Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
Sold out.
I saw a few places selling Sandrone btg. Bleh.
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Chicago is...
- Thread starter Thor
- Start date
Levi Dalton
Levi Dalton
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Sold out.Go see Gatz instead.
I saw a few places selling Sandrone btg. Bleh.A lot of Barolo and Brunello by the glass in the NY market had origins in that sell off.
That's not the same thing, I don't think. Sandrone has been with Martin-Scott for awhile now.
That is a shame. I saw it when it came through Boston (or rather, Cambridge) this past January. I've seen a fair amount of theater over the last decade or so, and this was the most memorable and (sneakily) powerful thing I've seen in ages. I believe I was actually kinda shaking at one point, it was so good. Couldn't get out of my seat afterwards, and not because the performance totals something like seven hours including intermission. Amazing, amazing theater.Sold out.
And yes, it is just -- more or less -- someone reading every single word of The Great Gatsby.
Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
Here, they are doing it in one day, matinee and evening, but you need two tickets.
They did it both ways here...split tickets (usually consecutive days) and single-day tickets (with dinner). Packed to the gills and turning away hopefuls at every performance after about the third, once the buzz hit. And that's nearly unheard-of at the ART, barring some external motivation...like, fr'ex, the current performance of Cabaret with Amanda Palmer, which oversells quite easily with Palmer/DDolls fans and doesn't even need the theater crowd.
I'm just saying, mug someone in an alley for their tickets or something.
I'm just saying, mug someone in an alley for their tickets or something.
lars makie
lars makie
Avec will be back open starting tomorrow at 3:30pm.originally posted by lars makie:
It's still not opened back up yet.originally posted by SFJoe:
Avec was closed from a fire when I was in Chicago recently.
I'm partial to the Pig as well. We had a meal at Topolabampo which, though overpriced, was very nice indeed. No issues with the sommelier since I was incognito and have less specific requirements than some. Thanks for bringing up some places I've not visited yet that I can add to my list.
Zachary Ross
Zachary Ross
originally posted by Thor:
Lucien Albrecht 2007 Pinot Gris Cuve Cecile (Alsace) Brilliant shattered-glass minerality, the kind that one almost never finds in Alsatian pinot gris anymore, and vibrant acidity lacing illuminated pear and brittle structure. Exciting. Yes, there is a bit of residual sugar, but its so well-compensated that it doesnt matter. (9/10)
Just had a bottle of this last night. I sought it out because of your enthusiasm, and it was everything you said it was. Thanks.
Morgan Harris
Morgan Harris
Totally get the radioactive comments you have on this. I'm pretty sure the only bottle of this I had was the same bottling from a newer vintage, maybe '06, not '03 though and it definitely had this sort of thermonuclear lemon jolly rancher thing going on that pointed me more towards Australia than Alsace. A very strange situation...You think this is due to pushing phenolic hard? or something he's doing in the winery?
Oh, I hate trying to get into the minds of others, but I'm going to belly up to the mental bar anyway. With all the dangers inherent.
I think that, Joly-like, Deiss has a Theory*. (He has more than one Theory, actually. But there's one in which I'm interested.) He is very insistent on the importance of expressing site over cpage, feeling it's the Right, Traditional, and One True Path for Alsace. I think that he makes wines with that intentionist chip on his shoulder, so to speak; they must be exemplars of his argument, as much or perhaps even more than they must be wines.
To pursue his Theory, of course, he must have blended-variety sites. Because his Theory doesn't work very well if he only has, say, pinot gris on the Burg. But the problems in practice, if not in Theory, are obvious. The traditional Alsatian grapes don't ripen at the same time. They don't express the same levels of success within a given vintage. So to make a successful wine, some sort of leveling, averaging decision must be made.
Deiss regularly makes that decision in favor of ripeness. Which is one thing with riesling or pinot blanc, and something very different with pinot gris or gewurztraminer. To avoid the harsh acidity of underripe riesling or pinot blanc, to get it ripe, the fatter grapes (which are usually harvested earlier than riesling, unless they're destined for vendanges tardives) just hang there. Losing acidity. Getting sweeter. Changing the tannin/juice ratio in favor of the former. And so forth.
I mean, look at the color of a Deiss blend. It's dark. Really dark. That color isn't coming from riesling, it's coming from very late-harvested darker-skinned grapes like pinot gris and, to a lesser extent, gewurztraminer. Producers who let similar grapes hang longer than the average don't produce wines of that color; you won't see truly ros-hued pinot gris at Zind-Humbrecht very often, for example. But you'll see decidedly blush wines from Deiss, even with all the light-skinned grapes in the mix. That's beyond suggestive. There's also botrytis to consider, and the potential reddening effects of pinot noir and chasselas ros, but even when those aren't a factor the wines are still darker than most.
