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Allez les Bleues!
I'm off to France tonight!
First stop is Sunday's gala reception and World Cup Final viewing at the newly-opened Musée du Quai Branly. The French government has invited all recipients of the Order du Merite Agricole, to this exclusive gathing to root, root, root for the home team. Strangely, I did win this award several years ago for my service to French viticulture, even though I'm totally indifferent to soccer. But I'm not one to turn down an important honor like this!
On Monday, I'm off to Vertus, to meet, taste and rehash the exciting Sunday night soccer game with Sophie and Pierre Larmandier. I'm hoping to taste a vertical of non-dosage Champagnes, since I always have to hear how dosage helps Champagnes age. I don't believe it and would like to taste some older bottlings
On Tuesday, I'm off to glamorous Poil Rouge, smack dab in the center of St-Gengoux-de-Scissé, where I will reunite with my wife, three children and dog. Maybe I'll rest some, maybe we'll go see growers in Burgundy and Beaujolais. We will grill some good steak from the Charollais and eat some declicious goat cheese from Marc Groseiller. There are many pleasures to being in the Mâconnais and I intend to enjoy my stay, regardless of the outcome of the World Cup final.
I'll be back in New York in mid-August. Have a great summer, drink lots of White Poulsard, and buy lots of 2005 Bordeaux Futures!
Shamelessly Quoting the Wine Advocate!
I'm exhausted. I've spent the past five days cleaning up my apartment in preparation for major renovations. My wife, daughter and dog are in France. My son is in Italy. My parents are home and are ill.
I'm depressed and despondant.
The latest issue of Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate just arrived at our office. I"ve dropped everything and ordered tens of thousands of dollars in Bordeaux futures. From what I've read, this could be almost as big as 1982! I missed out on buying a coop apartment in Manhattan when the market was low and I missed out on the 1982s. I'm not going to be caught flat-footed yet again.
There are also lots of reviews of Zinfandels, wines from Oregon, Best Value wines, New York State wines and White Burgundies. Of all those wines, the only ones I drink are White Burgundies, but it turned out that the coverage from Pierre-Antoine Rovani was only about the Mâconnais and Chablis.
As a homeowner in the Mâconnais, I'm glad to see the region get such extensive coverage, even if it is three pages less than what New York State gets. Hopefully, this will help raise the property value of my home in Poil Rouge and compensate for my sluggard home ownership status in Manhattan.
Even one of our estates is reviewed, the Domaine de Roally which is now owned by the Thevenet family of Clessé. Yes, it is a review of the 2003 Mâcon-Montbellet, a wine which is very hard to sell because every wiseacre in the wine industry knows that you should avoid any 2003 white like the plague. Mr. Rovani writes:
The rich intense 2003 Mâcon-Montbellet explodes from the glass with sumptuous aromas of pears, apples, almonds and minerals. This outstanding effort is broad, suave, medium-bodied, silky-textured, and jam-packed with salty, honeyed minerals. Drink this highly expressive wine over the next three years.
The wine also garners a lot of points for a Mâcon. As high as any other Mâcon and at half the price of the similarly pointed wines. You'll have to look up the point total in the Wine Advocate, because even though I'm shamelessly quoting their review here, I still have too much self-respect to mention point totals. Bear in mind, this is no Cult Cab or Australian Shiraz and there is a mathematical ceiling for the category to assure Marquis Phillips fans that this wine is not competitive with one of the Marquis' efforts.
Like Mr. Rovani, I love this wine and find it atypical for a 2003. That is, there is none of the excess of the vintage, the low acidity and flabbiness that you find with so many Chardonnay's. There is also none of that high acidity produced by reacidification.
I remember getting a call from Jean Manciat, a vigneron in Charnay, after the harvest, who had seen the Thevenet vineyards during the harvest. Manciat was astounded that there was a normal size harvest, as opposed to the reduced size around the Mâconnais, and by the health and vigor of the vine. Unlike everywhere else, these were not stressed vines.
