is about as well focused as his courage.

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...I mean economicaly, not violently.

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Both the EPOS and H.R.C. have sold out at the winery level(big surprize at their blackmarket pricing), though both wines have been distributed in at least 21 different states. If you are seeking either try one of the wine auction sites or call a broker.

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If you are looking for information on the H.R.C.'s companion bottling the 2005 EPOS, here is that link:

http://www.vinquire.com/wines/detail/Bon...

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If you are looking for information on the record breakers:


2005 EPOS Napa Valley Red Wine
Here is that link:

http://www.vinquire.com/wines/detail/Bon...


If you are looking for the review of the

2005 Bonneau HYDE RANCH CABERNET
here is that link:

http://www.vinquire.com/wines/detail/Bon...


Both wines are very rare, and so may not show up in Vinquire's automated searches. If you are looking for either wine, I would suggest calling a wine broker.

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P.S. Both wines trading over $1000/bottle. Dec 2010. Try Craigslist NYC or SF, EBAY, or contact an experienced wine broker. Bon Chance!

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If you are looking for information on the record breakers:


2005 EPOS Napa Valley Red Wine
Here is that link:

http://www.vinquire.com/wines/detail/Bon...


If you are looking for the review of the

2005 Bonneau HYDE RANCH CABERNET
here is that link:

http://www.vinquire.com/wines/detail/Bon...


Both wines are very rare, and so may not show up in Vinquire's automated searches. If you are looking for either wine, I would suggest calling a wine broker.

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This reviewer certainly has a lot to say about wines for, in his or her own words, "someone who doesn't like wine very much." Let the reader consider the source, this one's obviously short on value, and no I'm not talking about the wine.

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I know the feeling. Since I have to taste all the fancy stuff for work, I try to keep tasting the more plebian wines as well in my spare time...just to maintain my objectivity and sense of relative value. I don't know if I could get through 10 bottles of shaw...but make no mistake, there are far worse wines out there, few are cheaper, and many much more expensive.

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The two reviews of this wine are pretty much on the money IMHO (though I think an 80 is generous score). Just thought I should add one thing...If you buy this, or any of the other varietals from Shaw, just buy enough for the night/event/party et cetera. This wine doesn't cellar very well, and is designed for immediate consumption. This will not improve with age, and probably won't keep more than a year or so under less than ideal conditions (don't waste valuable cellar space hoping this will improve, either).

As for the bottle variability, most wines in this price level are not transported under temperature controlled conditions, so there can be considerable variability based on when, where, and how the wine was shipped to the store.

Generally speaking, tighter, more tannic and ageworthy wines tend to travel better and be more resistant to abuse. So even without temperature controls, they tend to hold up better.

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"... IX not Ix..."duh.

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and it's IX no Ix. As in the numeral 9.

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Well with a review like that, I think I'm going to hop on over to safeway and grab a couple of bottles for myt next fishing expedition.

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I should add that it is unlikely they will go back, since every vintage year has it's own growing coinditions and it is fundamentally impossible to replicate the exact condition that were held previously (unlike beer or liquor which use a relatively simple "recipe"). It is however possible there may be some of the old stock floating around somewhere. Compare the sku numbers on the label, or identoifying marks on the glass, usually near the punt for identifying features.

For that much trouble though, I'd just buy yourself some Banfi.

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I couldn't say for sure, since I haven't had that wine yet, but there are a couple of possibilities.

Since there is no vintage date on the wine that leaves it open for the producer to bottle as many different vintages from as many differnet sources as needed to satisy demand of a particular run. i.e. That's not the same wine you bought before, only the same brand.

The other possibility is that something may have happened to the wine between the time it left the producer and the time it reached your glass. A bad seal, heat, brettanomycees, or long storage under flourescent light may be the culprit.

Hope that helps shed some light on what's wrong with your juice.

