Recent content by Saul Mutchnick

Thanks for the kind words, Brad—it was great to host y'all and chat wine, I hope you've had a great time in the PNW! I live in Portland and the winery is in Amity (I rent a corner of one Mr. Vincent Fritzsche's facility, and somehow haven't been kicked out yet). The label's called Championship...

While the Portland recs have been good so far, I'll offer a hearty endorsement for Taborly Wines as well. It's a smaller shop than either Sec or Vinopolis, but Michael (who posts here some) is a gem of an owner who has great taste and a really well-curated selection. Plus, his inventory isn't...

Dolin's Genepy, which is from the same class of liqueurs as Chartreuse, does well as a replacement in cocktails. It's also delicious on its own. Not quite as good as Chartreuse, but also much less expensive and easier to find.

Love Lovely's. If you go, don't skip the non-pizza things. Gado Gado would be a great choice, as would basically any of Earl Ninsom's places—Eem, Hat Yai (more casual), and I've heard good things about his new place, Phuket Cafe. I really like Tusk's food, as well, and OK Omens has great wine...

Are you looking for Portland proper? Or are we talking about the valley at large?

Depends on who your usuals are?

It's funny—my first beverage-related jobs were working in breweries, and the level of sanitation in wineries surprised the hell out of me once I went down that road. But once you look at the potential of each beverage to have unwanted microbiological growth, it makes sense. Wine is high acid...

The high-numbered Diams are basically like bottling a wine under screwcap, from my experience. That wine should have a loooong life ahead of it.

It's their not-quite-entry-level bottling (and the '13 was quite good). GV ages pretty glacially and that wine is under screwcap, IIRC, which both bode well for it being a really fun wine to drink now. I think Mark is right re: storage, though—I wouldn't be very confident that someone had stored...

Maybe the Marius is a one-off after they bought some new foudres? If they didn't fit with the profile of the rest of the wines, it might make sense to bottle it as it's own thing. That said, I can't imagine that a 2600L vessel would have so much oak impact that you couldn't blend it away pretty...

I think we're seeing a combination of a) tariff pricing raising the bar for what importers/distributors can charge; b) anyone who ate margin during the tariffs trying to make it back now; c) a string of very small vintages in Burgundy, so producers/importers/distributors need to raise prices to...

I've bought them in the past from Balanced Wine Selections, out of California, but unfortunately it seems as though they don't exist anymore. That's a shame, as they had a number of wines that I've really enjoyed. Not sure where VLM got them.

I haven't been but Seagrape Wine Company (in Sarasota) is owned/run by Thomas Morgan, who was the southeast sales rep for Kermit Lynch. Great guy and I'd expect a well thought out selection from him.

Tiberio is very much worth your time. Both the entry level bottling and the Fonte Canale are excellent wines and very much over deliver for their prices.

I assume that was from Brooks?