Last April, Eric Asimov posted an intriguing entry on "The Pour":
"People ask me, more often than any other question by far, where to go to learn about wine. Usually I tell them to go home. No kidding. The best place to learn about wine is at home, particularly if you stop off at a good wine shop on the way. What I'm about to propose is a do-it-yourself method that has a lot to offer to just about anybody who loves wine, or wants to learn about it. In fact, if you'll join in with me, we will take this home wine class together and be the better for it."
The essence of Asimov's proposal was to buy a mixed case of six whites and six reds from a wine shop, cost limit $250, and then whenever the mood strikes "open one of the bottles with dinner. This is important. You want to drink a wine with food for the full experience." Asimov chose two shops, including one of my personal favorites, Chambers Street Wines in New York City. He had met Lyle Fass, and enjoyed talking with him. Fass supplied Asimov with a mixed case, and Asimov found the experience so interesting that he recently repeated the experiment.
I've always liked Asimov's general approach -- try wines suggested by others with no preconceptions, then learn as much as possible about the wines themselves. Emulating Asimov's experiment was irrestible. Lyle Fass wrote in response to my inquiry: "Eric Asimov has followed up my initial case with another handpicked case and this one is even more interesting as now I really have a feel for his palate and put some even more esoteric stuff in there. Some of it pretty out there but delicious nonetheless. I will let the wines speak for themselves. You can click on the link below to order the case directly from the website or call up Lyle if you wanna chat about wine and/or shoot the breeze." I ordered the second case, and as many of the first as were still available; in the event, six bottles were still available, and Lyle added six others of his choosing.
The two Asimov/Lyle cases cost somewhat less than $480 at retail, after discount and including taxes; shipping to New Jersey was $20 a case.
The 24 bottles included:
First case.
Camille Savès Brut Carte Blanche NV $36.99.
Pépière Muscadet sur Lie 2005 $9.99.
Sobon Estate Fiddletown Lubenko Vineyard 2005 $19.99.
Texier Côtes du Rhône Brézème 2004 $15.99.
MorisFarms Morellino di Scansano 2004 $15.99.
Baudry Chinon Les Granges 2005 $14.99.
Supplied in lieu of sold out wines:
Thomas Labaille 2005 $21.99.
2005 Clos Roche Blanche $18.99.
Boudin 205 Chablis $19.99.
Vissoux 2005 Beaujolais $13.49.
Morgex 2006 Vallée d'Aoste Estremi $16.99.
La Grace Dieu 1999 $19.99.
Second case.
2005 Alice & Oliver de Moor Chablis Bel Air et Clardy $27.99.
2006 Ameztoi Getariako Txakolina $16.49.
2006 Château Peyrassol Côtes de Provence Rosé $21.99.
2005 François Cazin Cour-Cheverny $14.49.
2005 François Chidaine Vouvray Clos Baudoins $25.99.
NV François Pinon Vouvray Brut $18.99.
2005 Nikolaihof Wachau Grüner Veltliner Hefeabzug $22.99.
2001 Edmunds St. John Syrah Eldorado County $15.99.
2005 Jean-Paul Brun Terres Dorées Vieilles Vignes Beaujolais $13.49.
2005 Pierre et Catherine Breton Bourgueil Les Galichets $21.99
1999 R. López de Heredia Rioja Viña Bosconia Reserva $29.99.
Vietti Langhe Perbacco Nebbiolo 2004 $22.99.
Note: the sold out wines included:
Schäfer-Fröhlich Nahe Halbtrocken 2005 $16.99
Picq Chablis Vieilles Vignes 2005 $19.99
Boulay Sancerre Chavignol 2005 $22.99
Huet Vouvray Clos du Bourg Demi-Sec 2002 $36.99
Maréchal Bourgogne Rouge Cuvée Gravel 2005 $24.99
Paloumey Haut-Médoc 2004 $21.99
The blog entry kicked up over a hundred replies, several of them with very interesting commentary. Summary:
Great, let's go 44 posts.
"Silly idea" 8 posts.
Crappy lists 17 posts.
Great idea, but 17 posts.
Informational 43 posts.
Note: the informational posts are often included in other categories as well.
Illustrative of the "Great, let's go" posts:
Florida Jim - "Well thought out, well written and Chambers Street is a great source. To think that so many will read this is heartening to me and every other person who believes that wine should be experienced this way, good or bad, if one is learn to be confident when choosing."
Pamela - "To show my dedication to the project, Eric, I rushed out last night and picked up a bottle of Guigal Cote du Rhone for dinner. One down, 23 to go." [Atta girl, Pamela; I rushed to the Internet and ordered the two Chambers cases.]
Michael -- ITB - "To state the obvious, there is no ultimate mixed case. The possibities are endless. Which is why drinking wine is so much fun!"
Thom Calabrese - "The tried and truest way to learn about wine and what you like is a willing spirit,a sense of adventure, a certain commitment of $ and understanding that “Wine is the only test where all the answers are correct”."
Illustrative of the "Silly idea" posts:
Kent Benson - "I think your suggestion would be better applied to someone who already has some wine knowledge and who wants to venture into new territory. For the beginner I think it is a waste of money and could possibly forever jade them against certain types of wine, which don’t initially appeal to them."
Dee - "I would rather splurge and buy my faves one at a time: Joseph Phelps Insignia, Chalk Hill, Chateau NdP, Dominus, Barolo, Montalcino, etc. Life’s too short to drink cheapies!"
Nathan Smythe - "In general, the idea of spending $500 [or more] on the generic swill that a generic wine merchant will [invariably] unload on a generic fool willing to part with his money is simply asinine."
Gerald F. - "About 4/5 of the money I spend on wine is for wines I have recommendations from people I trust, and in online terms, this means folks on Squires’, Neil Martin, and the like."
