Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

Blanquito

The main reason I still buy wine, hands down, is the ‘fun of the chase’. This is another reason to sell some wine (for me at least) as I get nearly as much a thrill selling wine (for a profit) as I do buying it (at a bargain price).

It’s a hobby, it’s a pastime, it’s fun.

Blanquito

DavidG wrote:Now, shall we start a pool on the date that passion trumps logic and Marcs buys his next bottle?

Can we put the over/under on tomorrow?

Blanquito

There are many great Sauternes that can be purchased for $50. Absolutely and stickies in general. In fact, I would argue the majority of great Sauternes cost less then $50 especially in half bottle. The same could be said about most of the other great dessert wine regions of the world. I meant to a...

Blanquito

I would nominate several recent vintages of Felsina Chianti Classico Rancia at less than $50/bottle - I think these were all rated at 94-95 points. And I think a really under the radar wine for way less than $50/bottle is any of the 2015-2017 Domaine du Cayron Gigondas - again, rated at 94-95 point...

Blanquito

I also need to try a Roilette Cuvee Tardive with some age on it — I tried a bottle of the 2018 recently, which I liked but it was too candied (at least right now) for me to love.

Blanquito

Great list, Robert. I just have had so little Chinon that I was reluctant to nominate any myself, and bojo is also a fairly new pleasure but Lapierre and Thivin have both really spoken to me in the last year or two. I see I need to try some Frog’s Leap and Bedrock! Never even heard of Sky Zinfandel....

Blanquito

Blanquito, Are you referring to Ch Musar from Lebanon? If so where can you find that for less than $50? I would buy! Not sure that "great" is really going to be a clear enough description for what you are looking for. For me a great wine is most likely going to be a lot less "great&q...

Blanquito

These recent threads on our wine spending and collecting philosophies got me thinking about wine values again. Can you really still get great wine for $50 or less? You could not all that long ago, but today available for sale in 2021? And when I say great, I don’t mean great QPR. I don’t mean really...

Blanquito

Actually, 256 bottles is 79 bottles less than I bought on average from 2013-2019! That's real progress!

Blanquito

As part of the healing process, I just checked my credit card statement and all together I spent just over $12k on 256 bottles of wine in 2020. But this is misleading in that I also had $5.7k of store credit which I plowed back into wine (reflected in that 256 bottle count), so it was really $17.7k ...

Blanquito

I bought no wine yesterday. Today, I just won a 3-bottle lot of the 1987 Riojanas Monte Real Gran Reserva for $67.55 a bottle all-in.

Blanquito

A nice, leathery, fully resolved bottle of 1989 Chasse Spleen . Definitely not a show stopper and a little quiet at first, this bottle grew on me over dinner. Reminded me of some 86s in its lean, leathery austerity. For NYE, a bottle of the 2002 Lenoble Blanc de Blancs Chouilly , which is very nice....

Blanquito

It’s funny, but I still consider a $50 bottle of wine fairly pricey. There are so many wines that I get great enjoyment from that run between $25-$35 that a $50+ wine better be great or I’m disappointed. Now for 80’s bordeaux, the bar is much higher and nothing else really scratches that itch, so fo...

Blanquito

I haven’t had the Cristal, but I think the 08 Dom is the greatest young champagne I’ve ever tried amongst lots of strong competition.

Blanquito

When you sell wine you pay 25% tax on the gain. Why do you sell instead of trade? Well, in effect I do 'trade' my auction proceeds, as to date I have plowed it all back into store credit at K&L. In general, I would be very open to trades, but the mechanisms seem non-existent for systematic and ...

Blanquito

I just checked, and the TOTAL value of my entire, pathetic wine collection is less than that. This is based on what I paid for the wine, not potential market value, so maybe I could resell all of this for another 20-25% once commissions, etc are accounted for.

This merits a new category of baller.

Blanquito · Re: New Years Resolution -- 1/1/21, buying is done Holy crap, Ian!

Holy crap, Ian!

Blanquito

Awesome. I’ve never had a Le Pin, though I’ve admired it in person in wine shops before. Definitely a bucket lister.

Blanquito

Fun, wine resolutions! 2020 was the 3rd year in a row where I drank/sold more wine than I bought, though 2018 was essentially a wash. Selling wine really helps in the cellar reduction and management effort, as it (a) removes wines I don’t like or have too much of, (b) provides proceeds to buy new wi...

Blanquito

Impressive, Ian. While most of us would have a less exulted cross-section to draw from, this would be a fun exercise for all of us, to list the top 4 wines we’ve had in each vintage while any noting famous wines that didn’t make the cut or weren’t tasted. Per La Tour Haut Brion, two of the most impr...

