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Name Those Wine Personalites!
The first caller who identifies the wine personalities pictured below will win a free case of Clos Rougeard Clos 1999.
Contestants may not be affiliated with Louis/Dressner Selections or Paterno Imports.
Call me on my cell phone at 917 683 2932 to Name Those Wine Personalities!
90 Point Buster!
From The Wine Spectator of 15 May, 2003:
90 Mas des Chimères Vin de Pays des Coteaux du Salagou Cuvée Buster 2000 -- Smooth, silky, and elegant red with loads of dried cherry, coffee, cardamon and milk chocolate flavors. Lingering finish of spice, saddle and aged beef. Drink now.
La Lune Contest Finished!
Congratulations are due to the following readers who called my cell phone this morning to win a free case of Mark Angeli's 2001 La Lune.
The first five callers won this price. They were:
1) Emma Grace Simonton of Boston, Massacusetts
2) Howard Hengehold of Bloomfield, Michigan
3) Leonard Bobrow of St Louis, Missouri
4) Chris Carbonara of San Diego, California
5) Peter Finkelstein of Baltimore, Maryland
Again, congratulations to all of you!
Louis/Dressner Importing Italian Wines!
That's right.
From Bera Vittorio & Figlio.
A limited supply of Dolcetto Monferrato and a bunch of Moscato d'Asti.
It might even get here in five weeks!
This is a small producer who does not have a famous oenologist and who works naturally and does not have a rotofermentor.
They were looking for representation in America. Marcel Richaud, Thierry Puzelat and Pierre Breton told them to work with us. Marcel Lapierre drinks a lot of this wine and so will you. In fact, the wine is very popular with the entire Marcel set.
A few words from the Bera's promotional literature.
How lucky you are! You have the opportunity to taste rare and exclusive wines.
Rare Wines because they are produced in our 10 hectares of vineyard using organic production methods without the use of weed killers, chemical fertilizers, pesticides or synthetic products.
Rare Wines because in the cultivation of our vineyards we have complete respect for the environment , the countryside and the area in which we live, following the traditions of our forefathers: all the maintenance of the vines and the piking of the grapes are done by hand.
Rare Wines because they are solely produced by the magic working of Nature we do not need the use of selected yeasts, enzymes, purifiers and chemical additives, and all those additional systems which have made Wine the triumph of modern technology.
Rare Wines because they are reserved for all those lovers of wine who feel the same as us.
2001 La Lune Arrives!
Many people, myself included, felt that Mark Angeli's 2000 La Lune from the Anjou was one of the best wines we imported last year.
This is a dry Chenin made from a great parcel in Bonnezeaux.
The 2001 got in last week and I tasted it yesterday. The wine is qualitatively richer and longer then last year's version. This is a grand expression of a grand terroir.
Run, don't walk, to your local liquor shop to buy a bottle before it sells out.
It will be expensive, but you will not regret the purchase.
As a special The Wine Importer Promotion, the first five readers of this site who call my cell phone this morning will receive a free case of this wonderful wine.
Montreal is a Great Town!
Limited wine selection though. Everything goes through the Quebec State Monopoly and the selection in the two stores I visited is just horrible.
Great food here though and great hospitality. Our hotel served a complimentary cocktail when we arrived, which was called the Consommation de Bienvenue Gratuite.
We then dined on a delicious poutine a local delicacy featuring cheese whey, freedom fries (as they now call them south of the Border) and a very, very, very thick gravy. We had to pay for both this and a brévage to wash it down. At the end of the mail, I ordered a café allongé which was enormously satisfying.
The next night, we ate at Montreal's most famous steak house. Our server warned us that this was a man's meal. That there was nothing more manly then eating big steaks. I hope I don't start getting e-mails about steak size, because my e-mail box is already filled with various size propositions.
The server showed us pieces of each of the different steak cuts we could choose from. I took a t-bone, my son took the rib. I'm travelling with my son, who is looking into colleges and who likes steak.
The server then talked a long time about how long they age and dry their beef. And finally, when the steak arrived, it tasted dry. Dry and tasteless.
