Category: Wine (Buying) History

Thanksgiving Day Suggestion #4: For Those Who Really Need a Lot to Drink

Originally published on November 14, 2010.

A NOTE FROM THE PAST: Up at Copake Wine Works, we’re still big into box wine. The players may have changed, but good boxed wine still remains one of the best ways to stock up on something you know you like for every day drinking.

Full disclosure (because bloggers are very big on discloser): this post is essentially a re-run from last year.

Last year, in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I realized that a lot of people don’t really like their relatives and are making their wine choices with that in mind. “Lots of wine and cheap, because I really don’t like who I’m dining with,” was not an uncommon request.

The perfect solution?

Box wine. Good box wine.

A three-liter box = 4 bottles in one container, complete with a handy tap. One for the table and one for the kitchen and you’re set to deal with even the peskiest relatives.  This year’s selection includes a Cotes du Rhone, a cru Beaujolais, a Chilean Cabernet, a Chardonnay and a Riesling. Equivilized bottle prices range from just over $6/bottle for the whites to $14 for the cur Beaujolais (which also comes in a very cute wooden box.)

Quality and quantity. Let’s all give thanks for box wine. Good box wine.

Thanksgiving Day Suggestion #3: For Those Who Need A Lot to Drink

Originally published on November 14, 2010.

Maybe your family has a lot of thirsty mouths to fill. Or maybe you just like to come well prepared with quantity to spare. Or maybe you want to double duty: get a work out while pouring your wine. If any of these situations fit your bill, then consider picking up a magnum bottle or two for your holiday table. Two that we just happen to have on hand, one white, one red.

Catherine et Pierre Breton Bourgueil Trinch! 2009 Magnum (Bourgueil, Loire, France): A double bottle of red wine happiness. The Bretons are tip top producers in the Bourgueil sub-region of the Loire Valley. This region is where Cabernet Franc stands on its own, unblended with its usual partner, Cabernet Sauvignon. While the Bretons make some complex, age-worthy versions from single vineyards, their Trinch! It’s meant to be drunk young, fresh, and in quantity. And the name? Trinch! It’s the sound that glasses make when clinked together. Which should be done frequently.  Price: $42.99 (equivalent to $21.50/bottle)

La Pepiere Clos de Briords Muscadet 2009 Magnum (Loire, France): This wine is legendary among those who know good quality Muscadet. And it’s legendary among those who seek good quality wines at a very good price tag. And it can make you legendary among friends and family seeking something crisp, clean, delicious – and sneakily complex at the Thanksgiving table. Want to be a real hero? Buy a bottle now and take it to turkey day in a few years. Your patience will be rewarded. Price: $35.99 (equivalent to $17.99/bottle)

Thanksgiving Day Suggestion #2: For Those Who are Manly Enough to Drink Riesling

Originally published on November 14th, 2010.

There are many many meals at which a Riesling would be the perfect wine. The typical Thanksgiving spread is one of those meals. Riesling is light enough so that you can drink a lot of it. It won’t overwhelm the many flavors on the table. It has the acidity to keep your palate prepped for the next bite of whatever is on your fork. If there is one “exactly right” wine you could serve, Riesling is probably it.

I can tell you this. I can turn cartwheels while I tell you this. I can swear on various graves and religious texts and firstborn children. And you probably won’t believe me. Because it’s “Riesling.” And you don’t like Riesling. Because it’s sweet. And you don’t like sweet things (except for diet coke, and VitaminWater, and pumpkin spice lattes, and a bunch of other sweet things.) And I can tell you that you’ve probably only had badly balanced Riesling where the sweetness sticks out and gets a bit cloying. I can tell you that a hint of perfectly balanced sweetness is exactly what makes the wine work so well with so many food.

I can tell you all this and you still won’t believe me. So I’ll just try a little tough love.

GET OVER IT!

Man up (or woman-up) (A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: or how about just “human up”) to a wine that will really do justice to your Thanksgiving meal. Just try it. We have a selection of Gunther Steinmetz wines – Gunther Goodness if you’re feeling cheeky. They’re arranged below from dry to somewhat sweet. But all are perfectly balanced. Just get one of each, drink them in the order below…and then just try to tell me you don’t like Riesling.