For Manciat, it was the most convincing argument he had ever seen for plowing and working the land and for only using natural products. Thevenet and Henri Goyard before him, have been working like this for decades, not simply for the past few years because it has become fashionable to work organically or biodynamically. These vineyards are historic treasures which are living organisms. The proof is in the bottle, year after year.
We received a lovely note from Gauthier Thevenet after the harvest, explaining how things had worked out:
The exceptional weather conditions and extreme drought of summer 2003 forced us into a very unusual harvest.
We started our harvest at the end of August (late September is the usual time) by picking the grapes hanging on the southern side of the rows. These are the least protected from the sun and were at risk of drying out.
Then, since rain was predicted by weather forecasts, we decided to take a break. Rain at the end of the growing season usually helps the grapes to reach optimum ripeness, and we still had to pick the bunches growing in the shade of their leaves.
After the rain, we went back to harvesting by the middle of September. As we had done in August, we only picked in the morning to avoid the excessive heat of the day.
We noticed that the regular plowing done for years prevented the vines from suffering from the lack of water through the season.
As for the wines, they have kept their natural balance and we did not reacidify them. They look like wines with finesse and a good potential for long aging.
All too often, when we speak about natural and real wines, we sound like dogmatists or purists. The 2003 Mâcon-Montbellet is vivid proof of why this style of work in the vineyards and the cellar makes all the difference in the world.
I have to go back to cleaning my apartment.
The Next Big Thing?
Everyone in the wine world is always recreating themselves. This is particularly true on the cutting edge where every form of extreme viticulture or winemaking becomes stale when a new generation goes one step further. Louis/Dressner used to be cutting edge, years ago, but now we're as old hat as barrel-aged Chardonnay.
I've heard rumors about the latest new thing and I'm hesitant to get involved. Apparently, there are winemakers playing around with using organic material and compost from dead human beings to enrich and develop their terroir.
Will this be the next big thing?
Sounds sort of creepy, but stranger things have worked. But I'm remaining cautious until I do a definitive tasting of wines raised in dead human matter. I hear some of our younger competitors are already jumping on the bandwagon.
Dinner with Friends
I'm all alone in New York and have to go eat with some wine geeks at a BYOB restaurant.
Here's what I'm bringing:
Bleu Marine Savignin 2004 from Jean-Marc Brignot
Les Mouches ont Pied from Jean-Marc Brignot (New York's current leading cult wine)
La Pangée from Domaine le Briseau
Philippe Pacalet Gevrey-Chambertin 2004
Philippe Pacalet Pommard 2004
I'm kind of nervous about the selection. The people I'm dining with are either big fans of Joseph Drouhin or Turley Zinfandels. I've been tormented all day about what to bring.
What would you do?
Don Francisco's Brilliant Chilean Wines!
I was pleased to attend a private tasting earlier this week of Chilean wines from Don Francisco, the famed television entertainer best known for his brilliant work on Sábado Gigante.
Some quick impressions:
Don Francisco 2004 Cabernet -- Deep ruby colour, with purplish rim, intense dark frut. Nose of mulberries, eláter and cinnamon. Palate is firm and full bodied, with oak in the background.
Don Francisco 2004 Merlot -- Deep ruby colour. Up front red-fruit nose, with herb and mint backdrop. Palate is round and warming with cherry and raspberry tones.
Don Francisco 2004 Sauvignon Blanc -- Clean, fresh nose with citrus and floral aromas. Palate is crisp but with appealing weight in the mouth. Bone dry with green apple and pear flavours, good length and lengthy finish.
Don Francisco 2004 Chardonnay -- Pale yellow straw colour. clean nose, aromas of peach and lime. Palate is dry and mid weight, with a hint of smoky oak, and fresh apple fruit.
Don Francisco 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Private Collection -- This cabernet sauvignon has a nose of ripe cassis with hints of tobacco and sandalwood. A palate oozing with blackcurrant and dark chocolate.
