So this blog has a new look. Hey, there are still some kinks to get out, but it's way overdue.

As long as I'm here, I might as well mention that we popped a 1995 Sauselito Canyon Zinfandel with a few braised beef short ribs tonight. This is a wine that I went nuts over when I tasted it on release at the Talley Vineyards tasting room, but the case I ordered when I got home never quite hit the mark. I've got one left. Not bad but nothing special. And I doubt that there's anyone else on the planet that still has any sitting around.

So get this. Last night I find a bottle of 1990 Chateau Souverain Zinfandel in the rack. That's got to be bad, I think. Why ever did I hang on to it so long? No way will it be drinkable. Right?

Wrong. While I won't say it was the best bottle of zin I've ever had, it had an amazing amount of fairly fresh fruit and was still an incredibly vibrant shade of red for a sixteen year old $5.99 wine that's, you know, not supposed to age. Pretty darn good.

Worth coming out of retirement to mention. Oh, and there's still a 1990 Ridge Howell Mountain sitting in the same bin. I'll get back to you on that one.

So much for promises...

Anyway, to pick up where I left off, who was it again that said Zins don't age? We were back to 1991 Lytton Springs last night, this time the Ridge label. I didn't take notes. I was just too busy enjoying. This one was still big and ripe with plenty of that deliciously mellow dark fruit that really good old Zins get, but plenty of backbone that just begged to accompany something hot off the grill. Not a bitter note in the bottle.

Will the wines they're making these days will get this way. Will I live long enough to find out? Stay tuned (if you still are).

1991 Lytton Lytton (Lytton Spings black label) Zinfandel. Wow! This wine hasn't exactly been stored in pristine conditions, but I'm not sure it was ready yet. Oh well. It's gone now. Packed full of black raspberry fruit and spice, still plenty of tannins left, not to mention lovely racy acidity. It was a powerful match for a grilled wagyu skirt steak dusted with pimentón dulce.

(Yes, I know I've neglected this blog badly. I'll try to do better.)

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.