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We Had a Great Trade Tasting on Wednesday!
We have a lot of new wines in town and decided to invite our best local customers to a deluxe tasting at an obscure location.
It was a very young crown and I was more than double the age of 73% of the participants.
We actively discouraged attendance and expelled three people who were not invited. There was an enthusiastic response from the people attending and it was interesting to note the demographics:
26% from below Houston Street
46% from Brooklyn
2% from 24th Street and Tenth Avenue
15% from between Houston and 14th Street
5% from Harlem
2% from Hudson, New York
2% were members of my immediate family who are implacably hostile to Canadians.
2% from the Commonwealth of Virginia
What does it all mean?
The Incredible Pennsylvania Wine Market!
We no longer sell wine in Pennsylvania but used to sell there years ago.
The state is run by a State Monopoly and there are no private wine shops. Restaurants have to pick up their wines at state liquor stores, just like everyone else.
There is really no one to taste with and no one to sell to if you're selling anything out of the mainstream. The state personnel who decide what to buy are strictly limited in what they can taste, how often, and what they can recommend. It is a civil service run wild.
Today, we received a billback from the state for a bottle of Domaine Arnaud Machard de Gramont Chorey-Les-Beaune 1990. That's right 1990. We haven't worked with that estate since the 1993 vintage!
Arnaud Machard de Gramont of Nuits-St-Georges, Some 17 years after he Bottled the Returned Bottle
The way it works, is that if a consumer decides they don't like a wine, they can bring it back to the state and get a refund at the full purchase price of the wine. We sold this wine to the State of Pennsylvania sometime in 1993.
Fifteen years later someone doesn't like the wine, brings it back, gets a refund, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board sends us a billback for $12.71 for the bottle of wine.
The bill sent us doesn't tell us why it was returned. It doesn't really matter to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania because it is not their money. If we don't pay, they will sue us!
My God, Burgundy used to be cheaper in those days.!
Instructions for Tomorrow's Trade Tasting
We received a lot of calls today and we're all booked-up.
It doesn't make a difference if Eddie Wrinkerman is a personal friend. There's simply no room.
For those of you who have already been admitted....please bring one photo id.
The VIP tasting is from 12:10 to 12:30. Everyone else can come in at 12:45 (we need fifteen minutes to clean the platters of food we are putting out for the VIPs).
Bring paper and pencils to write notes. We have no time to print out proper tasting notes, but will give you price sheets.
We're short on glasses. You might want to bring one.
It would also be convenient if your brought a bag of ice cubes to help keep the wines at a cool temperature.
Wines are always very hot at these sort of tastings and our office air conditioner is not very powerful.
The building's bathrooms are not working. Please don't expect to use them.
We're looking forward to seeing you and can't wait for tomorrow!
Denyse Louis Gets Even Worse Spam Than I Do!
Denyse Louis, my business partner and life coach, received a spam from someone named Isabelle Scrugs today. The subject line was Best and the short text was:
your life is crap
That was it....your life is crap
That's some serious spam!
Who is Isabelle Scrugs?
What's in it for Isabelle Scrugs?
What's the point?
Why?
Denyse left work early today, visibly shaken.
Spam
Who comes up with all these wonderful names who send me spam.
Just today, I have received spam e-mails from:
- Aubrey Carlton
- Viola Watson
- Jolene Jarvis
- Consuelo K. Vargas
- Lana Serrano
- Brad Kane
- Ofelia McConnell
- Adolfo Underwood
- Jeffrey Petit
- Luciano Chang
- Elma Bender
- Arturo Fellinger
- Herbie Diggory
- Jarred Blankenship
- Tania Fritz
- Milda Vonner
- Beverly Buck
- Bernard Faustino
This is just a small sampling and doesn't include the obviously pornographic.
Someone with an active imagination is at work!