Don Francisco 2004 Chardonnay Private Collection -- This cardonnay is packed with creamy pinapple and vanilla laid on top of a lovely mineral acid backbone.
Some additional information about the man behind the wine:
Dom Francisco has always dreamt about owning a winery and finally his dreams have come true.
Don Francisco (Born on December 28, 1940 in Talca, Chile) is the artistic name of Mario Kreutzberger, a Chilean television host. He was born into a German Jewish family; his parents had fled to Chile escaping from CENSORED persecution.
As a youth, he traveled to New York to study to be a tailor, but he spent most of the time watching TV. Back in Chile, where TV was just beginning, Don Francisco started a TV show in 1962, and he named it Sábados Gigantes. In it, he adapted many of the formulas he had seen in American TV to the Chilean public. The show became an instant hit that has lasted 40 years as the #1 viewed show in Chile. In 1985, the show began to be produced in Miami, Florida, with the same formula used in Chile, with the slightly different name of Sábado Gigante.
Don Francisco immediately became a household name among Latino families across the United States, and in the following five years, television networks from all over Latin America started buying the show. Spain also became a show customer during that period, and with that, 99 percent of Spanish language speaking people knew who Don Francisco was. For a few years, he continued flying weekly to Chile to tape the Chilean Sábados Gigantes, and back to Miami to do the international show.
He has a three hour long variety show, including contests, comedy, interviews and a traveling camera section. The traveling camera section, or Cámara Viajera (originally La Película Extranjera, The Foreign Film), has taken Don Francisco to over 185 countries world-wide, many of them more than once.
He not only imported from American TV some of the ideas for his show, but also the idea of doing a Telethon, similar to the one Jerry Lewis has done for years in the USA. Don Francisco has done many telethons to raise money for disaster relief and to help disabled children.
Don Francisco in his show has interviewed many celebrities, including Roberto Duran, CENSORED CENSORED, Cristina Saralegui, CENSORED, Charytin and many others. In addition, his show has launched the careers of many famous entertainers, such as Sissi, Iverson and many others.
In 1992, Don Francisco was accused by Kay Bixler, one of his models, of sexual harassment, but the charges were dismissed.
Nowadays, he has stopped flying back and forth between Miami and Chile each week to tape both the Chilean show and the international show, and his daughter Viviana is becoming quite famous as the host of the Chilean show. Apparently, having to travel so much between Miami and his home country each week, plus having to travel to worldwide locations to tape La Cámara Viajera, was becoming too strenuous for him.
Also, he hosted a season of the Chilean version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and Deal or No Deal.
In 2002, Don Francisco's show completed 40 years, and its host said he has no plans to retire until the day he dies.
On April Fool's Day, 2003, a rumor that Don Francisco had died surfaced around the New York and New Jersey area. The rumor proved false.
Details Coming Together for October 24th or Maybe October 25th Louis/Dressner Tasting
We are already planning for our gala late fall tasting on October 24th or maybe October 25th.
Make sure to circle your calendar for both these dates and continue to look here for a more precise announcement.
Monique and Pierre Luneau will be attending this year, the first time they have travelled from the Muscadet to Noho. We will be showing a broad range of wines from them that are not available, but which will give everyone an idea of how great Muscadet can age and develop. These wines will include:
Le L d' Or from 1982, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005
Terroir Schistes Semper Excelsior Les Noelles from 2001, 2002 and 2003
Terroir Schistes Semper Excelsior Le Poyet from 2002
We'll also have snacks and stemware.
Philippe Pacalet Burgundies
I recently had to drink a couple of Joseph Drouhin Burgundies and they made me think how happy I am that we are importing Philippe Pacalet Burgundies.