Blanquito

Nick gives good advice, I’d try one. If you don’t like, I am happy add it to the consignment Ricky and I are sending to K&L in mid January. You will definitely make a good profit if you sell it there with us (collectively our consignment is big enough that we pay only a 10% seller’s commission a...

Blanquito

We’ve discussed this before I know, but the 90 Sociando is by far my favorite along with correct bottles of the increasingly decrepit 82. No other vintage has the depth of the 90. Some dilution on the mid palate is often my biggest/only reservation with Sociando, though I have hopes like you guys th...

Blanquito

Infanticide!

Blanquito

Wow, that Verset sounds incredible Ian! I can't believe how little those cost you! I see Verset going for $400 a bottle on auction these days.

And yes Jacques, great tip on the Elio Grasso, that bottle is typically quite an inexpensive.

Keep on toking, guys!

Blanquito

With some good take out food we opened a bottle of 2016 Billaud Simon Chablis Montée de Tonnerre. I really like 2016 White Burgundies, much more than 2015 and 2018 - two vintages that are supposed to be similar but imo are much more awkward (with obvious exceptions). This was fantastic with an exce...

Blanquito

Nice line up, Ian!

Blanquito

The 14 Canon sounds great. Anyone had the 08 Canon? I snagged a case for $56 per bottle all-in back in 2015 — the price was too good to pass over — but I’ve not tried one yet figuring they’ll be too young for a while still.

Blanquito

Winona Chief wrote:Many have heard me say that I like about 17 different styles of Champagne and this is one of them.

I’ve been enchanted by every champagne you’ve ever introduced me to. All 17 of them.

Blanquito

With dungeness crab clusters to start and baked Arctic char for the main, a simply brilliant bottle of the 2005 Weinbach Schlossberg Cuvee Ste Catherine Riesling. Quite dry, redolent of steel, old limes, flint, oxidized honey. Tangy, layered, long, bone dry but with loads of richness, I’m in love. 9...

Blanquito

After numerous near misses with a concrete cellar floor, I had them put in a cork floor when my current cellar was built which, in addition to being thematically apropos and condensation resistant, has the advantage of letting dropped bottles bounce.

Blanquito

About 10 years ago, I dropped a bottle of 1990 Haut Brion on the concrete floor of the basement - so sad but there was a fabulous aroma wafting around for a couple weeks. Also lost a bottle of Alsatian 1990 SGN in a similar manner. That was sad but not anywhere as bad as the Haut Brion. Chris Bubli...

Blanquito

1971 Bourgogne Barolo Riserva. A birth year special, stacked temporarily on the floor in an overflow pile. I went to move a bottle on top of it and it slipped a little, clanging glass on glass and the old brittle glass of the 71 cracked like an egg.

Blanquito

2017 PYCM Le Banc, 1990 Lagrange for tonight and tomorrow (it will just be Santa and me drinking).

Blanquito

2002 Pol Roger Brut, mature, balanced, full, bright, medium length. Ready for business as David said it would be, with some mature nuances (ever so slightly oxidized). Won’t get better probably, but delicious as is. 90-91 pts.

Blanquito

Thanks for the look-see, Alex. I thought I had some of this 05, but turns out I only have the 00 Chasse Spleen (and some of the 89). Like you, I think many of the cru bourgeois from 2005 are just starting to round into form now and over the next 5 years. I went through my notes on the 05s I tasted t...

Blanquito

Most good vintage Champagnes I like to hold until they are at least 15-20 years old. Right about where the 02s and 04s are today... I had the 04 Delamotte BdB a few months ago, which is really really good, that seemed young still. In a great place, but fresh as a daisy and still seeming like it’s b...

Blanquito

The 88 Pol Roger Winston Churchill and the 90 Dom are probably the two best old champagnes I’ve had along with that 79 Egly-Ouriet we had at a DC convention. I’ve had a bunch of 96s through the years that were terrific — especially the Dom and Taittinger Comtes — but I think I liked them a bit young...

Blanquito

Fun stuff, guys. I think a further elaboration is worthwhile on this topic of aging champagne. For my palate, I usually don’t prefer old champagne either — except for a few very long lived bubblies (like Krug, Winston Churchill, and Dom) — most high quality champagne is fully ready within 10 years o...

Blanquito

2001 Sociando Mallet Purchased and cellared since release, hard to believe this is already 19 years old... This had a beautiful bouquet that I really love of roasted poblano pepper, wood smoke and ash, fresh herbs, walnuts, and black currant. The palate is a little lean with a touch of dilution, sh...

Blanquito

I know this will get a laugh here, but the 2008 Dom isn't ready! As brilliant as it is, and I think it's the best young Dom I've had, it was so coiled and tight when I had it in January: 2008 Dom Pérignon Champagne Took a test drive with one of these ITNOS. Scents of musk flowers, lime and ginger, q...

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