Que Choisir Article on Jean-Paul Brun's Beaujolais
Que Choisir, the French equivalent of Consumers Report, has a good article on the INAO's scandalouis treatment of Jean-Paul Brun. It is in French, so please brush-up on that language before clicking below:
Que Choisir on Jean-Paul Brun
Although I am too busy a guy to translate the article, which would also constitute copyright infrinigement, I have sent the site through Babelfish, a site which does 100% accurate translations. So readers who only understand English can check the article below:
Flawless English Translation of Que Choisir on Jean-Paul Brun
In other late breaking news, it appears that American consumers will be able to buy this wine in the coming weeks. Currently, we only have stock of the first batch of Beaujolais which was approved. But in a few weeks we will have a Vin de Table called L'Ancien de Jean-Paul Brun, which will be the banned Beaujolais.
This Blog Mentioned in Wall Street Journal and to be Featured by Tom Wark!
I just learned that famous blogger Tom Wark is doing a feature about me and my blog on Fermentations, his excellent blog.
Howard Goldberg of The New York Times
I'm really excited about this.
He's already done everyone I know and I was hoping he would also feature me.
My blog was just mentioned in The Wall Street Journal on Friday. I learned this by stealing my neighbor's copy of that newspaper.
Lyle Fass and VLM are having a blogging feud. Don't miss all the excitement on their blogs.
The Grocery Guy cut himself the other day while making pasta.
Brad Kane has launched a new blog about his wine world.
Friends of the Brooklyn Guy took a vacation on Long Island and guest-blogged about their trip.
Alice Feiring has lots of book promotional events listed on her blog.
James Laube's blog notes that the people of Napa Valley mourn the passing of Robert Mondavi.
Wine therapy has an excellent discussion on coffee.
The eRobertParker board has no controversial topics because they've eliminated all the troublemakers.
Does anyone know what Pierre Rovani now does for a living?
New York Times reporter Howard Goldberg wrote on Eric Asimov's blog: As usual, the feisty, forward-looking Joe Dressner is right.
The Wine Mule has a provocative article entitled A Reappraisal of Chilean and Argentine Wines, written after the Wine Mule did a tasting with " the irrepressible I.V. Kimberly, a regional manager for Billington Imports"
Julio Iglesias likes Romanée Conti!
Although, he usually opens a good Pauillac or Pomerol when he's just having a casual conversation.
I learned this today reading The Wine Spectator's web site.
He has only one magnum left of 1985 Romanée-Conti and will open it if the Réal Madrid team wins the soccer championship.
Taste the Banned Beaujolais of Jean-Paul Brun on June 7th at Chambers Street Wines!
For those of you who have read Eric Asimov's report on the banning of Jean-Paul Brun, please note that you can taste these banned wines for free on June 7th at Chambers Street Wines.
You can also buy these wines, which were released and imported before the ban, and hold on to them as they gain enormous value on the resale market. I have heard rumors that the 2007 Brun Beaujolais has already quadrupled in value, only six weeks after it was released! These wines are certain to be collector items.
Denyse Louis of Louis/Dressner, the banned Jean-Paul Brun and myself tasting during the 2003 harvest
At Chambers Street, we are also going to be showing our favorite Beaujolais from some of our fellow importers. We'll have our wines from Alain Coudert, Michel Tete, Louis-Claude Desvignes, Jean-Paul Brun and Georges Descombes. From our colleagues, we will have Marcel Lapierre, Pierre-Marie Chermette and Jean Foillard.
Chambers Street Wines is located somewhere in downtown Manhattan and the event will begin at 4 pm sharp.
For more information on Jean-Paul Brun, you will have to scroll down this blog. It isn't that far. Have some patience. You'll get there.
There is a lot of great wine being made in the Beaujolais and we hope to see you at the tasting. Although I expect to be under stress and fatigued and might be impolite.
Book Review: Alice Feiring's The Battle for Wine and Love: or How I Saved the World from Parkerization
I've been looking forward to reading this book for some time now and I was both delighted and greatly surprised.
As much as I enjoyed the book, I had been totally mislead about the narrative line of Ms. Feiring's excellent manifesto and personal memoir. My understanding was that the book was about Ms. Feiring's long experience as a wine merchant.
