In their latest column for the Washington Post, Page & Dornenburg extol the virtues of a very popular -- and increasingly dogmatic -- food and wine pairing: wild salmon and New World pinot noir. The pairing brings together two important trends in the American culinary scene -- the greater availability of fresh, wild Alaskan salmon in the continental U.S. and the wild popularity of all things pinot. The writers quote Doug Mohr, sommelier at Vidalia, who offers the party line: "If you think 'salmon,' you automatically think Pacific Northwest -- and Oregon pinot noir with wild salmon is symbiotic. Wild salmon eat a diet of shellfish, which translates into their meat being sweet -- which plays off the natural cherrylike sweetness of Oregon pinot noir."
With all due respect to Mr. Mohr -- whom I've had the pleasure of meeting and who is one of the finest sommeliers in D.C. -- I have to disagree. I've always found the inherent "cherrylike sweetness" of New World pinot -- whether from Oregon, or California, or New Zealand -- to be cloying, rather than symbiotic, when paired with the richness of wild Alaskan salmon. A recent tasting of Copper River King salmon (ordered fresh from a Seattle fishmonger and simply grilled) confirmed for my palate the unhappiness of this pairing. Unlike the magical union of foie gras and Sauternes -- where sweetness enhances sweetness -- the pairing of salmon and New World pinot is a profound mismatch, with sweetness overwhelming sweetness. Salmon cries out for something more savory, something more minerally.
I'm reminded of the words of Pierre-Antoine Rovani -- Parker's longtime collaborator at the Wine Advocate -- who once observed: "As much as it's politically incorrect to say it, I believe that nobody would sing the virtues of matching Pinot and salmon if Pinot Noir had never been planted in Oregon." Rovani prefers Chardonnay with his salmon and delineates his preferences as follows: "Grilled, with the fatty skin charred into a bacon-like state, calls for a big buttery California Chardonnay. Grilled lightly calls for a Kistler-like bottle. A delicate preparation (like Troisgros's Salmon with Sorel) calls for a white burg from a not-too-rich year, poached with a cream-based sauce calls for a richer burg." I could not agree more, and only wish I had that range of choice in my personal cellar.
So if anyone happens to have, oh, I don't know, a great Montrachet they're willing to share, I'll order up some Yukon River King fillets before the season closes, and we'll have ourselves a proper meal.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Salmon & Pinot
Monday, June 25, 2007
Negociants dismayed by US, UK reaction to '06 en primeur
"I'm surprised by the negative comments made by merchants and journalists," said Laurent Ehrmann of negociant Barriere Freres. Ehrmann claims that the criticism of the 2006 en primeur campaign by Robert Parker, Jancis Robinson and others have not affected sales at all, but other negociants are less sanguine, lamenting the loss of sales from the two traditional overseas markets.
It strikes me that the hostile response from the American and British press -- while startling in its vehemence and striking in its near unanimity -- is nothing more than the predictable and inevitable reaction to years of over-aggressive, over-reaching pricing policies from Bordeaux negociants. Perhaps they should have anticipated some blowback?
Friday, June 15, 2007
Jancis: "I hope 2006 fails"
Jancis Robinson blasts the en primeur system and adds her voice to the chorus hoping for failure in the 2006 campaign: "Wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to play this game?' I hope 2006 will not be a success. I hope it will really show the Bordelais the shortcomings of the system." Jancis's remarks come from a "podcask" interview with the sales director of London merchant Berry Bros. -- well worth a listen.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Wine Blogging Interactive Edition: The Tasting
It's been two weeks since we first announced our inaugural blogospheric wine tasting, and we think it's now time to get on with the actual tasting. As readers may recall, the goal was to suggest an affordable, readily available wine that readers could pick up, drink, and ruminate over, and later discuss with us on the blog.
The wine was the 2004 Las Rocas de San Alejandro Garnacha ($10), a wine that neither of us had tried before but one we both ended up enjoying. As we noted before, the wine is from Calatayud in Spain and sourced from 70-100 year old high-altitude vines. It is made in a traditional style, with no new oak, so the low-yielding vines deliver exceptional purity of fruit for the price point.
We offer our individual comments below in the hopes that readers will chime in with their own thoughts. We're very interested in what you have to say, about any aspect of the wine. And if you haven't picked up the wine yet, feel free to comment at any time, as we'll be checking in on this post frequently. (The wine's available at, among other places, Calvert-Woodley in DC, and Sherry-Lehmann and Zachys in New York.)