Gunther Steinmetz Rieslings (Mosel, Germany)

Trocken 2009 1 Liter
Price: $14.99

Brauneberger Juffer Kabinett Feinherb 2009
Price: $19.99

Mulheimer Sonnenlay Spatlese 2009
Price: $22.99

Thanksgiving Day Suggestion #1: For Those Who Really Trust Us

Originally published November 13, 2010.

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Cue up the old lady crying into the wind. Other oldish-timers will look at the price below and start to scream as well. Lopez de Heredia Rosado was never meant to be a cult wine. At a long ago breakfast-tasting (yes, breakfast tasting,) Maria José López de Heredia told those of us there that this wine was something made just for the local people. It was something they liked to drink that was never really meant to be sold outside the town. If my numbers hold, I think the number of cases was something like 200. But it was sold out of town, and a handful of account fell in love with it, including mine. We would buy it five cases at a time. On deal pricing. Yes, long ago thre was a FIVE CASE PRICE on Lopez de Heredia Rosado. These days, you’re lucky if you can get FIVE BOTTLES!!!! Because if you do the math, even if every bottle of those 200 cases were sent to the USA (which they were not), it doesn’t take long before all those bottles are sold – with or without a five case deal. And this was a very long-aged wine…. so as I noted below, one year we were selling the 1997, the next year, the 1998. Then the 2000. And in 2010, this was probably around the time of that breakfast tasting with Maria José, when she quietly dropped the new that there would be no more rosado for many years, because they needed to let what they had age as the previous vintages had. (I think they “many” was seven, but I would need to check my notes.) So there was a very long period of no rosado to be had. When it eventually returned to the market, it had acquired the status of myth among a new crop of buyers It had also acquired a very new price – it now lists at most shops for over $100 per bottle. I don’t begrudge that price – this is truly a small production wine that requires a very long period of aging – and I think/hope that the winery is seeing as much of this price increase as the distributors and the retailers. There are many wines out there that cost as much or more and offer much less in terms of rarity and the time-value-of-money. But I do feel a bit of resigned nostalgia. Nostalgia for the ability to buy as much as I wanted whenever I wanted. And of course, for the price. But it was more than that – that general accessibility allowed the handful of buyers that fell in love with the wine to run with it for a bit, to make a market in it, to introduce it to would-be fans in our own communities. That was simply put, so very much fun. At the higher price – and given that each shop or account gets something like three bottles… you already have to be in the know if you ever want to drink it. And that’s a bit of a bummer.  And with that… the old lady crying into the wind is heading off to get her coffee.

I write this post every year. Well, to be completely frank (ha ha), I just cut and paste this post every year. Which I’ll do again, with a few notes about how this vintage differs from the last. So go ahead and read below…or be truly trusting and just click right through the Frankly Wines store. Lopez de Heredia Tondonia Rosado Gran Reserva 2000 (Rioja, Spain)

This post is a re-run. But I thought it was pretty perfect when I wrote it last year (and the year before that). And I still think it’s pretty perfect. The wine in question is the Lopez de Heredia Rosado. Two years ago the 1997 was in stock. Last year it was the 1998. And this year, it’s the 2000, which I find to have more of the mineral notes of the 1997 than the rounder, more tropical fruit of the 1998. But even at its fruitiest, this is not a fruity wine, which is unexpected for a rose. Unexpected enough that we stuck a warning label on the wine. But if you trust my pairing recommendations – and you’re up for a little adventure – a little Lopez Rosado could be just the thing to perk up your Thanksgiving spread.

Here’s the scoop:

Imagine Thanksgiving dinner (the food, not your crazy uncle or your tispy cousin-three-times-removed.) The cranberry sauce, the turkey, the yams, the turkey, the stuffing, the turkey. It’s a wine-pairing nightmare. But this is the wine that can handle it all. Delicate enough to handle the turkey (which let’s face it, is pretty bland), a little fruit to deal with the cranberries and exotic enough to stand up to the stuffing, yams, and even pumpkin pie. It’s perfect.