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To Clarify:

Specifically, I'm referring to the Eco Domani Pinot Grigio...but I think the same could be said for a great many of the wines reviewed in the 5-10 range. There really isn't much service at that level, and I think we can all help alot more people, a lot more, by focusing on higher quality, smaller production wines, as folks who buy those do tend to research their wines.

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Like the diluted piss of an exotic animal. Life is too precious to waste it drinking wines like this. Spend the extra few bucks and get something decent.

I feel guilty even wasting my breath on this, let alone the ink, but I think you all need a scolding for wasting your milk money here.

I seriously doubt anyone who buys plonk like this will bother to check a review before charging into the sea like a filthy lemming.

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In France the old saying is Bordeaux with lamb, Burgundy with beef. Rioja is excellent, as is Shiraz, or for the Cucina Rustica I'd wash it down with an Aglianico, like Naima.

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Thanks for posting. Obviously we need reviews of both good and bad experiences, but could you be more specific? Was the wine obviously spoiled or "cooked"? Smelling of wet newspapers or "Windex-like" in aromas? Overtly leathery, with notes of manure and ofal? Or just not up to your expectations of quality?

The reason it's important to take note of these qualities is because we as readers and wine buyers have no way of knowing whether your experience was strictly based on your individual experience with that individual bottle, or if perhaps there may be a fault in the entire bottling.

Whenever I encounter a suspiciously bad bottle of wine, I try to obtain and taste at least one more bottle of the same wine (preferably purchased from the same source if it's the second bottle, different source if the third). Often the wine shows better or worse from one bottle to the next which usually indicates factors beyond the wineries control like heat damage, faulty cork, or poor storage conditions. If you can understand why it's not good, then you can make choices that will help you avoid buying mistakes and help you find "good" buys in the future. Thanks for your follow up.

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Not me, but who ever it is is obviously short on value.

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Hi,

I've had Fred Magniens Burgundy's before, but I don't recognize this wine. When you say it is an amalgum of California and Burgundy do you mean that's what it tastes like, or that the grapes come from both places? Thanks.

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Thanks, John. You'd think after all these years I'd learn to check my spelling. Good call. Happy holidays!

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I recently discovered a large cache of commercially cellared 1994 Cabernet Sauvignon from notable Napa Valley producers.

I've highlighted a few of the best...Freemark Abbey, Joseph Phelps, Burgess, and Clos Du Val. Chappelet was also worth mentioning with praise, but for some reason the database isn't showing Chappelet Cabernet.

I have several dozen cases of each of these, contact me for details if ypu'd like to try them. Check out the reviews for tasting notes and current pricing.

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Net effect is that instead of comparing "apples to apples," you're comparing "oranges to carburators" as an associate of mine has been wont to say. That sort of confusion is what allows the big liquor companies to bully atround the small independent wineries (and hence keep wages and employee benefits restricted). The good stuff ain't made on the assembly line.

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Cool, yes if you're looking for beer. That said there are some important inherent differences between fine beer and fine wine. Chief among those differences is the factor of time, as quantified by vintage. Beer, like liquor, can be replicated based on factors that go into the must, therefore it's value is relative stable as so long as the ingredients are available, supply is infinite. Vintage wine in contrast, is limited by the grapes (a vine with distinct qualities from one vintage to the next) that are available at the time of crush. That's why beer is a depreciable commodity, as where great wines (as opposed to simple plonk) increase in value due to their finite supply.

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Anybody noticed what happens if you type "beer" in the engine. Hate to be so picky, but that's really not the same thing.

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Try some of the Bourgone Rouge level wines from Domain Arlaud or Frederic Magnien or Michel Magnien. They're excellent and available in the bay area for between $25-$35. They're imported by North Berkeley Imports. If you have trouble finding them, you can hop in the car and drive to Sonoma Market, or call your favorite winebroker and save the gas. If you like those, we can talk about single vineyard cru wines later. If you don't, then Burgundy isn't your thing.



Hey what's up with the caffienator? Admittedly, sometimes I add a little cinnamon or vanilla to my coffee, but that post seems a little off topic. Sounds like a hell of a recipe for mulled wine though.

