M. Senegor

In a recent tasting the bottle you see in the photo, when opened, raised a question as to whether the wine inside was "dumb"! The bottle is a 2004 Chateauneuf du Pape, Font de Michelle, a producer I usually like. '04 was a good year, age worthy. When I came across this label in a San Francisco wine shop at a surprisingly cheap price recently, I bought a whole case. I figured it might be a close-out sale for a vintage that should, by now have been off the shelves. I was then alarmed when, upon opening the first bottle,[...]

I have recently recognized a new emotion within me that must be common to most wine collectors. It has been there for a long time, but I have now experienced it repeatedly enough that I can recognize it. It happened when I opened the bottle you see in the picture, a 2005 Talley Pinot Noir from the Edna Valley. The emotion is a certain melancholy associated with consuming the last bottle of a group stored and opened over a period of time. The last bottle! It's like saying "good bye" to a friend knowing you'll never see it again. Unfortunately[...]

Those who read my blogs probably know that I am constantly seeking bargains in restaurant wine lists, which can otherwise be outrageously expensive, especially in San Francisco. You also may know that, in my opinion, the best way to do this is to select not by specific wine label, but rather by appellation. For instance if you are seeking a Domestic Pinot Noir, pretty much anything that says "Carneros", or "Russian River" (there are several others) is good. All you then do is look for a price you are willing to pay. In general the lesser known the appellation the[...]

I have recently developed a new habit when wine tasting which has been around for centuries, is commonly practised by professionals, but rarely by us amateurs: spitting. Believe it or not spitting wine after slushing it in your mouth is not as easy as it seems.To begin with there is a social stigma associated with the act. It's only slightly more acceptable to spit in a public place, than it is to loudly fart. How often do you see anyone spitting a piece of food for whatever reason? Before I trained myself to spit wine, I regularly spit out pieces[...]

We tend to think of the wine world as mostly boutique wineries, and then a few large conglomerates. The latter, we think, are purveyors of mostly cheap, low quality wine for the masses. Well, think again. For those who haven't noticed, the last decade has heralded an unprecedented consolidation in the wine industry that has led to numerous large groups owning many labels. If you go through full lists, you are likely to exclaim, "Really? No way!", many times, as you identify your favorite labels within the vast line-ups of such conglomerates. Now with changing bussiness trends, so are the[...]

Certain practices in wine pricing defy logic. We all know numerous examples from restaurant pricing to auctions in ancient wines, to stratospheric prices of celebrity labels. Some however are so incredible as to classify in the "crazy" category. If you recall my blog about the $ 12, 000 bottle of Ch. Petrus in a Vegas restaurant, that turned out to be $2000 more expensive in another across the Strip, now that was crazy with a capital "C". Presently I find another that in my book classifies within this range.As you can see from the picture to the right, it is[...]