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Meet the Wine Importer at Alias Restaurant's Full Moon Dinner
Monday December 8th
Call 212.505.5011for reservations
Janet and Mary-Beth Nelson have announced an exciting new Full-Moon Dinner Program at Alias Restaurant at 76 Clinton Street, on New York's Lower East Side.
The Nelson sisters, who are also proprietors of 71 Clinton Strreet, are generally credited for launching the new restaurant scene on Clinton Street.
The Full Moon Dinner will cost $75.00 and includes five dishes and five wines designed for the Full Moon experience. Executive Chef Anthony Rose, along with Executive Wine & Beverage Manager Warren Fraser, have decided to inaugaurate the Full Moon Dining Program with a selection of Lunar-complementary wines prepared in partnership with executives from Louis/Dressner Selections.The following menu was organized through extensive tastings of 25 mystical wines from the Louis/Dressner portfolio:
Oyster and Sweet Dumpling Squash Stew served with
David Léclapart Champagne Cuvée l’Artiste Non-Dosé
Chatham Cod with Sunchoke Purée, Frisée and Braised Pork Belly served
with Domaine Viret Cosmic 2000
Duck Breast and Sausage with Cured Savoy Cabbage and Russian Banana
Fingerling Potatoes served
with Domaine Overnoy Arbois Pupillin Savignin Blanc 1998
Plateau du Fromage
with Mas de Chiméres Côteaux-du-Languedoc 2001
Empire Apple Flatbread with Il Laboratorio Gelato flavored
with Eric Texier Noble Rot 2000 (botrysized Mâcon-Bussiéres)
Put this exciting event on your calendar.
Call today for reservations. Places are filling up fast!
I will be attending and will be available to discuss the wines.
Warm Welcome to Ryley Wheeler
Congratulations to Linda Brown and Michael Wheeler!
Had a Great Time in New Orleans!
Denyse and I had a great time in New Orleans.
We're still drunk from consuming endless Daiquiris.
I think the best Daiquiri made in New Orleans, without a question, is at the Dacquiri Deli on 617 Decatur Street. Conveniently, there is also an ATM in the store, if you run out of cash while downing their delicious Daiquirs.
This is an establishment for purists -- no pina coladas here! The store is technically in the French Quarter, but is discreetly located off the main Bourbon Strip. This is a Daiquiri shop for the serious Daiquiri drinker.
What a town!
We tried some Daiquiri magic last night at home in Manhattan. It is not quite the same as being in New Orleans, but we had a great time. So did the kids and the dog. Try this Daiquiri recipe:
Joe Dressner's Banana Daquiri Mixer
1.5 oz ( 45 ml ) Lower Shelf white rum
1.5 oz (45ml) banana liqueur
1 oz( 30ml) creme de cacao
1 large ripe banana (broken into chunks)
12 ice cubes
Put all the ingredients in a Hamilton Beach Blender (put ice in first, then liquids). Break up most of the ice then blend until no chunks of ice remain. Pour into tall glasses. Makes two drinks. Repeat seven times to serve two people.
Polama is Wine Spectator Wine of the Year!
Congratulations to the whole Polama team!
Frankly, I have no idea what this wine could be. Who makes it and where does it come from? Is it any good?
I'm a fairly experienced wine person, being a wine importer, but it is true that I don't keep up with New World wines. Maybe this comes from California?
Do you know anything about this wine other than it is the Wine of the Year? Please let me know by cell phone, e-mail or in the comments section of this site.
By the way, I've gotten lots of requests from readers to see pictures of Mike Wheeler and Linda Brown's baby. Ryley.
I hope to have a picture soon.
Congratulations to Mike and Linda. I will be buying them a Jeroboam of Polama 2003 when Polama releases the vintage. If I find out where you order Polama wines.
New Orleans
What a city!
We've had some great meals and eaten a lot of delicious debris.
Today, we are doing a trade tasting at Cuvee Restaurant, who has graciously asked us to find a way to get Louis/Dressner wines into this city. This might be the first wine trade tasting ever scheduled the day before Thanksgiving. We are planning a follow-up tasting in Dallas, Texas on December 24th. We also lack distribution in that important state.
There is a lot of alcohol being consumed in this state. Perhaps more Alcohol is consumed than debris.
Just last week, my son came home drunk. I had a father-to-son talk with him, in my den, on Sunday morning and told him to avoid getting drunk. My son was exasperated and pointed out that I was a wine importer. I asked him what he had been drinking and he responded: "Claude Dugat Grand Crus from off vintages."
Maybe my son is drinking Charmes-Chambertin, but my guess is that most of the revelers in New Orleans are drinking something else.
Walking through Bourbon Street, one thinks longingly of Prohibition.
The Wine Importer Proudly Partners With New Blogging Journal
We are pleased to announce that The Wine Importer is now partnering with Bloggers, an international Blogging journal.
The object of this new venture is to forge ties between the international blogging community. This community includes both wine and non-wine blogs.
We hope you buy the premier issue of Bloggers, which is now available at your local newstand. It does not include any pornographic photos of Paris Hilton, has no articles about Michael Jackson, and does not mention the 100-point wine scoring system once!
