I have nightmares like this.

Expensive Wine Sold for Cheap

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

In a tale sure to break the hearts of oenophiles everywhere, thieves stole an expensive wine collection and sold some bottles to a convenience store for $300 and cigarettes, the San Francisco Examiner reports.

San Francisco police say convicted drug dealer Sterling Gerard, 36, and one or more accomplices broke into attorney Adam Belsky's house while it was being renovated this past August.

Cops say Gerard happened upon the basement wine cellar, propped open its door with a bottle and walked out with 250 other bottles -- mostly top Italian and French vintages -- worth a total of $20,000.

Police found Gerard's fingerprint on the bottle left behind and charged him with burglary late last month.

At a nearby deli, cops discovered 52 of Belsky's bottles nestled among the chocolate bars.

The store owner said he'd given $300 in cash and a few cartons of cigarettes for the bottles to a man other than Gerard, who told him it was his recently deceased mother's collection.

Unfortunately, several of the recovered bottles may have been ruined by improper storage in the deli. Still missing are the other 198 bottles.

"These guys were idiots," Belsky told the newspaper. "It's devastating and frustrating because they didn't know what they were taking, but it meant a lot to me."

Belsky's insurance will cover the monetary damages. He's trying to come to grips with the sentimental loss.

Gone for good may be the $500 bottle of 2000 Chateau Lafite Rothschild Bordeaux that he'd bought at his son's birth. He'd planned to open it on the boy's 21st birthday.

Also probably lost is a $100 bottle of 1997 Altesino Brunello Montalcino Di Montosoli that Belsky and his wife bought in Italy.

The SFPD couldn't prove the store owner knew he was buying stolen property, but the state Department of Alcohol Beverage Control may slap him with buying wine from an unlicensed seller.

Oy! It's changed again. I actually do have a whole bunch of new stuff to post on, but I'm just dropping in right now to say that I'm still tasting, please stay tuned, and also to see if I still know how to work this thing 'cause I heard that they screwed with it yet again. Okay, I'll be back shortly....

Have I mentioned that Ruffino has released a Grappa of its Chianti Classico Riserva Ducale Oro? No? Ooops. Well, finding decent Grappa in my neck of the woods is pretty tough. I was never a Grappa fan, in fact I was quite the opposite until I tried a few of them over in Italy and realized that the tough, astringent, cleaning fluid taste-a-likes I'd had here weren't even poor excuses for the real thing. Since then, I've made it a point to search out anything approximating that thing. The Ruffino, which I found, amazingly enough, in the Pennsylvania State Store, is definitely in the right ballpark. Of course, it's no longer available on the shelves and the special order stock will probably be gone soon. Thankfully, no one reads this blog, so we may have one more shot. We're plowing through our last 6 (375 ml) bottles pretty fast.

Oh, and, in the revised assessment category, BTW, back in February, it seems I said of the 1998 Calera Chardonnay that it was "way short of showing its best stuff yet." That comment was based in large part upon my past experience with other vintages of this wine but was, unfortunately, wrong. The '98 is already showing serious signs of decay. That's a huge bummer, although the good news is that the wine was so good young that I have very little left. I hope this is a foible of the vintage and doesn't reflect a change in Calera's winemaking style, which has always, in the past, produced delicious, long-lived Chardonnays that far outstripped anything else at their price point. Stay tuned.

Once again, Blogger has changed formats. If I could get my act together to post here more often, I'd go elsewhere. But until then, ah well. Here I am.

So while I'm here, singing the blues about Blogger (but hmmm, this new format actually seems pretty ok), I'll mention, again, the amazing consistency and quality of one of my very favorite California Cabernets. Philip Togni 1991 Cabernet with buffalo tenderloin tonight, partly because I've been noticing some fatigue on a number of '91s I've been opening lately. No danger of that here. In fact, I suspect it's not quite come into its own yet. Yummy.