Drouhin is a reputable and admirable firm and many geeks I know seem to love their wines. Drouhin makes sound and often excellent wines and in all fairness I was not drinking wines from great vintages. They were solid and without excess, but they did not have the finesse and beauty that everyone associates with Pinot Noir. Or at least, that they used to associate with Pinot Noir. There was something dried and clunky which took away from the wine and finally which dominated what I was drinking.
Pacalet's 2004s recall another flavor and sensory profile. The wines almost suffer from aromatic intensity and subtlety -- something complex is going on in the glass, something that transcends technique. Perhaps there is even some terroir.
Philippe buys grapes only from pinot fin plantings, that is from the old massale of Pinot Noir, and vinified gently without sulfur. A small amount of sulfur is added at bottling for stability, but the wines keeps its purity and attraction.
People write about Pinot Noir with religious fervor but I rarely find drinking Burgundies a religious experience. Pacalet has restored my faith.
By the way, I took a look at Drouhin's web site and they are comitted to using séléction masale plantings in the Côte d'Or and are propogating these plantings at their own nursery. This seems admirable and no doubt adds somethings to their bottlings. They also have large holdings in Chablis. They mention on their site how they hand harvest in Côte d'Or but are silent about how whether or not they machine harvest in Chablis. I hope this doesn't mean they machine harvest in Chablis' great vineyards, but....
Strange Wines!
Sometimes I'm surprised by the crazy wines we import.
Les Mouches ont Pied just arrived. This is a Poulsard vinified as a white wine by Jean-Marc Brignot in the Arbois, a young vigneron who is a protégé of Pierre Overnoy. What a crazy bottle of wine!
The name of the wine means Flies Have Feet, which means that the Flies don't sink because they have feet that keep them on top of the water. Or something like that. I think it is an in-joke, a pun, but none of the French people at Louis/Dressner have any idea what it could mean. We've spent hours doing French Google searches and still can't figure out what it means.
The wine is sensational. Some of the crazy cherryish flavors of Poulsard but bright and brash, with acidity, length and conviction. There are even tannins! This is the ultimate totally truly blind tasting wine, which will confound, confuse and delight wine geeks all over America.
Vast quantities of this wine came into our warehouse but it is already sold out.
Upon further thought, it appears that the nature of the pun is that the glass is empty and needs a refill because the flies are walking around the bottom of the glass and are no longer submerged. Frankly, this sounds disgusting to me, but don't hold it against the wine. Great stuff!
Montreal!
Today is the first school day in 17 years that I don't have to wake-up a child and rush them off to school.
My daughter graduated the fabulous New York Rudolf Steiner School yesterday in a beautiful ceremony highlighted by the playing of Brahms' Sonata for Violin and Piano in G, the singing of the spiritual Soon Ah Will Be Done where the largely Upper East Side student body beautifully appealed to "meet my Jesus," and an elegant commencement speech by an old-time Steiner supporter who has sent five children to New York's Steiner School .
There are many great teachers at this school and my daughter loved her two years there, following her 11-year-stint at New York's Lycée Français. Next year, she's off to Montréal to study fine art and to join her brother who is studing English Literature. Montréal is the site of a burgeoning Franco/New Yorker scene and I'm delighted to have both my kids attending school there.
It only seemed fitting to celebrate my daughter's graduation at ICI restaurant in Brooklyn, which along with 360 is one of her two favorite restaurants in New York. We ordered a range of wines with sentimental importance to my daughter, perhaps the most important being the FRV100 from Jean-Paul Brun. While my daughter never sang spiritual songs with Jean-Paul Brun, she did learn the all-purpose word putain from him when she was nine-years-old. We also drank wines from Christian Chaussard, Catherine Roussel, Didier Barouillet and from several other growers I can't remember. In the grand French tradition, we arrived around 5 pm and left the table at about midnight.
Despite the day beginning at the Steiner Graduation Ceremony, none of the wines were from practioners of biodynamie. But, they were all organic and delicious.
