and the place.

GREAT episode, what a cool guy. Best wine ever was a 1982 Smith Madrone Cabernet we had this past spring with the two owners/winemakers at the Smith-Madrone winery on Spring Mountain in Napa Valley. Definitely the experience and the great people we were with, and the wine was amazing too.

I’ve been watching from day one. Best show ever Gary.

Excellent show. Really enjoyed this one. Great guest! One of you your best WLTV’s. Jlo31 (UK)

Some guest shows are great and some are a bore. This one was great. Brice’s long history with the wine industry, his sense of humor, and his humble, self-effacing manner made it a pleasure to listen to his yarns. The banter between the two of you was pretty entertaining as well, because it seemed to come so naturally. Good chemistry on this one. Keep up the good work Gary.

Oh and the best wine I have ever had was a Basel Cellars “Merriment” on my first wine tasting weekend with my wife in Walla Walla, Washington. I think it was a 2005 vintage.

WOW! What a great episode. Enough said!

best show yet . . .

OK, that was an awesome show! Great guest!!

QOTD: My best wine, would be the Jocelyn Loonen Cab I had last year with my family! My sister had come in for a visit, and we had it at wonderful local eatery. Of course the people made an already great wine even better and memorable!!

Jason

What an awesome guest G … Great ep

QOTD——- I hate to tell this one . Boone , NC 1990 Me and my future wife on Blue Rige Parkway found a cool stream stream , cooked out and had a Glen Ellen White Zin chilled in the stream … Wow we both discovered wine and later went on our honeymoon to Napa …….. Now you know the rest ..
Now I am an certified Sommelier and are always learning about great wine.

What a GREAT show. I know a lot of people aren’t high on your “guest episodes” and I have even berated you in the past for some of your guests, but this show was stellar. Brice is one of the coolest wine dudes on the planet. Charisma is an apt description.

QOTD: The best wine I ever had was actually three wines. It was in a little French village called St. Jean-de-Gaunville near Geneva, Switzerland. A group of my colleagues from work and I were on an extended business trip that crossed over Thanksgiving and we had Thanksgiving dinner at this restaurant. The restaurant was run by an older French couple. The husband was the chef and his wife was the waitress and sommelier. The restaurant was in an old carriage house and was rustic and utterly charming. We were served a six course meal and Madame picked out the wines for us. We had a Vouvray with the appetizers, a lovely Cote-du-Rhone with the first course, and a 1990 Bordeaux with the main course which was roast duckling in cherry sauce for me. Then there was the incredible cheese course and eventually dessert. It was just a beautiful, memorable respite in an otherwise dreary time for most of us.

Awesome show, just absolutely amazing.

Best show yet, Gary.
QOTD: the 2001 Chateau d’Yquem (100 points Parker; 100 points Wine Spectator), drunk with a wine-distributor friend. Until that time, I had never tasted a truly great wine, and I told my friend this fact. He showed up for dinner at an NYC eatery with four bottles of great wines in tow, from California, Italy and France. He decanted the Yquem last, and I was stunned, literally taken aback by how spectacular this wine tasted. To this day, I regularly tell anyone who asks that the 2001 Yquem was the single best liquid I’ve ever had my mouth. And I still have the cork on my desk as a reminder/memento.

That was a fun show to watch!

A lot of pressure on Gary to give the wines a good score, so I am glad they lived up to Brice’s personality (charming)and endearing salesmanship.

QOTD – It was a Benton Lane Pinot (probably a 2004). My wife and I had spent a grueling time digging, moving boulders and leveling a spot on our hill to build a sand box for the kids.

Over the following weeks we finished construction and lugged about 20 bags of sand up the hill to fill it. Finally it was complete,was a wonderful evening and we sat in the sand box over looking our beautiful home to enjoy a fine glass of Pinot as the sun went down. Funnily enough we have tried this wine several times since… and although it is still a good wine… it has never tasted anything like that one.

Really enjoyed the show. Guests with a history like this really bring something different.

Gary, that was a great show. I really like that you let Brice speak and not interupt so much as you have in some interviews. Thanks for all that you do!!!

What a great interview. Love when you bring in people from the industry. Keep it going Gary!!CHEERS!

QOTD: the best wine I ever had was a Morgan cabernet drunk with my best girlfriends at Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs Resort. We had to hop from pool to pool in the cold, (it was winter) then were wrapped in warm towels, then we had a very nice wine on top of all that. The experience with the wine was surreal. My senses were all totally at the top of my consciousness. It’s hard to describe.

I like winemakers who farm their own grapes. Something about working hard outside in the dirt and the sun.

Loved the show. Loved Brice and hearing about his life adventures. It was quite interesting. Gary…you are the man. I love your work and your personality. You inspire me and a lot of other people. Keep up the great work!

That Jones is an amazing guy. He must have gone to Harvard because his wines are intelligently crafted. Sonoma Cutrer went down the hatch when he left. My fav now is that Ruby Ruby, over cracked ice, (of course). If he could only figure out how to get some caffeine into his wines he’d really be in the chips.

Best Wine I ever had:

I was introduced to the wine world in Monterey. At the time, I knew nothing about wine or food, really, other than I liked to indulge quite a bit in both.

I was diagnosed a diabetic in 2004, which seriously cut down on my “indulging” habits, but as a nice side-effect, I become more interested in drinking quality, great wine and eating good food.

My local favorite restaurant was Casanova, a Carmel institution owned by the Georis wine family and local restaurant legend, Michel Mignon. (As a side note, they have a wine cellar with some 30,000 bottles.) I still laugh when I think of his resemblance, both physically and vocally to Gerard Depardieu.

Michel was my guide to food and wine. Through dinners with him, I learned about the beauty of the Rhone, the weather of Montalcino, the history of families like the Rothschilds and the Antinoris, and why we love the food and wine that we love.

One day after work, a few months before moving to San Francisco, I sat down to have dinner and Michel came by and said, “…I’ve got this bottle that someone ordered, but it was a little corked. What the hell, I drink it anyway. You want a glass?”

I of course agreed, and we sat and drank a bottle of old Sassicaia that was very obviously not good. That night we feasted on gnocchi, veal osso bucco, cannolis, and lots of laughter.

I got word a few months later that Michel had brain cancer. A few weeks later he passed away.

A glass of corked Tuscan wine was the most memorable of my entire life.

-Myles

I am honoured to be Brice’s neighbour. I am also grateful that we have listened to many of his incredible life stories . What you saw on the clip is real. He is an amazing American, so much so we have made him an honorary Australian. We have tasted many of his wines and even though he pans the Shiraz he has coverted us to the most charming Pinot’s we have ever had. I am trying to get him to export to Oz. I am so grateful to have met Brice in my life. A true character that is reflected in his life and his passion of great wine making.