1. OK. I know little about wine but want to learn. I know that experts
are here though I haven't bothered to use search tools to learn what they
might have said in the last several years, that's a lot of work, but I would
be grateful if someone could brief me. Completely please. You know, about
varietals, and Shiraz vs. Syrah vs. Sirah, and why Alsatian wines have so
many German names if they're actually from France (is it fraud?), and what
are all those numbers on German bottles, and why doesn't everyone put the
grape name on the label and use English like normal people. Also vintages
and stuff. Please be concise, I don't have much time to spare. I may need
to ask follow-up questions, if I have time for those. Oh yes, also, where
can I get exceptional well-aged but inexpensive wines that few people know
about but with high ratings. (Those will impress my friends.)

2. We have a bottle of Silver Oak Cabernet that my nephew gave us in 1999
after going to California for his high-paying dot-com job. He was new to
wine at the time but assured us that this wine was advocated by a newsletter
that was absolutely definitive. The wine got 96 points which means it must
be near perfection, yes? He said that in the old days people needed years
to learn about wine but that was obsolete now, all you need is to look up
the numbers in the newsletter (anyway that's what people did at his dot-com
firm). With his sharp clothes and the car and new wine vocabulary, he sure
was impressive. He had his new penthouse too then, and was buying expensive
wine with the advice of the newsletter. The bottle is unopened, it's been
carefully on its side behind our refrigerator and not too hot (except a few
weeks each summer), some stickiness outside the bottle but I can clean that
off, and still almost three-quarters full. I have heard that bottles of
this age (five years storage!) can be worth big money. What do you think?
I want to do something nice for my nephew from the proceeds. (After his
layoff and the trouble over payments, he was living in his car when we last
heard from him.)

"Max Hauser" > wrote in
:

> 1. OK. I know little about wine but want to learn. I know that
> experts are here though I haven't bothered to use search tools to
> learn what they might have said in the last several years, that's a
> lot of work, but I would be grateful if someone could brief me.
> Completely please. You know, about varietals, and Shiraz vs. Syrah
> vs. Sirah, and why Alsatian wines have so many German names if they're
> actually from France (is it fraud?), and what are all those numbers on
> German bottles, and why doesn't everyone put the grape name on the
> label and use English like normal people. Also vintages and stuff.
> Please be concise, I don't have much time to spare. I may need to ask
> follow-up questions, if I have time for those. Oh yes, also, where
> can I get exceptional well-aged but inexpensive wines that few people
> know about but with high ratings. (Those will impress my friends.)
>
> 2. We have a bottle of Silver Oak Cabernet that my nephew gave us in
> 1999 after going to California for his high-paying dot-com job. He
> was new to wine at the time but assured us that this wine was
> advocated by a newsletter that was absolutely definitive. The wine
> got 96 points which means it must be near perfection, yes? He said
> that in the old days people needed years to learn about wine but that
> was obsolete now, all you need is to look up the numbers in the
> newsletter (anyway that's what people did at his dot-com firm). With
> his sharp clothes and the car and new wine vocabulary, he sure was
> impressive. He had his new penthouse too then, and was buying
> expensive wine with the advice of the newsletter. The bottle is
> unopened, it's been carefully on its side behind our refrigerator and
> not too hot (except a few weeks each summer), some stickiness outside
> the bottle but I can clean that off, and still almost three-quarters
> full. I have heard that bottles of this age (five years storage!) can
> be worth big money. What do you think? I want to do something nice
> for my nephew from the proceeds. (After his layoff and the trouble
> over payments, he was living in his car when we last heard from him.)
>
>
>
For that incredible experience qith QPR that is unfathomable one word-
Gibeletti-nobody does wine like Gibeletti
As to the 96 point wine Drink it today! today only.Tomorrow it's toast

oh yes



;-)

Hey Max,

How rude of you to blame the yuppies for their thirst for knowledge ;-)

Well, let me pick out one of your sheets of modest questions: "Why are
Alsatian wines labelled in German?"