I had heard that Ms. Feiring believes that wine should be first understood as an expression of soil through fermented grape juice and would begin her memoir of a tradesperson's life with a short manifesto on that expressive quality called terroir. Then, Feiring would takes us on an autobiography of her life as a wine merchant, starting with the opening of her Manhattan shop in 1978, from early misadventures and small-scale successes to the ferreting of significant discoveries far off the paths habitually beaten through France and Italy in particular.
Alice and her lover, Owl-Head, had a knack for finding the hitherto unknown, and she would narrate these discoveries with physical and social details that bring moments to vivid, sensory life. The period she chronicles was one of enormous developments in wine, from California through globalization, and she would write intelligently of the problems that came with progress. Yet neither the trade nor this title is romantic: Feiring would make clear in this book the hard, often unpleasant work of winemaking and its trade and the setbacks that are part of the process.
Turns out, I got it all wrong! The book I thought she was writing was actually written by importer Neal Rosenthal and is now available from Amazon. That book has a much different title and is called Reflections of a Wine Merchant. I ordered that book today from Amazon and am greatly looking forward to reading Mr. Rosenthal's book.
Alice Feiring's book, on the other hand, recounts her personal voyage through the wine world in the search for natural wines. This voyage often involves Owl-Head and other wacky characters. I found it a page-turner and compelling read and perhaps the most compelling work of literature since I read the Brothers Karamazov. You know, if Alice Feiring didn't exist, humanity would have invented her!
Unfortunately, I turn out to be a major character in this book and I feel a bit uncomfortable talking about the book and giving it the rave recommendations it so richly deserves. I can only hope that I am also featured in Neal Rosenthal's book -- wouldn't that be something?
The Best Steak in New York Can be Found in Brooklyn!
Its just a few blocks down from Peter Luger.
You have to reserve in advance but Diner Restaurant, in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood, is serving the tastiest Porterhouse steak I have ever eaten. There are cuts I love in France that you can't get in America, but this Porterhouse is the next best thing. Why waste your time at that horrible steak house down the block when you can get the real thing here!
From what I understand, they are sourcing cows and doing their own butchering and aging. This is taking natural food to the source!
Tom Mylan, their talented butcher, is running an amazing and delicious operation. You get grass-fed and pastured beef that is in-house butchered rather than quartered and packaged elsewhere. Plus it is more than an idea or an ideological statement -- the steak was great!
You can call Diner at (718) 486-3077. I think you have to be a group of several people to get the meal, but give them a call and make the arrangments on your own.
Tell them I sent you and you get a complimentary glass of Caymus Reserve, depending on availability.
Secret Louis/Dressner New York Trade Mini-Tasting on Wednesday, June 4th
Only 37 people will be admitted during the course of the tasting on Wednesday, June 4th, which will be held at an unnamed location.
Last October's National Louis/Dressner Tasting
We will have lots of new wines, the 2006 Philippe Pacalet Burgundies, amazing Italian wines, and new vintages of old wacky favorites.
The tasting will be held in a small room in midtown but you have to call our office and tell us why you should be invited. We don't have much room and we want people to taste in relaxed circumstances. Ventilation will be tip-top as will the stemware.
There will be 67 wines, two of which are rosé.
See you then!
Mellow
People have been telling me lately that I am far more mellow than I used to be.
This is sad and alarming talk.
I need some sort of radical life change. Something to get me back on track.
I fear turning into an older, respected wine importer.
Is the Food Network around the corner? Am I on the verge of Wine Ocean Cruises and gala events in Aspen, Las Vegas and elsewhere? Will I soon believe that it is is great that kids drink Yellowtail because it gets them involved in the whole wine culture thing? Will I soon be attending The Wine Spectator Wine Experience and smoking cigars with Marvin Shanken?
Years ago, in the Symbionese Liberation Army days, we prided ourselves on our defiance and contempt for society.
Where has all that anger gone?
