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Don't Miss Exciting Louis/Dressner Dinnner On Monday, September 18th at Nana's Chophouse in Raleigh, North Carolina
You are invited for hors d'oeuvres and 4 seated courses prepared by Chef Konrad Catolos... featuring Loire Valley wines from the Louis/Dressner portfolio,
The date is Monday, September 18, 2006. There will be a reception at 7 pm and dinner will start at 7:30. It will cost only $75 and reservations can be made by calling 919.829.1212. The call will be absolutely free if you call using Skype, which has free calls throughout North America through December 31st.
I've never had the pleasure of sampling Chef Catolos' cuisine or dining at Nana's Chophouse. Here's how they describe themselves on their excellent web site (findable with a Google Search):
Nana’s Chophouse is an Italian style Chophouse with a contemporary American influence – A high-energy environment with a sophisticated feel. Our guests are treated to the Triangle’s finest service and highest quality, cutting edge culinary fare. Chef Konrad Catolos provides skillful preparation of local and seasonal ingredients expressed in creative antipasti, appetizers, fresh pastas and entrees. Our bar menu is served until midnight on Friday and Saturday, accommodating late night diners and post-theater patrons.
Nana’s Chophouse was born from a 1937 meatpacking plant. The brick walls and exposed beams reflect the old uses, but the rich millwork and warm yet contemporary finishes bring new life to the space. Rich walnut and brown leather cover the booths, while stunning gold and yellow fabric pop around the room. The space is designed to have an intimate feel for couples and small groups, but still a continuous and open space.
Don't miss this exciting event!
Sam Silversmith Appointed New Midwest Regional Manager!
A 28 year veteran of the industry, Sam Silversmith will be taking over as Midwest Regional Manager on October 1st.
All our congratulations to Sam and entire Midwest Regional staff!
The Radikon Has Arrived!
Stay tuned for more details.
Our first shipment of Radikon Fruili has arrived!
Trivial Pursuit!
All these changes at The Wine Advocate make me think of old favorites which first came to public notice through the pages of Robert Parker's review.
Whatever happened to Marquis Phillips?
Whatever happened to Domaine Capion Merlot? This wine was from the Languedoc (now David Schildknecht's territory) and got great ratings and sold for something like $5.99 a bottle retail. Everyone wanted the wine and everyone talked about the wine. Where did it go?
Congratulations to David Schildknecht !
Recent word from The Wine Advocate is that the talented and prolific David Schieldknecht will now be covering most of the world's major wine regions for Robert Parker. Mr. Schildknecht will not be covering Italy, Bordeaux and the Rhône Valley but his beat will include:
1. Germany
2. Austria
3. Central Europe
4. Eastern America
5. Midwestern America
6. Alsace
7. Burgundy
8. Loire
9. Languedoc-Roussillon
10. Champagne
11. New Zealand
12. South Africa
Best of luck to David and the newly revamped Wine Advocate. It sounds like an exhausting schedule, but if anyone can do it, David certainly can!
I know I would be exhausted by just doing the first six categories, although I hear the South African vineyards are beautiful and rejuvenating.
Rejuvenation is an important part of being on the wine route. I was once hospitalized in Decize after a long tasting of Pouilly-Fumé during a winter jaunt through the French vineyards. Decize is somewhere in the center of France and the correct pronunciation of the town rhymes with deceased. This made me somewhat nervous, but I was simply exhausted from too much travelling, eating and tasting and needed to be on IV units to clean out my system. Being on the wine road sounds glamorous to many people and certainly it beats many other jobs. At the same time, it can be exhausting and I wish David the best.
The doctor who released me from the hospital in Decize asked me what my next stop was going to be and I told him the Beaujolais. With great alarm, he warned me not to taste any Beaujolais wines in my diminished condition, because "they're all trafficked." I'm sure he would have approved of South Africa.
Chambers Street Wines and Louis/Dressner Featured on MSNBC Web Site
We've been getting an avalanche of publicity ever since we hired a PR agent.
All these mentions in the press sell enormous quantities of wine to people who would never buy the wine without the direction of wine journalists.
We're very grateful for all these mentions. The latest can be found at:
Ed Deitsch Praises Chambers Street and Obscure Louis/Dressner Wines on MSNBC
In addition to Ed's piece, there was also a recent piece on MSNBC by Jon Bonné, which featured some of our other wines.
Jon Bonné Reviews Some Other Obscure Wines
Our thanks to our PR firm, Katz and Steinfesse, for their excellent work!
Near-Death Experiences!
I actually shopped at a Walmart the other day in suburban Montreal.