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My main point being if you are serious about buying wines for the purpose of aging them, make sure you tatse the wine to asses it's balance of components (this gets easier when you gain more experience as a taster).

If you decide you like a wine and would like to age it, make sure you purchase enough of it that you can re-taste it and evaluate it's progress at periodic intervals.

When trying to determine the ageability of deeply structured tannic reds, compare the sample after decanting once with multiple aerations --or taste it hourly alongside it's peer wines to see how it is holding up.

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I agree with statement above that many wines commonly sold or purchased are not meant to age. I also would caution anyone about making broad statements about the ageability of anywine based strictly on it's region of origin or it varietal make up.

Ageable wines can be made from almost any modern vinifera grape, depending on the wine's maker's intention, experience, and proficiency. While some varietals like Cabernet and Nebbiolo are known for making long lived wines, the style that they are made in-- which is influenced or dictated by factors of growing season, crush conditions and regimen in the cellar, and other choices made during theire cycle from crush to bottle-- even varietals we typically associate with near termn drinking can be fasiponed into wines with great staying power. Grand Cru Chablis (made from Chardonnay grown in limestone soils) and Auslese Riesling from the Rhine (made from ultra ripe grapes grown on steep, cool hillsides) are two good examples of white wines that age well despite the fact that most wines from those grapes are not known for ageworthyness.

Likewise a wine made largely from Merlot or Cabernet Franc may be exceptionally long lived and even require cellaring if it is from Chateau Petrus or Cheteau Cheval-blanc, but a winemaker could easily make a short lived "blush-style" wine from either of those varietals also.

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Great question. Buying wine to drink near term and buying wine to cellar, are two very diffferent things, and you should have a different approach for each. Generally most of those inexpensive wines you find in most markets are not designed to age. That doesn't mean they won't improve, but becareful not to buy large quantities of any one uness you are prepared to have your valuable storage space clogged up by wines that are just ho hum.

You don't have to spend a lot of money on cellar worthy wines either, but it will require more experience and attention to detail to get the best results. Sweet wines typically age fairly well, and many are not expensive on release. For red wines to cellar look for wines with a good balance of fruit to acid and tannin. Offen these wines may be "too big" to drink young, but as time proceeds, the tannin structures will soften allowinbg the fruit to come through.


If you are looking foir wines that will increase in value with cellaring, i.e. for an investment, the list of candidates will be much shorter and the number of producers, vineyard sources and cuvees which will increase in value is really quite small-- though new bottlings regularly break through each vintage, particularly in regions focussed on creating these wines like Napa, Sonoma, Coonawarra, Burgundy, etc.

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Getting colder by the day...go out and buy something decent or I will freeze your dingleberries off.

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It's been a long time since we've had such a frosty winter in Northern California. Anybody know where I can find some Riesling or Silvaner that is still on the vine?

Preferably from a patch planted at a high altitude. Could be a dang good year to make some ice wine!

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Think in terms of percentiles and you will probably have an easier time understanding where the wines should be scored. I.E. a wine with a score of 75 (like the Bogle Merlot I reviewed the otherday) is better to my taste and experience than 74% of other wines which may be qualified as "California Merlot". Once a wine drops below the 60th percentile, adjuicating a score is largely an exercize in fault finding and that is difficult to do. Who wants to decide whether a wine that tastes like old socks is better or worse than one that smells like a pig shed anyaway?

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Please see my review for the 2005 Bogle Merlot.

Each of you should be able to find that wine economicaly at your local grocery store and report what your find. I would like to come to some concensus here about what a passable score means, and your input would be valued.

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Bonneau 2005 Malbec Napa Valley.

Huge! Really one of the biggest wines I've ever had. With a structure like a Barolo that takes hours to unwind from under a boatload of dense chocolatey tannin. Blow your mind Malbec made from sources that usually go to Dominus (that's a secret though). $65 or so from the winery. Mailing list only, but you could probably coaxe a bottle out of them if you call. Like a Cahors but with more red fruit. Really, get a bottle of this before you try anything else, it will give you an excellent point of refference to judge other Malbec by. Make sure you decant it at least 4 hours ahead of time, better yet open it the day before.

