Tiring out the wines: a growing trend?
Re: Scenes from the Class Struggle on Internet Wine Boards
Ver mensaje de MCamblorI read it ... quite a lesson! I guess I should say ";touchè"; because I both have an Eurocave and a bottle of Cirsion 2001 :-DD. Again, PLEASE, it was FAR (not screaming, just trying to emphasize) from my intention to call anyone a snob! (and definitely not you, Manuel, don’t you know me a bit?) ... as you said, we are in the same bunch of crazy people ;) (to any of my family or friends the amount I spend in wine is plain ridiculous). I see your point, I certainly do (and I have taken note of your reccomendations :-))), I’m just not up to buying wines 15, 20 or 25 years ahead of time (I will not repeat my arguments here ... I now see that they can be missinterpreted, and I do not want anyone to feel insulted unless I have the intention to insult :-DD). In fact, quite lousily I guess, I was trying to convey the idea that yes, I think it crazy that the consumer has to buy wines when they are not ready, but it is not that the consumer is crazy, is that s/he has no option if s/he likes this type of wines (I can even admit that they are the best ones, since many people who are knowledgeable and good drinkers say so. I simply do not know). In my (humble) opinion it should be a task of the cellar to release the wines when they are ready.
No war intended, and no insulting intended either, and I was never referring to you (or to anyone for that matter). I guess I was not very smart in my writing! ... I think I’ll keep my ironic comments for the time veremer@s get together around a bottle of good wine!
... friends???
cheers,
MaJesus
¡Ay, por Dios!!!!
Ver mensaje de MaJesusFar from being insulted, my dear friend. It takes a nation of millions (or Juan Such censoring me:-)) to make me feel insulted. In fact, I intended the tone of my replies to be very, very, VERY tongue-in-cheek (of course, if sounded forceful, it was because so many people had been after me to rejoin these two fora, which I had been promising to do for so long, but couldn’t due to work and my mothers health problems of the past couple of months).
Anyway, ";snob"; to me is far from an insult. I do believe a certain amount of snobbery is a good thing. It’s one’s last respite from the megacorporation-sponsored, mushy-headed, mealy-mouthed barbarism that surrounds one day to day.
The whole thing about buying old wines is tricjy. In the past (I’m talking centuries now), what happened was that a gentleman would entrust his butler to complete orders of wines to be put away and to manage holdings of wines that were ostensibly ";ready to drink"; at any given moment. Of course, those ";ready to drink"; holdings were either purchased by the same gentleman (the lady of the house, though probably possessed of a better palate and better judgment, rarely concerned herself with that part of the food administration) at an earlier moment, or inherited from immediate ancestors. It was the responsibility of said gentleman to leave behind a cellar well stocked for the next generation. A nifty system, lamentably lost.
These days, I reiterate, our problem is a very polaristic (and egotistical) view of what constitutes a ";vin de garde."; First of all, we associate the cost of the juice with its ageing potential. Many new-wavers can disabuse you of that mistaken notion very quickly, by falling apart in less time than it takes a toddler to learn how to walk. And some inexpensive wines (like those Clos Roche Blanches, or the Bourgueils of Pierre and Catherine Breton, or the Muscadets of Marc Olivier, or Bodegas Riojanas’ Viña Albina and Monte Real, or the Fléurie’s of COudert at Clos de la Roilette) can shock you by developing beautifully over twenty or thirty years and costing $10, $15, or $20.
In every case, it’s a matter of getting to know the wine, making the most informed guess possible about its cellaring potential and gambling that it will become something beautiful with time. Oh, and also being happy in the knowledge that you may be gone when the wine reaches its peak, but that your child (or your niece or nephew, or whomever inherits your cellar) will enjoy something you left behind, found, bought and put away with faith and intelligence.
So, I assure you, not insulted. Only doin’ mah jobbbb.
Don’t believe da hype.
M.
Re: ¡Ay, por Dios!!!!
Ver mensaje de MCamblorLesson learned (but my family never had any buttlers :-); on another topic, is your mother doing better? I hope so! (notice that I carefully refrained from just inquiring about your mother :-DDDD ... a total, complete, 100000% joke!!!)
MaJesus
Mother is 100% better...
Ver mensaje de MaJesusIn fact, the Tiger Lady is back in business. During her time in the hospital she kept saying ";Oh, I’m going to take life easier, I’m going to change, I’m not going to be so bossy and stressed out anymore."; Well, just a week ago I was at our offices in Santo Domingo and she was back in the swing of things, being her old big boss self, a million-mile-a-minute woman that’s all business. When asked whatever happened to her changing and relaxing a bit, she said: ";I lied. This is who I am. No new tricks learned. Now get back to work.";
Says it all, don’t you think?
M.
Her only defect...
Ver mensaje de MaJesusIs that she’s a tireless fighter in a very misguided anti-alcohol crusade. A glass of wine, as long as it’s truly worthy of her time, is aall she will have.
M.
Manuel’s Back ...
Ver mensaje de MCamblorUpsetting apple carts and setting pumas among pigeons.
Let’s all welcome him like a long lost (illigitimate) son.
;)
Back and Bitchier than Ever...
Ver mensaje de WaltZalenskiWhat else are apple carts for, Walt? Were it not for their capacity to be upset, life would have little meaning...
Oh, and you got the ";illegitimate"; part backasswards. I’m, in the immortal words of the great MC Hammer, ";too legit to quit."; Life has roughed me up a little in the past couple of months, but I have enough alcohol in my system to cauterize any wound merely by spitting on it (my apologies to the late Chuck Bukowski for hitting so close to him in the tasteless imagery department).
Consider me your very own Cuban Fantômas, with an extensive cellar and an unquenchable thirst.
Best,
Manuel
Oh, p.s., don’t beleive da hype.