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A wee bit ago, working my way through one of the most god awful hangovers in recent memory, brought on by a night of, inter alia, Oregon Pinot, Eric and I decided that since the Bloody Marys and the viewing of "Bring It On" (my new favorite movie) didn't work, we would go eat. Below are some tasting notes I managed to transcribe while trying to keep down my rabbit gnocchi.1988 Pierre-Jacques Druet Bourgueil "Vaumoreau"
10/14/00: Bright ruby color, not yet browining. Nose of bell peppers, herbs, leather and deep ripe cherry. Inner mouth perfumed of pitted fruit, cherry stones, spices and cedar. Long with fully resolved tannin. Fresh and lively and an absolute joy to drink, even with a hangover.1980 Noel Verset Cornas
10/14/00: Still ruby in color with only the slightest hint of brick. Very suprising how youthful this wine is. Nose of smoked meats, blackberry fruit and coarse ground pepper. On the palate it has enough acid for definition and enough tannin to cut through the fat of my duck. A really great bottle and quite suprising.I hope that this contributes to the CWD. As much as I'd like to contribute in more provocative and interesting ways, my creative juices runnith not in said direction. Purple are mine teeth, spotty and hard doth mine liver be.
cheers.
nathan
Follow Ups:
Last time I drank the 1988 Vaumoreau, I thought it lacked vibrancy. I'm surprised it shows so well. The great vintage here is the 1990, which Druet can be convinced to pull out of his cellar every so often. Strange but true: my heart surgeon, Aubrey Claudius Galloway (no kidding, that’s his name) had an uncanny resemblance to Pierre-Jacques Druet. Frankly, this made me uncomfortable. Galloway, parenthetically, complained bitterly to me about how he could no longer afford Burgundies.Thanks for helping out on the CWD. I'm working on an article on the new Viré-Clessé appellation myself, in an effort to strengthen the CWD content. It will be full of obvious generalizations and a lot of fake provocations and postures of interest to next to nobody.
Oddly, the only wine I truly enjoy these days is Vin Jaune from Pierre Overnoy. This comes to mind because I once served this wine to the seemingly late Kay Bixler. My firm actually received a call from a reputable French restaurant in New Haven today inquiring about the availability of this wine. I'm not certain if this has anything to do with Kay's demise, but I suspect so.
Is it true that Georges Duboeuf is running TV ads for the Beaujolais Nouveau? I haven’t seen these commercials but I’m told that they exist. I do know that every obscure wine journalist in America is being offered a freebie to celebrate the first day of the nouveau at Duboeuf's factory in Romaneche-Thorins. I think there is some panic here, although I am not entirely certain that Nouveau sales are down. There are rumors that Duboeuf wants to organize a ten year vertical of all 10 Beaujolais Cru. But this was nixed at the last minute as there were fears that the event would detract attention from the Nouveau.
You know its a nice idea to celebrate and taste the new harvest. But since American's don't necessarily believe that wine comes from grapes on a vine but tend toward the notion that wines comes from the star winemaker/consultant, it does seem silly to celebrate a harvest here. So Nouveau has become just another wine/beverage category, rather than a cheap, fruity, lively wine that's easy to drink and get drunk with. Despite the cheap price of the wine, there seems to be enough generated Nouveau revenues to finance a Berlin Airlift of journalists ot Duboeufland.. I suppose I would accept a free trip to Romaneche-Thorins to celebrate the Nouveau with Georges, Franck and the whole gang, but only on the condition that I did not have to tour their Beaujolais musuem.
Am I the only wine geek who finds Bobby Valentine to be a grating personality? I don't like him and sympathize totally with Joe Torre's decision to release him during Torre's tenure as Met manager. Unlike Torre, Valentine is from Connecticut. And speaking of commercials and Joe Torre: what are those commercials with Joe Torre for something called AIG all about? They are very classy ads but I don't understand what the company is selling exactly. Nor do I understand the commercial about the guy looking at the retirement home for his father. Why is he so sad that his father doesn't live with him? The camera fades out and there is a voiceover that clearly is not the teary-eyes actor, talking about how this might be his father's last home. I don't understand any of it.
Does anyone understand why everyone at Mark Squire's board calls each other brother? I just looked in there tonight and can't explain the affectation. Are they all Racoons? I suppose one of the draws is that Pierre-Antoine Rovani is posting there and everyone can call him Brother Rovani. People here used to call Brad Kane, Brother Brad Kane. But Brad stopped posting in protest. Jason Brandt Lewis also stopped posting but I don’t think anyone used the Brother salutation with JBL.
