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More Details on Louis/Dressner October 19th Tasting
Eric Texier is coming!
We're going to have a historical Muscadet retrospective, in addition to new releases from Marc Ollivier and Luneau-Papin. The wines served will include:
2004 Pépière
2004 Cuvée Eden
2004 Clos des Briords
2004 Moulin la Gustaie
2002 Clos des Briords
2001 Cuvée Eden
2001 Pépière
1997 Clos des Briords
1995 Clos des Briords
1994 Pépière
1991 Clos des Briords
1988 Clos des Briords
Thrill to see how Muscadet ages!
More Details on Saturday's Chambers Street Tasting
We're going to have tons of new wines that you've never tasted.
They're very good!
We are going to be charming and informative.
The tasting starts at 4 pm.
Don't miss it.
Montréal
I just spent a few days in Montréal last week, visiting my son who is doing postgraduate work in Physics.
What a city!
I know the cliché is that it is the best of North America mixed with the best of Europe. I don't like clichés, but the cliché is kind of true, particularly when it is not a glacial winter day.
The markets are incredible -- last year we went to the Atwood Market and this year we went to Jean Talon. I've never seen anything approximating the quality of produce and the sheer abundance anywhere in North America. Radishes are beautiful and delicious. Plus, all the produce is cheap.
We had a precise and savory meal at Brunoise, an intellectually challenging and satisfying meal at Toqué, and a fun, boisterous romp at Au Pied de Cochon. All these restaurants are highly recommended and received numerous stars and top points from my wife, my son and I. Of course, we made our ritual pilgramage to Schwartz's to have smoked meat and various "charcuterie Hébraique."
My son is living in the Plateau these days, a varied and architecturally interesting neighborhood. A neighborhood filled with beautiful homes built with Quebec's local granite, with a rich stylistic diversity from street to street.
It helps to speak French in most of the interesting parts of the city, even though there are enough English natives and bilingual speakers. But the spirit and heart of Montréal remains French.
It rermains remarkable that this outpost of French language and culture survived several centuries of isolation and intrepid weather. Not only did it survive, but it developed its own culture, a culture distincly Québecois and as different from modern France as it is different from the United States.
What a place!
If I was a young man and Montreal didn't have a state liquor monopoly, I'd consider moving up there.
What a place!
Immerse Yourself in the Fascinating World of Louis/Dressner Next Saturday at Chambers Street Wines
Mark down Saturday, October 8th on your calendar.
We're having a big wine tasting at Chambers Street wines in Tribeca. It starts at 4 pm and there will be many thrilling wines and guest appearances.
Don't miss it!
Eric Texier at Upcoming Louis/Dressner Tasting
We imported Eric's wines when he first started his company and we stopped two years ago.
Since then, Eric has reorganized and scaled-down his company. We've stayed in touch and have been impressed with the direction his business, farm work, vinfication and wines are taking. We've all decided to start working together again and Louis/Dressner Selections will be offering his 2004s in the near future. These remain a brilliant selection of wines from the Rhône and the style has evolved and matured over the past few years. Eric will be bottling many of his 2004s in the next few weeks, so he will be showing many barrel samples at our tasting. Don't miss this event.
Eric will be attending the Louis/Dressner wine tasting on October 19th. This tasting is only for wine industry trade giants and is being held at a secret location. Call me on my cell phone at 917 834 2343 for more information.
Off to Maryland and DC to Meet Important Wine Buyers!
I'm off early tomorrow morning to meet with Maryland retailers on Monday, followed by several appointments in Washington, DC. We in the wine trade call this ritual the work-with.
The work-with consists of me being in a salesperson's car for hours on end and hearing their life story in-between appointments with wine buyers. Every so often I interject a detail of my life, but the salesperson is totally uninterested. And who can blame them!
I always try to pump the salesperson for juicy gossip about their company. Usually, they are forthcoming. I also enjoy hearing all about their marital and love problems and am quick to dispense sage advise. I've been happily married for many years and am one of the oldest men in the wine trade, so the salespeople are keen to learn life's valuable lessons from me.
