Archive for the Flotsam Category
Welcome to the new Gang of Pour Blogs
October 23rd, 2009 | 
Author: It’s been a long time coming and finally, we’re as pleased as we can be to launch our brand new Gang of Pour Blogs. It’s a move we’ve been wanting to make for a while, and now the time is right. Read the rest of this entry »
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Neil Gaiman in Toledo~Sorta Wine-Related
It was pure serendipity that took me back to neilgaiman.com a few weeks ago to see what was happening lately with my favorite author. (The uninitiated can learn more about Neil Gaiman here.) There was a time when I was an almost daily visitor to the site and especially the Journal (pretty much a daily blog, only you can’t comment directly), but haven’t spent nearly as much time there lately. It was there that I found to my great delight than Mr. Gaiman would be making appearances in Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio on October 4th and 5th respectively. I would have traveled to Cleveland with no problem if necessary, since he has never come that close to us that I knew of since I’ve been following him for more than20 years, but Toledo is an hour down I-75 from Detroit, so it was a no-brainer. Read the rest of this entry »
I Got the Power!
Boy, this is kinda cool! Reminds me of the time the Wine Spectator admin accidentally sent me her code and I was messing with the Forums for almost a week before they caught on… Oh, those were the good old days!
Hey Mabel, Wine Labels from Europe!
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We LOVED Marques de Riscal Rioja back in the late ’70s and early ’80s, and we still have labels from several different vintages spanning three decades. I remember the ’73 and ’76 with particular fondness, but all were very good, with a good deal less obvious oak than they use these days. I have no recollection whatsoever of the other Riojas. Likewise, the wines from France and Italy whose labels are shown here don’t register any real “wows” from back then, but I have fond memories of several of the Germans, including those from Dr. Fisher, Schloss Schonborn and Dr. Thanisch.
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Hey Mabel, Wine Labels from California!-Page 2 of 2
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Hey Mabel, Wine Labels from California!-Page 1 of 2
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As has been previously reported, our favorite California winery back in the ’70s and early ’80s was Burgess Cellars. Burgess was to us then what Ridge is now, and they made a fairly wide variety of different wines before settling into a lineup the “usual suspects.” We DID occasionally enjoy Ridge back then as well, but for us, Burgess ruled.
We were very Zin-centric back in the ’70s and ’80, which should come as no surprise to those who’ve followed our ravings over the years. Besides Burgess, Fetzer, Kenwood and Clos du Val made particularly good Zins back then. I bought the 1972 Souverain Napa Petite Sirah on a whim, having never had that variety before, and it started a love affair that continues to this day. (This particular bottling wasn’t nearly as long lived as some from the likes of Ridge, Freemark Abbey and even Burgess, but for a year or two, it was downright beautiful.) Any Cabernet labels shown here were probably from bottles that were opened for us by friends and acquaintances. It’s not that we didn’t like them, we just didn’t buy them much. And yes, our good buddy (Long and Boring) TomHill confirms that the 1974 Havelock Gordon Napa Zinfandel “Paul Draper Selection” does indeed refer to Mr. Ridge himself, though the circumstances as to how his name came to be on this particular label are unclear.
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Hey Mabel, Wine Labels from Bordeaux!
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Bordeaux was actually affordable back in the late ’70s. If memory serves me well, the ’67 Lafite cost us something like $36 (OK, we DID get it at wholesale), and we were buying Beycheville and Gloria for around $12-13. Pontet-Canet and Lafon-Rochet were bargains at around $9 a bottle.
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