Someone used to do a Wine Board Soup column here and I'm sorry they are no longer leaving posts. There is just so much going on these days on the other boards, kind of makes one embarassed to be here at the Asylum. There is a lot of overlap between all these boards, although I've always strongly objected to the popular theory that Kay Bixler was a fictional character invented and maintaned by Peter Finkelstein. But I do miss the Tom/Thor feuds, although I've never understood what any of them was about.
I suppose the Bize-Leroy 10 years of Bize-Leroy Grand Crus Jeebus was the Jeebus event of the 21st century. What an event! I actually know a couple of stiffs who were invited and it sounds like it was much more seriously organized that the type of Jeebus' that I attend. Plus, Madame Leroy had better stemware than we get at the Minetta. Brother Brad Kane always brings his Riedel glasses to the Minetta but he would be better served by bringing his own veal chop. Do you think Derek Jeter drinks wine? He just hit a home run.
Anyhow, it makes me worry that I am incapable of making judgements about Burgundy as I have never been to a 10-year Grand Cru Leroy Jeebus. How can I evaluate Burgundy without comprehensively knowing the point of reference for low-yield, biodynamique wines from the Côte-d’Or? Approximately 20 people attended the event and according to Mr. Rovani’s note on Mark Squire’s board, one of the esteemed tasters (who is unnamed) was so heavy as to break through one of Madame Leroy’s chairs. That has to be embarassing!
So are these 20 people the only people capable of making sound judgements about Burgundies? OK, deduct the guy who fell through the chair on general principle. That leaves just 19 people!
Scary, no?
Hello movie fans!Waiting for Kane I suppose is like Waiting for Guffman only I don't think it would make as good of a movie. At least Guffman had an excuse for not showing up. Me? I don't think Kane is ever going to show up here! So Joe, why don't you become the East Coast Correspondent for the Wine Asylum? You write using a lot of pithy, descriptive words and tackle issues that other wine boards wouldn't dare to raise.
And would George Dubeouf take me to France? I used to use his nouveau for Thanksgiving until I figured out that the Beringer nouveau tasted about the same and was 50¢ less per bottle. Is it true that they are chartering the Concord for the trip? Would I meet George in person? I'm sorry that they are not going to hold the ten-year retrospective but I missed the Leroy tasting as well so maybe I'll catch it on the next go-around.
With the higher-than-the-industry-average of females posting here, I don't think it would be a good idea to call each other "brother". Chet thought about joining the Shriners once but we went to one of their dances and it was dullsville squared. A bunch of old guys wearing fezzes mumbling into their scotch and sodas. And if we started calling each other "brother" and "sister", then we'd have to get a secret handshake and write bylaws and swear oaths of allegience and that would dissuade many people from partaking of the CWD's held here.
Finally, regarding the anti-anorexic who fell through his chair at the tasting, I would consider that a potential rating of the wine. Writers use terms such as "dumbfounded", "earthshaking", "mindblowing" (I think Ernest Hemingway used that one when he wrote about Rioja) and the like. Perhaps this fellow was just playing charades and wished to communicate that this tasting was a "groundbreaking tasting, set to rock the foundations of the Burgundy experience". Or perhaps he was just demonstrating the alcohol content of the wine. I'm going to have to look up this Mark Squire board.
Shalom-
Eden
My apologies for making a similar mistake with Mylunsch.I would consider taking over Brad's position, but I am afraid that my 'objectivity' would always be under suspicion as I am a member of the wine trade. Perhaps I am making fun of Georges Duboeuf because my firm sells the far superior Domaine des Terres Dorées Beaujolais, which is made only with wild yeasts, is non-chaptalized and whose owner is a helluva a guy.
Speakingo of Duboeuf. The common charge against his wines in the past was that they were made using the B71 Yeast. This yeast, added during fermentation, would give the 'banana' bouquet and the coffee candy taste. Duboeuf, who is sick of the criticism, is apparently using various industrial yeasts now and has enthusiastically embraced thermo-vinification. This is a method where the wines are brought immediately to an extremely high temperature and then lowered quickly. The methods gets super extract and color, but the wines all wind up tasting the same. Pierre-Jacques Druet, who is mentioned somewhere on the board today, uses the same technique on his Vaumoreau over the past few years.
Anyhow, though I have lots of interesting tidbits in my head (see above note on thermo-vinification), I am not prepared to handle the charges and counter-charges that will fly if he become a correspondent. Having recently gone through heart surgery, I am trying to lead a relatively stress-free existence. I have participated in wine boards where there is constant bickering and threats and I have no desire to ever be involved in such a crazy milieu again. It is why I have taken Asylum here.