The day before, I bought a kitchen set at a Canadian Tire in the Atwater Shoping Center on St. Catherine Street.
I ate an absurd amount of cholesterol-laden foods during my six days in that city.
I rented a mini-van and drove my kids around as if I was a suburban Soccer Mom.
I sent both my kids off to college and am now an empty nester.
I received a subscription offer for the AARP's magazine.
I've been personally mentioned, as has our company, several times in the media over the past few weeks. Be it The New York Times, Time Magazine, Matt Kramer's syndicated column and a "portrait" in Gastronomica magazine.
Death can't be far behind when the Tributes start coming your way.
On a bright side, our first shipment of Radikon just arrived in New York!
Jess Jackson Has Bought Legacy Estates for $97 Million!
Congratulations to Jess Jackson and the entire Jackson clan!
Although, I can't name a single wine producer in the legendary Legacy Estates Portfolio, I'm certain this was an important and legitimate purchase.
Ninety-Seven Million dollars seems like a lot of money. Wouldn't Jess Jackson be better served by giving it all to the Gates Foundation? That might actually do some good for mankind, even if it did very little for the legendary Legacy Estates Portfolio. Certainly, it would get Jess Jackson on the front page of The Wine Spectator, if not The New York Times.
Alternatively, he could buy a good Muscadet estate for a lot less. Even Marc Ollivier has a price. I've heard that Pepiere is available for less then six million. Ollivier has had a string of splended vintages and is on top of his form these days....the asking price can only go higher.
Back in New York, Leaving to Montreal!
I have no time to talk or to post witty and intelligent observations.
Don't miss the exciting Polaner Selections tasting tomorrow in New York. They should have a great selection of interesting wines from our company and from producers all over the world!
Remember, that one of the great things about Savignin is that it is one of the few white wines which is both powerful and dry! What a wine it can be!
1986 Mâcon-Viré Domaine de Roally
Denyse and I were invited to dinner by Henri Goyard in Viré on Sunday night.
Henri Goyard retired after the 2000 vintage, but his wines remain for us among the top examples of what Chardonnay can produce in Burgundy. This was a micro-estate of under four hectares, which was bought by the Jean Thevenet family in Clessé, and it might seem patently ridiculous to a Burgundy lover to argue that Goyard's Mâcon-Viré were benchmark White Burgundies with few or any equals. There's no Montrachet here, no Meursault, no Puligny and no Chassagne.
Just 3.5 hectares of superb vines that were raised like a personal garden by someone who wanted a very particular type of wine. A Chardonnay of minerality, honey, flowers, length, richness without any of the encumbrances of wood, cellar treatments, enyzmes or yeasts. Goyard was one of the few people in the Mâconnais who worked and plowed his land and made Chardonnays of startling purity.
So, we got to taste the 1986 blind the other night. Oddly, I guessed it was 1986 or 1983. This was the wine which convinced Denyse and I to enter the wine trade when we visited Goyard in 1988. He was bottling with Jean Thevenet, with whom he shared a bottling line. The wine was a revelation then and remains today, some twenty years later, one of the great wines I have ever enjoyed. There is more hay, more secondary aromas today, but it remains living and expressive of a great terroir and a meticulous style of work that seems almost lost in Burgundy.
After tasted this wine, we spent two years trying to get Goyard to work with us. We then decided to look for other Goyards around France, other stubborn, maniacal vignerons who still wanted to work in purity and without modern affectation.
The wine is an expression of the Northern Mâconnais, where the best growers harvest late and often get some botrytis. The 1986 producer about 30% boyrisized grapes and the wine has all the richness, although it is not sweet and it technically dry.
Granted our connection is a personal connection and we cannot judge this wine objectively. But does it matter?
Goyard has three bottles left. I have perhaps two bottles in my cellar. Maybe someone else has some. Maybe some day, someone else beside Jean Thevent will also be making Chardonnay of this caliber and this beauty. The raw material are out there, it just takes a maniac go bring it back to life.
Happy August 15th!
Hype for the 2005 Beaujolais
For once, a vintage and region deserves the hype.
We've been importing Beaujolais since 1989 (when there were only eight crus) and the 2005s are among the best wines I can remember. Perhaps a bit less finesse than the legendary 1991s, but more material and concentration. These are wines to drink now or to hide in a cellar and open in fifteen or twenty years.
Just yesterday, we tasted at Clos de la Roilette and Louis-Claude Desvignes. The Desvignes' Morgon are not yet bottled, but the 2005 Roilette will be coming to America in a few weeks. Oddly, the Cuvee Tardive is more flattering right now and you should run to get some of this stuff. I just put aside twelve bottles in a hidden spot at the Louis/Dressner Complex in Poil Rouge. You should do something similar.