Terres Dorées Beaujolais Nouveau Vieilles Vignes
We just did a double-blind tasting of Beaujolais Nouveau in our office. We went back to the 1998 vintage and all told there were wines from seven different Beaujolais Nouveau producers.
The unanimous favorite was Domaine des Terres Dorées Vieilles Vignes 2003! The wine has structure, some tannin, loads of fruit, depth and a long finish. Yes, it is almost too good to be a Nouveau, but it is a beautiful reminder of that hot, hot, awfully hot summer.
From my tasting notes:
Fresh and youthful, probably from this year's vintage. Tastes like it is from limestone, rather than granite. This is a lascivious, powerful, smoky sex pot of great fruit intensity, purity, and voluptuousness...."
The wine will officially be for sale tomorrow.
Unfortunately, we did not have a bottle of the regular cuvée.
Tomorrow, we will give samples to The Wine Spectator, who will savage the wine, as they do annually.
Great Spam
I am now using a great product, Mailblocks, to get rid of spam. I get nearly 400 e-mails a day, with maybe 10% of them actually being real messages from real people to me. The rest are the usual array of penile enlargement, viagra, breast enlargement, mortgages, Christian dating (I'm big with these people), etc.
Today, I got some interesting wine spam from Jennifer Pollock, a salesperson at Vino Veritas. Jennifer can be reached at 1-707-836-8855, which is the store number. This is a store in an unlikely place called Windsor, California.
The spam read:
2001 Hundred Acre Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon
Hundred Acre Vineyard
Napa, North Coast, California, USA
Cabernet Sauvignon (a dry red table wine)
36b available $150 a bottle
Said to be the next Screaming Eagle. This wine has yet to be released and has limited allocation.
Wine Advocate #142 (Aug 2002) Robert Parker (92-94) points Drink 2002-2017 The 2001 (1,500 case of 100% Cabernet Sauvignon) may be the Le Pin of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a lascivious, powerful, smoky sex pot of great fruit intensity, purity, and voluptuousness...."
I passed on this offer, but the 36 bottles might still be available.
Plus, I have to hand it to wine journalist Robert Parker for coming up with the phrase: a lascivious, powerful smoky sex pot of great fruit intensity, purity and voluptuousness.
Wine journalism is a difficult field and it is great to see Mr. Parker finding new ways to describe exciting new wines. We need this sort of creativity in the wine industry!
What is a Po' Boy Anyhow?
I'm going to New Orleans on Monday and still have no idea what a Po' Boy is and where I should buy one.
Which Savenièrres and what vintage goes best with a Po' Boy?
Are there many different Po' Boy flavors?
West Coast Wine Net
This is one of the major internet wine discussion boards. The participants here like a wide range of wines, including many wines from California. They also like football and tend to be very American in their politics and cultural biases. Women tend not to participate on wine boards, but I think this wine board might ban female participation. I'm not sure about this though.
I took a look today and was surprised to see the following remark, made by a Mr. John B-Wood (please note that Mr. B-Wood hyphenates his last name), in a discussion of wines with big points:
I'll take a random Louis/Dressner import over a random Parker 97-100 pointer
I disagree with Mr. B-Wood and would gladly take a random Parker 97-100, if nothing out of intellectual curiousity. Plus, Robert Parker likes many of the great wines of the world, wines that I also love. Mr. B-Wood is going to some rhetorical excess here, I'm afraid.
But thank you, Mr. B-Wood, for the kind thoughts.
I often enjoy reading this wine board. The members like to use lots of all-American phrases like Turley Rocks and I admire them for their enthusiasm and American excitement and passion. One gets tired of all the overly intellectual wine discussions and these guys enjoy consuming wine. They know how to get that buzz!
I would participate, but I know nothing about football.
Wine Tasting Note of the Month!
In my efforts to avoid working, I look in at some of the wine internet boards.
My congratulations to John Blackwood, someone I've never met, for the following tasting note:
Verget 2002 Saint-Veran, Hauts de Leynes. A relatively inexpensive delivery system for chardonnay-flavored alcohol and not much more.
Not bad!
Louis/Dressner Selections Now Working with Oratoire St-Martin
We've been selling wine from Marcel Richaud in Cairanne, off and on, for almost ten years now.
We are now adding to our portfolio the great wines from Marcel's good friends and neighbors Fréderic and François Alary at the Domaine Oratoire St-Martin. We now have the agency for New York/New Jersey.
Oratoire St-Martin's wines have been in this area for years now and we are deeply gratified to be working with the Alary brothers.
All Our Thanks to Arrowine!
Arrowine of Arlington, VIrginia, has just come out with their Thanksgiving Newsletter.
We want to thank Doug Rosen and Vicki Reh for the fabulous job on the newsletter. We rarely appear in such slick circumstances!
Take a look at newsletter by clicking below:
Fabulously Done Arrowine Newsletter Featuring Louis/Dressner Wines,
Off to New Orleans!
Denyse and I are off to New Orleans on the 22nd to spend Thanksgiving and Mardi Gras in that jazz-enchanted city.