I heard he hated disco - but that was probably the least of his problems. I didn't remember him saying "mindblowing", but I do remember something about the earth moving.
'88 Vaumoreau has always been a lovely wine. Like an earthier '93. Druet has generally claimed to prefer his '89 to his '90, and I must concur. The '90 is softer, but the '89 is longer, better-structured, clearer.Frankly, I prefer the '95.
All are too young.
I think the Mark Squires board is best avoided, but that's just my view. No sense, to me, getting exercised about what happenes there or what they call each other.
I must agree with you on all points. (Actually, it is not so much that I must, but simply that I do.)I think quantity must have been down in 1990 because availability was always limited. The 1988 you can still find sitting up on the warmest shelf of your local liquour store for about $40.
One of the great scares I've had was when the 1995 never showed up. Somehow my order hadn't gone through. There I was thinking I had just scored some of this great wine. I didn't find out until later. Fortunately I was eventually able to come by a few bottles.
Frankly, Dam, I prefer the 1996, and am determined to live long enough to be able to drink it in its prime.
I bought two bottles 1990 Vaumoreau (I regret not buying more, but what could I do? I was unemployed at the time. Still am, come to think of it) this year in the Commonwealth of Virginia for $27 (each, that is), with the Kysela label on it. I hear Kysela is one of the best tasters in the wine business. And that he has a daughter who is a gibbon.
Never heard of Kysela, but I'm sure he is very interesting if his daughter is a gibbon.If I had known, I would have gone all the way to the Commonwealth for 1990 Vaumoreau.
Apparently it's common for people in the wine industry either to be lower primates (and I don't mean backwoods bishops) or to have the genetic tendency show itself in their children.So I hear. Sounded fantastic to me until I met a few salespeople in wine shops.
I bought two bottles 1990 Vaumoreau (I regret not buying more, but what could I do? I was unemployed at the time. Still am, come to think of it) this year in the Commonwealth of Virginia for $27, with the Kysela label on it. I hear Kysela is one of the best tasters in the wine business. And that he has a daughter who is a gibbon.
Yes, I'm sorry. I did mean the 1990 Vintage. I'm agree with Sue Ng about how exhausting this week has been for New Yorkers with all these late night baseball games. I'm sorry for the confusion.On the other hand, I've had the 1988 several times over the past five years and have never thought that much of the wine. Druet was first getting to know his parcel. Or something like that.
I'm intrigued by the various wine boards and their respective constituencies. Maybe it is just a morbid fascination. Or maybe it is because I am in the wine trade. But, for whatever reason, I find it all fascinating, Brother Yanke.
Something like Monkey Therapy or who-knows-what. It will be the next wandering wine-geek destination, I hear.I once read on one of these boards that one of your children is a monkey. Named Chimp?
Is this true?
If the 88 is a dog, color me doghead, uh, on second thought, just send me a bottle of the 90. Pierre Overnoy is real wine? I thought that Kay Bixler was real. Did you know Peter Finkelstein lived in Annapolis and knows my uncle? Is Kay from Annapolis, I feel like I've met her somehwere. Ever since someone said that Eden was really Yaniger in disguise, I've had this vision of a squat, bearded lady where once a smart hotty resided. I think wine board soup is a good idea since I never have time to check other boards, besides this and the board that will not be named, although I think Robin is mad at me for coming down on this winebrats guy that writes a column. It is a really cad (I meant bad, but cad works too) column containing things that are patently not true. And he wastes good praise on bad wines. I didn't know that they call each other brother on Squire's board. Didn't you chastise me for posting there once? I wouldn't call Pierre brother, we don't look like each other at all, people might think I was a bastard. Jeter did hit a homerun. He is killing you guys. I miss the THor/Tom thing too, just because Thor is so bombastic. Maybe we can start one. Dressner, you don't know jack about wine, a termite would have to crawl out of your ass for you to know what an oak barrel was... Wheh, that's tiring, maybe we better not. I always bring my riedels too, it's really obnoxious, I have a riedel carrying bag and everything. I just can't help myself, I'm seeking help though. I think Lalou looks good for an old broad (I only use that term because she is French, and old enough to remember it fondly, not because I'm sexist) I saw her spraying her part of Clos de la Roche with a helicopter. Sulfur is allowed in Biodynamique. Why doesn't Pierre post here? Maybe I SHOULD check out Squire's board. I should probably get financial planning and insurance from AIG before I do, just so that I can look like Joe Torre...ciao.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Anyone who calls him or herself a "Brat" deserves whatever he or she gets.
Brother Coad.If you wouldn't have looked you wouldn't have known. Ask Jayson about that, he's the physicist.