Come Celebrate the Sixth Anniversary of this Blog at the Gala Louis/Dressner October 24th Tasting!
That's right! I've had this blog for nearly six years! In fact, I was the 24th person in America to launch a personal/professional blog!
Which goes to show....despite running a business, having two children, a dog, a heart condition, ill parents, arthritic joints and an ovoid yeast infection.....I have a lot of free time on my hands!
This is a busy time here at The Wine Importer blog. I'm feverishly working on the final draft of my Byron Bates biography, along with a major opus on dry white wines. Yes, a major opus on mineral and dry white wines.
Thinking of how it all started out years ago has made me feel nostalgic. I remember the old dial-up connection and the Osborne 25 pound portable running on the CP/M operating system with two 5 1/4" floppy disks and 64K of memory.
Below is my first blog, dating from November 24th, 2000. Then again, maybe it was my second blog. It was so long ago, it's hard to remember.
Charles McCabe, My Favorite Critic
I get so sick of Parker, The Wine Spectator and all the various other wine journalists that I often think of Charles McCabe, my favorite critic.I should note here that I do like Steve Tanzer, who I know personally, for being somewhat more tentative then the rest of the bunch. And of course, Steve is a helluva-a-guy! (Editor's Note: The Burghound and the Loire Schauzer did not exist when I wrote these words.)
McCabe was a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle along with Herb Caen -- a powerful one-two morning punch for City residents. I lived in San Francisco from 1975 to 1980 and greatly enjoyed both columnists, McCabe was perhaps best know for his motto Any clod can have the facts, but having opinions is an art, but I always remember him for his muckraking columns against America's razor blade manufacturers.
McCabe's theory was that America's razor manufacturers were intentionally making blades that required weekly replacement. Periodically, they would develop new shaving technologies that were seemingly superior -- the twin-edged and then triple-edged blade come to mind, although McCabe did not live to see the triple-edged. At product launch, these new blades would be extremely-sharp and last weeks. But as months and years went by, the razor companies would purposely lower the level of razor quality, ensuring that once again the shaver had to replace the blade on a weekly basis. This would create a perceived market need for an even newer technology and a new product would be introduced yet again that would work fine for several months and then once again degrade in quality. Ad infinitim.
I was very happy with Gilette's entry into the triple-edged market and was perhaps one of the first consumers to buy the Mach III when it was introduced. In fact, I was so overwhelmed with the performance of this machine, I was enthusiastically converted to Gillette's contention that this was the most important shaving innovation since the 1960s (although I was too young to shave until about 1968). But two years have gone by and I note that the blade cartridge, which seemed almost immortal at product introduction, now requires constant replacement. And those hard to get smooth spots are becoming the impossible to get smooth spots.
Happily, Alyce Dressner, my 12 1/2 year old daughter (Editor's note, Alyce is now 18 and will kill me if she finds out I've used her name on my blog....it is very embarassing for teenagers and young adults to have a father who blogs), constantly peruses the Drugstore.com site and I learned that the Schick company has now come up with its own triple-bladed system, the XTreme III (Schick XTreme III Site). Of course I immediately seized the opportunity to order these new razors and found the overall experience to be qualitatively superior to the Mach III. But still, it lacked the excitement that was there when the Mach III first came into the market. The XTreme III is incrementally better than the Mach III, but nothing more than that.
During this time of disappointment, I accidentally tried out another Schick blade. I am currently going to a physical therapist three times a week to remobilize my chest. My chest, which was once mobile, was recently cracked open to make way for four heart bypasses. Or quadruples bypasses, as they say in the medical trade.My physical therapist turns out of a luxury gym and oddly my insurance pays for the whole shebang, including the luxury showers outfitted with luxury cosmetics and razor blades. Just this week, they changed blades from an uninteresting Gillette disposable to a fascinating ergonomic Schick twin blade that I had never seen and that I decided to try out. What a shave!
It is not principally the ergonomic design of the razor that makes it so interesting as it is the inclusion of the One-Push Cleaning System. The shaver pushes this button during the shave and a clever mechanism pushes a small plastic strip between the twin blades, quickly dislodging any dirt or whiskers that might lead to clogging and eventual blade dulling. Again, I cannot recommend this blade highly enough and hope all interested readers will take the time to look at Schick's inspired web site dealing with this new technology: The Schick ST Disposable. Not only is this the best blade in the marketplace but it is also one of cheapest -- I bought a 15-pack today at Rite-Aid Drugs for only $5.99! Of course, there is always the possibility that the razor will go dull in several months or in a year. But until then I'm convinced.