One of my most enjoyable work-withs was years ago in DC. I was trapped in the car of a young saleswoman who was new to the trade. She knew nothing about wine and told me that she didn't find it necessary to learn, because she knew how to sell product. Her view was that she could always do work-withs with people like me who were "wine knowledgeable" and use their knowledge and her sales powers to write big orders.
The week before, I had happened to buy a new cell phone with a built-in camera and was fascinated with this new technology. During my all-too-brief time with the saleswoman, I took many pictures of her, her clients and people on the streets. At the time, T-Mobile had an unlimited free photos by e-mail policy and I sent these photos all over the world.
After several hours of doing this, I told her how I shared the ancient American Indian belief that you were robbing someone's soul when you took a picture of them. She was outraged and furious and told me she found it detestable and reprehensible that I had just spend several hours robbing her of her soul. I offerered and she insisted that I delete all the photos I had taken. I was sad to hear last year that this talented saleswoman was no longer in the wine industry but was off selling some other product.
This Monday and Tuesday I am going to be with salespeople I actually like. This will make the days even longer and I am likely to fall asleep as soon as they close the doors to their cars.
It's always exciting to go to the nation's capital and its surrounding areas. Even if it means catching the Amtrak at 7:00 am to get there. Those of us in the wine industry never forget that the work-with originated years ago in the DC/Baltimore area. I believe the first work-with was during the Eisenhower years, after Ike starting building all those beautiful interstate highways which paved the way for urban sprawl, shopping centers and a McDonalds at every street corner.
There are several important things for this week's customers to remember when dealing with me and the wines I will be bringing around. If we follow these easy steps, everyone will get along and we will be very happy to do business together.
They are:
- Don't tell me how much wine Robert Parker buys from you.
- Don't tell me how you started Pierre Antoine Rovani in the wine trade.
- Don't tell me that I don't look like I'm 64-years-old.
- Don't tell me how you love carrying our wines because no one else does and you can take a larger mark-up.
- Don't tell me dirty jokes..
- Don't take out those little dixie cups to taste wine and tell me how you taste all the wines in the little dixie cups ensuring that all the wines are tasted on a level playing field.
- Don't tell me how much you loved the wine you just tasted but that its a hand sell.
- Don't tell me how much much you loved the wine you just tasted but how you just bought a container from the same AOC direct, even though it is nowhere near as good, and have cut out all the intermediaries.
- Don't tell me how you loved the wine you just tasted but that your Christmas catalog just went to press and I should have seen you two months ago with wines that weren't bottled then.
- Don't tell me how you are close friends with Jeff Viera from K&L Wines in California!
- Don't tell me how Washington is every bit as exciting as New York City plus you can find parking for your car.
- Don't tell me how you attended high school with Bobby Kacher and buy all your wine from him.
I'm looking forward to seeing you tomorrow and Tuesday.
Sourcing Wines
People often ask us how we find the great wines we will be showning at the fabulous Louis/Dressner Portfolio Tasting on October 19th in New York City.
Years ago, we would go to France, Italy and Portugal. These days we get e-mail.
Like Brits buying vineyards in the Minervois now that Ryanair flies to Carcassone, like academics who have done doctorates on the characteristics of the Muscat grape who have a friend somewhere who is a broker for someone's vineyard elsewhere, like retired Canadian professors buying in the worst spots of the Cru Beaujolais, like Argentinians sitting on the next best thing at well under a dollar a bottle....anyone with a vineyard and a web browser is sending me e-mail.
Just tonight I received the following promising solicitation:
Dear Mr. Dressner,
We learned from internet that you are one of the main importers and wholesalers of
bearings,and would like to take this opportunity to introduce us as one of the
biggest bearing company in China ,located in the biggest bearing base-Linqing City.
The main products we are producing are:
Spherical roller bearings,
Tapered roller bearings,
Low-noise deep groove ball bearings,
Pillow block bearings,
Thrust ball bearing,
Adapter sleeves.
You can visit our website www.hengrunbearing.com to know more information of our
company and products.If you have any question,please no hesitate to contact
us.We will attend your enquiry without any delay.
We hope to develop long-term business and cooperation with your company.
Best Regards,
Winnie
You Can Be the Lucky Winner at the Louis/Dressner October 19th Wine Tasting!