It's an imperfect world. As they sang at yesterday graduation ceremony:
Soon Ah will be done-a with the troubles of the world
The troubles of the world
The troubles of the world
Soon Ah will be done-a with the troubles of the world
Goin' home to live with God
I want to meet my Jesus (I want to meet Him)
I want to meet my Jesus (meet my Jesus)
I want to meet my Jesus (I want to meet Him)
I'm goin' to live with God
I'm off today for Montréal where my daughter and I will be looking for an apartment, eating out, touring, arguing and having a good time.
See you all soon!
The Next Big Thing -- Georgian Wine!
I recently learned that many wine industry insiders are counting on wine from Georgia to be the next big thing in wine consumption. Perhaps bigger than Yellowtail.
In Georgia it is frowned upon to drink wine alone. When two or more Georgians get together to enjoy wine, one of them will be designated "Tamada”. Tamada is similar to what westerners refer to as “master of ceremonies”. A Tamada sets the tone of the feast. He selects the wine and blesses the host wishing him many fruitful harvests. He then welcomes all that are gathered to fill their khantsis (a vessel made out of a mountain ram's horn) and leads in the following 7 toasts :
The first toast is to peace. After the Tamada drinks his wine each participant stands up and toasts to peace as well.
With the second toast, the Tamada blesses the hostess thanking her for the warm welcome and compliments her on her efforts. Again, all stand and say a toast in her honor. After this toast is said, the hostess must pick up her khantsi and say a toast of thanks to all that have come.
The third toast goes to the country, wishing prosperity, a bright future and the defeat of all enemies. All then stand and toast to the country. At this time, participants will strike up a song of praise to their country.
For the fourth, a toast is said in honor of all the mothers.
Next, the Tamada offers a toast to all that have passed away and have earned the right to be remembered. At this point, the hostess brings a dish with bread and salt. This toast is the only one where the Tamada leaves some wine in the khantsi in honor of their memory. The Tamada then pour this wine onto the bread.
Immediately after this, he leads everyone in a toast to life, which is the sixth toast.
The seventh toast is dedicated to love and it’s importance in our everyday lives.
My thanks to Jim Parker and his fabulously informative site: www.ndoba.com
Clever Comments
I simply don't have any.
My mother is in the hospital for six weeks now and I'm feeling depressed.
Anyone know a good apartment in the St-Henri area of Montréal? I have to find one next week for my son.
The rosé of the year, beyond a doubt, is the fabulous Folie de Brun. I drank this in bottle for the first time this past week. It is a mix of all the initial fermentation batches from Brun's various Beaujolais cuvées. Absolutely delicious.
My God! I'm degenerating into rote blogging!
Help!
Don't Miss Saturday's Fabulously Exciting Chambers Street Tasting!
Eddie, Kevin, Denyse and I will be at New York's famed Chambers Street Wine Shop for an exciting tasting starting a 4 pm.
We will be showing an insane amount of new releases from many of our newer growers, along with a vertical of inventory close-outs.
Don't miss this exciting event!
Eric Asimov Blogs about Philippe Pacalet Burgundies and Poulsard from Houillon/Overnoy
Eric Asimov, The New York Times wine writer, now has a blog.
Everyone has a blog these days, but this one has lots of interesting reading. The mainstream media has always been so distant from real wine, seemingly rehashing press releases from major distributors and wineries. It is truly a pleasure to read Mr. Asimov's work as he sorts through the wine world to find wines of genuine pleasure.
Years ago, a Times mention of Burgundy would simply be Latour, Jadot and DRC. Of course, Asimov cannot ignore these references. But I was pleased to read in today's blog installment:
All the Pacalet wines I’ve had have always been pure and beautifully aromatic. They are light and graceful, rarely tannic, and never buried in new oak, so you can enjoy them young, like this one. By contrast, the Jadot, which I think is one of the best of the bigger Burgundy producer/negociants, seemed saturated in the vanilla flavors that come from new oak. Maybe this was just in comparison to the Pacalet, but this wine seemed somewhat generic, not bad but not a wine of much distinction, though perhaps a few more years will help.