There is a lesson here for wine lovers. They've been making twin-blades and disposables for some time now. Finally, it is an incremental improvement to an old and tested design that qualitatively advances the shaving experience. Not fancy new shavers or elaborate blades. The market always come back to the tried and true and demonstrably effective. Novelty, for the sake of novelty, eventually fatigues.
There is a lesson here for wine lovers.....
(Editor's Addendum: Nearly six years later I no longer shave. I have become totally indifferent about my personal appearance and hygiene. It is horrible getting old.)
posted on Friday, November 24, 2000
Don't Miss the Gala Louis/Dressner Fall Tasting On Tuesday, October 24th!
Mark your calendar! The big day is Tuesday, October 24th. The place is Noho. The time is after 11:25 am. We haven't decided yet if we'll have a VIP pre-tasting at 10:25 am.
Last year's Gala Louis/Dressner Tasting
Eric Texier will be coming! Lots of industry big shots will be there! There will be a cigar room!
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 exquisite snacks and stemware.
Call our office for details about time and location. But don't get there before 11:25 am.
2005 Beaujolais l'Ancien Rouge Rocks!
There has been a lot of anticipation for the 2005 Beaujolais vintage.
I just drank a bottle of the 2005 Rouge from Jean-Paul Brun. What a knockout wine!
There is insane color, insane concentration and insane Gamay fruit. You don't find the excesses of the 2003 Beaujolais, but you do find a recognizable l'Ancien but one that is notched up on every level.
Progress in Poil Rouge?
I've been coming to Poil Rouge for the past 23 years. Poil Rouge is a hamlet in beautiful St-Gengoux-de-Scissé, strategically located in the Northern Mâconnais.
The Famous Louis/Dressner Compound in Poil Rouge Sud
Everything here is changing rapidly as Poil Rouge is being dragged into modern times. Just this week, I was able to install a DSL connection, along with a Wi-Fi connection. Strangely, my neighbors also have Wi-Fi! I found out when I installed my router and Wi-Fi card and noticed there was another network available!
When I first started coming to this region, we didn't have Wi-Fi. We had Citroën Deux Chevaux's everywhere. These beautiful cars were symbols of the French countryside and blended in with the local vineyards, Charollais cows and goats. I used to think that every 2 CV had a mind, memory and soul that I, as an American, would never be able to understand. The 2 CV's are now gone and instead we have Wi-FI.
My neighbors are a charming young couple who strangely enough are wine geeks. They bought their house from the inheritors of the Fongey family. When I first came to Poil Rouge, Madame Fongey was still alive and over 100-years-old. Madame Fongey would sing at local gatherings in the local dialect, the local patois, a language that is long gone. The local dinners and gatherings are also long gone. We're all too busy surfing the internet.
Madame Fongy had been the village seamstress and her husband had been the town cryer. In the old days, before my time, Monsieur Fongy would travel from hamlet to hamlet in his 2 CV, stop and blow on his trumpet, and make important civic announcements afftecting the population at large. Soon, the City Hall will probably have a blog where we will be kept abreast of all breaking municipal developments.
While we've gained DSL and WiFi, we've lost other aspects of daily life:
- Nobody harvests grapes by hand anymore. Everyone uses machines. You can find pictures of people harvesting our local vineyards by doing a Google search under St-Gengoux-de-Scissé and Vendange. Everyone uses herbicide and the vineyards look like the desert. Hopefully, the local cooperative will rethink their work ethic in the next few years. At least, one can hope. I find the look of the vineyards depressing and every so often surf to a virtual vineyard site to reassure myself that someone is still doing good work.
- We used to have three bakers pass by every days in their small trucks. They would honk their horns and you would run out and buy your baguette. Those of us with good credit ratings could hang a bag on our walls and the baker would leave bread for us. We used to have the baker from Cruzille (retired eight years ago), the baker from Perrone (long gone) and the delicious bread from the organic baker from Blanot (retired two years ago). Now, there is a truck that comes by only four times a week from Azé, where the quality of the bread is standard. Downtown St-Gengoux has a small grocery which serves as a bread depot for the competent baker in Lugny. But, home delivery is but a memory and the quality of bread has gone down. I can still get good bread if I travel 25 Kilometers to Mâcon where there is a great organic baker, who unfortunately does not have a web site.
- We used to have three butchers coming by every day in their small trucks. There was our local guy, Monsieur Metra and Monsieur Bataillard from Azé. Monsieur Metra retired over a dozen years ago and no one took over his store. Monsieur Bataillard retired two years ago and no one took over his store. Luckily there is still Monsieur Aubertin in Lugny, who has great meat, but I have to get into my car to travel to Lugny since he doesn't drive from village to village. Now that the DSL has penetrated the area, maybe we'll have something like Fresh Direct in the near future.