You may be eligible to win valuable prizes if you are a wine industry giant attending the the Important Louis/Dressner Selections October 19th Tasting in New York City.
Here's how it works....
Everyone attending will put a business card in a fishbowl. There will be a drawing at the end of the tasting, supervised by Shawn Mead, the new Louis/Dressner Selections member.
The lucky winner of the drawing will win some valuable and delicious wine and will be featured on Joe Dressner's award winning blog -- The Wine Importer. Yes, we will take a digital picture of you, I will interview you, and then write your story for tens of thousands of people to read as they regularly surf through my blog on their RSS Feeds.
Then again, you can just take the wine and forget about the free blog publicity. It's less work for me, after all.
But don't forget....Mel Dick's first big break was on this site and there was no turning back!
It's your choice!
11th Annual Louis/Dressner Portfolio Tasting Planned for October 19th
This prestigious event is open to all wine industry giants who call us and ask if they can come. It is not a public event and the location is a secret. You can call me on my cell phone for more details: 347 832 1233
Wine Professionals at Last Year's Romorantin Vertical
Among the highlights:
- Thrill to Aged Muscadets as old as 1988!
- Marvel at Beautiful Old Vintages of Pierre Breton’s Bourgueils!
- Receive a Warm and Appreciative Welcome from Louis/Dressner Representatives!
- Revel in the Cult Barolos of Traditionalist Pioneer Teoblado Cappellano
- Delight in 2004 White Wines with Natural Acidity….Just Like the Good Old Days!
- Meet Jeff Viera from K&L Wines in California!
- Savor New Vintages of New Vignerons and Old Friends!
- Submerge Yourself in the Ever-Evolving and Provocative World of Louis/Dressner Selections!
- Graduate to Favored Louis/Dressner Customer status and get same day deliveries!
- Meet Shawn Mead, the New Louis/Dressner Sales Representative and Wine Leader!
- Stampede the Buffet to eat delicious food with wine industry giants and wine world celebrities!
Don't miss it!
Poupette!
The Château d'Oupia in the Minervois is releasing a special bottling, in conjunction with our company, of 100-year-old Carrignan from one of their best sites. Only 97 cases of this exceptional wine will be available in this country, sometime after December 14th.
The wine is called Hommage à Poupette. Poupette was Marie-Thérèse Iché's beloved French poodle, who died two years ago after a 17-year residence at the Château. We at Louis/Dressner were always very fond of Poupette, although my dog Buster and Poupette never got along. Poupette was proprietary, chez elle and resented Buster's presence on her turf during our visits to the Minervois.
Poupette was quickly replaced by Caline, also a French poodle. Caline is even more frisky than Poupette (whom I was privileged to meet in her youth many years ago) and avoids Buster like the plague.
This is an exceptional wine from the 2004 vintage that is not to be missed. These old vines produce a wine of great character and in this age of standardization it is a true pleasure to go back a century.
Meet Shawn Mead!
Shawn Mead, the newest addition to Louis/Dressner Selections, is on a west coast tour promoting the Blaterle from the cult winery Weingut Nusserhof in Italy’s Alto Adige. Shawn is appearing today in Portland Oregon, at a Triage Wines tasting. Sean will be elsewhere tomorrow.
Congratulations to Shawn Mead!
Shawn Mead, the former sommellier at Campagne Restaurant in Seattle, has joined Louis/Dressner Selections!
Shawn has a long history in the wine trade and is one of the West Coast's most respected wine authorities, educators and wine activists. She has been a strong supporter of our wines and has twice travelled to France with our company. Shawn has great conviction, wine knowledge, charisma, intelligence and a strong appreciation and respect for the vineyard and cellar work of the vignerons making real wine. She is also sufficiently crazy to work with us. We are delighted to have her joining us at Louis/Dressner.
Pictured above is Shawn Mead, the manager of the Najjar Car Care Garage of South City in Missouri (somewhere near St. Louis). Garage services include all basic maintenance needs-- from oil changes, to manufacturer's recommended mileage services, to even state inspections!