The other week, Mr. Asimov wrote about wines from the Jura:
I have a 2001 Cotes du Jura from Domaine Ganevat, a dry white made from the little-known savagnin grape, and a 2002 Arbois red from Emmanuel Houillon, made from the equally little known poulsard grape.
Suffice it to say that these wines challenge almost everything that the 21st century prizes in wine. The white has a nutty, sherry-like aroma that many people regard as hopelessly oxidized, but it is actually tangy, complex, pure and delicious. The poulsard barely has enough color to be called a red. It is light-bodied yet with a graceful intensity and an earthy funk that turns floral and strawberry-like with air.
All these wines are actually purchased somewhere by Mr. Asimov and are not freeby handouts from wine importers or distributors. Of course, he does have the resources of the New York Times behind him. But I find it admirable that he has gone beyond winewriting clichés and is making an effort to find out what is actually interesting out there.
Take a look at his blog:
Eric Asimov Blog
Some Personal Notes
Yesterday was the sixth anniversary of my quadruple bypass surgery.
Feeling nostalgic for New York University Hospital, I went to visit my mother who has been in the Hospital for four weeks now. Several days ago, her neurologist had the brilliant diagnosis that she has Myastenthia Gravis. Turns out, not only is this true, but after four days of medication my mother can speak almost like normal. I'm sending a case of Platypus Peter to the doctor!
Being around hospitals reminds me that my hands have become arthritic. I have seen some of the greatest minds in the Arthritis racket and all they can propose are health store supplements which The New England Journal of Medicine swear don't do a thing, or major surgery which will keep me in casts and pain for months and which might do nothing for me. Ouch, my hands hurt!
The biggest problem posed by my hand pain is that I have trouble taking out corks from bottles (and am not convinced that screw caps are the second coming of Jesus Christ) and I cannot hold a cell phone to my face for an extended period. So, I walk around with a bluetooth headset.
Which leads me to two more perplexing questions -- (1) why can't someone invent a bluetooth headset which works in the streets of New York and blocks out noise (all these units are meant for suburbanites in their cars) and (2) isn't there a way to turn off the annoying flashing blue light so that I don't look like an extraterrestial or social misfit?
Not that there's anything wrong with being a social misfit.
A Great Connecticut Tasting!
I had a great tasting today at Francos Wines in New Canaan, Connecticut.
This store has been a great supporter of ours and has been key to our strategic goal of getting tasty, obscure wines into the hands of patrician American families.
Immediately following the in-store tasting, we went to the Westport Country Club, where we conducted a vertical tasting of Clos des Papillons from the Domaine du Closel/Château des Vaults.
All our thanks to Rick and Carl and the entire staff at Francos for all the work they have done for our vignerons.
In an unrelated development, my mother had her tracheostomy changed to a metal pipe. Today, the pipe was plugged and she was able to speak and breath naturally.
After not speaking for over two weeks, here first words were: Make Mine Platypus Pete!
Only 21 Hours and 28 Minutes Until Tomorrow's Tasting!
There has been a lot of hype about tomorrow's semi-secret Louis/Dressner tasting.
Some of the samples have just arrived and several of the growers have decided to no longer put vintages on their wines.
There will be lots of other exciting surprises, so don't miss the exciting tasting tomorrow!
Exciting Line-Up at the Louis/Dressner Mini-Tasting on Wednesday
Send an e-mail or call me on my cell phone if you didn't receive an invite with the location. My cell number is 646-823-1293.