Illustrative of the Crappy List posts:
Derek: "Too French."
Several: "Too expensive."
Oskar Robbins - "For a list of 24 starter wines, how come only 3 from “The New World.” Don’t South America, Australia, and NZ merit inclusion? Not to mention the USA? I knew the French were parochial but I had hoped you were not. Disappointed."
Isaac - "The absence of at least a single Spanish bottle seems too big an omission not to comment on. After all, Spain is one of the biggest producers of wine in the world and has some noble grapes as well as some of the oldest denominations. Surely one of the California or other New World wines could have been sacrificed to a good Ribera del Duero, Jumilla, Priorat, or Rioja."
John Walkley - I just find it hard to believe not a single wine from either Pennsylvania or Tennessee? [Tongue in cheek, I hope, but no smiley face!]
The Great Idea But ... ideas included buying a book, taking a wine course and visiting a winery, in addition to buying the cases.
Others couldn't find a good retailer, or a retailer with the suggested wines -- SF Joe had a great solution [that works in many states]: "The Chambers Street list is as close as http://www.chambersstwines.com/ .
There a number of complaints that there was no effort to tie the wines to foods:
Rachel: 'In your article you write: “A really good wine shop may even have suggested general food pairings with the wines.” You went to two really good wine shops. Where are the suggested food pairings, buddy?'
Jacques Franey: ITB: I own a wine shop in East Hampton, NY and we have been putting mixed case together for customers for years. My philosophy is a bit different though, as I get as much information about the customers taste in wine to start. No matter what their experience. If they have zero wine experience, then I enquire about taste in food. This is important as all palates are different and everybody has a unique sensitivity of sweet, bitter, acid, salt, oak etc. I encourage customers to trust their own palates and I am just a guide.
Jason Adams - "That said, the real issue with wine education, which has been touched on by several of the comments, can be summed up in one word – Food."
Finally, the informational posts were in some ways the most interesting. SF Joe, for example, had as usual some really insightful things to share and I loved his mini-debate with Thomas Matthews who had argued "I agree with Eric’s recommendation that buying a mixed case from a good retailer is a great way to learn about wine. I’m puzzled, though, by his apparent belief that a retailer who “tries to entice you by quoting scores from a consumer magazine” is necessarily unreliable, or not passionate about wine." Joe's responses, which are worth reading in full: "Where that idea really falls down is the second case. When you’ve consumed a few of the wines from your sampler, you call Lyle back up and say, “Yo, Lyle, I loved the Sancerre with my halibut, but I hated the Baudry with my steak. And I eat a lot of steak. But I loved the Texier.” Lyle, being an empathetic guy, can then intelligently craft a second case for you that reflects your preferences, diet, and wallet. Mr. Matthews’ mag can only parrot “89!” “92!” or some such, over and over again. That doesn’t really tell *you* what to have with *your* pork chop and applesauce."
Lyle Fass made much the same argument from the other side of the counter: "Hey as Olivino Wines said this is not the be all end all case. Let’s say Eric does not like the Sancerre. Maybe I would give him a Gruner next time or an Albarino or a Tocai Friulano. The possibilities are limitless but I was limited lest we forget. If I could pick out two cases I would have ventured into Washington, Napa Cab, Rioja, Austrian Reds, Margaret River Cabernet, Northern Italian whites, Valpolicella etc….maybe thrown in an alternative sparkling like a Vouvray Petillant or a Franciacorta. With the feedback from the first case I can build and even better second case and third case and so on . . . That’s the fun of it all."
Alex B made the point you have to research your retailer: "What is sad is that many US wine retailers don’t do their own homework and over-rely on scores to sell to their clientele. Equally sad, if not more so, is the obsession, “pointage lunacy” as Silenos worded it, among a great many wine consumers to seek only high-scoring wines, 84-89 wouldn’t cut it for them, though in Wine Spectator parlance those wines are attractive."
Finally, Asimov's summary of the reader's comments on the column [I'll add his "what he learned" in a later post, when I summarize my reactions to the 24 bottles -- his major lesson learned: "Keep an open mind."]:
1. "For those who supported the idea, thank you. I'm even more grateful to those who objected to some aspect of it -- my comments on wine classes, books or even the selection of wines that I bought -- because you have forced me to clarify my thinking.... My sense has been that people learn about wine backward. We are so caught up in teaching wine appreciation -- its illustrious history, its importance, its poetic greatness, the names of all the grapes -- that we forget about helping people simply to like wine. You don't introduce people to baseball by asking them to memorize the records for hits, home runs, strikeouts and walks. They seek that information after they develop an interest."
2. "Some readers objected to the geographical breakdown. They felt more American wines should have been included, or Italian wines, or Spanish or Australian. I felt the salespeople who chose the wines for this exercise, Lyle Fass of Chambers Street Wines and Joy Land of Sherry-Lehmann, did a superb job. Could they have substituted a Spanish wine or a second Italian wine for a French wine? Sure. More American wines? Possibly. But remember, these cases were a beginning. They were not meant to represent every style available. That would be impossible in one case. The first case is meant to lead to a second case and a third, each expanding on the reaction to the previous bottles. Frankly, the Old World offers a far better selection of styles at far better prices than does the New World. You won't find a better $16 introduction to syrah than the 2004 Côtes du Rhône Brézème from Eric Texier, or a better peppery summer white for $10 than the 2005 Hochterrassen grüner veltliner from Salomon."
***
I must say that this was one of the most interesting articles/blogs/responses I ever seen on the Internet. And I haven't even reported on all of my reactions to the wines themselves. Drinking, reflecting, studying up ... that was the best part by far.
Regards, Bob