(Since I'm in gripe mode, though, a word on the insidious influence of restaurant hegemony in today's world of food and wine. First it was true prime beef. No longer available to you and me, it's been reclassified to hide the dirty deed and what you now see on supermarket shelves labeled "prime" is what our mothers bought under the label "choice." The good stuff goes to the restaurants. Same with the better wines, as you probably already know if you're interested enough in wine to be reading this blog. So now the plague has spread to fish (the incredibly delicious pacific black cod a/k/a sable, which I used to enjoy weekly, is now reserved for restaurants, so sorry) and game (the better cuts of eland, buffalo and venison are becoming increasingly hard to come by). Next to go: fresh vegetables, such as they are. Yeah, well. . . )

And while I'm on the subject of surprises, Michele Chiarlo is a producer that gets little glory, but I stumbled upon the Barbera d'Asti La Court last year, and have been picking up what I can of it because, frankly, I love Piedmont wines but don't love paying the rapidly escalating prices for them. Right now, I'm finding the 1998 more available and very ready to drink, so if the '99 had a bit more nuance, I don't really miss it. For some reason, I seem to be finding the Barberas from Asti more interesting than those from Alba recently. And I've been finding them at better prices, generally, so there you go.

Everything from Europe is going up dramatically, so if you're looking to stock up, try to find stuff that was imported last year. The dollar/euro thing is just putting too many affordable wines out of reasonable reach. So, in the meantime, if the folks out in California don't get too greedy and figure they can get a free price hike out of the situation, westward ho, I say.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find much time for wine blogging lately, though, fortunately, the same can't be said of wine drinking. Unfortunately, there haven't been a whole lot of memorable bottles to post about. Fortunately, there have been one or two.

Once upon a time I bought at least a few bottles of Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet every year and, when I could find it, a bottle or two of the Napa, as well. On trips out to the winery, I even managed to score a few of the now-defunct Bonny's Vineyards. Then they started getting snooty with their pricing and there were just too many better bottles out there for less money, so there went another vertical. I can't say that I'm too sorry, either, because as luscious as these wines have always been on release, too many of them haven't aged as well as I would have expected. Once the primary fruit subsides, it seems there's not a whole lot there other than that dill-scented American oak which, while it's a great accompaniment to fruit, just doesn't play well as a solo. My last purchase of the Napa, though, was the '92, which also happened to be first year that the Bonny's was added to the Napa blend. So far from a disappointment, this wine just blew me away. The fruit was still there, still ripe but developed and well balanced with the oak and what remains of the tannins. Unfortunately (back to that again), I took no notes and now can't even remember what we had to eat with it. It's been sitting on the buffet as a reminder to blog it for several weeks now while its memory has faded to little more than a determination to open another one soon while I know the getting's good.

My other pleasant surprise (and now for something completely different) was a 1980 Robert Ampeau Meursault Perrieres. As much as I've heard about the legendary longevity of Ampeau's whites, I really expected this bottle to be little more than drain-o by now, especially as it had spent some years in less than ideal cellar conditions. Not only wasn't it shot, it was truly lovely, with elegant fruit and a sort of grace about it that commanded . . . respect. Again, I have no notes to jog my memory as to the particulars but suffice it to say that I was reminded, again, of why great Burgundies are held in such high esteem. I'm certain that this bottle was not treated with the care it deserved and yet, more than 23 years past its vintage date was showing beautifully.

Have I raved here about the Arrowood Malbec before? Yes, I see that I have. Well, it was time to try one of the '94s, and I don't know about being less massive than the '93s but, again, it's still a baby. A delicious baby, but a baby. I just love this wine and haven't been able to find it for years, so maybe it's a good thing that they're taking forever to come around. This time we tried it with a grilled flank steak marinated in chimichurri. Yeah, it was sort of an Argentinian theme. Worked, though.