But it’s not exactly your typical rosé – it has some of the tangy-ness you’ll find in a good fino sherry, only a hint of fruit, and lovely exotic spices like cardamom and ginger. So if you’re intrigued and looking for a little adventure, track down a bottle and include it in your turkey day wine spread. You should be able to find it for under $30 which may be a lot for a typical rosé, but not this rosé.

Price: $23.99

A TALE OF TWO TRANSITIONAL REDS

Originally published on September 26, 2010.

Yes, this is a direct cut and paste from the Frankly Wines newsletter that was just sent out earlier today.  But hey, I’ll recall rules from my old corporate days – when I actually had money to manage a media buy.  This cut and paste job is not laziness…this is FREQUENCY!  And it’s good – and necessary – and cuts through the clutter.   So if you’re really paying attention to Frankly Wines missives, just ignore this.  If not, read on.

When fall weather hits, even the staunchest “crisp white wine” person may start to crave something red in the glass. But, like Goldilocks, you want something not too big, not too light…but just right. These two wines, both from stand-out vignerons, are just right.

CATHERINE ET PIERRE BRETON TRINCH! 2009 1.5 Liter (Bourgueil, Loire, France):
A double bottle of red wine happiness. The Bretons are tip top producers in the Bourgueil sub-region of the Loire Valley. This region is where Cabernet Franc stands on its own, unblended with its usual partner, Cabernet Sauvignon. While the Bretons make some complex, age-worthy versions from single vineyards, their Trinch! is meant to be drunk young, fresh, and in quantity. It’s an ideal introduction to Loire Valley Cabernet Franc, with red berry fruits and the underlying aromatic earthiness that sets the grape apart from Cabernet Sauvignon – but not so much as to scare off a Cab Franc beginner. And the name? Trinch! It’s the sound that glasses make when clinked together. Which should be done frequently.

Price: $42.99 (equivalent to $21.50/bottle)

MARCEL LAPIERRE RAISINS GAULOIS VIN DE FRANCE IX (Beaujolais, France): Beaujolais has a bad reputation. Much of it tastes like bubblegum and bananans. While this might sound like an excellent new lollipop flavor, it’s not what most people want in their wine. But this is not one of those Beaujolais. This from Marcel Lapierre, one of the masters of Beaujolais that tastes like real wine. We carry his Morgon from time to time and at under $25, it’s one of the great bargains in the wine world, capable of graceful aging, if you can keep your hands off it when it’s young. This one, which translates to “French Raisins,” is meant to be drunk now, like this afternoon.

Price: $11.99

From the Frankly Wines Shelf Talker Files

Originally published on September 18, 2010.

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Wine puns, they never get old.

OK, they’re not really shelf talkers (those actually attach to the shelf.)  They’re more like neckers, which slide on the neck of the bottle.  Except my neckers are actually price tags with just enough room to scribble a tiny little tasting note. 

Or a warning. 
Or a pairing suggestion. 
Or sometimes just a piece of near total nonsense.

The latter would be the case for the tag we’re putting on the Les Clos De Tue-Boeuf “La Butte” Gamay 2009 tomorrow.  Now this is very tasty wine.  It’s made by Theirry Puzelat, generally considered to the man among the too-cool-for-school natural wine kids.  Maybe because I get a little annoyed by the whole too-cool-for-school thing (perhaps because I haven’t been in school for a very, very long time), I haven’t spent much time with the Puzelat wines.  And these are wines that you really do need to spend time with – to try them at a trade tasting really doesn’t do them justice.  They’re not stand-and-spit types of wines.  They need a little thought.

But a little while back, I was at Ten Bells, bastion of vin natural, and decided to order a bottle of La Butte. And it was so crazy good that I spent most of the night ignoring my husband and friends while trying to keep the bottle very close to my glass. It was just bright and good and fruity and slightly funky and everything that is best about natural wines.

So I went and ordered a bunch for the store.  Because that’s what you do when you own a store and spend the evening with a wine that you really, really enjoy.  Especially when you can sell if for less the $15.

But…I was talking about shelf talkers. 

So here’s the shelf talker soon appearing on this wine….because potty humor never goes out of style:

La Butte…kicks ass.
La Butte…is the shit.
La Butte……we’ll stop now.

Much, MUCH more useful (and entertaining?) than a corporate shelf talker with a numerical rating!