Red Wines
1 Clos du Tue-Boeuf Touraine Gamay 2004
2 Clos de Tue-Boeuf Guerrerie 2004
3 Domaine le Briseau VdT la Pangée (2005)
4 Domaine le Briseau Coteaux-du-Loir les Mortiers 2004
5 Domaine de Belliviere Coteaux-du-Loir Rouge Gorge 2004
6 Domaine de Belliviere Coteaux-du-Loir Hommage a Louis Derré 2004
7 Agnès & René Mosse Anjou Rouge 2004
8 Clos Roche Blanche la Closerie 2004
9 Olga Raffault Chinon la Poplinière 2004
10 Olga Raffault Chinon les Picasses 2002
11 Paul Pernot & Fils Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2004
12 Philippe Pacalet Pommard 2004
13 Philippe Pacalet Chambolle-Musigny 2004
14 Philippe Pacalet Nuits St George 2004
15 Philippe Pacalet Gevrey-Chambertin 2004
16 Philippe Pacalet Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru les Perrieres 2004
17 Emmanuel Houillon Arbois Pupillin Poulsard 2002
18 Raymond Quenard Chignin Mondeuse VV 2005
19 Château Moulin Pey-Labrie Canon Fronsac 2000
20 Marcel Richaud Cairrane 2004
21 I Vigneri di Salvo Foti Sicilia Rosso IGT Vignupetra 2003
White Wines
22 Larmandier-Bernier 1er Cru Brut Tradtion NV
23 Larmandier-Bernier 1er Cru Brut Blanc de Blancs
24 Larmandier Bernier Terre de Vertus 1er Cru Non-Dosé NV
25 Larmandier Bernier Brut Blanc des Blancs 2001
26 Domaine le Briseau Pet Nat (2004)
27 Luneau-Papin Muscadet-sur-Lie-de-Sevre-et-Maine Pierres Blanches 2004
28 Luneau-Papin Muscadet-sur-Lie-de-Sevre-et-Maine Clos dé Alées 2004
29 Luneau-Papin Muscadet Semper Excelsior Cru de Nantes Clos du Poyet 2002
30 Clos du Tue-Boeuf Touraine Sauvignon le Buisson Pouilleux 2004
31 Domaine le Briseau Jasnières Khararktêr 2004
32 Domaine le Briseau Jasnières Clos de Longue Vignes 2004
33 Domaine le Briseau VdT Galamatias 2004
34 Domaine le Briseau Coteaux-du-Loir le Briseau 2004
35 Domaine de Bellivière Coteaux-du-Loir l'Effraie 2004
36 Domaine de Bellivière Coteaux-du-Loir VV Èparses 2004
37 Domaine de Belliviere Jasnières les Rosiers 2004
38 Domaine de Bellivière Jasnières Calligramme 2004
39 Agnès & René Mosse Anjou Blanc 2004
40 Agnès & René Mosse Anjou Blanc le Rouchefer 2004
41 Domaine de la Sansonnière Anjou Blanc la Lune 2004
42 Paul Pernot & Fils Bourgogne Blanc 2004
43 Paul Pernot & Fils Puligny-Montrachet 2004
44 Domaine de Roally Macon-Montbellet 2003
45 Emmanuel Houillon Arbois Pupillin Chardonnay 2004
46 Raymond Quenard Chignin VV 2005
47 Raymond Quenard Chignin Bergeron VV 2005
Happy 50th Birthday to the Shipping Container!
It was 50 years ago that the first "containers" packed with cargo shipped on a freighter from Newark, New Jersey to Houston. The containers were converted truck bodies which allowed shippers to pack, truck, ship and unload freight in an economical and efficient way.
The result may have been globalization and an international economy, with all that is bad and objectionable to standardization. But it has also meant that wine importers, amongst others, can get products all over America. Shipping in containers, in our case refrigerated containers, has become the only way to transport wine and allows a case of wine to arrive in New York City or San Francisco at a sum of money not much higher that it costs to ship from Burgundy to Paris.
No one ever thinks of the shipping container as a major invention, but it is amazing to think how it has totally altered international commerce.
On a related note, my mother has been responding well to Mestinon to treat her Myasthenia Gravis, now that her doctors have a diagnosis, and is slowly improving. My thanks for all the notes I received from everyone out there.