Open Mike (Oct & Nov) - Wines that got you into this hobby

A German Riesling got us interested in wine. On a business trip to the Mosel region I had the audacity to tell our German host that I didn't like white wine because it all tasted the same. He took extreme offense and, after explaining the wonders of Riesling, gave me two bottles to take home. I could have given a rip and tossed the stuff in the pantry.

Sometime later we were clearing up clutter in preparation to remodel. My wife called me and asked "what should I do with this beerenauslese stuff." I told her to pour it down the drain. Thank God that she tasted it first. The wine did not go down the drain. That was the start of what has been a pretty amazing journey.

PS: Despite what you may have been told all white wine does not taste the same. Try some.

Ah well, back to my vinous induction

N/V Dr Zenzen Piesporter Mickelsberg.

I remember this one and the stuff served in a blue bottle! When I was dating Jessica of Ealing, her dad who ran a pub used to sell this at weddings catered in the pub.
Today, no real nose to speak of, palate has hints of sweetness but no recognisable quality. I served real chilled to staff at the Grill who thought I had lost it! Heck, its only $12.

Bob - I actually tried one of the Zenzen wines at an event a few years ago (an 04 Grosslage Valwiger Rosenhang Riesling Kabinett "ApolloFalter"), and it was also pretty bad. Not that I was expecting much, of course; frankly, I'm surprised that anyone bothered to bring a subpar wine from such an obscure Grosslage across the Atlantic Ocean.

I guess my actual vinuous introductions were Annie Green Springs and Boones farm as a 14-16 year old, but don't think had much to do with my wine hobby.

In college and after in Chapel Hill, I was mostly a beer guy. Some friends did open a steakhouse and I tried some of their wines, but didn't really care (but remember when they switched from a Pouilly-Fuisee to a Pouilly Fume thinking they weren't very similar!)

In late 80s I was on the streets for a while, never really wanted my compadres' Gallo "Port"

Easter of either 91 or 92, I was at a dinner where the '82 Gloria was served. My epiphany (the wine and how it went with the lamb), and easily beginning of my real wine journey. I've had it at least a dozen times since, last time (this year at a 1982 cheapies dinner) while good it was showing age. I don't have any more 1982, probably not buying more, but will pop a newer vintage of Gloria this month. Shortly after the Gloria as I got more into wine, drank quite a few bottles of 91-95 Beringer KV, I have some 97 I'll open as well.

That's close to masochism, Bob. ....Hey I did it for the team here! Who else is gonna delve into their past

And your past is so long--er, I mean rich!!

Very good Jenise. BTW I had an amazing PN today from new winery from Edna Valley, Double Bond. Only 100 cases, there was a sample at DeVines downtown. Delicious!

I don't remember the exact date, but it was September 1979 and I was in San Francisco covering some conference on mining and metals. One night, I went to Ernie's with someone I was trying to impress. I picked a bottle of Joseph Phelps Cabernet Sauvignon off the wine list because I could pronounce the name. It was the first "serious" wine I'd ever tasted. The rest, as they say, is history.

My memories go back to mother and her love for Rioja, especially Faustino.

I picked up a bottle of the Fautino I GR rioja on the way home tonight, so if you do grab a bottle Bob, then we can do an open mike within an open mike!

Which vintage did you manage to find Ian. The `05 GR is here I believe.

Hi Bob
2001, which might give it a chance of being semi-mature
regards
Ian

I've been trying to reconstruct and i think it went like this:
Grocery store wines --> hugh johnsons book--> mostly white wines from France --> budweiser --> fizzle
Years of beer drinking followed, then....
Grocery store wine --> california cab --> wine trip to napa --> case purchases of cal cab and zin --> jack daniels --> fizzle
Years of drinking Jack Daniels passed. Then...
Grocery store jug wines --> aussie wines --> rosemount cab --> rosemount gsm (hmmm?) --> french gsm (cotes du Rhone)(double hmmm?) --> beaucastel 1978 (epiphany)
Now, half or more of my cellar is southern rhone - CdP, Gigondas, Vacqueyras, Seguret, CdR and CdR village,
so i guess that makes the wine that really got me started into serious stuff either rosemont cab or gsm. As fate would have it, a few years ago a friend gave me a bottle of rosemount gsm and, since i had moved on, i put it in the cellar. I still have it i think. But i think i will get a fresh one if they still make it.

To Matt Richman,
I was familiar with your mother's writing when I lived in Prince George's County, MD.

I've been trying to reconstruct and i think it went like this:
Grocery store wines --> hugh johnsons book--> mostly white wines from France --> budweiser --> fizzle
Years of beer drinking followed, then....
Grocery store wine --> california cab --> wine trip to napa --> case purchases of cal cab and zin --> jack daniels --> fizzle
Years of drinking Jack Daniels passed. Then...
Grocery store jug wines --> aussie wines --> rosemount cab --> rosemount gsm (hmmm?) --> french gsm (cotes du Rhone)(double hmmm?) --> beaucastel 1978 (epiphany)

Cool - another great potted history - definitely no requirement to revisits the JD & bud!

Cool - another great potted history - definitely no requirement to revisits the JD & bud!

But i do, often.

Now, half or more of my cellar is southern rhone - CdP, Gigondas, Vacqueyras, Seguret, CdR and CdR village,

Interesting - I'm curious as to how you came to focus on Seguret, which isn't necessarily the best known of the CDR Villages. Can't say that I've seen much from that village yet - the only Seguret that I've tried so far was from Domaine de Mourchon. Also have seen one that Laurence Feraud of Pegau makes from purchased grapes, but haven't tried it.

Any recommendations for producers/wines from Seguret to look out for?