Mr. Mead has earned the respect of his clients, even though he has never been in the wine trade. Don Siener of St. Louis reports:
"I'm 63 years old. This is the first time I've ever been to a car repair shop where I could've been charged a lot more, but he [Shawn] didn't. All the people treated me well. The whole crew was very nice."
Shawn Mead the garagiste has no relationship to Shawn Mead who has just joined Louis/Dressner Selections. The Louis/Dressner Shawn Mead is a woman and easily distinguished from Shawn Mead the Garagiste.
Pictured above is yet another Shawn Mead who is not working at Louis/Dressner Selections and who also has no relationship to the Shawn Mead at Najjar Car Care Garage in Missouri.
This Shawn Mead is the faculty advisor of the Phi Beta Lamda Chapter at Labette Community College in Parsons, Kansas. Phi Beta Lamda is very active in community service and Mr. Mead is shown preparing meals for senior citizens at the Faith Methodist Church. According to the sorority: "citizens benefit both from the delicious food and the great fellowship."
It is unclear if they drink wine at the Faith Methodist Church. Currently, Louis/Dressner Selections does not have distribution in Parsons, Kansas.
Don't Miss Fabulous Harvest Report at Louis/Dressner Selections Website!
The people at Louis/Dressner Selections are posting 2005 harvest reports as fast as they come in.
Don't miss the daily ups and downs of Harvest 2005:
Exciting Uncensored Harvest Reports!
Harvest Starts at Terres Dorées in the Beaujolais!
Jean-Paul Brun reports by Telephone on September 19, 2005
We started picking in Charnay today. I’m optimistic and confident. We have a beautiful harvest in front of us.
I’d take a growning season like this any year. Everything went well, we had less to do, less corrections to make in the vineyards than we normally have. The vines look magnificent.
The summer had lots of sun and dryness. I was never that concerned about the vines being overstressed, by the dry weather but the small rains we had at the beginning of September and last week were perfect. They refreshed the vines and reaccelerated the maturation.
The Gamay we picked today was about 12 degrees with good acidity. They yields are low and correct. We’re waiting to pick the Chardonnay as I’d like to have some noble rot.
The weather report predicts good weather through the next seven days. That can always change, but we might be on the verge of a great year..
Many of my colleagues are in too much of a rush. Most of Charnay has already stopped picking and I’m just starting. They get into a mind frame that they are making Nouveau and the point is to rush out there, pick the grapes, get the vinifications going and pump out the Nouveau. Even if the grapes are not yet ripe. It’s a shame.
I’m completely confident.
Putain
Chez Panisse
Jonathan Waters, the sommellier at Chez Panisse, invited me to dine there on Wednesday. Every so often, I hear someone talk about how disappointing Chez Panisse is and how they found the experience boring and without excitement. I had a wonderful meal.
Alice Waters pioneered the notion of working with local, natural producers and putting their work on the restaurant table. This notion of fine dining, which ought to be the rudimentary spirit of every great restaurant, seemed almost revolutionary in America.
I lived in Berkeley briefly in early 1970. I was thrown off the campus by undercover police for not having a valid student identification card. At the time, I was appearing in guerilla theater projects against the war in Vietnam. I am a large fellow and was always cast in the role of the American Imperialist.. One of my friends, who started out small and skinny, had a crystal methadone problem and was cast in the role of the Vietnamese revolutionary peasantry. At the end of the skit, the Vietnamese peasant would convincingly defeat me, bludgeoning me senseless with an empty box or Rice Krispies.
One morning I walked on to the UC Berkeley campus to perform, and four stiffs in sunglasses and polyester suits followed me onto the campus. They looked like extras out of the old Mod Squard television series. They turned out to be undercover police and quickly asked for my student id card. I didn't have one.
California, under Governor Ronald Reagan, had passed a law after the Free Speech Movement demonstrations banning outside agitators from entering the University of California campuses. Since I was an outside agitator, I was informed to leave the campus or I would immediately be arrested. I was also informed that I would be arrested if I ever set foot on the campus again. I have not been back, although I am skeptical that I would be arrested in my current role as wine importer.