Irena Sendler Dead at 98-Years-Old -- Saved 2,500 Jewish Children from the Warsaw Ghetto
I never write about politics in this space, but was moved reading Irena Sendler's story this morning. Irena Sendler was not a head of state or a major political figure, but an insanely heroic woman whose story is inspirational and unforgettable. What is remarkable is that what she did was entirely natural and without pretension -- she acted with humanity at a time when she was surrounded by horror and barbarism.
I never heard of her until I read her obituary today. My children are too young to remember the Berlin War, but who will be left to remember all the unsung heroes of the Second World War? I'm sorry about taking this break from writing about wine nonsense, but why wasn't Irena Sendler incredibly famous?
WARSAW, Poland - Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker who helped save some 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazis by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto and giving them false identities, has died. She was 98.
For the rest of this story, please go to:
Irena Sendler Article from The New York Times
The Organic Tarragon Cooler: My Favorite Cocktail
Imbibe Magazine is one of my favorite magazines and the most recent issue has a fabulous recipe for a delicious cocktail.
Summer is near and I will soon be at my home in Poil Rouge, France, sipping away at The Tarragon Cooler.
Here's the recipe, with some adapations of my own:
6 fresh organic tarragon leaves
1" organic cucumber cut into perfectly symetrical cubes
3/4 oz. fresh organic lime juice from ripe limes
1/2 oz. simple organic syrup
2 oz. of Organic Vodka (preferably from North Dakota)
1 oz. double-brewed sustainable chamomile tea (chilled)
1/2 oz. Sparkling well water
Ice from a sparkling well
Tools: clean mixing glass, sterilized muddler, recently purchased strainer
Glass: cool tumbler with metric measurements
Garnish: sprig of organic tarragon
Place first two ingredients in a pint glass filled with ice. Muddle all three breaking up the cucumber and tarragon, and crushing the ice. Add simple syrup, lime juice and tea. Shake and fine strain (a tea strainer works well so long as it has previously been used with sustainable, not organic tea) into an ice-filled glass. Top with sparkling water and garnish.
Somone named Kelley Swenson, from Ten 01, Portland, Oregon, came up with this drink. All my thanks to Kelley and the publishers of Imbibe.
Don't Miss Chambers Street Beaujolais Tasting on June 7th! Taste the Banned Jean-Paul Brun Beaujolais!
I just read on the Chambers Street web site:
GREAT WINEMAKERS OF THE BEAUJOLAIS FROM LOUIS-DRESSNER SELECTIONS AND OTHER GROWERS THEY HAPPEN TO LIKE - 4pm TO 7pm
Cru Beaujolais from the best natural producers are some of the world's most delicious and food-friendly wines. To prove it, Joe Dressner will lead us on a tasting of artisanal Beaujolais from producers he represents - Alain Coudert, Michel Tete, Louis-Claude Desvignes, Jean-Paul Brun and Georges Descombes - and producers he doesn't represent, like Marcel Lapierre, Pierre-Marie Chermette and Jean Foillard. This will be a fabulous tasting so plan to stay in town, and why not have dinner at Cerle Rouge afterward?
Along with our growers, we will be tasting Marcel Lapierre, Jean Foillard and Jean-Marie Chermette. These are growers we do not import (Lapierre & Foillard are imported by Kermit Lynch, Chermette by Peter Weygandt), but whose wines we love. You can buy our wines or those wines -- either way you will be very happy.
This is a free event and your other option is to buy no wines at all.
Kermit Lynch, Fresno State University
Peter Weygandt JD in 1975, Washington University in St. Louis
Joe Dressner MA in Journalism 1984, New York University
This is your opportunity to taste the 2007 Jean-Paul Brun Beaujolais that will not be able to continue to be called 2007 Beaujolais because of the recent INAO ruling.
The tasting starts at 4 pm and I promise to insult at least three consumers attending the event. The lucky consumers will be picked at random and will never buy a single bottle of wine at Chambers Street Wines for the rest of their lives.
Salespeople from competing wholesalers will be brutally expelled from the store.
Ownership or usage of an I-Phone is strictly banned.
Update on the Brun Beaujolais Ban....
Here's what's going on....