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Thanks for taking the time to graze my earlier post "deer".

Interested readers should see:
Forums Home / General Wine Discussions / Cheap Wine (Sale wine)

For the actual trancript of this conversation without deer scat.

People wonder why I shoot deer.

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Thanks John!

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Just thought I'd throw this one out there...can't help but notice there is a lot of information in the engine which is obscured because of the use of slang, shorthand and contractions. In my humble opinion it is critical that all wines should at the very least be identified by the name of the producer (i.e. "the winery"), the type of wine (red or white table wine, spakling wine, desert wine, etc. ), the region of origin (napa valley, tuscany, california, etc.). Otherwise we will have a very difficult time actually identifying what it is we are talking about, and hence de-valuing the work which is being done here. I know it can be a cumbersome task to spell everything out, but if what we're trying to do is share information, then we need to have a way of keeping that information properly archived.

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The Viognier is also quite good, though I prefer John Alban's for a few bucks more.

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I like Cline's Roussanne.

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Joe is exactly correct.

I'd even go farther though-- the fact that potasium bitartrate crystals (commonly referred to as tartrates, and incidentaly the source of cream of tartar) are present, probably indicates that the wine was not cold stabilized (typically a process reserved for white wines only), or was not filtered too heavily, if at all.

These are GOOD THINGS! This means that the wine was handled as naturally and un-obtrusively as possible, and left in a natural state. If you filter all of that out, yes, you will get a very stable, uniform product, but you also loose a lot of the nuances that are responsible for the wine developing additional character in bottle. That's why most of your mass produced wines don't age very well, and are regularly trounced by small artisan producers who make their products in small batches with minimal filtering and fining.

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Reading through some of the reviews on the Geyser Peak Sauvignon Blanc here, and I feel compelled to point something out.

Aerated, is a word with good connotations, meaning the wine has been allowed to combine with air in the glass or decanter. Aeration should have little to no impact on the color of a wine, and is recommended for most young tannic red wines and older wines which have been cellared for long periods.

Oxidation, on the other hand, means that the wine was exposed to air at somepoint before the wine was served, either in the vignerons cellar, or in the bottle. Usually this is a perjorative term for most dry reds and whites, and indicates a faulty bottle seal or sloppy winemaking, depending on whether the fault is present in just one sample, or the entire production. This is usually the cause of some white wines developing a very deep gold color, usually associated with an unpleasant funkiness or overly reductive notes on the nose.

In certain wines, like Madiera, some Spanish Sherry, Maury, and Colheita oxidation can be a positive quality and is intentionally encouraged by the bottller, and therefore is not a fault in the wine.

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Also, if you didn't like the wine, or if it was flawed in some way, then why did you spend 86 points on it?

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I'm not sure what you mean by "average" average compared to what data?

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I concur. This reeks of more liquor company shills. Obviously someone has enough stock or other equity with a vested interest to justify the effort of running these red herrings across the tracks on a regular basis.

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Author:

You have awarded this wine maximum credit for quality. On what basis do you qualify such a review?

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I agree with Pinotphile. Relentless is one of the best. If you're looking for Syrah at or above this level, I recommend you check out the 2004 Arns Syrah. 90 cases were made from an eight acre plot on Pritchard Hill (about halfway between Bryant and Chappellet). Awesome, Awesome stuff, tastes like LaLandonne from Guigal, but with more freshness. Due to the tiny production, and the fact that this is the first vintage, you may have to do some digging, but it's worth the effort. Outstanding.

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Could you please Identify the wine which you are commenting on.
Vintage? Vinter (Winery)? Varietal and or Valley? Thank you.

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Reviewer,

Are you suggesting that this wine is of higher quality than 94% of all other wines, or merely that you felt it was a fair bargain for your money?

