Hi Gary, haven’t been around for a while because i’ve benn really busy at work and buiding my own wine blog, that you can see at http://www.deniscadieux.com. It’s some video, some text and some music and cultural scene in Quebec, Canada. I blend(!) both aspects, wine and culture together, because that is my line of work and my world and also potentially an easy fan base. Anyways, i won’t get too pushy about my blog but my inspiration, i ought it all to you. Since i’ve been doing this, my life has changed. I meet more interesting people, eat better, take better care of my health and am generally much happier than i was before i started to work on my passion. So the crush it aspect and general life guidelines that you provided help me a lot. I haven’t watched tv in weeks except maybe for tennis, because i love that too and it is a another passion as well. Thanks again for inspiration and i plan to visit you at the store, because i want to go to NYC either for the us open, or for dec. 8th to pay respects to John Lennon’s anniverary of his death.

QTOD: best Merlot : Vistorta 2005 from Venetia,Maybe Worst: I try to forget those.. Probably an 8$ Merlot from Italy as well, or maybe the states.

Cursed from the get go. If there was ever an opportunity to take a Mulligan on an episode, this would have been the one. Maybe the mic should have been off for the entire episode. JK. You’re a trooper, and stuck with it like you always do. KUDOS!

QOTD: Don’t think I’ve found the worst Merlot yet, but the best had to be Switchback Ridge. Have you tried the Merlot from Long Island lately, and who do you think is going to win the starting position at QB for the JETS this year? My bet is Clemens.

P.S. I am also a Gen-X-er and I appreciate so much of your humor and references. Keep keeping it real.

Enjoyed the episode!
Way to call ’em like you taste ’em.

Enjoyed the episode!
Way to call ’em like you taste ’em.

Love these blind tastings – the “bad” wines are almost as much fun to watch as the good ones (less fun for Gary I suppose).

Love to see vineyards I know, too (I’m a couple hours from Duckhorn)

Best merlot – probably Pride early 2000s
No worsts – course, I haven’t tried any of the merlots from today’s episode!

GARY DO IT AGAIN.
I believe merlot can be great…as seen in bordeaux and some Italian wines. DO IT AGAIN.

Great show. I love the blind tastings… call them like you taste them.

If the grape was good, they’d call it merhigh.
But it sucks. So it’s merlot.

Hey GV,

Like many of your viewers, I like the blind tasting. This format avoids any pre-conceived notions that might otherwise affect your scoring, and it has an element of suspense. The number of times that you make an accurate guess about a particular wine is impressive.

QOTD: I have not been drinking many merlots lately, but I was very pleasantly surprised by a 2003 and a 2005 Chateau Ste. Michelle Merlot [had them about a year apart and loved them both – especially for the price]. One of my favorite all-time wines is a 2004 merlot/cab blend from Artesa Vineyards, called “Elements” [about $20 – 25].

Wow – maybe you should add some “non US” Merlots to the table the next time – because the best Merlot I’ve tasted so far was a !German! one! The 2006 Merlot from Philipp Kuhn out of the Pfalz region!

Luckily I can’t remember the worst one 😉

Best merlot, 2001 Rutherford Reserve Merlot.

Worst, 2 buck chuck, my kidneys thank me everyday for not taking more than a sip.

Bummer about the bad showing for merlot. I really enjoy merlot. And you are right about Summers Charbono, Love it!

That was 2001 Rutherford Hill Reserve Merlot, sorry.

Blind tastings rule – where are the double blind shows?!?!

That was tough…

Gary,

I just finished viewing a wine video blog on sourgrapes.ie. The reviewer was tasting Cerretello Chianti Superiore, 2006, and in his description of the nose, he said it has a little of “Gary V’s farmyard funk”! There was also a tag recommending that viewers check out Winelibrarytv.com. I thought you might find this interesting. By the way, despite a charming Irish accent, the guy tasting the wines was not bringing the thunder.

Gary,

that´s a fun show. Nice to see that wine can surprise you again and again. That´s what I love it for.

QOTD: I really love merlot when it´s in a Bordeaux blend. Talking about pure merlot I like a very cheap one. The SARTORI merlot from Italy. In Germnay I can buy it for 3,95 Euros. For that price you will not get a perfect wine but I had wines ten times the price that were not better.

Take care
Steven

Hi Gary,
I’m watching every day, though not leaving so many comments. Was kind of weird to see ‘you’ speechless!
Though I didn’t have a ‘rock my world’ Merlot in a while, I still do believe there are good examples to be find!
Keep up the good work!

Heavy on the lurkers. Cali Merlot can be very good, as Duckhorn shows. I think alot of wineries just make it so they can have it in the tasting room. Now we need another Merlow tasting with some your staff would know we/you would like.
I would also like one with J-LO’s butt on the label.

Hi GV.

Knowing friends who are totally into wine but also are laboratory scientist they are right into low and behold the science of wine but at a really really nerdy level. Can I recommend you get a guest in who is really nerdy about the science of wine. I think it will be fascinating for all vayniacs.
IE: A particular smell is actually this chemical makeup. Hence our scence of smell is picking up blabla which is actually the smell of? plums/apples etc.

This sort of knowledge for me has taken me to a whole new place with wine.
Regards Ben

GV-
Entertaining as always. I was just having a conversation yesterday about how I think Merlot is mostly under rated (even though I struggle to find one that pleases my palate). Great show.

QOTD: Worst-Candor NV Merlot from Paso Robles. I found it to be extremely awqward, although I think they used the word “complex”

Best-May not be the best I’ve ever had, but the best lately was the St. Supery Merlot. Very Interesting. I found it to be quite delicious!

Heard good things about Sebastiani in general. I would be interested to see if I liked it myself, though it’s not available at the store. Would recommend that one of the bunch as the one to look for to see if your palate lines up with GV’s. Also, I know an 85 for $13 isn’t stellar to you, Gary, but in this case, I think it’s the best value in the bunch, and sometimes you should highlight that a bit more. And dare I say that it might be possible you rated it a couple points lower because of the beginning of the show? 87 for $13 would not be a terrible showing, and I hope you can focus on that a bit more in the future.

QOTD: Had an OK Frog’s Leap ’06 Merlot the other day. Nothing special about it, and probably would have been disappointed if I had paid for it.

At the end, all critique aside, thank you so much for putting this show out. It has helped me feel more at home in the local store, and I at least understand why some wine is priced at 30 or more. Now I know what I’m looking for in there, and don’t feel weird just wandering the aisles without help. Thank you with all of my heart for that.

please dont leave gary “comments are not everything”
quitting he show could lead to armed insurection,think about it,
great show why not do another 1 soon but choose the wine your self,

ps id love it if you would do a 85 bordeaux show,they are showing reasonable prices for mature claret,

ie,85 monrose/la misssion/calon segur/figeau/ectect,

that would make my year”pretty please”,

the more shows you do the better they get,

YOU ARE THE KINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

“Cutest girl in a 6 person town”, great analogy! Very funny but so articulate.
How does Ian choose the wines for these blind tastings?

great show as always, i watch you on podcast. so i’m leaving a comment, so there

Long time “lurker” but I had to make my first comment and defend all of us Craig’s out there. I can’t believe you called us all boring!!

Great show, really enjoy it and I download it and watch it on my iphone so it is hard to make comments quickly.

When are you coming down to Australia to Crush it???