Whatever happened to the expression: a nice juicy steak? I ate at Peter Luger earlier this year and found the steak at that joint also too dry.
I make a better steak in the Maconnais on my Weber grill then either of these two joints. The secret -- I get beautiful Charollais beef. The Charollais is right next to the Maconnais and it is the local meat. Beautifuly, farm-bred, juicy beef.
But, I'm now worried that my preference for juicy beef from the Charollais makes me a non-man's man. Unfit for a steak house.
The next night, we ate at a pizza joint that was serving Cotes-du-Rhone from the Cave d'Estavavnas (or whatever you call it) by the glass. I asked the server for some information about the producer but I didn't understand anything she said in the local dialect. All I could understand was that the wine is machine-harvested, yeasted, and that the winemaker says putain alot.
What a town!
I Thought My French Accent Was Strange
But you should hear what they sound like here in Quebec!
Purée!
Thanks for a Great Week!
I want to thank all the vignerons who showed up in New York for taking the time and spending the money to come over here and promote their wines.
I also want to thank the folks at Polaner Selections for throwing a great tasting last Wednesday. Hordes of New York wine types attended and the event was one of the more exciting wine schnook events I have ever been to in this town. They're a bunch of geniuses over there at Polaner.
I want to thank David Lillie at Chambers Street, Jeff Connell at Astor, Amy Pommier at Prospect Wines, Bruce at Sea Grape and Evelyn at 67th Street for all the tastings in New York.
I also want to thank Rick Franco in New Canaan for throwing an Eric Texier tasting at his store and taking out a fabulously expensive ad in The New York Times.
I would like to thank my wife Denyse for all her moral support, my children Jules and Alyce, and my parents Sam and Irene. Not to forget Buster, for all the fun and joy he brings to my life.
Lastly, I want to thank Harvey, who shared a dormitory suite with me our freshman year at a unspecified university many years ago.
Harvey, who has perfected the art of the acceptance speech.
Harvey gets to make acceptance speeches every year at the the big movie award ceremony. He has a big budget and runs whirlwind publicity campaigns to make sure his films win.
I have no budget.
I blog.
Sometimes I have blogger's block.
But knowing how much my work is appreciated by my readership is enough to keep me going, blogging away.
I want to thank Jim for making this blog spot possible.
Thank you very much.
Lessons Learned 1
I used to be cutting edge but am now an old, passé guy.
Younger importers are coming into the market and pushing me out.
Pushing out old geezers like me and my colleague and good friend Russell Herman.
I've had four heart bypasses and just don't have the energy to be the first to discover every Olivier Cousin who comes down the pike.
I used to brag about having Gamay at 10.5 degrees.
That's nothing!
My competitors now have Gamay at 9.5, without chaptalization and with no sulphur.
I used to brag about having wines that were too good to get the AOC and had to be declassified into Vin de Pays because the majority of the appellation wanted to enforce a generalized notion of mediocrity.
This is nothing.
My competitors now sell wines that not only don't quality for Vin de Pays, but sometimes can't even get to Vin de Table status. Some of the wines don't even have labels on them!
I'm an old has-been.
One 20-year-old wine hipster told me last week that although I was old and passé that I should look at the bright side.
I'm old but Kermit is ancient.
Lessons Learned 2
The successful wine importer loves to party.
Nothing can beat the thrill of getting together with your accounts and staying up late getting drunk on old vintages of Chave.
Throw in some Giacosa.
Maybe an old Jayer. A good vintage of Cros-Parentoux that the successful wine importer bought on the grey market from a private cellar outside of Geneva, Switzerland.
The successful New York wine importer goes to Veritas all the time.
Years ago, the successful wine importer had a drug habit but is now over the problem. The drugs would help him stay up late to party even later with his accounts and to drink even more Cros-Parentoux from Henri Jayer. In Magnums.
Let alone all the Coche-Dury the successful wine importer loves to drink.
This Wine Importer has difficulty staying awake at public gatherings after 11 pm.
He had four heart bypasses only three years ago.