We haven't been there for a few years, so please feel free to let us know any restaurants or sites we should not miss. All recommendations are appreciated and should be duly noted in the comments section below.
Denyse and I during our last trip to New Orleans
A leading New York sommelier has told me that you can't find Muscadet in New Orleans. Apparently, the entire city does not have any dishes that Muscadet would match well with. Too much gumbo.
I might have to bring a few bottles with me.
Name that Confrérie!
You heard of the Conférie du Tastévin.
Then there is La Chaine des Rotisseurs.
In the Southwest they have the Confrérie du Cahors.
And even the Beaujolais has the Compagnons du Beaujolais.
Name the Confrérie pictured below and win a free bottle of a good wine from Louis/Dressner Selections (assuming it is legal for us to ship you the wine). Please enter your response in the comments section of this post or call me on my cell phone.
New Distributor in California
I want to thank Estate Wines Ltd for taking on the burden of distributing our wines in California. We have had weak distribution in California in the past, but after spending last week out in California, I am certain that we are finally in good hands.
Incredibly, Estate Wines Ltd. has a strict policy that suppliers are not allowed to pay for their lunches or dinners when they are doing work-withs. A work-with is the industry name for the odd ritual of having a vendor/supplier drive around in a route salesperson's car all day. The vendor/supplier tries to extract information out of the salesperson dealing with byzantine political maneuverings at the wholesaler. That being done, the vendor/supplier incites the salesperson to sell more product. If both are men, the day degenerates into vulgar commentary about women and sex.
At lunch, the salesperson plots how to extract the maximum meal ouf the supplier/vendor. This usually involves going to the salesperson's most expensive restaurant account and ordering a major meal. The salesperson is certain to order an impressive wine, usually from Robert Chadderdon (who dines nightly at the same restaurant), in an always vain attempt to impress the sommellier. The check arrives at the end of the meal, and without saying a word, it is understood that the supplier/vendor is paying.
This has always been the way of the Wine Industry. But EWL's position is that if the supplier spends the money and takes the time to come out to California, the least the wholesaler can do is make them feel at home and take care of bills for meals. As far as I know, this is the only company in the trade with this policy.
I found this policy confusing and was disoriented during a good part of my trip. I am used to salespeople who not only expect you to pay for them, but who often do not say thank you at the end of the meal. It was a strange experience.
EWL is a class operation and I want to thank them again for their investment of time, money and their confidence in our vignerons.
Things I Don't Understand About the Wine Industry
I spent most of October visiting various Americans trying to convince them to buy our wines. Although I have been a member of the Wine Industry for 16 years now, many things about the industry continue to battle me:
- How can a top restaurant not have a top Muscadet on their wine list?
- How does Robert Chadderdon run a multi-million dollar, successful business with only one person working for him?
- How can Mr. Chadderdon eat out at a top restaurant nightly and still remain fabulously healthy?
- How can Sherry-Lehman run the exact same ads in the New York Times, only with vintage and price changes, for the past 16 years?
- Are the owners of Sherry-Lehmans really good friends with Jean Sauvion, the Wizard of the Loire Valley?
- Does Sherry Lehman's good friend Georges Duboeuf, the Wizard of the Beaujolais, really makes special bottings for Sherry-Lehman?
- Are Jean Sauvion and Georges Duboeuf also good friends?
- Did the ownership of Sherry Lehmans introduce Jean to Georges?
- Who picks up the check if Jean Sauvion, Georges Duboeuf and the owner of Sherry Lehman go out to dinner together?
- Who set the industry-wide profit margins for wholesalers, restaurants and retailers? Is there a secret committee somewhere?
- How many Vin de Pays Merlot can the Costieres de Nimes region be producing?
- Why does no one talk about Heidi Barrett anymore?
- Why does no one talk about Russell Herman anymore?
- Where does Michel Rolland find the time to consult to so many wineries all over the world? I barely have time to run my business, see my wife, talk to my children and walk my dog Buster. Let alone write this blog. Perhaps Michel Rolland does not have a dog?
- Who are all these PR agents in the Wine Industry? Since there are only two or three journalists who sell wine, what accounts for the existence of so many pr people? How many events can Robert Parker attend a week? I know for a fact that Robert Parker also enjoys spending time with his wife, daughter and dog.
- Why are Gris du Toul sales flat? Is there still so much anti-French sentiment out there?
- Why would anyone in their right mind want to make Marquis Philips or Yellow Tail?
- Why would anyone in their right mind want to drink the above?
- Is it possible that there is not a single bottle of Romorantin in the entire state of California?
Jean Paul Brun Says his 2003 Beaujolais Nouveau's are The Best He Ever Made!
Jean-Paul Brun of the Domaine des Terres Dorées, just told me that the 2003 Nouveau is the best he ever made.
The old vines tastes like a finished Burgundy, the young vines are fruity and supple.
I told him that I was going to quote him on the internet.
Jean-Paul seemed a bit hesitant, after all he could be wrong, but then told me to go ahead.
Jean-Paul Brun will stake his reputation on the 2003 Beaujolais Nouveau!