i'm so in love with Rivers-Marie 2013 Chardonnay.
http://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2011433
bought a case last week.

Found Domaine de Reuilly Les Pierres Plates, a really nice Sav Blanc from the little-mentioned Reuilly AOC in the Loire Valley. Was recommended by Flatiron Wines in NYC, here's an old write-up:

Secrets of the Loire

Highly recommend for the $20 price point

Flatiron is a really amazing shop. I buy an embarrassing amount of wine from them.

Bump?

I'm not a huge wine person, but my brother is, has a massive cellar with tons of 98-100pt bottles.

He brought this to dinner last night:



Best wine I've ever had, and one of his favorites. He bought the 12 he could find online a while ago, so hopefully I'll get to try it again in the future.

Partook in a birthday extravagance last night by attending a Chateau Palmer wine dinner at a local steakhouse that's known for it wine program.





This isn't the kind of wine I'd buy a bottle of so I figured this was the best way to experience for a moment how the other half wines and dines. Chateau Palmer is a 3rd growth wine from the Margaux appellation. If the 1855 Bordeaux classification were redrawn again today many feel Palmer would be a first growth and for sure a 2nd growth.

Kicked off with some Charles Orban champagne. That's right, no sparkling wine here. The real deal. I don't think this was a highly rated champagne but if this is what semi-decent champagne is like I'm going to now start trying more and more of this beverage. Crisp, refreshing and set the palate up nicely. I think all those New Years Eve flutes of swill kind of jaded me over the years.

After the amuse we launched into the first course - spectacular! I can almost say the same for the second course. Third course was OK but a letdown after how stellar the first two were. Dessert didn't sound very exciting but it blew me away. It was one of those desserts you might see on a menu yet bypass it to pick something with chocolate and never know what you missed out on.








Even with this great food the stars tonight were the wines! When I took a whiff of the first wine (Alter Ego) I literally almost giggled. Intoxicating. Very lush nose and palate and paired so well with the dish. Alter Ego is Palmers second wine and doesn't even get the best grapes from the vineyard. I was sitting next to Jean-Louis, Palmer's Director of the Americas and asked him "Can tonight's other wines really get better than this?" He was amused at my naïveté. I did warn him before the dinner that I'm a bit of a Bordeaux newbie

The second wine (2008 Palmer) had a nose that truly made you think Bordeaux. Tobacco, leather, forest floor, etc. Again it paired very well with 2nd course.

The 2005 and 1995 Palmer wines were both stunners and I preferred the 2005 by a nose. By this point I'm not sure I could even appreciate any fine nuances that I'd have liked to. Glasses were never empty and we had a Master Somm to orchestrate the entire wine service. She did a great job of decanting ahead of time and serving at perfect temperature. I was told at the end 9 bottles were opened for 9 guests. They have a private wine room with a large square table that was perfect (after I asked them to raise the temperature a bit).

This is not something I would do often but will definitely do again in a heartbeat. The Frenchies seem to have something special going on when it comes to wine. This was one of those rare occasions where the wine experience actually elicited emotion and wonderment. Cheers!













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An 83 Palmer I drank in Chicago thanks to Kdawg was one of the best things I drank last year. As a matter of fact, most of the best things I drank last year were consumed that week.

If you're hanging with kdawg you're always drinking well

I just got off the list to buy the 2014 Scarecrow Cabernet. $990 for a 3 bottle pack. I'm really torn - I'm usually buying a case of wine for the cost of one of these bottles, but I don't want to pass up the chance to drink this.

Has anyone had the Scarecrow? Is it a life changer like I've heard?

I have only gotten so far as post #9, and my stomach is already aching from laughter.

Among my favorite wine characteristics (I am going from memory here) are "Notes of nail polish remover" (a.k.a. acetone, a.k.a meth lab chemical, a.k.a. very handy when purifying mescaline in a salt form--preferably in the citrate, since it's non-toxic as long as you thoroughly evaporate all of the acetone under a fume hood). I know that smell pretty well.

I would not expect it from a Bordeaux or a fuzzy pussy, as Cheech and Chong might refer to a Pouilly Fuisse.

Also, "Pencil lead poking its head out." Good Lord. This guy is better than Michael Jackson. And not the WEE-HEE Michael Jackson. The alcoholic beer writer by the same name who did not own a Ferris wheel or a monkey.

KDawg, my expectations are pretty high that this will be among the greatest threads I ever read on the internet, and my edification will be spread to others. May my few remaining functional synapses be fused with oenophilic knowledge.

Looking forward to more skewering of pretentiousness by a guy who chose the username "Diogenes of Sinope".

I was being completely sincere; the OP of this thread, KDawg, and Zeno talked me out of dragging my friends on a Three Floyds pilgrimage in the Beer thread.

I have a lot to learn about wine, and look forward to learning it.

I have very little to learn about how to make beautiful little glass-like DMT shards using very hot heptane and a glass dropper to remove plant fats as they precipitate out of solution. I learned that from people who knew it before me.

Also, I enjoy whacking off in public. Hence, the Diogenes tribute. Have a swell life.