The INAO regulations in Beaujolais are that you have to give five bottle samples for each batch of wine you want to be judged for the AOC. Each batch is limited to 300 hectolitres. So, if you want to get the AOC for 900 hectolitres, for example, you have to give at least 15 bottles and mark each one as coming from a different lot. But....if you have one 900 hectolitres batch of wine which is all the same, you still have to make believe that there are three different lots of 300 hectolitres because the INAO regulations mandate AOC status can only be given to a batch that is 300 hectolitres or less.
So, Jean-Paul Brun divided up the same wine into multiple samples. Nameless people at the INAO, who are all producers of Beaujolais, then taste the wine and decide if the wine is as good as Duboeuf or any of the other junk that gets the appellation.
Brun has had problems over the years. After you are rejected, you are allowed to appeal three times. Often, he has to go the third appeal because his peers find the wine flawed because it doesn't taste like the wines 98% of the AOC are making.
This year, his first batch was approved and we have been proudly buying and selling that wine. But subsequent batches were refused through all three appeals. So, the same wine was approved and refused and Jean-Paul Brun has lost the Beaujolais AOC for over 5,000 cases.
The refusal on the third appeal of the rejected wine reads:
After the controls done according to the rules of the rural code concerning the analytic and organoleptic tests of wines of Appellation Contrôlée, and the laws of 8/20/2004 governing sparkling wines, and of 11/19/2004 governing other wines, this is the decision taken on the above-mentioned wine:
Rubber
Mushrooms
Volatile Acidity
None of these flaws were found with the first batch, which is now available in wine stores around America, even though it blood brother suffer from rubber, mushrooms and volatile acidity.
Sounds Orwellian? Impossible to understand? Don't blame me....
And these geniuses wonder why they are losing marketing share? Someone makes great Beaujolais and is arbitrarily penalized, someone who makes industrial plonk is rewarded!
Jean-Paul Brun's Beautiful 2007 Beaujolais l'Ancienne Denied the AOC Beaujolais!
Can you imagine the stupidity!
Jean-Paul Brun just learned that 5,222 cases of Beaujolais l' Ancienne 2007 have been deemed as being atypical by the French wine police.
I've enjoyed a bunch of these bottles. They are fruity and elegant and a true pleasure to drink. So what's wrong?
They were not made with the miserable thermo vinification technique that Georges Duboeuf and the Beaujolais Establishment has decided is typical. The wine was not made with enzymes and cultured years but comes only from what the earth and the vine brought into the bottle. It was not made at high yields or high chaptalization, but is a real and natural wine.
This year, we at Louis/Dressner are importing more and more Vins de Table and wines without the AOC agreement. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the small minority of natural winemakers to continue to work in the context of the AOC because the AOCs want to enforce a uniform and medicore style with no tolerance for originality and authenticity.
The entirety of the Southern Beaujolais is suffering and only a few estates working authentically are still selling well. While their neighbors pull out vines to make way for housing developments for Lyonais looking to live in the country, the Bruns and Chermettes continue to prosper.
To persecute the Jean-Paul Bruns of the Beaujolais (already Marcel Lapierre, Jean-Paul Thévenent and Georges Descombes have had problems) will only hasten the decline of the Beaujolais region.
Are the wines of Jean-Paul Brun and Marcel Lapierre plunging the Beaujolais into economic ruin? Just the opposite, those are the growers who have prospered because their wines have stepped out of the industrial cookie cutter pushed by Duboeuf and the Beaujolais authorities.
People buy Terres Dorées and all the best producers of the Beaujolais because they know that those growers are the true defenders of the Beaujolais' terroir. The overwhelming mediocracy of the region has become so depressing that the official authorities see no choice but to strike back at the few successful growers who continue to make distinctive and grand vin.
At this point, I am not certain if the wine will be released as Vin de Pay or Vin de Table. All I know is that it will continue to be an immensely enjoyable wine.
The problem is will the market continue to buy the wines because it no longer has a Beaujolais label?
Let's hope people will reject this bullyish and ridiculous measure on the part of the AOC.