Words from KL

originally posted by Sharon Bowman:

originally posted by SFJoe:
I know a couple of people who bottle no-SO2 wines that stay in cask for a long time. The makers feel that there is more opportunity for full stability to be achieved.

I have heard this. Any concrete experience to relate?

No, I think that it requires oak cooperage. {smirk}

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by Brad Kane:
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
The 2005 Domaine Les Pallieres Gigondas is one for the ages. Impeccable balance.
While I like the '05, I do prefer the '04. I find the '05 quite a bit more roasted and enjoy the freshness of the '04 a little more.

I shared a half bottle of the '04 with others last evening. For me it was a bit too fruit forward.
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
originally posted by Brad Kane:
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
The 2005 Domaine Les Pallieres Gigondas is one for the ages. Impeccable balance.
While I like the '05, I do prefer the '04. I find the '05 quite a bit more roasted and enjoy the freshness of the '04 a little more.

I shared a half bottle of the '04 with others last evening. For me it was a bit too fruit forward.

You won't like the '05, then.
 
Wait, this isn't a thread about Karl Lawrence? Oh well. I had their 2005 Cabernet with roast chicken tonight. Wouldn't have minded a touch less oak but pretty darn good. Certainly a lot better than either the '98 La Dominique or '95 Mayacamas Merlot from last week.
 
A friend of mine is on the Karl Lawrence mailing list. He does not want the 1/2 bottles, so I take them off his hands for mid-week, mini-spoof drinking.
 
originally posted by David M. Bueker:
A friend of mine is on the Karl Lawrence mailing list. He does not want the 1/2 bottles, so I take them off his hands for mid-week, mini-spoof drinking.

Yes, just a touch of spoof, but in the fun, friendly style, not the shock and awe style.
 
originally posted by Thor:
You won't like the '05, then.
The '05 Pallires is not fruit-forward, it's balanced, as Levi said. And a monster, but in a good way.

I missed Levi saying he liked the '05 in the first post. I'm very surprised as it's quite roasted. I like it, but as I said, I like the '04 a little better and given the stylistic differences, I'm very surprised Levi likes the '05 more.
 
I've only tasted the '05 twice and not in full-bottle form, not seeing much point in interrogating something that ageable at this stage in its development, but maybe I should revisit. Then again, I've already bought a bunch, so my wager's already been placed. It's not like I can sell it at a 500% profit, so I might as well just hold onto it.
 
Just finished off a pot of Soba tea. I love the flavor of tea made from Soba (roasted buckwheat). Maybe I'm prejudiced against the non-roasted.
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
originally posted by Levi Dalton:

If his daughter hadn't decided to attend NYU we would probably still never see him.
His son's now at Cornell, so he'll continue to have reason to go back east.

Does this mean he'll do events in Ithaca??

Hoo-boy, am I in luck!
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
Just finished off a pot of Soba tea. I love the flavor of tea made from Soba (roasted buckwheat). Maybe I'm prejudiced against the non-roasted.

Thought soba were noodles. If I want my buckwheat, I'll eat a bowl of kasha.
I'm rather partial to bori-cha, myself.
 
originally posted by Joe Dressner:
I'm tired but hope to write an article on this in the near future.

Kermit is wrong. He brings in Pierre Breton's wines in California. Nuits d'Ivresse has no SO2.

He brings in Antoine Arena in California. No SO2 in any of the wines.

There is a lot of confusion here. Kermit, along with us, has many growers who do not use SO2 during the vinification and add just a little at or before the bottling.

We do many non-sulfured bottlings and only rarely have problems. We have had problems of stability on rare occasions, but that is the price you pay for taking risks to get something better into the market.

The question of sulphur is similar to the question of filtration. A shitty wine unfiltered is still a shitty wine. A great wine filtered gently and with care is different than a wine pumped and processed with speed and brutality.

Anyhow, I have to take the last chemotherapy pill of the past 40 days. I hope to write more in the near future.

he also brings foillard and guy breton that have no so2,all the gramenon wines....as far as lapierre,check the back labels to make sure that's the unsulfered version,as he bring both.....(have only seen unsulfured 07,and sulfured 06's...)
 
originally posted by guilhaume:
originally posted by Joe Dressner:
I'm tired but hope to write an article on this in the near future.

