Seems like a real cool, down-to-earth kinda guy. Someone you’d like to hang out with visiting the fine culinary venues of NY. Too bad he had to don that cap. 🙂 If it means anything, my niece was the goalie for the Stanford Cardinal soccer team that played for the national championship.

QOTD: I have a limited experience with any sommelier but one I remember vividly occurred at one of DC’s finest restaurants where you can BYOB and not pay a corkage fee as long as it’s “American.” My wine/chef guru friend who accompanied me brought an ’85 Opus One and I brought an ’88 Dominus, surprise, surprise. So we offered the sommelier a “taste” according to wine etiquette and I will always remember her saying “I have always thought that Dominus has always been quite inconsistent such as this one.” Of course, my friend and I looked at each other flabbergasted since this is the gentleman who introduced many fine wines, esp Dominus at his holiday party a few years prior where I actually experienced goosebumps over this wine, hence my handle.
Agree, everyone’s palate is different, I get that, but according to noted wine authorities, I don’t think the word “inconsistent” would describe Dominus. Inconsistent as to whether it’s a 90 or a 99 point wine, yes, but my idea of inconsistent is 75 to the 90s. Even the ’98 Dominus scored a 91 WS and that was a “down year” for most CA cabs. So I lost some respect for her and unfortunately, it put a damper on the evening but I can write about it now so it has garnered some entertainment value.

Good episode and interesting guest.

QOTD – Still new at this phase of education, so no real horror stories. But no real experiences either.

QOTD – Maybe I don’t get out enough but the only bad wine experiences I’ve had of late is ordering a bottle I was really excited about only to find out a few minutes later they are out of it. This has happened at least 8 times I can remember in the last 2 years. Twice at the same place! The food’s just too good not to go there, but I mean come on dude, quit blue balling me!

QOTD: Ordered a bottle of Pinot Blanc from a wine list, “Pinot Grigio?” No the Pinot Blanc (I assume it wasn’t a popular choice!), then when the waitress brought it, it was from a fridge that obviously wasn’t working very well as it was only very lightly chilled. I queried this, and she said it had been in there for at least 12 hours (as we were having an early lunch), she offered an wine chiller type gadget for the table then went on to try and educate me about how refrigeration can cool down wine (nothing specialist, just common refrigerator knowledge!), incredible!

Loved your guests read of life connections with wine. Very intelligent and easy to listen to. I like his advice on asking if the waiter is the most knowledgeable about the wine selection. Definitley a life lesson.

right there with ya.

CKC=a serious lack of Som experience

Nice interview, really interesting piqued my interest in Madeira now.

QOTD: I’m going to expand this a little bit because most of my experiences in restaurants have been good. When I went to Napa we went to Clos du Val and the woman pouring our wine asked us what wine we normally drink, being from NY I drink a lot of Finger Lakes Rieslings and Pinot Noir so I told her NY wine. She very condescendingly said “Why? because it cheap?” I was definitely turned off by her insinuating that I only drink wine because it is cheap. Needless to say I’m not buying any Clos du Val wines anytime soon.

so my wife says… “holy krap sweetheart, you have a man crush!” Between Rush, Fast Times Ridgemont High, Stanford, wine, the bitchin hair… LOL!! So she asks me if I want her to rent the movie “I Love You, Man” tonight so I can drink wine and rock out to Rush! Needless to say, awesome guest and fantastic interview. And how friggin cool of him to bring the bottle he did??!! WOW!!! Class act for sure!!! Ordered his book last night.

QOTD: at a winery, buy high end bottle after tasting it in their taste room, walk down the hall to have dinner at their restaurant, and the server wants to charge me a cork fee for bringing in my own bottle.

Gotta run, the wife just rented the movie I Love You, Man.

Awesome guest. I once called out a corked bottle of 82 Lafite at a restaurant in Kansas City and the Som said I was wrong. We told him to pull another bottle and if we were wrong we’d pay for both. It was a crazy crazy scene about 10 years ago.. The owner came out to apologize and in the end we were vindicated.

Great guest. Love to see fellow Jerzey wine guys!

Even though I had to wait three weeks for new episodes, I have to admit, the last three have been great. Mr. Oldman was the best guest since the last time Sasha was on.

preach on Brother

Excellent shows and cool, down to earth guest. Wish I could have tried the 1933 Madeira.

QOTD: None of the restaurants in my podunk town has a sommelier, so it is hard to share stories. Moreover the few good restaurants here have such atrociously high wine prices that I almost never buy something off the list. It is always BYO for me.

Call ’em out, baby!! Any place that does not cater to their Paying customers needs to be exposed as the bad place that it is. I have a feeling that he didn’t think you were familiar with the varietal, basically just didn’t give you enough credit. Screw ’em and their lousy attitude…

You said it! Sometimes I feel like they should at least Kiss me first…

I went to a restaurant in San Francisco that had been on Check Please Bay Area. A friend was paying, and I had always wanted to taste a Barolo. I told that to the sommelier. He recommended a Barolo, which we ordered. It didn’t taste very strong. It wasn’t offensive, but I felt that either he took it easy on me because he thought I couldn’t take the real flavor, or he just didn’t know the wines.

You’re right, Dominus is consistently one of the safer bets year-in, year-out. The vintage you mention was (along with the ’98 and the ’00) the least impressive I’ve had (I split a case with a friend back when it was $400 a case – I consistently scored it between 88-91 pts); but haven’t tasted anything after the 2001, which was/is just entering maturity and was easily one of the greatest Cali blends I tasted last year.

…that they’ll only lose by 3 TDs?

Nice show, Mark seems to scream Stanford, certainly a fine guest on the show.

QOTD: Now this isn’t a bad somm experience its just an unfortunate and awkward wine moment. I was in this restaurant called Pigale in NYC. I was with friends and family and my mother had asked me to pick a bottle of wine for the table. Now being the self-interested person I usually am with wine I wanted to get a white that had lots of acid due to the salad and sandwich I was getting. So I’m pouring over the wine list looking for a french chardonnay or something that I know will cut like a knife! I begin to get stares from the table because apparently I was taking longer then I was allotted in their heads. People at the table begin to nag at me and raise their voice ( it seemed their thirst for alcohol needed to be satiated pronto!). Nearby tables began glaring over at the table wondering wat on earth was wrong. The situation eventually climaxed at my mother’s friend “Oh Gimme that!” snatching the list from my hands. I gave up and ordered a french chard that I had as a plan B. All this happened in a span of 6 minutes. I do not believe I was out of line at all.

Impatient friends and rels… gotta love ’em…
😉

haha nice! for me it was Captain Underpants…but the Hardy Boys were cool too.

Wait.. Stanford has a wine club??? (mentioned yesterday in Part 1) Yikes! How did I not know this? I’ve worked there for years (School of Medicine)…Will seek it out.

I had the Karl Lawrence at a wine tasting about 6 months ago, and Gary nailed it with his description.

QOTD: I have a pretty good story to share but having trouble with this comment section. What the h___?

Soms beware! We’re coming for you.

One good thing about this depression is some of the markups have come down a little. maybe?
Yes, more Washington Cabs and Merlowwws