Ok, one last quickie. 1995 Contino Rioja Crianza. This wine has just been consistently fabulous ever since I first bought it, so I kept going back and buying as much as I could find. Last year, I came across a batch of the '96 Reserva. The one I tried needed time to integrate. But the '95 Crianza was wonderful right out of the gate and it's never closed up or shut down since. Large, dark, smooth and supple with beautiful balance and dark, earthy fruit, it's really sort of out of its own league. This is by no means a classic Rioja. It's dressed up for the international stage. But like the '95 Artadi Vinas de Gain (which hasn't held up nearly as well, IMO), it delivers a boatload of flavor and drinking pleasure with a definite Tempranillo twist. Highly recommended.

Frescobaldi Pomino Rosso 1997. This wine has really come into its own. I started buying this stuff back in the '86 vintage and I've remained a fan ever since. It's always been a good deal, but just as I'm running out of the '97s, I'm finding a lusciousness I never noticed before. I'll be on the prowl for some '99s if they're still around. And I'll keep them a little longer.

There's not a lot of information out there on this wine, but it appears that it's mostly Sangiovese with a little Pinot Nero and a smidge of Merlot thrown in. At least that's what more recent vintages (starting with 1998) are composed of. The '97 is deep and earthy and rich, if not particularly complex. Fabulous with pasta with tomatoes and onions and kalamata olives.

Excuse me. My glass appears to be empty.

Happiness is having your very favorite California Chardonnay cost $15. Or less. I kid you not. There are many, many California Chards I haven't tried yet, and there are many others that have impressed me extremely favorably until I saw the price tag, but nobody makes a long-lived, full-bodied, well-rounded, delicious and affordable Cal Chard like Josh Jensen. And, no, I'm not talking about the often over-oaked, flamboyant and sometimes quirky, sometimes awesome Mt. Harlan bottling.

I opened my last bottle of 1996 Calera Central Coast Chardonnay Friday night with a scrumpious grilled Steelhead salmon. While my $35 Wine Spectator-touted 96 Beringers have long since given up the ghost, this wine was still youthful, rambunctious and thoroughly tasty, with notes of pineapple and honeysuckle and a gorgeous mouthfeel that almost made me reluctant to swallow it. (Er ... anyway ... ) The 1998 is drinking beautifully, but is way short of showing its best stuff yet and I'm not opening my 2000s for a while yet. As you can see, I've somehow managed to miss the "best" vintages in these case purchases lately, but it really doesn't seem to matter. I had a few 94s and 95s and I have a few half bottles of the 97, and the wine is consistently great and greatly consistent, vintage to vintage. If I had to choose one California Chardonnay to stock my cellar with, this would be it. (Fortunately, though, I don't. Variety is indeed the spice of life.)

The battle is pitched. And it looks like the next stop may very well be the Supreme Court. Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit joined one other federal appeals court (the Seventh Circuit) in upholding state laws that effectively ban the direct interstate shipment of wine (Swedenburg v. Kelly). The Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eleventh Circuits have already gone the other way.

It's going to be interesting to see where this ends up. The Second Circuit is bucking the tide here, and the Supreme Court has already handed down at least one anti-protectionist ruling on interstate wine shipment. But that was twenty years ago, a different Court and a different issue (tariffs), and the decision is in any case (somewhat unconvincingly, IMO) distinguished by the Second Circuit.

There is a twist to Swedenburg that may make a difference, but it shouldn't. Rather than banning direct sales of wine from out-of-state, the New York law in question simply requires any out-of-state winery that wants to engage in direct shipment to "establish a presence" in New York. An office or warehouse is sufficient, along with production of the necessary paperwork and filing fees. And there's the rub -- and the error in the court's reasoning, as I see it. The Virginia winery that brought the suit apparently presented evidence that the costs of complying with the "presence" regulations were so burdensome as to negate the benefits of direct access to the market. To which the court's (wholly inadequate) response, in a footnote, was basically "too bad." In the absence of a serious analysis of whether the "presence" option is rendered nugatory by virtue of its economic impact, the court's reliance on this distinction is misplaced.

