vinist

I was a fairly picky eater as a kid. I think I had issues with the texture of some foods- I would sit there and chew chicken for like 5 solid minutes before I felt it was manageable enough to swallow. Nowadays, it's the toal opposite- I'm curious enough that I have to try just about anything I get the chance to. Did any of you have a similar turnaround? I lived in Spain for a while and my Spanish roommates and I traded off cooking dinner for everyone. One night I sat down and started eating a strange side dish. "What is this? It's pretty good." "Blood." "Blood what?" "You know, chicken blood!" Boiled and molded into a slab, then chilled and served with sauteed onions on top. Don't have qualms about too much anymore.

Stopped by there the other night before heading to the Black Cat. It was the first time I'd been since the menu change- I was impressed. They get the "small plates" format right, with a carefully assembled range of dishes at 4-12 bucks or so. Simple but well-thought out preparations, very fresh ingredients. The roasted olives are just great. Can't resist 'em. I had a delicous little slab of mahi mahi on a light eggplant puree, my friend had four perfect little squares of rare seared tuna. I was impressed with the wine list too- it shows some real thought, an adventurous sensibility and an eye for value. I had a good minerally Picpoul de Pinet (can't remember the name! argh) and a solid "not-a-soave" Garganega by Anselmi, who kind of work outside the Soave regulations..we'll call them "super-Soaves" I guess. 6 and 8 bucks respectively. So, one more diner applauding the changes they've made. I walked away very happy, with apparently way too much money left over for beers at the show.

Sorry to hear it, Dean. It's so difficult to lose someone suddenly. Happened to me a few weeks ago, and it just feels so hard to accept when someone is gone without warning. Condolences to you, to his friends and most of all to his family.

I have a coworker who is constantly shocking sales reps and winemakers alike with his descriptors. An Gruner Veltliner the other day- "wasabi peas" A Northern Italian white, can't even remember the varietal- "you know that bubble gum you used to get with an old pack of baseball cards?" And my favorite, to describe Bollinger Special Cuvee- "Turkey!" The thing is, he's always dead on. open a bottle of Bollinger Special Cuvee. See for yourself.

Both those posts show exactly why it really pays to give a restaurant more than one chance as far as service goes. Even great service can slip every now and then. Demvtr...a dismemberment plan record cover as your avatar?! wow. classic!

The DC wholesaler of, among others, Hitachino recently folded, and tons of stuff got auctioned off at very low prices- so for those who purchased lots that included their beers, you should be seeing some good prices out there. Keep an eye on "sell-by" dates, however, as there was a fair amount of old beer sold in lots along with fresher beer.

I was at that tasting as well, Joe. the '01 Grange is going to be killer down the road, and yeah, it was not quite as mean as I expected it to be this young. There was some fruit, flower and mineral to be tasted through the wall-o-tannin. I wish they'd had an older vintage or two (or 22!) open! What a great time that b-more dinner must have been!

You can buy wine from Overstock.com?! poking around their website, I didn't find many names I recognized. That's always a red flag for me. WineMiles, another of the companies in the feature, had a rather odd selection that was organized in a really incomplete fashion. Now, I know how hard it is to organize wines on a website, but under "apellation" they listed California (223 wines,) Oregon (4), Italy (1) and just a few other categories. No Portugal listing, for example, but they had several ports. 2 wines from New Zealand? Click the link and it takes you to just one- Jonesy Australian Tawny Port? For $23?! And the piece says this site was "for the true oenophile." My Wines Direct. Another one they featured. Maybe 60 wines in all, virtually all no-name brands, and then one good producer- Steele-but it was the 2000 Bien Nacido Chard at $22. They also had a hilarious-looking knockoff brand, "Yella Roo" from Australia! They had a fanciful yellow critter on the label...sound familar anyone? I'm becoming more and more convinced that a lot of the online stores that have sprung up are dubious indeed. Lots of older vintages, no-name brands, etc. I think they're trying to take advantage of neophytes who prefer online shopping to walking into an intimidating wine shop. It's a shame. Again, full disclosure for those who haven't read the whole thread, I do online sales for a D.C.-based wine shop. Personally, I think buying from the online arm of real, honest-to-goodness wine retailers is a much safer proposition than ordering from a place like those mentioned above. Yella Roo Chardonnay?! Come on!