I have less Seguret than anything else, but really great memories of a visit to Mourchon a few years ago, two hours with the gregarious Scottsman who owns it, and the samples of wine he poured for us that they produce only for themselves. I also have some faraud (blend of mourvdre and syrah, no grenache), and some Cotarie and some Cabasse. My attachment to the region is really unrelated to the quality or style of their wine vis-a-vis other nearby appelations, but we spent a week in a gorgeous villa amidst the vineyards, perfect weather, great friends, and met some great people who made wine. So its more a sentimental attraction. When i open a bottle of Mourchon, i try not to think that it is too clean for my tastes. I think instead of late afternoons at the table by the vineyard with some bread, cheese, mourchon, and friends. And i smile.

That mention by Andrew of Zeller Schwarze Katz reminded me that my middle wife loved that stuff so I had a fair share of it during that brief episode of my life. I need to snag a bottle of that just for memory sake, fond or otherwise!

Go for it Jim. See my TN on Dr Zenzen Piesporter??

Like Robin, I got “hooked” on wine at an early age. As an infant (God forbid if you do this today) it was a tiny dribble from my father’s finger. As a young adolescent it was wine with soda or apple cider. As a growing teenager it was a glass of wine on Sunday and Thursday (“macaroni day” at my house). By the time I was a young adult it was a glass of wine at mealtime. My father always had a Sicilian red on his table called Segesta (produced by Rallo and imported to the eastern US by Banfi). At first it came in gallon jugs, than it came in 3 liter bottles. In the late 1980’s early 1990’s it came in magnums with a fancy ceramic latching (and locking) enclosure (with Rallo printed on the top of it) and a rubber gasket. In 1994 the wine just mysteriously disappeared (and this was after a write up in the New York Times). On the older bottles the grapes mentioned were Marsala red grapes or Calabrese grapes, today these would be known as Nero d’Avola. I’ve searched “far and wide” to find the producer (or his predecessor) and the wine, came close several times, but no cigar. Because it became difficult obtaining the wine in the mid 1990’s my father and I began making our own “house wine”.

Salute

Château Gruaud-Larose Saint-Julien 2ème grand cru classé 2001 - Alc.13% - (from €45 per Wine Searcher)
I was hoping that this wine would replicate the magic which I recall from 1953 left-bankers in the early/mid 60s, i.e. at a similar age (the wine's not mine ), but perhaps inevitably I was disappointed.

Nevertheless this was a very good wine, which will probably still improve, but it did not stand out amongst the other clarets which I have been drinking in recent months. It was quite sturdily built and already open aromatically with still primary red veering to dark fruit (notably black currant) showing mint and mineral touches and nicely lively acidity and decent length with firm well covered tannins supporting the finish. I think that a few more years should develop interesting secondary characteristics without excessive fading of the fruit; 16/20+ now..

Frankly I think that good bottles of G-L 1999 (a theoretically lesser vintage) were closer to showing the magic of the 53s (other bottles breached my quite generous brett tolerance ceiling).

Am I remembering the magic of the 53s through the rose tinted spectacles of nostalgia? I doubt it, because experienced older generation claret connoisseurs like Michael Broadbent agree. In the 1980 edition of his vintage book, he wrote "Perhaps the most attractive of all the postwar vintages and, for me, the personification of claret at its most charming and elegant best."

[Jenise]

Okay, the Kendall Jackson is in the house. All I've done so far is stare at it, though.

It's not a hobby.

Seventeen years ago I had angioplasty and did not feel comfortable drinking the hard stuff (loved bourbon) so I started trying red wine. California, Chile, Argentina, Aussie, Washington, Italy, and Spain. One day I stumbled on a little $10 Bordeaux at a local store ('95 Cht. L'Etoile, Graves) and said to myself "why is this wine so much more drinkable than all the others?" I explored, tasted and started reading about wine and was hooked. I've never seen the l'Etoile since but it changed my life forever.

I too have fond memories of the early Graves that I drank without knowing a lot about the region!
These days when downtown, helping out at DeVines with tastings etc, I always note the new arrivals on the Bordeaux shelf...."oops I see a new Graves".

The only thing I remember from growing up was that my father loved Moselle Riesling Spatlese. Everything else was more or less generic. In college and during first year of marriage it was strictly white with white and red with red.

Then the Air Force shipped us to France. We lived in Laxau a near suburb of Nancy. We could walk across the street and buy wonderful local wine. It came in returnable bottles with foil caps. Soon we wandered next store to a more upscale shop we bought a lot of St Emillion and Alsace whites, as well as the local Vin Gris de Lorraine. It was, of course, Pinot Gris.

After two years of this we moved the Sembach, Germany. We soon found that we were about an hour’s drive from Oppenheim. So we drove there and found a wonderful winemaker who made us taste all twelve of his wines on each trip. They ranged from almost bone dry to nicely sweet.

This got us started fairly well and used our experience to do well during a tour in NYC. The next time we were all together was in Hawaii. We soon discovered the Party Store at Pearl Harbor next to our base at Hickam. Their selections were to die for. We were drinking ’66 Bordeaux and ’65 Burgundy until it came out of our ears. Unfortunately after we were there for a year Congress closed it. We also found that in Hawaii there was no duty or taxes on California products including wine (part of their statehood deal). So came our introduction to American wine. It was good, and our education was just about complete.

[David M. Bueker]

Tim,

Charming and elegant are now curse words in Bordeaux! I can see your point on '99, as it's not a blockbuster vintage, and was drinkable from the get go. I went through quite a lot of '99 Pichon Baron, Leoville Barton and all of my bottles of Clerc Milon.