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Back in New York City!
We arrived yesterday on the fabulous Swiss International Air from Geneva.
A Carmel mini-van picked us up at the airport.
Buster was delighted to leave his cage and eight hours in the cargo of the plane.
We arrived on our street, Buster jumped out of the car and someone asked what breed he was.
Denyse replied Mutt. I usually reply Celtic Schwant.
We're back in town!
Members of the Exciting California Wine Trade Can Meet Me and Taste our Wines on September 9th in San Francisco!
Jesus, that's one long headline!
That's right though....our wholesaler Estate Wines Ltd. is hosting a big portfolio tasting on Tuesday, September 9th and I'll be there pouring lots of wines.
I'll be joined by the recently married and multi-faceted Shawn Mead.
Don't miss this event!
Only certified members of the wine trade will be admitted. You will have to show your badge at the door.
It starts at noon and finished at 4 pm.
Afterward, we're all going to La Taqueria on Mission and 25th to eat Tacos and Burritos.
No, we are not going to one of the Taco Trucks. I'm sorry.
I'll be the guy behind the Louis/Dressner table who looks like a Rabbi from suburban Philadelphia. Shawn Mead will be standing immediately to my left. She's clearly a gentile.
Meet the Wine Importer in San Francisco!
Some people call me The Wine Importer.
Others call me "le plouc distingué."
Both Personalities will be doing an exciting tasting at Terroir Natural Wine Merchant and Bar on Saturday, September 6th, from 2 pm to 5 pm. This is open to consumers but the details are vague to me. Maybe it will cost you a lot of money, maybe it is cheap. I'm really not sure, but it is probably somewhere in between.
Really, do you expect me to go all the way to San Francisco to serve you wines for free?
Regardless, it is going to be great fun.
Your best bet is to call Terroir to reserve a space. They can be reached at 415.558.9946. They are located somewhere on Folsom Street. Try a Google seach.
I'll be the hipster who looks like a Rabbi from suburban Philadelphia.
I'll be signing copies of someone's new book. Send me e-mail for details.
See you There!
Later that day, more or less at 6:30, I will be dining at La Taqueria on Mission and 25th Street. I will also be doing a book signing there. I'll be the guy stuffing himself with tacos and looking suspiciously like a Rabbi from Suburban Philadelphia.
See you there!
Two Things I Will Miss About Living in France
Quenelles with Morilles.
Stuffed Goose Necks.
I'm returning to New York on Wednesday.
Ugh.
Northwest Harrasment!
I have received over a thousand e-mails this past week from someone named Sujal Patel warning me about impending doom for our wines in the Northwest market. All these e-mails come from fake e-mail addresses that are sent through some sort of identity blocking mechanism.
I did a Google search on this name and came up with several different Sujal Patel's.
I have deleted all these e-mails and written special filters in my e-mail to automatically delete any future correspondence from this alleged Sugal Patel.
Whoever you and whatever you want....please cease and desist!
Our corporate lawyers are working on this case.
Come Celebrate the 20th Birthday Party of Louis/Dressner Selections!
That's right, it will soon be twenty years in business for us!
We plan on celebrating at our annual, national tasting with a presentation of wines from the 1988 vintage.
Some of them might actually be drinkable!
Don't miss this event on October 21st. It is being held in New York City and you're invited to the special VIP hour, starting one hour before the regular tasting.
I've been traveling all over France. I'm now back at my home in Poil Rouge watching the French women's fencing team win silver medals. It's been a great Olympics.
I just heard from a neighbor here in Poil Rouge that Donald Trump is buying Ed MacMahon's house as a gift to Johnny's former sidekick. What a beautiful and generous gesture!
Zigzag trip to Beaune and then Southern France
We're off early tomorrow morning for a week of glamorous visits to vignerons highly regarded by Alice Feiring, the famous author.
I won't have access to an internet browser, so I will not be leaving exciting posts here for the readership.
I'll be in touch soon!
