Boo MFer! I was in Italy with my wife in early May and we did Venice, Como, San Quirico (Tuscany), Rome Vernaccia was also a highlight for us. We also visited Antinori and that was awesome as well. The highlight was a visit to Stella di Compalto… she only takes one tour a week and we booked one as soon as we knew we were going to Italy… I have a bunch of pics obviously and wish I was more proficient at getting them from phone to this site easily. Headed to Houston tomorrow for the vintage release of Realm wines… which were a huge fan of (clearly). They’re doing release events in Miami and NYC as well.
Planning a trip to Rome + Puglia next year. Thinking of stopping at Feudi di San Gregorio in Campania on the drive south. But mainly I’ll be pounding Primitivo. Fatalone is a producer I’ve enjoyed but never really spent much time drinking wines from Puglia/Campania.
If you like Syrah—and you should like Syrah—this was a great sub-$30 bottle and a producer I would recommend. Domaine Vincent Paris - St. Joseph - Les Cotes
Ready to thread the needle? I need a red wine to bring to a BBQ tomorrow. Anything under $100 preferrably.
High quality Zindandel (look for Bedrock Wine Co), should be able to get some awesome Cornas/Cote Rotie (Rostaing, shit even Guigal, Levet), Syrah from the USA like Stolpman or something might be more available where you are. Would also look for a couple other producers that if they're sold near you, do it: Comando G, Jonata (their Todos red), Venus la Universal, Sandlands anything.
This isn’t meant to shit on anyone in this thread, just think they are mid at best, even vosne romanee and aged ones just taste musty to me
For BBQ I love a Grenache or GSM blends with good acid (alcohol typically under 14%). Something like Chateau St. Cosme has a number of great bottles from Gigondas for like $40-70. Chateauneuf-du-Pape from a producer like Domaine St. Prefert would be really good too. You could also go to Bandol for a Mourvèdre based wine. As mentioned above, Syrah is good as well.
Fuck that. I Volnay & Pommard. Vosne Romanée, Chambolle-Musigny, Morey St. Denis are great in their own right but a hefty tariff.
Spoiler Bourgogne is probably overrated on average. But when you have a great one it’s an ethereal experience that just makes you reflect on how great wine can be.
I’d be open to trying some more, just having gone to burgundy and trying tons there, there were none that knocked my socks off, including multiple premier crus
For me, and I know plenty of people who don't agree, no where on earth is it more important to buy producer > vineyard than Burgundy. Premier crus in the hands of many are just so much worse than in the hands of a few.
We stayed in beaune, not sure all of the places we went to. I do agree with Yung/Embree even just based on the little that we saw that the producer was also super important as we sampled some grand and maybe even premier crus from smaller places that were relatively terrible. Like I said, I’d be open to trying others, just when I can get a $9 Tempranillo that was better than 90% of the stuff we had there (at least to my palate), that is why I see the region as overrated. I’m inclined to big tannic wines, so Pinot is not the best fit to my palate anyway. I’m also not truly a connoisseur and just drink what tastes good to me.
We stayed in Beaune too at Hotel Le Cep. There was a cool wine bar/store a few blocks away (wines by Maurice) that let us try a lot and gave recommendations. Otherwise it’s a minefield with high priced wines looking for great ones.
We stayed at the Abbaye de Maizieres in Beaune, highly recommended. There's a lot of bad wine marketed to tourists in Burgundy but if you're enjoying <$15 Rioja more than even most of those, then Burgundy probably just isn't for you. (Which is perfectly fair/fine, no judgement here)
Wines for Thanksgiving? small gathering this year… I brought a 2019 Aubert Sonoma Chard Dad provided a 2005 Jadot NSG village I brought 2007 Suduirat Sauternes 1/2 bottle for desert All were good, but the burgundy stood out after some time in the glass to open up.
I have a magnum of 2008 Le Cadeau Serendipity (Willamette Valley Pinot Noir) I’m assuming it is DistantFactor approved.
So is the play here to save $3k by buying 6 or do you just buy 5 bottles of Erath and one of these to save $508?
Any wine resolutions for the new year such as trying new producers, regions, etc? Last year my goal was to align purchases with or less than consumption because I had a bit too much. This year I think I want to make sure I drink more of my bottles with age on them. I have a tendency to think things should age longer than they need to. I opened a 2012 Chappellet Pritchard Hill tonight because I’m thinking is this going to get any better than at 12 years?
Ripped through a couple bottles of Stony Hill with my wife now onto some Occhipinti I think she’s going to eat me soon or throw up giddy up
I had 10 friends over on Friday for a blind tasting. Everyone brought a bottle or two. Nothing over $40. Things got hazy quickly. I’ve only found one producer that I really like and have bought allocations from. Alban vineyards. Mistakenly opened my second best bottle from them that I had wanted to age 5+ years. Oh well. Wine is meant to be enjoyed amongst friends and it was.
Yeah, Alban is fantastic. Weird (quirky) dude but fantastic wine. That is one allocation I’ve been buying more of recently despite trying to reduce overall. I can’t or haven’t kept track of the names of the wines though so it is hard to know what I’m opening in terms of price so I understand that ‘mistake.’
Alright friends, Napa trip booked for March, time to solicit recommendations from everyone for tastings. We’re doing 3 nights in Napa, 2 in St Helena but open to wherever. We have visited: B Cellars Viader Palmaz Spring Mountain HALL Frog’s Leap Del Dotto Cakebread Caymus Memento Mori Pride Schweiger Mondavi Opus One V Sattui
Continuum and Hunnicutt. Continuum property is awesome and they drove my wife and I around showing us stuff. Totally private. Just us and the tour person hunnicutt has a cool property and you done the tasting in this room
I inquired into Colgin and it was like a $275 tasting donation to charity per person, then it’s like $600 a bottle and my wife can never say no so I should probably just avoid that financial catastrophe altogether
Di Costanzo was in an office in St Helena but Erin was a hell of a host. Just depends on what you want. We did HALL as well and of course the atmosphere was amazing and the property fantastic.
We did Memento Mori in an office in Napa and fucking loved it. Their wines are awesome too. Hall I’ve heard good things from ppl but ours was just sorta so-so, probably depends on which tour and which host you get
I also love Macaulay wines. Small producer and they have a tasting room in st helena. Took some friends there are they liked it a lot david Arthur also has a sick property on Pritchard hill but best place I’ve been to for property + wine is continuum and I don’t think it’s particularly close
If Forman is still doing visits, highly recommend that one. Also Schramsberg...break up the big reds, get up in the hills, and check out some caves.