- There used to be goats all over the area and dozens of goat cheese producers. Blanot, a beautiful village in the hillsides toward Cluny, used to have over 500 goats. There are not about 75. Thankfully, the best goat cheese producer in the Mâconnais, Marc Grozellier, is still in business, churning out delicious cheese from organically farmed goats.
- St-Gengoux-de-Scissé used to have a Hotel-Bar-Restaurant. It is now empty. We can get a meal in Azé or drive to Mâcon. There are no current home delivery options, but who knows what the future will bring? The Mâcon tourism web site has an excellent listing of local eateries.
- Lotissements are springing up in our village and every adjoining village. Lotissements are plots of new prefabricated houses which are ugly as sin and which ruin the look of the area. Unfortunately, the local authorities make no effort to control the architecture and standards of these homes and future generations will have no memory of how charming this area used to be. Unfortunately, there are strict restrictions if you buy an old stone home and do renovations. But, if you build a new home, you are free to construct whatever monstrosity fits your budget and desires.
- Everyone is getting older and I'm slowly watching the village die off. Who can forget how beautifully the Paillard used to dance at the Bal Populaire on July 13th? Now the village authorities play bad disco music and French rap songs. I'll probably die soon myself, before I have the chance to learn how to tango.
- We no longer have the Brioche du Dimanche. This was a local specialty, whose finest practioner was the the baker in Aze who retired years ago. The Sunday Brioche was like a large, fat tarte and absolutely delicious. We would eat it every week with some butter and confiture. Mmmm.
- American wine importers spend their summers here, staying in old farmhouses, crowding out the local residents who are forced to build new homes in lotissements.
- Global warming leads to hotter and hotter summers here and local bloggers, equipped with DSL and Wi-Fi connections have to take a break from blogging and take their Sunday afternoon nap.
Comments are Back!
I spent the day tasting the new vintages at Jean-Paul Brun and Eric Texier.
I received an exciting e-mail from the Joe Dressner The Wine Importer Technical Support Staff (the JDTWITSS) while tasting the fabulous 2004 Brezeme Vieilles Vignes.
This site has been plagued by spam in the comments section over the past few months. Our Technical Support Staff has worked night and day to surmount these problems and we are now working with a software system which should filter spam.
So, yes, the comments section is back.
Has anyone seen the sheriff?
Congratulations to Jim Bassett and entire team in San Antonio!
Back in Poil Rouge!
Denyse and I have returned to the Mâconnais from our exhaustive and exhausting trip through the Loire Valley.
Much to my surprise, we now have both a DSL and Wifi here in Poil Rouge! Up to now, I have connected to the internet using a dial-up connection at the slowest rate imaginable. All of a sudden, we've been launched into the 21st Century!
Now that I'm equipped with enormous and rapid bandwidth, I hope to find something interesting to write about in the next few days.
One things that was clear during my trip through the Loire is that 2006 will be the vintage of the century!
Off to the Loire Valley!
Denyse and I are feverishly packing and are off to the Loire Valley today.
We'll be back in a week after touring some of our old favorites and some of the new estates we've added over the past year. Unfortunately, we have a very short summer here in France and will not be able to see everyone.
We had a fabulous meal the other day at La Table de Chaintré in the Mâconnais. Gérard et Josette Alonso have a fixed menu for the evening with delicious, fresh and innovative food and one of the greatest wine lists in France. We drank a 1987 Savignin from Overnoy which was made like a Vin Jaune but bottled only two years ago. This was one of the most delicious wines I've had in years. Next a 2000 Morgon from Marcel Lapierre which was all groseilles, animal, gamey, in evolution and complete. Last, a 2002 Longues Vignes from Domaine le Briseau which was bordering on refermentation but which was still intact, lively (if not over-lively) and steely Chenin throughout. A great mean and stategically located near Poil Rouge.
Other highlights of our stay in the Mâconnais include suffering unbearable heat, watching Floyd Landis win the Tour de France, reading novels from obscure Albanian writers, suffering unbearable heat and receiving the latest issue of The Art of Eating. Ed Behr's coverage of the Jura is so intelligent, well-writen, observant and spot-on that it is almost embarassing. This journal continues to put out some of the best material on wine and food in the English language.
Call me on my French cell phone if you want to stay in touch! See you soon!
I am ha ving technical problems with my comments section and hopefully it will be fixed soon. My apologies to all you commentors.