I was renting a room somewhere not far from Chez Panisse with a group of hippies who had made a killing producing an unauthorized Bob Dylan album of primitive recordings taped at Dylan concerts. As a joke, they inserted on the album an old Muddy Waters blues song that they played themselves, although they credited Dylan. If memory serves me right, it was the Hootchie Cootchie Man, although I could be wrong about that. Anyhow, Rolling Stone Magazine actually gave the bootleg album a rave review, declaring that my roomates' blues effort was the highlight of the album and Dylan's greatest blues rendition.
During my Berkeley stay, I was caught shoplifting at the Coop Supermarket. I was low on money and those were the days where every kid thought that petty crime was in the spirit of Che Guevarra and liberating chopped meat at the supermarket was striking another blow against the Imperialist Beast. I was taken into a private office, where a manager of the Coop explained to me that stealing from the Coop was like stealing from the people, since the people themselves were the owners of the Coop. I immediately told him that I had thought the Coop was like the A&P and the Safeway and I had no idea that I had been stealing from the people rather than from the Imperialist Beast. The manager understood my confusion over this issue, asked me to promise to never shoplift again from the Coop and let me go. On my way out, the manager told me: "Many of our shoplifters have become our best customers."
So, I always enjoy going back to the Bay Area and dining at Chez Panisse was a great pleasure. Why people find it disappointing is a mystery to me. I suppose, it is the same kind of sickness that makes people like Cult Cabernets and avoid Pineau d'Aunis. I had a salad with the best radishes I have ever tasted in America, mixed in a delicious olive oil, and with slices of beef brisket from an organic producer in Sonoma. The main course was a sumptuous Couscous with summer seasonal vegetables that were incredibly savory and flavorful.
All my thanks to Jonathan Waters for the invite and for the reminder of how good American cuisine can be when someone taks the time and energy to bring lively and delicious products of the earth to our table.
I had a great time in the Bay Area and will hopefully write more about my trip. My special thanks to Rick Franco for his restaurant and hotel tips.
Meet the Wine Importer Next Tuesday in the Bay Area
I will be serving a group of fabulous wines at the Estate Wines Ltd. annual tasting next Tuesday. All card-carrying members of the Wine Industry are welcome to attend. Please contact EWL for information.
Next Monday, I will be hosting a BYOB dinner at San Francisco's famed La Taqueria restaurant on 25th and Mission. The event starts at 7:20 pm. Please bring your own stemware. Call me on my cell phone to make reservations: 347 384 3134.
See you there!
Food & Wine Magazine Awards This Blog the Top WIne Blog!
The October issue of Food & Wine Magazine has an article on the Seven Best Wine Blogs.
Incredibly, this site was the first one mentioned! I suppose this means that I author the top-rated wine blog!
It is difficult to know if I should be proud or ashamed of this coveted award. Being a blogger is a full-scale admission of egomania and self-indulgence. Being rewarded for blogging and boasting about it on one's blog is the act of a confirmed madman.
All my thanks to all the little people who helped in the long blog climb uphill.
I'll never forget you!
I haven't mentioned Jim Bassett for some time. Jim is the guy who came up with this blogging software and has been incredibly generous and patient in allowing me to maintain this site (along with the Louis/Dressner site which uses his software).
Thanks Jim!
And I'd also like to thank my wife Denyse, without which none of this blogging would have been possible. My children who have given me so much blogging support over the years. My parents, who have stood by my blog in the tough times and the good times, My business associates who have suffered my blogging when there was actual work to do. Then, of course, there is my dog Buster, man's best friend, who was loyal during the blogging lows and the blogging highs. Not to forget....
Food & Wine writes:
Joe Dressner is part-owner of Louis/Dressner Selections, an American wine importer specializing in small producers, mostly French wines from highly regarded names like Bernard Baudry and Didier Barouillet. When he's not traveling the world on business, he publishes one of the least pretentious blogs on the Web. It's wise and unspoken, as in a post about the state of wine tasting today: "Wine is not a vehicle for egomania, boastfulness and self-promotion. All the great 'tasters' I have known are able to submerge their ego and understand what is in the bottle."
That's It
The blog is officially closed while I return to New York.
In a few hours we're off!
It has been a productive summer and there will be some great new wines available later this year. We've driven over 10,000 kilometers through viticultural France and have some interesting finds.
See you soon in New York!