5th grade, having just turned 10 the week before, in Social Studies, section about Latin American countries, reading about Brazilian exports. A 6th grader was running from class to class yelling "Kennedy's been shot". Then the same kid, maybe a half hour or hour later coming by and sobbing...

I just had a bottle of the 1996 Qupe Bien Nacido Reserve Syrah, and it was very, very good... Still holding up quite well.

The only one of these I've had recently has been the 1983, which has been much maligned. I thought it was a damn fine Latour with 95 pointy-points sounding about right, and it greatly outshined the 2000 Lafite it was tasted with (both double blind).

There are certainly wines I love that have a "touch" of Brett, so I'm not in the "all Brett bad" camp. There are certainly wines I hate that have either a "touch" of "bad" Brett (IIRC, there are several different strains of Brett) or simply too much Brett. Pau...

I'm 60, nearing retirement in a couple of years, about the only thing I've definitely stopped buying is Dunn Howell Mountain (was on the list up until a year ago), though I am looking at picking up some more 1990-1994 Howell Mtns. Every one of those I've drunk lately has been outstanding. Haven't re...

Du Tertre was one of the very few 2003's I tasted out of the 40-50 I tried on release that wasn't weird (and one of the very few that I bought). Nearly all that I tried had a raisiny/roasted style that I didn't particularly care for (If you like hyper-ripe Zin or Grenache, maybe it's your thing, but...

I don't know what you mean by "house." I assume you don't mean "House of Representatives" because Rasmussen called the 2010 House races closer than anyone. House means the poller. Rasmussen is a house. Qunnipiac is a house. Gallup is a house. Each house has it's own bias, some d...

Sigh. Guys, it really doesn't work that way. I am hardly the first person to notice that Ras has a consistent R+1-2 house effect bias up until the closing days of an election, when suddenly that house effect bias magically goes away. Compare that with a D-leaning house, like Quinnipiac, which has a...

JimHow wrote:Two point gain today for Obama in Rasmussen, they now have it 48-48% nationally.

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, to find Rasmussen converging with other polls at the last moment...

Is the Tea Party a myth? Do any of you know anyone who is a "member" of the Tea Party? I've seen two guys wearing Gadsden flag shirts. Both were over 70. I wanted to ask them that since they obviously opposed Socialism, whether they'd be willing to forgo Social Security and Medicare. But,...

I had a bottle of 1994 L'Angelus for our Super Bowl party. I thought it was drinking really nicely, but there's no hurry to drink it. Definitely had the gamey, leathery thing going on, but with really good fruit. I think I still have a couple of bottles. I drank up all my 1994 L'Evangile's, which we...

I think I've probably said this before, but I really liked the 2009 Macard, which can be found around $10-$12.

DavidG wrote:"Democrats are better than Republicans at the small and nasty stuff."

If Billy Bob Kristol says it, you can pretty much bet it's wrong. I think the only time Billy Bob is ever right is on opposite day. But he probably screws that up too...

Sigh, the shaky-cam on this movie almost made me hurl at the theater. I had to go take a couple of breaks in the lobby because the shaky-cam was making me nauseous (fortunately, there were only about 3 other people in the theater besides my wife and I...). 10 hours of it? I thought the 2 1/2 hours o...

The term is "phenolic ripeness" (tannins are phenols, but there are others, not just tannins). Phenolic ripeness and sugar ripeness do not always happen at the same time. In warmer climates, phenolic ripeness happens later than sugar ripeness.

Yeast strains able to more efficiently convert sugar to alcohol (as Tom mentioned) and also able to withstand higher levels of alcohol. Back in the 70's, most yeast strains couldn't survive above about 15% alcohol. IIRC, the 1968 Mayacamas Late Harvest Zin shocked the winemaker by fermenting dry to ...

Supposedly, the Far East market for Lafite has softened and dropped about 20% in the last couple of months. Vintages of Lafite that were selling quickly for $1500 are now sitting at $1100-$1200.

Another little quaffer from 2009 I just bought a couple of cases of is the Chateau de Marcard Bordeaux Superior for $10 per. Very pretty, with tobacco and coffee, very good balance, not a long ager, probably drinkable from now and for a couple of years A Spectator 90, if that means anything.

Well, Dunn isn't your average California Cabernet. I can't tell you how many times I've brought a Dunn to a double-blind tasting where everyone guessed it was Bordeaux (and this with most of the tasters knowing that I'm a huge Dunn fan...). And I think Dunn softened his style a bit circa 1990. So th...

I've been finding lots of $10-$30 bordeaux that kick the butt of anything from California at any price (with a couple of exceptions, like Dunn). Yeah, you can't blindly buy Leoville Las Cases or Pichon Lalande for $40 anymore, but there are some damn nice inexpensive bordeaux that even make it to th...

I've always liked Jordan Cabs, but never liked them enough to buy them. Thought they were a little overpriced and overhyped (at least in the early 80's) for what they were. The irony is that now they're actually affordable compared to most other Napa/Sonoma Cab makers (their cab can usually be found...

I'd guess that the Koch brothers (the two that are big Republican donors) would probably be in favor of interstate shipment of wine, given that their other brother is a big wine collector. Or maybe they wouldn't for that reason... But, I think this is a noise issue for most politicians. I'm more ups...

DavidG wrote:1993 Pajzos Esszencia

That is a seriously great desert wine. A steal at the $140/500ml I bought it for...

JimHow wrote:That's right, Marc, '89 Lynch is my favorite. I'm a big fan of the '96. I do think the 2000 is going to be great though.

Good bottles of the 1970 are quite good (though there's an awful lot of less-than-good bottles of 1970...).

My nomination would be "Exorcist II". With Richard Burton, Max Von Sydow and Louise Fletcher (right after her One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest performance), you'd think they could have come up with something a little better (and more terrifying) than this gawd-awful concoction of pseudo-sci...

The 1962 Margaux is an much under-appreciated wine. It held its own when I had it with the 1959 and 1961 about five years ago.

And the prices for Carruades de Lafite keep getting crazier. I just sold my remaining bottles of the 2000 on winecommune last week for $330 (????!!!!). I only regret that I wasted one by bothering to taste it. Perhaps worth the $28 I paid for it, but it's not worth even $100.

I think it meant that he wore his tin-foil hat the days he tasted the wines...

I recently had the 1983 Latour as well. Wasn't expecting much given the various pooh-poohing it's gotten over the years. But, my bottle was much
like yours, quite an enjoyable bottle of wine. I enjoyed it quite a bit more than the 1990 Lafite it was served with.

Your review of the 1985 BV GdL is pretty much consistent with every other bottle I've had (about 10-12 over the years). On release it had a weird weedy/herbal/insecticide note that made me go: "Is this corked or is it just really weird"?. Ironically, about three or four years ago, I was se...

Jay Winton wrote:my post seems to have disappeared. Of course, it was my greatest achievement.

Did it involve Russian porn?

I had the Angelus 1994 right after the Latour 1983. The Anglus 1994 is excellent, but the comparison was not fair. ;) The Latour 1983 is a monster. I have a lone bottle of the 1983 Latour, tell me more... ;) I'd always heard that the 1983 Latour was "disappointing". Is it time to start th...

Being one of the few defenders of the 1998 Quinalt on release, I don't want to say "I told you so", but... Ah, what the heck. I told you so...