My surgeon told me that he used to drink a lot of White Burgundy but could no longer afford the stuff.
Unlike the successful wine importer, heart surgeons do not have cellars filled with Coche-Dury.
Lessons Learned 3
The successful wine importer spends inordinate amounts of time making friends in the Parisian Wine Bar scene.
The successful wine importer is painfully branché and knows every hot new vigneron starting out in every region. They've drunk the wine already at a hot Parisian wine bar.
The successful wine importer says the word Putain a lot when drinking at Paris' hottest new wine bar.
The successful wine importer's copains say Putain even more often than the successful wine importer.
This Wine Importer has been to Paris maybe twice over the past 10 years, even though he spends nearly four months of each year in France.
I don't say Putain.
I say Purée a lot.
I was raised to be polite.
Lessons Learned 4
The successful wine importer loves driving long distances by themselves in their rented Renault Laguna.
The successful wine importer enjoys driving in their Laguna and making endless appointments that are hundreds of kilometers from each other.
The successful wine importer sees growers they have no chance of ever picking-up for the sheer pleasure of driving hours in their Laguna to see the vignerons they have no chance of picking-up.
The successful wine importer never turns down a casual invitation from a great vigneron who has worked happily with the same importer for the past ten years.
Driving four hours out of your way is incentive enough to visit.
But every so often all this driving pays off. Someone is unhappy with their importer and remembers that you have dutifully visited them twice a year over the past five years for no apparent reason. They are now prepared to work with you and with you alone. Of course, they also plan on raising their pricing by 35%, one of the points of contention they had with their former importer.
Unforunately, This Wine Importer does not enjoy driving. A native New Yorker, I hate and distrust the automobile. I fall asleep at the wheel.
Jean-Marie Raveneau invited me to visit.
I don't. It's a good three to four hours trip from the Mâconnais, where I have my summer home.
I enjoy riding my bicycle (either my Swiftfolder folding bike, or my new custom made Mercian Touring bike) through Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.
Unfortunately, there are not many winemakers in Manhattan.
Nor in the Outer Boroughs.
360 Van Brunt
This is going to be one of the hottest restaurants in New York! Conveniently located in the hot Red Hook district of Brooklyn.
Call them now. The phone number is 718 246-0360.
Arnaud, the Alsatian guy who has no French accent in English, has finally gotten his place going. I ate there last Saturday with about 15 vignerons, 11 wine trade schnooks, three real wine consumers and assorted hanger-ons. Great food, great charcuterie, great oysters, great homemade spaetzle, great duck, great stuff.
And more 9.5 degree Gamays with no sulphur than you ever imagined were made!
They even have Overnoy and Houillon and Marcel Richaud.
The wine list though will be dominated by Jenny and François. The ultimate hipster importers!
Run over to this restaurant while you can still get a seat.
Genuine French Vignerons Coming to Town!
Come Taste Their Wines!
Scores of Genuine French Vignerons will be coming to New York and Connecticut starting March 29th and hanging out through April 5th.
There will be many events for people in the trade and for people not in the trade. You're invited to attend!
A Genuine French Vigneron (the guy in the white shirt wildly gesticulating) Showing His Wines to Excited American Consumers
Here's the festivities:
Saturday, March 29th -- 4-7 p.m.
Chambers Street Wines Hosts an All-Charnay Event!
With Eric Texier and Cult Beaujolais Winemaker Jean-Paul Brun
Wednesday, April 2nd -- 11 to 4 pm
See 12 Different Authentic French Vignerons at the Polaner Selections Tasting
But you have to be a card-carrying member of the wine trade!
Thursday, April 3rd
Astor Wines -- 5 to 8 pm
See Eric Nicolas from Jasnières, François and Manuela Chidaine from Montlouis, Jean-Paul Brun, Paul Lignères from the Château la Baronne in Corbières!
Prospect Wines in Park Slope -- 5 to 8 pm
Pierre Breton from Bourgueil, Eric Texier from Charnay, Marc Ollivier from the Domaine de la Pépière in Muscadet, Franck Peillot from the Bugey!