Buying on Faith

Originally published on August 26, 2010.

I have tasted about 98% of the wines stocked on the Frankly Wines shelves. When a customer brings a bottle to the counter and asks if I’ve tried it, I’m always surprised when they’re surprised when I quote this statistic. But I forget that I operate in a very specific realm of the already rarified New York City retail scene. Most of the store owners I know taste everything on their shelves – and since the shelves aren’t all that big, it’s easier to do than if you owed a warehouse-sized space in the suburbs.

But there is that other 2%. Wine that I wasn’t able to try before buying. Wine that simply has to be bought on faith. Most of the time, I’ll get to sample a specific wine, either with a sales rep at the shop, at a trade tasting, maybe even purchased from another store because I’m too lazy to call in a request and set up an appointment. Most wines, even many really wonderful ones, just aren’t so highly in demand that you can’t take your time getting to know them.

But some wines are like NY real estate – at least NY real estate back in the good old days of, oh, 2008? You have to claim them before the boat has even left the dock on the other side of whichever ocean they’re coming from. Generally, I have some experience with the specific producer (vigneron, winery, whatever specific term applies). I’ve had past vintages, or a different blend or vineyard site – and trust the producer enough to not turn out some complete crap this time around.

But sometimes, I really am making a leap of faith. Like Tuesday night. I went to check out Eric Asimov’s “The Pour” column in the New York Times and it was on Bordeaux. Small, independent Bordeaux producers.

Now I love Bordeaux – mainly old-ish Bordeaux from good-but-not-glamorous houses that I can pick up at auction. It’s not in fashion, but I love it anyway. But Bordeaux from more recent vintages is a trickier proposition. Many of the producers that were turning out elegant, classic claret in the 1990s have evolved into a more modern style over the most recent decade. And style aside, they’ve also gotten very, very expensive.

But these smaller producers have been on my list of “wines to get to know.” I just haven’t had a chance to get to know them yet. So on Tuesday night, when I see the New York Times piece, I know there’s going to be a giant sucking sound and by Wednesday evening, there will be no more of these Bordeaux to be had until the next vintage rolls around.

Time for a leap of faith. I forward the piece to my sales rep at one of the featured importers. This is a guy who has never poured me a bad wine. Who has never misled me on how little of something is actually available. Who watches out for those last little bits of cases of things he knows I can work with. So the conversation basically goes like this:

  • I ask for a recommendation.
  • He makes it.

The Domaine de Jaugaret 2004 and 2005 arrives on Monday.

Photo Credit: laurenatclemson.  Creative Commons terms of use.

And Still More Validation of My Good Taste: Rouquefort Corail Rose in the New York Times

Originally published on June 9, 2010.

If you’re read this blog for any period of time, you’ll pick up on a couple recurring themes:

1. I don’t like when people ask me about parking rules

2. Corks. Lots and lots of corks. (Technically, you don’t need to actually read – just look at the background of the many of the pictures)

3. I’m a little crazed about Rioja…and the Jura…and Chateau Musar

4. I am always (not so) subtly pleased with myself when I already have something on my shelves that pops up in the New York Times Wednesday wine column.
Well….guess what happened today! One of my wines popped up again. The Chateau de Rouquefort Corail Rose 2009 was the #1 choice of the annual rose tasting panel.  Some of you may remember meeting the winemaker/owner, Raimond Villanueve when he was pouring at the store a couple months ago. Feel free to brag about that to your friends.

I won’t go on about the wine, because hey, you can read about it in the New York Times!

That Customer #4.6: The Unreliable Witness (Part 3)

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: I can’t believe that it took me nearly three years from opening the shop to stock this wine. And I can’t believe I stocked it on a whim! I still adore this wine and love selling it… and need to reorder it for Copake Wine Works soon. Looking back, this wine (along with the Bornard poulsard pet-nat) were probably the first big steps I took into the natural wine-proper side of things.

This would have been long before natural wine morphed into “natty wine,” when it was just starting to tiptoe into wine shops like mine – the cool, neighborhood-focused shop that stocked small production wines… but didn’t really focus too deeply on what “production” actually meant.

Originally published on June 6, 2010.

