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In the Forum: Playback Listening
In the Thread: Wine, women, song.. and audio

Post Subject: Wine privacy/piracyPosted by de charlus on: 8/11/2013

Indeed. Funnily enough, I almost never recommend the Meo-Camuzet Blanc, for the reason that the quantities available are absolutely minute and I don't want it to become "popular", since the 20 cases I tend to buy every year could conceivably evaporate to 1 if it was generally acknowledged to be as good as it is by the wine-buying public. So, you're quite right; stellar bargains should be kept to oneself and one's friends. That said, a couple of years ago I stumbled into a butcher's shop and, whilst buying steak, noticed a few 12-bottle racks full of dusty bottles behind the counter. I asked about them, and was told that the wines were part of an inheritance that an aged neighbor had left him, and that he tried selling them, but knowing nothing about wine, and the same applying to his customers, they'd simply sat there for a few years gathering dust. Well, I went behind the counter, looked at the bottles, and found various 71 Muller-Catoirs, 59 and 82 La Chapelle and J.L. Chave Hermitage, 85 Cornas Clape, 71 JJ Prum Lange Goldcap Auslese and Egon Muller Scharzhofberger Spatlese No. 29, 88 Meursault Perrieres Comte Lafon, 70 and 75 Latour, 69 Clos Ste Hune VT Trimbach, 82 Cos d'Estournel, 85 Palmer etc etc etc. I asked him how much he wanted for them, to be told "$10 each sounds fair, doesn't it?" I just couldn't do it; I offered him a reasonable - but still utter bargain - price for the lot, and walked away from the deal with karma intact and a very happy butcher in my wake.
You're right about the Chablis; IMHO it should be unoaked, pure, mineral, redolent of wet slate and one of few extant examples of the pure varietal character of Chardonnay. Too many producers are trying to make market-friendly Chablis in which new oak all but obscures everything that's wonderful about it. Still, we don't want any more people getting a taste for the real thing, do we? It's hard enough to find decent quantities of it anyway.

de Charlus

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