I think both of you are, perhaps, expecting the place to be something it doesn't intend to be. This is a neighborhood place that happens to be in a neighborhood that gets slammed with bridge-and-tunnel 22 year olds every weekend. Avoid it like the plague on those two nights a week. During the week, it's a very pleasant PUB. Judging from within those parameters, the food is way better than it needs to be, the place is cleaner than it has to be, and the setting is more comfortable than you'd expect it to be. That "during the week" thing is important. Simply by virtue of its location, it becomes a vortex of young-20somethings in hilarious outfits trying really hard to look cosmopolitan before they head out of the city to their homes. That's not really the Reef's fault, it's just the location. A few nights a week, they give discounts to people in the 2009 and 20010 zip codes- it really does mean to be a nice neighborhood place, and 5 days a week it excels at just that.

I think it's a great deal when the wine club is offering solid, simple wines at prices like that. As I said before, wine clubs can offer great deals, or cast-off labels that end up there because they don't find another way into the marketplace. Don't mean to be overly skeptical; that's just what I've seen sometimes. Now, at those prices, "pleasant" would suffice. 9 times out of 10, that's all I need out of a wine. My question is, clicking through the site's collections, do any of you recognize many of those labels? I don't. Anyone else had particularly good, or bad, experiences with wine clubs?

Cool, thanks Dean! I'm clearing my schedule as we speak!

you are correct, bigpinot. And both are great importers overall. I'm glad to see what they've done for Spain- and for us- in uncovering so many great wines and revitalizing once-forgotten regions.

Full Disclosure: I work in online sales for a Washington, D.C. based retailer, The Wine Specialist. I think that the online buying scene can be tough if you're a bit of a neophyte. Just like purchasing in a store, it's important to find a reputable source that you feel is honest and forthright. There are web retailers out there that sell some unheard-of plonk that seems cheap but in fact is pretty undrinkable bulk or cast-off wine. Many of the "wine of the month" clubs in particular seem to specialize in selling dreck to newbies. A trustworthy retailer is especially important when buying online- returns are sometimes made difficult, some retailers will send different vintages or even different WINES without telling you, and so on. But it's a worthwhile option. Particularly valuable is a good email newsletter. A good one means one that isn't just listing products, but is informative and even educational. This can lead you to good finds; I for one often send winery profiles when a producer visits and I'm particularly fond of the wines. Online buying can be a great resource! But you should know who you're buying from, and be sure to check out the ordering information, disclosures and so on. Good luck!

I think it's going to take a long time to really, truly get a sense of the "terroir" in any given site in California. Look how long it took in Burgundy! We'll eventually come to understand what terroir is worth expressing and what isn't. Either way, I think we're in danger of losing any sense of terroir, though, if the Turley school, as dean fears, starts to drive subtletly out of the market. That's a really good point. I'd like to see more American winemakers dedicating themselves to balance and an expression of soil, climate, etc. in their wines. We can make delicious wines this way. Try moderately priced stuff from Havens in Napa or Andrew Will in Washington State to see what the results of this method can be. Taste them alongside "Turley style" stuff. Sure the latter has more impact, but which one do you want to drink a few glasses of? And what can you eat with those Turley Pinots? Chocolate?! Still hoping for the backlash against these mega-wines.

I think that can be a really tough one when you're looking just at varietals. A merlot from, say, Pomerol in Bordeaux is going to taste very different from a California merlot. I know it can be overwhelming, but getting just a bit more specific could help you get a sense of what's to be expected from certain wine types- not just varietals. For example: Oregon Pinot Noir- I think that Archery Summit's readily available Premier Cuvee Pinot Noir is a solid example of that wine type. Lots of typical black cherry fruit, spices and a bit of earthiness. Can't remember, but I'm fairly certain you can find it under $30. Any other thoughts, folks?