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I guess I'm just old fashioned, but for me it's Pinot Noir with Beef, Cabernet with lamb. I'm not quite as adamant about this as I am with some others (Syrah with prosciutto, or Sancere with Chevre, for instance). Depending on the piece of meat and the manner in which it's prepared served (just as important as the choice of meat), I'd also suggest you try Brunello di Montalcino, Cote Rotie, or a ripe and deeply concentrated modern Malbec.

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I like the good one's, and they're usually cheap. The only problem is (drum roll, please), yup you guessed it, there's too much trash out there. I usually taste 15-20 examples between $8 and $25 to find one or two that are distinctive and delicious (my two basic criteria for quality wine).

That means the one I actually like cost a couple hundred bucks to find!

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I prefer chasselaus.

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After what probably amounts to way too much thought, a question struck me: Is it the least favorite country that produces wine? Or is it the country from which your least favorite wines hail from that we're supposed to bash? Because there is a difference.

And what about Croatia? They make a ton of wine there and have a long tradition of winemaking, but as yet I have not tasted any Croatian wines worth recommending.

Or Russia? I've had some good one's and some bad one's from there.

They are also experimenting with vinifera varietals in China now, too.

Politics and wine gets very touchy with some people, and at dinner I try to keep the two as seated as distantly as possible. As modern wine consumers it's easy to qualify something as 'a this' or 'a that', but with wine it's all about exceptions and individuals.

Keep your palate open, it will take you places.

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A few years (and several degrees of knowlege) ago I would have picked Chile as the absolute King of Krap, hands down. For while they have always had good potential for grape growing, the unfortunate fact of the matter is that due to their low price points, most of Chile's decent stuff was too inexpensive to justify refridgerated transport. This resulted in lots of inexpensively made bulk wines that were treated to long cellaring in equatorial container ships.

Fast forward a few short years, and now thanks to a few relatively expensive, yet commercially very successful wines, overall quality (as well as serious consumer interest) has really turned around. You can now get good wines that actually justify the TLC required to get them to your door in good shape. I'd rather spend the $10 or 15 bucks these wines cost now to get a drinkable bottle, than to have to buy a case of $3 or $4 wines just to find one or two that isn't baked.

Once again quality, and specifically the drive to higher quality, has served us all well here.

If you have strong aversions to wines of one country or another, based strictly on geographic origin, I'd suggest you should either taste a broader range of wines from these huge, diverse regions each with a myriad of styles, or increase your average bottle price so you aren't making a judement based on the lowest common denominator.

Without tasting the inividual wine in question, making a deciscion that you won't like a wine because of the country it comes from makes about as much sense as refusing to try it because of the color of the bottle or the picture on the label. It is a knee-jerk reaction based on ignorance and fear, and has little basis on what the stuff inside actually tastes like, or whether or not it will appeal to your taste.

One thing I can say has held undeniably true throughout the ten plus years I've been a professional wine taster and writer, is that the more wines I taste, the more wines I find that I like...what ever the country, appelation, or varietal. Of course, the more wines I taste, the more wines I find that I don't like too, but I wouldn't know that either until I taseted each and every wine. In almost any region, with almost any varietal there are good and bad examples to be had. Furthermore, even among well made wines, there are a great diversity of styles, some of which I like better than others. On the whole I would conclude that Guilt and Credit are due in equal measures to every winemaking nation, but not in equal meassure to every winemaker, vigneron, or vintage.

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I'd encourage you to try any of the excellent wines from North Berkeley Imports or anoher negociant that specializes in importing small lots from France. Chances are if you're finding the French wines you've had too dry and earthy, you're drinking the wrong wines. If we are talking about the big rot-gut bottlings by the major French wine companies, most are no better than the big industrialy produced wines of anywhere else, and almost all of those tend to be dry and earthy or sweet and insipid, no matter where they come from. But great Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah is produced in France that will rival any from California or Australia if you know where to look, but once agin producer is everything, and picking blind is almost a sure fire recipe for disaster.