Chambers Street Wines in Downtown Manhattan -- 5:30 to 7:30 pm
Cosmoculturist Philippe Viret from St-Maurice and Evelyne de Jessey from the Domaine du Closel
Seagrape Wines in Greenwich Village -- 5:30 to 8:30 pm
The fabulous André Iché from the Château d'Oupia in the Minervois!
Friday April 4th
Slocum and Sons
Everyone will be at a special Slocum and Sons tasting outside of New Haven. But you have to be an employee of Slocum and Sons to attend.
Astor Wines -- 5 to 8 pm
Eric Texier, Evelyne de Jessey, André Iché and Franck Peillot
Prospect Wines -- 5 to 8 pm
Philippe Viret, Eric Nicolas, François and Manuela Chidaine, Paul Lignère from la Baronne
67th St Wines on West 68th Street -- 4 to 7 pm
Pierre Breton, Marc Ollivier, Jean-Paul Brun
Saturday, April 5th
Chambers Street Wines -- 4 to 7 pm
Everyone will be there! It's going to be one big event! Except for Jean-Paul Brun and Eric Texier. Brun will be taking a plane back to France. Eric Texier will be in New Canaan....
Franco's Wine Shop in New Canaan, Connecticut
Yes, Eric Texier will be here in New Canaan, Having the time of his life!
So, be sure to join us at one of these exciting tastings.
Hopefully, someone will soon tell me what time they all start and when they end.
See you there!
Spam
I'm usually happy enough with just the top 5 spam categories:
1. Viagra
2. Breast Enlargement
3. Penile Enlargement
4. Cheap Mortgages
5. Urgent Pleas from Sons of Deposed Defense Ministers of Nigeria
Now there is a sixth!
Over the past week, I've received endless offers of crudely drawn t-shirts supporting our boys in Iraq. Anyone else getting these?
Come see Eric Texier and Jean-Paul Brun this Saturday at Chambers Street Wines
The tasting starts tomorrow at 4 pm.
There will be lots of free gifts and surprises.
Don't miss it!
Chicago
What a great town!
I've been here for the past few days selling enormous quantities of wine to unsuspecting restaurants and retailers.
Thanks to Maverick Wines, our distributor, and everyone who is helping out with the distribution of our wines.
The War
I suppose I should just be writing about wine here and ignore the fact that America just exploded one billion dollars of bombs over Iraq.
I've avoided writing about the war because it is always bad to mix business and politics. There are rumblings of consumer boycotts against French products and this would hurt my business. So far, we don't seem to be touched, if anything the recent rally of the dollar against the euro should be helpful.
Being a French wine importer is becoming a political statement. There are various grumblings around the country about organizing a boycott of French wines because Chirac does not support the war effort. Strangely, there is no one calling for a boycott of BMWs, Volkswagons or Mercedes. So, given that I'm a French wine importer and given that I write compusively on the internet about wine and God knows what else, I suppose I should say something about the war here.
I'm opposed.
Everyone who works for Louis/Dressner Selections is opposed to the war.
Our French vignerons, many of whom are fairly right-wing, also seem to be opposed to Bush's war (although I think it is ok for pro-war boycottists to buy Franck Peillot's Altesse and Mondeuse).
If someone wants to stop buying Louis/Dressner wines because we don't support the invasion of Iraq then there is little I can say to convince them otherwise.
I don't know what the solution is to the present mess we find around the world. But raining billions of dollars of bombs on a country that cannot defend itself and then occupying that country for years to come does not seem like a sound policy. Why create a new generation of militants for Bin Laden to recruit? Why make America even more despised all over the world?
One hopes that in addition to dropping one billion dollars of bombs on Iraq, the national political discourse does not reach a point where one has to support the Bush administration to be pro-American.
Let's hope so.
This is the last I'll say about this topic. I don't want to lose sight of the main point of this site -- the promotion of Joe Dressner and his business interests. I just felt, despite the urgency of my self-promotion to both myself and my readership, that the current circumstances compel me to write about matters outside the realm of my business, shaving and viticultural interests.