Time to wrap up on this Unreliable Witness series. I’m going to close it with a success story – and give a mention to a tasty, funky wine I’ve been wanting to mention for a while. A combo That-Customer-Wine-You-Never-Knew-You-Needed column.

Like I’ve said before, the best way to make sure you can find that great wine you had the other night is to write it down. Better yet, write it down….and take a picture. Then you can be the success story instead of the poor follow looking for the French wine with the house on the label.

Real Life Example: That Customer #4.6 – The Success Story:

So in this example, Customer #4.6 calls us. He’s looking for a wine he had the other night. He knows it was sparkling, had Dolce in the name, and was from somewhere in Italy. He thinks the producer was Donati and most importantly…he’s taken a picture of the label!

He emails it to us and yes, it’s dark and blurry and obviously taken at the end of a late night in a dark bar, but it’s enough that we can put everything together and confirm he wanted the Donati Camillo Malvasia Dolce Frizzante 2007

So we special ordered him a case and the story ended happily!

But that’s not the end of it…I was intrigued enough by his description to order an extra case for the store. Clearly, this was the rare…

Wine I Never Knew I Needed

Now I don’t usually order wine sight-unseen (well, bottle-un-tasted) but this bottle had several things going for it.


1) Customer #4.6 described it as a cross between cider, wheat beer, and cream soda, a funky combination I found oddly irresistible.

2) It’s part of the Louis/Dressner portfolio which is filled with oddly irresistible wines and one of a handful of importers from whom I’ll buy the occasional case without sampling.

3) I hadn’t been able to try it at the recent Louis/Dressner trade tasting because by the time I arrived (I always seem to arrive later than I’d like) it had already been drained by the sipping masses. While disappointing, this is usually a good sign.

4) It’s from the Emilia Romagna region of Italy, home to many delightful fizzy wines (including Lambruco) which the perfect companions to salty snacks. And I’m always looking for companions to salty snacks.

So I decided to make a leap of faith and bring in an extra case for the store. And it is indeed tasty. It’s not the easiest wine to sell – the cider/beer/cream soda description scares off a lot of people, as does the fact that it’s slightly sweet. But those who have tried it (me, my mother, a group of people in Indiana who keep ordering bottles of it) really like it.

It’s weird, but good. And we all need a little of that in our lives.

What to Drink on a Holiday Weekend: Suggestion #4 – Txacoli!

Originally published on May 31, 2010.

The holiday weekend is over, I’m closing shop in an hour, and I’m feeling lazy.  So even though I had always planned on posting about the summertime magic that is Txacoli, I’m going to take the lazy way out and point you to an older post about…the summertime magic that is Txacoli.

If you actually click through, you may notice I’m writing about the Ameztoi Getariako Txakolina. Yet in this post, there’s a picture of the Arregi Getariako Txakolina. Hmmmm, something a little (shell)fishy about that? (Shellfish – perfect pairing with Txakoli.) Certainly any wine retailer/blogger worth her salt(y snacks, another perfect pairing) can keep her bottles straight?

Sure I can. But like I said, I’m feeling a little lazy. And the old post describing that Txacoli also perfectly describes this Txacoli. But this one is $16 vs. the $22 – $24 the Ameztoi is now going for. Now the Ameztoi is tasty, and possibly even a slight bit more complex than the Arregi. But even the most complex Txacoli isn’t a terribly complex wine. Not that there are tons and tons of them floating around, but given the success of the Ameztoi, which used to be the only game in town, there are now a few more to chose from.  And most of them are less expensive, which is a good thing because having an under-$20 option makes it much easier to introduce the thirsty masses to the summertime joys of Txacoli.

My choice this year, the Arregi, was actually my choice last year. But by the time I had tried it, I had already made my Txacoli commitments for the summer. Txacoli is one of those wines where you guess what you’ll need over the summer, buy deep early on and hope you guessed right. Go too deep – you’re trying to convince people Txacoli is also an excellent cold weather beverage. Not deep enough – and you’re scrambling for more come the heat of August. Sort of like air-conditioning units during a heat wave.

Anyhow, that’s your lesson on how a retailer thinks about making the annual Txacoli purchase.  To read about the wine, like I noted above, go here and replace Ameztoi with Arregi.