Jeffrey: I really enjoyed this wine, and it's a steal at $10 a bottle. It's very well balanced and is neither overly tannic nor overly fruity. Interestingly, it wasn't somewhat rough and rustic as I'd expected, but rather more refined. There were strong earthy--almost barnyard--notes on the nose, which I quite enjoyed, although these didn't begin to show on the palate until about half an hour after we'd opened the bottle. Simon can list all the fruit flavors if he wishes--as I've said before, I don't go in for that sort of thing. Definitely recommended if you haven't tried it already.
Simon: I agree with Jeffrey -- this wine is a fantastic value. Deep purplish-red in color, the wine offers up wonderful notes of raspberry and earth on the nose. I would not, however, call the earthy notes anything resembling barnyard. There is no "brett" in this wine, and readers averse to that taste can rest assured this is a "clean" wine. On the palate, the wine initially presented bright raspberry and kirsch flavors, but as Jeffrey noted, over time the wine gained in complexity, picking up weight and offering darker fruit and earthier notes. (I would however, not recommend extended aeration, as the wine had faded by the next evening.) With a good balancing acidity and fine tannins, the Las Rocas is by far the most polished $10 wine I've ever tasted. I did find the acidity a bit more prominent than Jeffrey did, perhaps a touch too high for the level of refinement it strives for. But that's really not a fair criticism, as that would be comparing it against $30 wines, and the racy finish does make it a great food wine.
Update: The wine is also available at MacArthur Beverages in D.C.; Blanchards, Andover Liquors, and Nejaime's Wine Cellars in Massachusetts; and Woodland Hills, San Francisco Wine Trading Company, and K&L Wines in California. For other states, try a search for "Las Rocas Garnacha" on Wine-Searcher.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Wine of the Week: 2005 Clos du Caillou Cotes du Rhone
Continuing with our theme of reasonably priced wines of the week, I tried a 2005 Cotes du Rhone from Clos du Caillou. This domaine, also known as Vacheron-Pouizin, is a small grower in Chateauneuf du Pape and the surrounding areas that has quickly been developing an excellent reputation. Much of this reputation comes, of course, from their Chateauneufs (tending toward a modern style) rather than from their other wines, but I decided to taste their least heralded wine: a plain Cotes du Rhone--not even a villages or their impressive Bouquet des Garrigues.
The wine is definitely young--it could probably use a year or two in the cellar. But it is very drinkable right now. It was a little forward, even brash, initially. After getting some oxygen in the glass it calmed down and came nicely into balance. Like almost any wine you can get at its price, it wasn't terribly complex (although it certainly was not dumb either). The bottom line is that this is a very enjoyable drinking experience with moderate, well-integrated fruit and an appropriate level of acidity to complement. It's perfect to drink after a hard day of work when looking for a wine to casually appreciate rather than to subject to the full intensity of one's intellectual and tasting capacity.
Update: The wine should be available in the neighborhood of $15.
Parker: "I would not spend a dollar on '06 Futures"
Robert Parker has bluntly reaffirmed his pessimistic view of the U.S. market for 2006 Bordeaux, saying, "I would not spend a dollar on '06 futures."
These remarks, made at the Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh two weeks ago, come on the heels of his prediction earlier this month that "the 'futures' market in the USA will be largely a failure." (A self-fulfilling prophecy, perhaps?)
A weak dollar, combined with large expenditures on the outstanding '05 vintage and the availability of strong buys among the '03 Northern Medocs, all lead Parker to advise against any spending in the '06 en primeur campaign.
Curiously, Parker's latest column for Business Week offers his picks on "Where To Place Your 2006 Bordeaux Bets." He is less blunt for the "Executive Life" crowd than he was at the Duquesne Club, advising, "I wouldn't load up on 2006 futures, as the vintage is good but not great."
Nevertheless, Parker offers up his recommendations for futures worth a gamble if priced below $45: Branaire-Ducru, Malescot St.-Exupéry, Haut-Bailly, Duhart-Milon, Fleur Cardinale, Monbousquet, Smith-Haut-Lafitte and Clos de L'Oratoire.
Anyone care to bet on how many of these wines come in under that price point? (My prediction is three: Duhart-Milon, Fleur Cardinale and Clos de L'Oratoire.)