Moreover, the Second Circuit panel refused to see the New York regulations as economic protectionism but instead viewed them as a legitimate means of accountability. Perhaps their myopia on this score is is partly due to the fact that the real protagonist in the protectionist wine wars isn't really the "state," but rather the league of dishonorable wholesalers and retailers hiding behind its skirts. But reading the Swedenburg opinion, you'd get the impression that New York is the only state in the Union that has a substantial interest in regulating the conduct of the producers and purveyors of alcoholic beverages within its borders. The "presence" requirement, says the court, is reasonable because New York regulators can't be expected to travel to Virginia (or California, or Oregon or Washington) to make sure that wineries are adhering to New York's high standards of cleanliness, record-keeping and social responsibility. That argument is absurd on its face, unless it can be demonstrated that there is something lacking in Virginia's (or any other wine exporting state's) own regulatory aparatus. A law restricting the import of wine from any state that didn't satisfy certain basic regulatory standards would be a horse of a different color. But that's not what this case was about.

Again, it's an interesting battle that's far from over. Stay tuned.

(For the full text of Swedenburg v. Kelly, click here, then on the "Current Month" link under "Decisions" (left hand column) and then on 02-9511 under "Docket" -- it's about halfway down.)

One has to wonder what James Laube is using for taste buds these days.

After reading last November's Wine Spectator ten-years-after ("TYA") review of the 1993 California Cabs, I sort of got a little worried. I didn't buy a lot of '93s, but the ones I did buy, I bought by the case, and I'd tasted them and thought they were pretty darn good. One or two of them got "respectable" (i.e., 90+) scores in this review. But a lot of them didn't.

This isn't the first time I've noticed that wines heavily hyped by WS when they came out got less than spectacular reviews once they'd had a chance to develop some. You'd think they'd try to cover up this kind of discrepancy, but my suspicion is they just don't credit their readers with long-term memory. Or they rely heavily on turnover.

Anyway, curiosity getting the better of me, I decided to crack a '93 Philip Togni Cab tonight. Laube thought this was a "beef stew" of a cabernet. Well, whatever floats his boat. I love the way Philip Togni makes wine. I'd still be buying by the caseload if he still shipped to Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, wine shipping (in case you hadn't noticed) is going through a little prohibitionary period right now and Pennsylvania (despite its attempts to prove otherwise) is still the Neanderthal of wine markets in this part of the country, so . . .

Anyway, if you have a few of these beauties stashed, sleep well tonight. They might not have totally burst out of their cocoon yet, but they're already providing lots of pleasure. The bottle tonight paired perfectly with a delicious less-than-medium rare grilled buffalo tenderloin. Every sip was a delight, with the exception of the last half ounce, which contained the only evidence of sedimentary pucker. Some unexpected tartaric crystals on the bottom of the cork were a bit puzzling, but without noticable effect. It happens. The wine was about as far from "beef stew" as I can imagine a wine being, with wave after wave of subtle fruit and mineral nuances and a rich, full mouthfeel. California but with a Bordeaux veneer. Classic Togni.

Laube gave this an 88 in his TYA. I'd give it a 94 minimum. But who's counting?

Don't mind me. I just can't seem to keep up. But despair over the Philadelphia Eagles' failure, yet again, to get to the Superbowl, has driven me to the blog. We made up a huge pot of chili to enjoy with the game tonight, and it (the chili) was pretty good, though a little heavy on the hot smoked Spanish paprika (pimentón) (it's marvelous stuff, but it packs a wallop and a little goes a really long way.)

Also poured in a healthy splash of 1994 Cline Zinfandel Reserve, which still packs quite a punch of its own. The rest of the bottle went really well with the chili. Right now I'm a little descriptor-challenged, and the ones that come to mind are football-related and quite impolite. I'll try to make a point of getting back here more often, but I've also resolved to get to the gym more often and so far I'm not doing too well on that score, either. Blaming it on the weather, you see.