Louis/Dressner Wines Now in Georgia!
We recently signed on with Global Distribution, one of Georgia's premier distributors of fine wine.
We want to thank the Global team for taking on our wines and making the commitment to getting out our vignerons into the Georgia market. In particular, we would like to thank:
- Sydney Mendalow -- Import Director
- Morty Kimmel -- Sales Manager
- Herb Rosenfeltz -- Atlanta Area Brand Manager
- Sy Pearlman -- Logistics and Operations Manager
- Al Schumacher -- Atlanta On-Premise Manager
We have never had a solid distribution in the State of Georgia and we are delighted that our wines will finally be available in the great state!
Shawn Mead to Marry!
That's right, Shawn Mead is getting married next weekend.
Shawn runs our West Coast operations and is the resident voice of sanity at Louis/Dressner Selections.
The guest list is a virtual who's who of the American wine trade!
All our congratulations to the happy couple!
Michael Wheeler Almost Killed by Huge Truck this Morning!
I received an urgent e-mail this morning from Michael Wheeler, the famous wine legend:
Almost got killed!! An 18 wheeler didn't see us and changed lanes, and we had to go 1/2 way into the next lane ......and still it came withen inches, lucky there was no immediate car to bump, but they came at us rite as we moved back......it was like the movies......stay tuned this is gonna be one exciting vacation....It was scary but what amazed me is we didn't panic but just tried to stay alive.....
Mr. Wheeler is on Long Island, sourcing wine for Polaner Selections.
I was surprised to learn that Mr. Wheeler has grown a moustache since I left New York in mid-June.
David Lillie Hailed as Wine Revolutionary!
The current issue of Wine & Spirits Magazine has an article on the 10 Revolutionaries who have changed the wine world.
One of them is David Lillie, the partner at Chambers Street Wines, a long time customer of Robert Chadderdon and Louis/Dressner Selections.
David strongly deserves this praise and I hope everyone goes out and buys this issue!
Several Reasons Why I Have Only Blogged Four Times in the Past Six Weeks!
I've become a pathetic blogger and have received numerous e-mails from my readers complaining about my lack of blogactivity.
There are several reasons I have been inactive:
- I am in France
- I had house guests for two weeks
- My two children visited us and we took time off
- I toured the Loire Valley without an internet connection
- I traveled twice to Alsace to see my in-laws
- I spent huge amounts of time shopping and barbecuing for 14 house guests
- I received endless phone calls from the Pacific Northwest from 9 pm through 11 pm
- I have arthritic pain around my thumbs and it is painful to type
- I have been drinking great older wines from my personal cellar and feel no particular compunction to share this experience over a blog
- I'm hostile, aggressive and don't care
- I've been blogging so long, don't forget I personally invented the wine blog, that I fear constant activity will land me a profile on Tom Wark's wine blog
- Now that Alice Feiring's book is out, the battle has been won and I no longer need to crusade for real wine
- My home's sewage system overflowed when we had the 14 house guests and we had to have an emergency vehicle come here from Mâcon.
- I spend my afternoons fishing on the Saône River
- My main interaction with wine is through the vignerons we work with and the wines we import, not my blog
- I've been busy mounting and dismounting the new tent I bought at Decathlon
- I read Neal Rosenthal's autobiography three times since mid-June
- I read Eric Clapton's autobiography since I came here
- Eric Clapon finds he has digestive problems when he tours and he doesn't have to eat huge meals at vignerons
- Imagine how I feel! Clapton doesn't have to eat andouilettes!
- I don't get daily e-mails from Rick Franco
- I have been enjoying my dog Buster, who has had a burst of youthfulness out here in the Mâconnais
- I am demoralized by my feud with the Grocery Guy
- I'm an old man and it is inappropriate for someone my age to be blogging
Help!
I am being force-fed Raclette in a mountain retreat somewhere outside Grenoble!
The only thing to drink is a Mondeuse infused with the 71B yeast!