Monday, May 21, 2007
Wine of the Week: 2004 M. Magnien Bourgogne Rouge
"Rustic" is a term that I often find misused or misunderstood in wine writing. All too frequently, a wine is described as "rustic" to excuse its being underripe, thin, imbalanced, or overly acidic -- generally unable to compete by world-wide standards. Conversely, critics who favor more modern-styled wines tend to employ the term pejoratively to criticize wines for those very same negative qualities.
I would like to reclaim the word "rustic" as a positive, yet accurate, descriptor in wine writing by returning to an older definition of the word, one cited by the OED in the works of Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, and Johnson: "Plain and simple; unsophisticated; having the charm of the country." The key element here, of course, is the notion of "charm." For me, rustic wines are those that while lacking in sheer richness, power, and sophisticated tannins nevertheless have a certain brightness, a liveliness, a distinctive character that make them eminently pleasurable to drink. Could "the charm of the country" perhaps even connote a sense of terroir?
Our wine of the week, Michel Magnien's 2004 Bourgogne Rouge ($20), is a wine that I would call "rustic" in the best sense. It displays a brilliant ruby color, and the classic pinot nose is dominated by raspberries and earth. It is medium-bodied, high in acidity, yet very well-balanced, with bright red fruit flavors. As this wine originates from the generic Bourgogne appellation -- meaning the grapes can be sourced from anywhere in greater Burgundy -- it inevitably lacks in concentration and sophistication. It does, however, offer great persistence and length for its level as well as an attractive core of ripe fruit. (Magnien is known for making Burgundies in a riper style, an asset in a difficult 2004 vintage that left many wines with a green or vegetal streak.) And most importantly, the racy acidity gives the wine a liveliness on the finish that freshens the palate and makes it a great food wine (it paired excellently with roast chicken). Red fruits and earth -- charm of the country, indeed.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Historical XIX Century Wine (at XXI Century Prices)
LA-based wine collector and Parker Board legend Jeff Leve has posted a scoop on a fascinating new project from Chateau Palmer: a blended wine consisting of 85% Bordeaux from Palmer's estate in Margaux and 15% Syrah. Called "Historical XIX Century Wine," this new offering is an homage to the bad old days when Bordeaux proprietors would routinely blend the traditional Bordeaux grape varietals with Syrah for added ripeness and heft. While this practice of adulteration has gone the way of adding ice to the vats to cool fermentation, Chateau Palmer apparently believes that collectors will chase this new offering for a chance to taste history.
As Leve notes, the French AOC laws create an interesting situation for this wine, as it must be labelled a vin de table, rather than Bordeaux, because the grapes come from two different regions. Also, as a vin de table, it cannot be labelled with a vintage year (this offering is from vintage 2004). The Bordeaux varietals are 50% Cabernet Sauvignon and 50% Merlot, but the Chateau is refusing to publicize the source of the Syrah (presumably from somewhere in the Rhone), so as not to adulterate the Bordeaux branding of the bottling and the estate.
Leve, who is famously close with Chateau owners and routinely hosts Bordeaux winemakers at his home, gives this 19th century throwback a favorable tasting note, calling it a fascinating blend of Hermitage and Bordeaux characteristics ("96 Pts"). But with only 100 cases made in 2004 -- and none in the 2005 and 2006 vintages -- few wine collectors will be able to decide for themselves whether this is a worthwhile endeavor or merely a clever marketing gimmick.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Parker on 2006 Bordeaux Futures
Pricing is starting to roll out for 2006 Bordeaux futures, and already prospective buyers are up in arms about prices that are not far below those from 2005, a far superior vintage. The usual venting has been on display on the Squires Board, and Robert Parker himself weighed in on this thread. As usual, Parker's market analysis is worth hearing:
I still believe the "futures" market in the USA will be largely a failure....we presumably purchased loads of expensive 05s, after taking a gigantic position on 2000s....moreover, the dollar is so weak that it just doesn't make much sense to pay up front two years in advance....what if 2007 is fabulous?.....too many negatives working against the USA buyer.