Kermit is wrong. He brings in Pierre Breton's wines in California. Nuits d'Ivresse has no SO2.

He brings in Antoine Arena in California. No SO2 in any of the wines.

There is a lot of confusion here. Kermit, along with us, has many growers who do not use SO2 during the vinification and add just a little at or before the bottling.

We do many non-sulfured bottlings and only rarely have problems. We have had problems of stability on rare occasions, but that is the price you pay for taking risks to get something better into the market.

The question of sulphur is similar to the question of filtration. A shitty wine unfiltered is still a shitty wine. A great wine filtered gently and with care is different than a wine pumped and processed with speed and brutality.

Anyhow, I have to take the last chemotherapy pill of the past 40 days. I hope to write more in the near future.

he also brings foillard and guy breton that have no so2,all the gramenon wines....as far as lapierre,check the back labels to make sure that's the unsulfered version,as he bring both.....(have only seen unsulfured 07,and sulfured 06's...)

What I heard Kermit say back at the event that I referenced at the start of this thread is that all the wines he imports, excepting Lapierre, have a bit of SO2 added to them at bottling.
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:

What I heard Kermit say back at the event that I referenced at the start of this thread is that all the wines he imports, excepting Lapierre, have a bit of SO2 added to them at bottling.

Indeed. We were told recently that he's no longer bringing in non-sulfured bottles.
 
Perhaps I'm being too lawyerly, but the words Kermit used to me were that he "asked" all the producers except Lapierre to add sulfur at bottling. Theoretically, at least, I guess they could disregard the request -- at their own risk.

Maybe this should be a separate thread, but it is interesting that two of the earliest advocates (maybe the two earliest advocates) of unsulfured wine among importers, Kermit and Richards-Walford in the UK, have backed away to a greater (R-W) or lesser (Kermit) extent.
 
Well, the way it went at the seminar was somebody asked Kermit during the Q&A what he thought about Natural wine and specifically about Alice F., and he responded that he always felt like you had to be a "true believer" to really look past the faults that come out when such wines leave the vintner's cellar, and in fact he used the phrase "true believer" a couple of time. He went into how after much thought, he didn't think offering such wines for sale was fair to the consumer, who might only try one bottle. And he said that he had never had a problem with the wines of Chauvet, but that Chauvet was a trained chemist and unfortunately, Chauvet had died early in their commercial relationship. And he said the only non-sulphured wine he was importing today were from Lapierre. Someone spoke up at this point and said "And Allemand" at which point Kermit said that no, Allemand was bottling with sulpher, even with the NoSO2 bottling. And then he went into the part where he said the producers he worked with were bottling with SO2, except Lapierre.

The event was videotaped. Maybe Mr. Kane has access to a copy of the tape.

I would note that this is what Kermit said, and that I am just relaying what he said, which is not my own personal opinion, as I my commitment to Arena and others on my wine lists has shown.
 
Well, the way it went at the seminar was somebody asked Kermit during the Q&A what he thought about Natural wine and specifically about Alice F., and he responded that he always felt like you had to be a "true believer" to really look past the faults that come out when such wines leave the vintner's cellar, and in fact he used the phrase "true believer" a couple of time. He went into how after much thought, he didn't think offering such wines for sale was fair to the consumer, who might only try one bottle. And he said that he had never had a problem with the wines of Chauvet, but that Chauvet was a trained chemist and unfortunately, Chauvet had died early in their commercial relationship. And he said the only non-sulphured wine he was importing today were from Lapierre. Someone spoke up at this point and said "And Allemand" at which point Kermit said that no, Allemand was bottling with sulphur, even with the NoSO2 bottling. And then he went into the part where he said the producers he worked with were bottling with SO2, except Lapierre.

The event was videotaped. Maybe Mr. Kane has access to a copy of the tape.

I would note that this is what Kermit said, and that I am just relaying what he said, which is not my own personal opinion, as I my commitment to Arena and others on my wine lists has shown.
 
originally posted by MarkS:
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
Just finished off a pot of Soba tea. I love the flavor of tea made from Soba (roasted buckwheat). Maybe I'm prejudiced against the non-roasted.

Thought soba were noodles. If I want my buckwheat, I'll eat a bowl of kasha.
I'm rather partial to bori-cha, myself.

Um, soba are buckwheat noodles.
 
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