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So, I must admit I'm just plain old pickin on France. I've often said, France makes many of the greatest wines on Earth... and they probably make most of the worst, too.

But then again they make a ton of wine there too, so you have to put it into perspective with production levels.

This isn't really a very fair question. And any educated wine lover will tell you, details like producer, vineyard site , and winemaking style are far more improtant factors on quality than which political boundaries a winery falls in.

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I've been on both sides of this both as a buyer and seller at wholesale and retail levels, and generally my philosophy is that the broader the criteria, the harder it is to make an assumption about any wine you haven't tasted.

Price is about as broad of a criteria there is. Having tasted wines at all price levels and all levels of quality I can say definitively that there is rarely a direct connection between price and quality. I have had very expensive, highly rated wines that fell short, and also inexpensive, unknown wines that knocked me off of my chair.

The fact is that you can find good wines for 10 bucks or less, but you'll probably end up sifting through at least twice as many stinkers as you would at the 20 dollar level. In other words, if you buy a case of 12 different 10 dollar wines and you only really like one of them guess what? Yup that "10 dollar wine" actually just cost you 120 bucks!

However there are alot more quality wines priced between 20-50 per bottle, so that is the level I have found to have the greatest relative value of price to quality. The key to finding great wines is getting ahead of "the press" particularly with smaller production wines in order to avoid what i call the "popularity tax". I'll address this in a separate posting soon.

If you are spending in this range, I'd highly encourage you to develop a reationship with a wine proffesional. Someone who actually tastes lots of wines and can ask you inteligent questions about your palate. Not only do you get the benefit of consulting with someone who has actualy tasted the wine, but a qualified wine professional will be able to help you select the wine which is most likely to deliver the experience your looking for. Generally these wines will cost a little more than buying them at your local store (if you can even buy them at the store), but it will greatly improve your rate of success, and drastically cut down on your rate of erroronious purchases.

Even with the luxury of often being able to buy wines wholesale, I still purchase at retail from others in the industry whose palates I respect. In many cases it's not about who actually get's the best wines, it's about who even get's to hear about them before the frenzy starts.

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I agree. Cost Plus is an excellent place to shop for wine, at least in Northern California, and if you know what you are looking for there are some really impressive bottlings they stock regularly. I've even found Guado al Tasso, Clio, and other hard to find wines there. Still they have the same problem most chain stores do which is if they can't get enough of an allocation of a wine to stock it in all or most of their stores,then they don't usually buy it. Unfortunately this excludes most of the best wines with production levels under 1000 cases or so.

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Most of the best stuff isn't available in a store, nor is it available from online "catalog" sites. Here in the bay area we're rather spoiled, but most of the wine available in stores around the country is trash. There are experienced, educated professionals, whose job it is to screen the junk out, and the smart money takes their professsion seriously. These people are worth paying, unless you enjoy the experience of buying the old "20 buck shucks."

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The Wine Selection. They have very knowlegable staff that makes recomendations based specificaly on my palate, hundreds of pre-screened, limited release wines, and they stand behind every bottle they recommend. They also have complimentary cellar storage available and ship wine nationwide , which is very convenient and saves a lot of time.

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How about expanding the list of choices to include other grapes? Personally it would be gratifying to see exotic varietals like Marsanne, Rousanne, Conoise, and Aglianico-- but exotics aside, the list should definitely include popular and well celebrated varietals like Nebbiolo, Tempranillo, Grenache, Chenin Blanc, and Gewurztraminer at the very least.

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Well digger, welcome to vinquire.

I'm sure it has a a lot more to do with the the rarity of the wines themselves. I'm not sure how many readers we have, but if you ask John or Andy who run the site they might be able to tell you. The site is still fairly new, and we get new visitors and posters almost everyday.

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I can't help but notice that despite an increasing number of wine reviews and wine reviewers (yeay!) on vinquire, there are still alotof people choosing not to participate in the "helpful" or "not helpful" questionaire at the end of each entry.