You can find the latest addition to wine literature at:http://www.wineloverspage.com/bratinthecellar/brat102400.shtml
Its amazing how many bad wine journalists there are! And Georges Duboeuf is offering to fly them all to his factory in Romaneche-Thorins (in the Beaujolais) to celebrate the Beaujolais Nouveau. Plus he pays for the hotel and several helpings of andouilettes! Maybe that's what keeps the various Wine Brats of the world in business.
Anyhow, there is much wisdom in the latest Wine Brat article, which delves into the complicated question of food/wine matches:
"Who cares if you want Zinfandel with your green beans or peanut butter and jelly sandwich? If you like it, go for it! If you ask me that's part of what makes wine so fun."
And people make fun of us for coining the term Jeebus!
The key to being a successful wine journalist is inventing profound analogies that make no sense to anyone. The Wine Brat is not in that league. I personally go for the three T's as in: "The wine revealed gobs of tobasco that turned into tobacco and finished in a film of tar." It is also important for the wine to be 'revealing.' This has become a very popular verb amongs wine journalists.
Amen.
Three Ts, eh?Torrents of tarragon and thyme tickle your tastebuds, revealing a tingling finish as tight as the Taliban's turbans...
Oops, got a bit carried away there. But hey--I liked it, so I went for it! Who are you to oppress me with your rules, man?! You're not the boss of ME!
(Do you think I'm irreverent enough in that last paragraph? The young demographic really goes for that kind of thing. Or so I'm told.)
(Oh, and I hear that when 'reveals' becomes used up that 'exhibits' will take its place for a short period. Details to follow.)
The wine displays gobs of ....'Displays' also combines wells with almost any variant of the Three T's.
Exhibits. Reveals. Offers up.
That was the one I was trying to think of!I love that!
"This wine offers up unctuous gobs of yadda yadda yadda..."
Hee hee hee, what a hoot!
I'm going to start using it as soon as possible.
I was just extending the train of thought.Displays, exhibits, reveals, boasts, uncovers, disrobes - offers up.
I'm kind of curious why you have chosen statistics as a speciality. I think it is admirable, but why statistics and not math, for instance? I'm not joking here, I've never known anyone pursuing statistics as a vocation and am truly curious.Who are these winebrats anyhow?
Why? You hiring?Seriously though, I'm not really sure. I haven't looked that far into the future. Statistics is math lite. You can finish a degree by coming up with a novel practical application, not a new theorem. That would drive me mad. I'll probably work for the winebrats and help them to better focus their marketing. I don't know who the winebrats are, but it disturbs me that they are on part of my turf. Downright territorial.
Anyway Joe, education is an end in and of itself. Not only that, but it provides gobs and gobs of something which is revealed to be jammy and gulpable.
Are they gonna lose in 5?
I'd like to hire but none of us can figure out what the person would actually do beside collect a lucrative pay check.By the way there is a Pierre Overnoy -- I've visited his estate, tasted with him and eaten lunch with him. He does make Vin Jaune.
Stuart Yaniger is not Eden. No doubt about that!
Peter still lives in Anapolis and I have personally visited his home and dined with him, much as I visited and dined with Pierre Overnoy. Pierre Overnoy served a sausage from the Jura, Peter served a Frank Perdue Roasted Chicken.
Is it true that Bize-Leroy treats her vineyard by helicopter? I find that shocking. Trimbach does the same thing with the Clos St-Hune (I was there once while the helicopter was spraying) but Trimbach has no pretense of being in biodynamie.
So, is there a purity to statistics? Would graduate work in math be at a higher level of purity? At what level of quantitative geekness do you reside.
I would say that I'm somewhere in the middle of the road. Not nearly as geeky as if I studied pure Maths, but more geeky than those who are applied, as I'm sort of a Math-Stats guy (which is to say I mess around with the underlying math that run stats, or at least I'm learning to).I want to try some Pierre Overnoy wine. Garnet has the Savignin, what exactly is that? I'm assuming it's some sort of indigenous grape. Vin jaune is the oxidized wine, right? I'm not sure that oxidized wines are really my bag, but I'd be willing to try it, unfortunately, it looks like all the cult wine speculators have snatched it up in hopes of reaping huge profits on the secondary market.
I thought the helicopter wierd too, but it's suprising what is and is not allowed in biodynamie. By the way, I'm not really convinced in biodynamic viticulture. I think you should really be aware of what you are doing to your soil and vineyard, but ought to lso keep an open mind. Biodynamie is too much of a religeon for me, and religeon of any type I find scary. What was that guy's name who founded it Bernd Esch...
Sorry about the Mets. I was on your side.
cheers.
nathan
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