In his book on Bordeaux, Parker advises that there are only four valid reasons for purchasing Bordeaux futures (two years before the wines actually hit the shelves): superb wine from a great vintage; prices that will save you money 2-3 years down the line; securing a limited production wine; or buying in bottle sizes other than the standard 750 ml. Right now, it just does not look like the first two conditions are being met, despite wines that have surpassed the initially dismal expectations for the 2006 vintage. Of course, as Parker observes:
I definitely believe the finest 06s are superior and more complete wines than the 2004s, but the Bordelais also realize that and will price the 06s accordingly...will be interesting to see if the "new" emerging markets....eastern Europe, central and South America, and of course the Pacific rim countries, take important positions on 06s.
Parker acknowledges that his 2006 report gave the Bordelais license to price the '06s above the '04s, despite the hope of many consumers to see Bordeaux prices fall back to earth. Here's hoping that a failed 2006 en primeur campaign in the U.S., as Parker predicts, will help bring the market in that direction.
Wine of the Week: 2005 Giacosa Dolcetto d'Alba Falletto
With all of the hyperbolic "vintage of the century" talk being lavished upon 2005 Burgundy, Bordeaux, and German Riesling, I think it imperative for the sane wine collector to take a step back from all the hype and examine some of the less discussed (and less dear) treasures from the world of wine. It is in this spirit that we feature Bruno Giacosa's 2005 Dolcetto d'Alba Falletto ($19) as this blog's inaugural "Wine of the Week." Dolcetto, from the Piedmont region of Italy, is a wine that usually retails for no more than $20 to $25 and, as Antonio Galloni has observed, has acquired the unfortunate reputation for being the "Beaujolais of Italy" -- an easy-drinking wine with soft, pleasing fruit, but by no means a serious effort. Yet Dolcetto is in fact the most common wine at the classic Piedmontese table, enjoyed throughout mealtime with a wide range of foods. At its best, Dolcetto offers refreshing notes of black and sour cherries, blueberries, and other dark fruits wrapped in a firm, but not overbearing structure of acid and tannin.
Bruno Giacosa (the granddaddy of traditional Piedmontese wine - pictured above) like most top winemakers in the region, produces a serious Dolcetto, and his Dolcetto d'Alba Falletto is made from fruit from his fabled vineyard in Serralunga. This wine offers dark, mesmerizing aromas of black cherry and a hint of spice with ripe, concentrated, and almost plush dark fruit flavors -- all balanced by a nervy acidity and soft tannins. It proved an excellent match for salami and risotto al Barolo, and even stood up remarkably well to Carbonada, the Piedmontese version of braised beef. (An attempted pairing with that other Italian speciality, grilled hamburger, was far less successful.) One would be hard-pressed to find a superior Dolcetto on the market today.
Returning to vintage talk for the moment, it must be said that 2005 was a superb vintage for Dolcetto, as the grapes were able to achieve an optimum level of ripeness and were picked before the onset of the September rains that forced an early Nebbiolo harvest in Piedmont. Even the wine we used for braising, a 2005 Dolcetto d'Alba from Salvano ($12), while far less bewitching than the Giacosa, was a well-balanced effort, offering pleasing (if less concentrated) dark fruits and decent structure. I'd certainly choose that over Beaujolais any day. Of course, the Dolcettos to look out for are the ones from the top producers and, in particular, their single-vineyard offerings. The 2005 Giacosa Dolcetto d'Alba Falletto is certainly worth a special search even if it is, in the grand scheme of things, as Michael Broadbent has written, "an important but minor red wine."
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Kosta Browne: An Unworthy Cult
Kosta Browne is one of the latest California wineries to achieve so-called "cult" status among wine collectors. The boutique Sebastopol producer of pinot noir has followed the now familiar formula of limited production, single-vineyard designation, mailing distribution (and the resultant waiting list), and strong word of mouth to develop a fiercely loyal fan base as well as hype verging on hysterics. Throw in Jim Laube's stratospheric scores for the 2004 vintage in Wine Spectator (six wines between 95 and 98 points), and a cult wine is born -- complete with eye-popping prices on the secondary market.
So are these wines worth the hype (and high prices)? For me, the answer is a resounding no -- though after tasting through two of their 2004 offerings, I think I can understand the hysteria. Kosta Browne aims to produce ultra ripe, highly concentrated, fruit-powered wines (with resulting alcohol levels pushing and exceedingly 15%) that have resonated with a younger generation of pinot lovers. These are wine drinkers who have come to pinot noir not from Burgundy, but from California cabernet and other New World wines. And as Joe Davis of Arcadian has observed, they have found in this fruit-driven style of California pinot a new delivery system for their favored hedonistic qualities. Yet what I found in the glass tasting these wines from Kosta Browne was a perversion of pinot noir -- thick, syrupy wines that, while boasting an impressive array of exuberant fruit flavors, offer little complexity and sustained drinking pleasure and ultimately prove quite tiresome to consume.