Since vinquire is a free site (and a damn good one at that, I might add) I would encourage everyone who reads a review to qualify it as either "helpful" or "not helpful". It only takes a fraction of a second, and a click of your mouse.

As reviewers this helps us stay in touch with what you, our readers, want out of vinquire and continue to refine and expand our efforts to better serve our online community. It also helps us to qualify those who might want to abuse the open forum nature of this website.

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I'd suggest creating a viewable profile for reviewers. That way when a reader sees a review that he or she can relate to, it would be possible to see what else the writer has reviewed and possibly gain additional insight.

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Try:

The Wine Selection in Sebastopol, Ca.
The Wine Spectrum in Santa Rosa, Ca.
Or
The Bounty Hunter in Napa, Ca.

All three have well trained staff and will source wines for their clients.

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Riesling, and especially Piesporter should not have any oak (or oak flavoring for that matter), what-so-ever.

A good Piesporter Spatelese should smell peachy, with tropical notes, it should be pleasantly off dry to mildly sweet and display some minerality too. Great one's have a vibrant acidity that keeps them fresh and lively. This is a style of wine that has had varrying degrees of popularity over the years stretching back to the middle ages. There are some really spectacular examples to be had out there. Keep tasting.

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Examples of fortified wines include ruby, tawny, Late-bottled-vintage- and vintage Ports, Madiera, Vin Santo, some Banyuls and Sherries to name a few. Many are sweet, though not all.

While the addition of fortified spirits (distilled alcohol) concentrates alcohol content, experts are divided as to it's affect on flavor (likely due to the great varieties of these wines and their various ratios of fruit extracts and tannin to alcoholic strength- plus factors like oxidation in the cellar, the use of dried fruit, et cetera).

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Good wine service is tough to find, and sadly most restaurants that don't specialize in elegant dining simply don't train their wait staff very well.


If you want to see it done right, try Fluer de Lys on Nob Hill. Many other restaurants in the city send their waitstaff there (undercover) to see how it's done.

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Unless I have qualified the credentials of my server before hand, no one touches the wine at my table except me- or they're liable to get clam forked to the table top.

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In regards to fining, the fining agent is not something which could ever become part of the wine, though it may trap certain matter as it travels through the wine. When the wine is racked (via siphon, usually) the wine is separated from the dregs, and the finished wine shows no trace of the agent which has been used for fining.

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Also it is worth noting: Filtering is the process by which the wine is pushed through a membrane to removes certain elements (notably potassium bitartrate, and color pigments).

Fining on the otherhand is the process of adding non wine substances (usually protein, i.e. egg whites, milk, beef blood, et cetera, but also syntetic substances like spakleoid or ceramics) to remove undesireable characteristics like excessive tannin.

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Filtering is actually very common in most commercialy made wines with productions over 10,000 cases. It has two effects, one to increase the transparency of the wine, the second being to reduce sediment in the bottle and provide a more homogeneous finished product. Wineries do this because until recently most Americans have had little to no experience with unfiltered wines, and have shown a propensity to reject wines with sediment when they are served.

In recent years it has become fashionable among boutique producers to bottle their wines with little or no filteration. In theory this produces a wine with a more natural texture and a wider, more complex range of flavors, sometimes at the expense of clarity.

If a wine has been allowed to settle for at least a few days upon delivery before opening, and still shows cloudiness, this is likely due to some residual protein in the wine, and is technically speaking, a fault.

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Are you looking to give the gift of wine itself or wine related items?

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It's important to note that different publications rate wines differently. This is primarily due to the fact that different publications tailor their reviews to suit different audiences.

While I don't speak for the various publishers, here's a few points that I've found usefull when trying to reconcile a review with my own tastings or review vs. review.

Wine and Spirits is primarily targeted towards restaurants and bars, so their reviews tend tobe more favorable to wines which are ready to drink now. They also review liquor, so their bias tends to consumers who enjoy alcoholic beverages in general.