I suppose that Deiss has convinced himself that these wines are in balance. Whether he has or he hasn't, I think that what most satisfies him about them is their impact; impact that is not achievable without pushing the grapes as far as possible, impact that gets them noticed, impact that makes them stand out, impact that forces one to consider them and thus to listen to Deiss' Theory**. After all, gewurztraminer stands out just fine on its own, but start cutting it with riesling, pinot blanc, and whatever else, and it starts losing impact. So if it's essential to grab people's attention via their palate, you've got to get that back, and one way is to dial the gewuztraminer or pinot gris element well past eleven to something like 23.
Almost everyone in Alsace makes a blend (for one must count crmant and pinot blanc/auxerrois), but most of those are blended later in the process. Quite a few wineries in Alsace make Deiss-style blends, however, and nearly all of them faced with the same harvest decisions that confront Deiss. With the very occasional exception here or there, I have never seen blends as heavy, dense, and dark as what Deiss produces.
As far as I'm aware, his vinification is pretty traditional and standard. So I guess the conclusion is that it all happens in the vineyard, and for the same reason that [insert the name of your least favorite Central Coast pinot noir producer here] thinks pinot noir isn't ripe until it has to be watered back to 14.5%: it's the taste he wants. Moreover, it's the taste he needs to make his Point.
Me, I think he mostly obliterates terroir. Which is a shame, because I've had wines from the domaine, albeit in the increasingly distant past, that expressed terroir very well.
*I've got a theory: it could be witches. Some evil witches...which is ridiculous 'cuz witches they were persecuted Wicca good and love the earth and women power and I'll be over here.
**All brontosauruses are thin at one end, much, much thicker in the middle, and then thin again at the far end.
I think that, Joly-like, Deiss has a Theory*. (He has more than one Theory, actually. But there's one in which I'm interested.) He is very insistent on the importance of expressing site over cpage, feeling it's the Right, Traditional, and One True Path for Alsace. I think that he makes wines with that intentionist chip on his shoulder, so to speak; they must be exemplars of his argument, as much or perhaps even more than they must be wines.
To pursue his Theory, of course, he must have blended-variety sites. Because his Theory doesn't work very well if he only has, say, pinot gris on the Burg. But the problems in practice, if not in Theory, are obvious. The traditional Alsatian grapes don't ripen at the same time. They don't express the same levels of success within a given vintage. So to make a successful wine, some sort of leveling, averaging decision must be made.
Deiss regularly makes that decision in favor of ripeness. Which is one thing with riesling or pinot blanc, and something very different with pinot gris or gewurztraminer. To avoid the harsh acidity of underripe riesling or pinot blanc, to get it ripe, the fatter grapes (which are usually harvested earlier than riesling, unless they're destined for vendanges tardives) just hang there. Losing acidity. Getting sweeter. Changing the tannin/juice ratio in favor of the former. And so forth.
I mean, look at the color of a Deiss blend. It's dark. Really dark. That color isn't coming from riesling, it's coming from very late-harvested darker-skinned grapes like pinot gris and, to a lesser extent, gewurztraminer. Producers who let similar grapes hang longer than the average don't produce wines of that color; you won't see truly ros-hued pinot gris at Zind-Humbrecht very often, for example. But you'll see decidedly blush wines from Deiss, even with all the light-skinned grapes in the mix. That's beyond suggestive. There's also botrytis to consider, and the potential reddening effects of pinot noir and chasselas ros, but even when those aren't a factor the wines are still darker than most.
I suppose that Deiss has convinced himself that these wines are in balance. Whether he has or he hasn't, I think that what most satisfies him about them is their impact; impact that is not achievable without pushing the grapes as far as possible, impact that gets them noticed, impact that makes them stand out, impact that forces one to consider them and thus to listen to Deiss' Theory**. After all, gewurztraminer stands out just fine on its own, but start cutting it with riesling, pinot blanc, and whatever else, and it starts losing impact. So if it's essential to grab people's attention via their palate, you've got to get that back, and one way is to dial the gewuztraminer or pinot gris element well past eleven to something like 23.
Almost everyone in Alsace makes a blend (for one must count crmant and pinot blanc/auxerrois), but most of those are blended later in the process. Quite a few wineries in Alsace make Deiss-style blends, however, and nearly all of them faced with the same harvest decisions that confront Deiss. With the very occasional exception here or there, I have never seen blends as heavy, dense, and dark as what Deiss produces.
As far as I'm aware, his vinification is pretty traditional and standard. So I guess the conclusion is that it all happens in the vineyard, and for the same reason that [insert the name of your least favorite Central Coast pinot noir producer here] thinks pinot noir isn't ripe until it has to be watered back to 14.5%: it's the taste he wants. Moreover, it's the taste he needs to make his Point.
Me, I think he mostly obliterates terroir. Which is a shame, because I've had wines from the domaine, albeit in the increasingly distant past, that expressed terroir very well.
*I've got a theory: it could be witches. Some evil witches...which is ridiculous 'cuz witches they were persecuted Wicca good and love the earth and women power and I'll be over here.
**All brontosauruses are thin at one end, much, much thicker in the middle, and then thin again at the far end.
Oswaldo Costa
Oswaldo Costa
Wow; flutter; wow!