I recently drank the 2004 Kosta Browne Pinot Noir - Russian River Valley (15.2% alc., WS 96) over dinner at Palena, and it, not surprisingly, overwhelmed even the heartier courses on the menu. The nose was ripe and expressive of dark cherry and cola, with noticeable alcohol, yet nevertheless had what Michael Broadbent has called the unique "Pinot grape aroma." On the palate, the wine was sappy and rich, dominated by sweet, concentrated fruit. It boasted a plush, opulent mouth feel, but the wine was weighed down by a heaviness that became wearying as the evening progressed and gave it an increasingly monolithic quality. To be fair, the wine had commendable structure that held it all together until the disjointed finish, when the alcoholic heat back came to the fore. I had trouble finishing my half of the bottle, not from the alcohol, but from palate fatigue -- it was just too syrupy to enjoy with the meal and offered little complexity and evolution in the glass to sustain my interest over the evening.
I tasted the 2004 Kosta Browne Pinot Noir - Sonoma Coast (14.7% alc., WS 95) last winter and the wine, I suspect, was in a closed phase. It was dominated by sweet red cherry fruit and noticeable heat on the palate but after the first glass yielded little more than the outlines of the big, underlying raw material. I shall reserve final judgment until I taste it again next year, but I hold out hope that the brighter red fruits will render it sleeker than the RRV.
Ironically, my favorite wine from the Kosta Browne stable was their least ambitious -- the 2005 Rose of Pinot Noir - Russian River Valley. It is the perfect wine for summer sipping, elegant and refreshing, with lovely strawberry and cream flavors. It is a shame I could only beg one bottle of this offering from the winery and would gladly trade in my remaining bottles of the RRV and SC for more of the Rose.
I understand, and even subscribe to, Parker's mantra that wine is a beverage of pleasure, and I appreciate a sense of fun and play in my wines when done right -- like the Kosta Browne Rose. But I cannot understand the cultish desire for the ripest fruit, higher levels of extraction and concentration, greater intensity of flavors, and more sheer power in pinot noir when these qualities are so far removed from the historic strengths of the varietal. If you love New World wine and want these qualities, go chase Screaming Eagle or Hillside Select -- superlative wines deserving of their cult status. But please leave Pinot Noir alone.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Burghound and the Market
I certainly agree with Jeffrey's post below that there is more good-will and appreciation felt by wine collectors toward Allen Meadows, the Burghound, than toward other critics like Parker or Jim Laube. Yet I have seen signs in recent weeks of a growing frustration with Burghound's role in stimulating unprecedented demand and setting the market for what many collectors will be a very expensive 2005 Burgundy campaign.
Meadows comes in for criticism not for the wines he chooses to rate highly but rather for rating wines in the first place and, more fairly, for the timing of his reviews. Burgundy collectors are obsessive and intensively secretive by nature. They are reluctant to share the sources of their highly sought-after allocations and sometimes even the identities of their favorites for fear of losing out or being priced out. Meadows, many feel, has let the cat out of the bag, so to speak, pointing the way for novices toward hidden gems and undervalued treasures previously known only to insiders. And certainly, the timing of his reviews could not have been worse, as his 2005 Cote de Nuits issue -- "quite simply the best top to bottom vintage I have ever seen, period, full stop" -- came out well before most of the wines reviewed were even offered for sale in the U.S. Given the estimated 20% ex cellar price increase over 2004, we certainly know who in the supply change is gouging the American consumer.
Meadows reportedly sold more single issues of his Cote de Nuits report than all of the previous Burghound issues combined and is said to be concerned over the role he has played in the unprecedentedly stratospheric '05 Burgundy pricing. This Parker-esque market domination is uncharted territory for Burgundy, as The Wine Advocate's longtime Burgundy reviewer, Pierre-Antoine Rovani, generally favored the region's ripest wines and vintages while the traditional Burgundy consumer has favored elegance, balance, and finesse -- all of the qualities dear to Meadows. To cite just two examples of Meadows' influence: on the day Meadows' Cote de Beaune report was released, Bouchard's Le Corton (AM 93-95) sold out at Premier Cru for $89.95 and reappeared the next day at $109.95; Angerville's Volnay "Champans" (AM 93-95) had a one-day jump from $95.00 to $110.00 at Zachys.