The Wine Spectator on the other hand is geared primarily toward the collector and enthusiast of wine. So their reviews tend to be more generous to wines which will require or benefit from cellaring.

The Wine Enthusiast is also geared specifically toward wine lovers.

Robert Parker of The Wine Advocate is focused on consumer activism, so factors like production/availability and value tend to be given great weight, as well as the overall quality of the wine. Parker also eschews advertising in his publication

The International Wine Cellar, published by Steven Tanzer is also consumer oriented, though Steve's palate tends more toward the classic, European profile rather than the stereotypical California.

Other publications have other factors that form their biases, things like is the wine "cool", or does it have a cute name or a funny gag associated with it. While we might scoff, things like this do sell wine.

The most important thing to remember is that a review is simply one person's opinion (or in vinquires case, an average of many individual opinions). While there are undoubtetly empirical criteria which inarguably contribute to the overall quality of wines, the experience of tasting wine is entirely subjective and your opinion will depend enirely upon the qualities that are important to you relative to your own experience.

When I asked a colleague what a point was, he said "I think that's what pokes through a sweater on a cold day" If that's true, then two should be plenty.


Look, trying to figure out what a real "90 pointer" is, is very much similar to figuring out what a real "two thumbs up" movie looks like (Was that worth both thumbs, or is it more of a one thumb and a toe?). The truth is there is no such thing, but if you follow an individual reviewer and take enough of their recommendations, eventually you'll find out whether or not that reviewers palate is a viable guide for you, and from there find a reasonable basis to make buying decisions.

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English sparkling wines you say? Made from elderberries no doubt?

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Well, I certainly had a fantastic time at Ft. Mason. If you missed it, get a ticket to New York before tomorrow. In addition to several hundred of Italy's very best wines, (including some very rarely seen bottles from Piedmonte, Bolgheri, and points beyond), the event was a virtual who's who of wine industry heavyweights. To top it all off there were some absolutely stunning cheese plates! (I must have eaten over three pounds of cheese myself, and it hardly made a dent in the supply). I'll be uploading some more reviews shortly and most of the wines are just begining to show up at retail so stay tuned.

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Two days left before the Tre Bicchieri show...Will anyone else from Vinquire be attending?

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It's one of the best best tastings in America as far as the overall quality and rarity of the wines themselves. If you go don't be afraid to say "hello."

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sorry about the typo (should read"... acknowleged...")

~ must be too much coffee.

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Tasting events will be held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York by Slow Food International featuring wines award Italy's highest honor for winemaking the Gamberro Rosso's "Tre Bicchieri" (Or "Three Glass") Award.

Each year a few hundred of the litteraly tens of thousands of wines made in Italy are selected for this high honor, and these tastings highlight some of the very best.

This is truly an excellent event and the wines featured are widely acknoiwleged as among some of the very best wines in the world.

If this is of interest to you please follow the link below for more information. If you'll be attending the event in San Francisco I hope to see you there!


Cheers,

Captain Caveman

http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/eve...

March 2: Los Angeles 4:30 - 7:00 PM
The Fairmont Miramar Hotel
101 Wilshire Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90401

March 4: San Francisco 4:30 - 7:00 PM
Herbst Pavilion at the Fort Mason Center
(between Fisherman’s Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge on San Francisco Bay)

March 6: New York 4:30 - 7:00 PM
Metropolitan Pavilion
125 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011

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Call 707 778 9900 for details.

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An event for singles interested in meeting others while tasting fine wine, beer, and Champagne.

Central Market Restaurant in Petaluma, CA

42 Petaluma Blvd North

November 3rd, 2007

1-5 p.m. $30 at the door

Apetizers, Desserts, Music, and Games!

I'll be there, and I'm always packing the goods.

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Not all that uncommon really. I've worked in several tasting rooms, and while that isn't the best way to handle it, most tasting rooms are understaffed by less than professionaly trained retail folks. Next time just say "That's not a doorknob! I'm just happy to see you."

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