My latest wine purchase
I called up LA Wine Co. today and made my next wine purchase, which will bring my September total to…uhh…a lot of wine purchased. But I had my honeymoon this month. That should mitigate the total a little, right?
So what did I buy, exactly? Here’s a quick rundown:
- 4 more bottles of 2004 Ramian Page One Grenache. This wine is outstanding for $15 and it will make the perfect Christmas present for some of my in-laws.
- 1 bottle of 2003 Ramian La Morra. A Barolo-style blend of Dolcetto and Nebbiolo. Only 125 cases. It’s worth a try at $30; I’m sure my aspiring gourmand friends will like this wine with the sort of food they make.
- 1 bottle of 2004 Hirsch Pinot Noir. My recent favorite! This one is a birthday present, though, for someone who will certainly appreciate the robustness and smooth mouthfeel of a great Pinot Noir.
Everything should reach me at the end of this coming week, assuming the shipping system doesn’t do something weird to me again. Remember how I hated Ikea? I hate UPS much, much more.
On a separate note, I should soon receive my 6 bottles of 2004 Radio-Coteau La Neblina Pinot Noir, 3 bottles of 2003 Domaine Drouhin Laurène Pinot Noir, and 3 bottles of 2005 Domaine Drouhin Arthur Chardonnay. I am very excited to get all of this wine, although it does raise the safe storage question yet again. Ahh well, I should be able to drink most of this wine soon.
One last thing: The gentleman at LA Wine Co. told me that they’re about to get some “interesting” new Pinot Noirs in stock next week. He mentioned Domaine Alfred’s Morrito release, which costs MORE than the Califa release that recently garnered such a high Wine Spectator score. Even their Estate Pinot release scored a 93 this year. I’m beginning to think that 2004 was either an almost unseasonably great year for Pinot in California, or else their vines are generally maturing and producing better and better fruit each year. I’d like to believe the latter.
Actually, that’s one thing I read about in the Haeger book on Pinot Noir: Young vines can produce good grapes, but you definitely want at least several years of maturity to produce really great grapes. I noticed that about 68,000 wineries in California seemed to start producing wine in 2002. The 2004 vintage was great all over the state. Let’s hope global warming doesn’t push everything too far before those vines can produce some excellent grapes.