Yet while rising prices are an inevitability, particularly with all the hysteria surrounding this unique vintage, I don't believe Burgundy will be subject to the same efficient market forces as Bordeaux. The far smaller production volume and the allocation system mean that Burgundy just cannot be bought and traded in the same way classified Bordeaux is. Moreover, there is a far healthier attitude toward wine in Burgundy, where it is treated as an artisanal product vinified by farmers rather than commodities produced by millionaire Chateau owners and sold by greedy negociants. And in the meantime, Burghound's growing influence can only bring about improvements in the region, as producers gravitate toward the more elegant and balanced style that Meadows favors -- and has long proven to be the hallmark of the very best Pinot Noir.
Leaked Parker Points and Rising Prices
Ever since the legendary 1982 vintage, wine critic Robert Parker has made and driven the market for Bordeaux. Yet the recent leaking of Parker's latest scores for the 2005 vintage in Bordeaux, before his online subscribers had access to them, has brought into clear focus just what today's Bordeaux market has become: an efficient, world-wide commodities market, where cut-throat traders seek to exploit asymmetrical information, target mispriced offerings, and utilize all the technological advantages at their disposal.
The particular mechanisms of this market recently came to the forefront with the latest release of Parker's Wine Advocate. Parker offers a print and online version of his newsletter, and in an attempt at fairness to his traditional print-based audience, mails out his latest issue from Maryland two to three days before the reviews are posted online. Needless to say, this situation creates rampant arbitrage opportunities.
Bordeaux, of course, has long been bought and sold as a commodity, thanks to its historic pedigree, worldwide demand, and, most crucially, a large volume of production whose wines carry with them a nearly universally accepted numerical Parker score. This is a unique market situation in today's wine world that, thankfully, has not yet taken hold in other regions.
The latest issue had Parker's first reviews of 2006 Bordeaux (not yet on the market) as well as his second reviews of 2005 Bordeaux, which Parker has hailed as "an extraordinary vintage and one that is different from anything I have tasted in the last twenty-eight years." On the morning of May 2, a day before the reviews were set to be posted online, retailers worldwide were publicizing Parker's 2006 ratings -- probably obtained from a local print subscriber who makes a tidy sum faxing and PDF-ing the latest issue worldwide. The 2006 scores had no real financial value and so were freely disseminated, but the 2005 scores, which presumably these retailers also obtained, were guarded like state secrets.
This situation caused a panic on the Squires Bulletin Board, with rampant speculation about which wines were most likely to receive an "upgrade" from their initial score last April and posters hyperventilating about retailers who were set to gouge consumers with this asymmetrical information. There were even reports of "runs" on particular wines at various stores, like Premier Cru, on the barest hint of a rumor of an upgrade. While some print subscribers who had already received copies may have been able to secure some of the "upgraded" wines at their previous prices, the "leaked" 2005 scores primarily served the interests of those in the trade, for their own pricing and trading purposes, to the detriment of the consumer.
To take one example, the 2005 Pavie Macquin received one of the most significant upgrades from Parker, from 94-96 points to 96-100 points. This was a wine widely available for $99.95, or less, on and before May 2 but was now unobtainable at that price, even before the scores were posted online. It now sells for around $200.00. And this is far from the only case, as given Parker's overwhelmingly positive initial appraisal of the vintage now confirmed, prices have only gone up on the most coveted (i.e., highly rated) wines.
This is a perverse market situation -- enabled by the dominance of one single critic and the asymmetrical dissemination of information -- in which Robert Parker's paid subscribers -- of which I am one -- essentially subsidize those in the trade, to their own financial detriment.
While these market trends have been with us for a while now, the 2005 vintage in France has created a perfect storm, where "vintage of the century" reviews and ratings, increased worldwide demand, and a weakened dollar, have all combined to price out many ordinary consumers from wines they have annually bought, cellared, and enjoyed.
This is an unfortunate situation, but the reality of today's wine world is so driven and defined by reviews, points, and stratospheric prices that consumers can only ignore these issues at their own peril.