Jean-Paul Brun is Coming over for Dinner!
I'm having an all Côte dinner. Côte de Betes for vegetables and Côte de Boeuf for the main course. Delicious Charollais beef!
We've been running around France and currently have 14 people in my house. They are members of my Beautiful Family. In France, you call your in-laws the Beautiful Family.
I'll try to write more about what's going on in viticultural France, but I doubt I will have time.
All my best to my readers out there, particularly all the Jewish wine lovers in Ohio!
Some prominent members of Ohio's Jewish Community.
And we're off....
I know readers are dying to know the details of my personal life since we arrived in Poil Rouge.
- We arrived last Tuesday in the rain and had nothing to eat at home.
- We ate Pizza at La Dolce Vita in Mâcon. We ordered a carafe of delicious plain Beaujolais from Marcel Lapierre. It had no color, no intensity and was lovely. This may be the only pizzeria in the world which carries Poulsard from Pierre Overnoy, Fleurie from Yvon Metra, Dard & Ribo and Henri Roch in Vosne-Romanée. Mâcon rocks!
- The weather has been unbearably hot since Wednesday
- I mowed the lawn
- Denyse took care of our bushes, flowers, trees and plants
- Buster ate lots of grass
- We are at one with nature
- Jean-Paul Brun is releasing his Beaujolais as Table Wine
- We ate a lot of saucisson
- We drank a 1992 Clos Vougeot from Amiot-Servelle with no color, no intensity and which was just lovely
- We drank a 1999 Côte du Py from Louis-Claude Desvignes which was way too young
- We drank a 1996 Mas des Chimères which was dark, intense and just lovely
- We drank a 2000 L'Ebrescades from Marcel Richaud which needed time to open and should have been decanted but bordered on the profound
- We bought a flamethrower to destroy weeds in our courtyard, allowing us to avoid using Round-up. I'm looking for a homeopathic treatment so I can declare our courtyard in biodynamie
- Windows Vista sucks and keeps crashing
- I finished Neal Rosenthal's book
- Received a phone call from Interpol about possible criminal activities in Poil Rouge
The summer coincided with our arrival.
I have to pack and leave or we will be late seeing Pierre and Monique Luneau. It is a long drive to the Muscadet from Poil Rouge, nearly seven hours. I've primed the GPS and filled the tank and am looking forward to fighting sleep as I drive toward Nantes.
See you soon.
Return to Poil Rouge!
Denyse and I are off today to beautiful Poil Rouge. Poil Rouge is a hamlet in charming St-Gengoux-de-Scissé, strategically located in the Northern Mâconnais.
The locals describe the Poil Rougien life style as being exquis!
The Famous Louis/Dressner Compound in Poil Rouge Sud
It always takes us a while to get set-up. There are cobwebs (in French, they call this toiles d'araignée, mouse nests (in French, they call this un nid de souris, dust (in French, they call this poussiére), house repairs (bricolage) and lots of mosquitoes (moustiques) to keep us busy during the first few days.
We have to set up home and then go to the Loire Valley and rub shoulders with all the famous vignerons in the Loire making high acid wines when there isn't global warming.
It is kind of like leading a double life. The French countryside remains largely IPHONE free and there is a whole other culture there. Believe it or not, I'm the only person in Poil Rouge with a Blog!
Big Louis/Dressner National Wine Tasting on Tuesday, October 21st!
Please note, several readers have complained about our having the tasting on Wednesday, October 21st. So, we have changed the date to Tuesday, October 21st.
We've changed the date and changed the venue!
It is going to be bigger and better than ever before.
Enthusiastic Taster from Lillie's ’s Liquor Barn of Englewood, New Jersey at Last Year's Tasting
Lot's of enthusiastic people will be coming.
You won't want to miss this exciting event.
I have an RSS Feed!
In an effort to keep up with modern technology, I now have an RSS Feed!
http://www.datamantic.com/joedressner/xml/
Thank you very much for pressuring me for this important update.