I agree. It's absolutely a paradox. We all want wine to become more popular, but the gospel we want to spread certainly isn't the one that's being spread by Lulu B., Yellow Tail etc. The argument is made that without these large brands and their marketing prowess, we wouldn't be experiencing the increasing demand and growing market for wine that we're seeing. It sounds like you believe that as well. Maybe I'm a hopeless idealist, but I'd like to think that the increasing demand is part of a cultural shift, and the yellow tail phenomenon simply stepped in to take advantage of it. Without that brand, I think that lots of wines would have fit the bill of being delicous, easy-drinking wines for young people to bring to parties etc., and maybe a more diverse bunch of wine types would have been introduced to novice wine drinkers. In either case, I agree with you. And I also hope that the trend continues, and that all these folks who are buying up all these gimicky labels will become more "serious" about what they're drinking later on. I've seen that happen plenty of times myself, so I'm optimistic.

Yikes! ....robert parker says they're good...

I agree, Americans tend to go for "big" wines, no matter the varietal. It should be said that Turley's wines are unquestionably fantastic...I just feel like in Pinot's case especially, going for that super-extracted style robs the varietal of its character. I hope that we see a bit of a backlash in the market, a swing back toward more balanced wine that you can actually drink, and that won't overpower your dinner.

I think that, with Pinot Noir in particular, the "riper-the-better" New World, Turley school of winemaking is totally out of sync with the varietal's character. I'm okay with being punched in the face by my Zinfandel. Not my style of wine, but I expect it. Pinot just isn't supposed to punch me the face, in my opinion. Pungently aromatic it should be, but let it offer up a nice array of fruit, spice, and plenty of mushroom and mineral and earth. And once you start ratcheting up the ripeness level, you start losing the acidity that is just so precious to good Pinot Noir. I'm no Burgundy-phile. I firmly believe great Burgundy is still the benchmark, but it's such a qualitative crapshoot and so insanely expensive when great that I tend to avoid it. So give me New World, but let's calm it down a bit and go for elegance! That's what Pinot is for!

Being in the business of selling wine, I see this all the time- lots of folks, especially younger people, gravitate toward eye-catching labels or neat little gimmicks. I hope that these same people become more interested in wine, and if it takes critter labels or characters like Lulu B. to do it, part of me is okay with that- as long as they start to seek out really interesting stuff later on. but at the same time, I think wines like this are a threat to the traditions and unique cultures that make up each wine region's identity. I also think it's fundamental that even novice wine drinkers be shown that good wine is, first and foremost, about the place it comes from. labels like this just serve to confuse people. Lulu B. may as well be from Australia, or California, or Singapore; there's no effort made by the producer to distinguish this as a Southern French wine. That kind of marketing does not bode well for the future of fine wine. OK rant over. Back to my bottle of Andrew Will's Cuvee Lucia Merlot. Great stuff...and so definitively Washington State!

I agree. The wines aren't "badly made," per se, but they don't offer much beyond the label. There's been much hoopla lately surrounding research showing that women are becoming the biggest purchasers of wine, especially at the lower price points. Some producers are clamoring to get at this market. But labels, and marketing schemes, like this one are, in my eyes, condescending to women. And wines like this- non-traditional, mass-market wines from regions with a long history- are an insult to the regions they come from. I think this line of "wines" is shameful.

Man. I'll hold off judgement til I see the show. I have a certain respect for Karen MacNeil; I think the Wine Bible is a great book for teaching people about wine without dumbing it down too much...but the show...and the celebrity-comparison gimmick...kinda sad. Although, at the same time I think we should have some patience for what we see as "dumbed down." If it helps spark more Americans' interest and fascination with wine, that's a good thing all around- even if it makes us cringe.