The not so simple reply is that the Alsatians got very, very wicked due to
their unlucky political situation during the last few centuries - they hate
both French and Germans. One day one of the winemakers had a splendid idea.
He exposed one bottle of his wine production on the street pretending he
wanted to sell the wine. But this was just a faint attempt as he wrote some
Geman stuff on the label. Now he just had to wait for a Frenchman to come
along, take the bottle, and listen to his effort to pronounce the
hieroglyphes on the label. This was so funny that he couldn't help to burst
out laughing. But that's not all. All Germans watching the scene got purple
heads - so angry the were when hearing the violation of their beautiful
language. It is reported that these incidents frequently ended up in riots.

Anyway, let`s call it the revenge of Alsace.

Martin

On Thu, 1 Apr 2004 15:02:18 +0200, "Martin Schulz"
> wrote:

>Well, let me pick out one of your sheets of modest questions: "Why are
>Alsatian wines labelled in German?"
>
>The not so simple reply is that the Alsatians got very, very wicked due to
>their unlucky political situation during the last few centuries - they hate
>both French and Germans.

???

Mike

Mike Tommasi, Six Fours, France
email link http://www.tommasi.org/mymail

"Max Hauser" > wrote in message
...
> 1. OK. I know little about wine but want to learn. I know that experts
> are here though I haven't bothered to use search tools to learn what they
> might have said in the last several years, that's a lot of work, but I
would
> be grateful if someone could brief me. Completely please. You know,
about
> varietals, and Shiraz vs. Syrah vs. Sirah, and why Alsatian wines have so
> many German names if they're actually from France (is it fraud?), and what
> are all those numbers on German bottles, and why doesn't everyone put the
> grape name on the label and use English like normal people. Also vintages
> and stuff. Please be concise, I don't have much time to spare. I may
need
> to ask follow-up questions, if I have time for those. Oh yes, also, where
> can I get exceptional well-aged but inexpensive wines that few people know
> about but with high ratings. (Those will impress my friends.)
>
> 2. We have a bottle of Silver Oak Cabernet that my nephew gave us in 1999
> after going to California for his high-paying dot-com job. He was new to
> wine at the time but assured us that this wine was advocated by a
newsletter
> that was absolutely definitive. The wine got 96 points which means it
must
> be near perfection, yes? He said that in the old days people needed years
> to learn about wine but that was obsolete now, all you need is to look up
> the numbers in the newsletter (anyway that's what people did at his
dot-com
> firm). With his sharp clothes and the car and new wine vocabulary, he
sure
> was impressive. He had his new penthouse too then, and was buying
expensive
> wine with the advice of the newsletter. The bottle is unopened, it's been
> carefully on its side behind our refrigerator and not too hot (except a
few
> weeks each summer), some stickiness outside the bottle but I can clean
that
> off, and still almost three-quarters full. I have heard that bottles of
> this age (five years storage!) can be worth big money. What do you think?
> I want to do something nice for my nephew from the proceeds. (After his
> layoff and the trouble over payments, he was living in his car when we
last
> heard from him.)

A great post! This is the epitome of the newbie post. Nearly 3/4 full
bottle of expensive wine, and car-living to boot. Vague,, broad ranging
questions and impatience to have them answered in 1 or 2 sentences. Nice to
be amused once in a while.

Craig Winchell
GAN EDEN Wines

>
>

Salut/Hi Max Hauser,

A fishy post if ever there was one!

le/on Thu, 1 Apr 2004 03:24:16 -0800, tu disais/you said:-

>1. OK. I know little about wine but want to learn.

Excellent. For a start, there's Mr Hawkins book, "A brief history of Thyme."
It details the way in which thyme has affected wine growing world wide.

>be grateful if someone could brief me. Completely please. You know, about
>varietals,

Well varietals are a bit like people, you know, some are blonde and some are
redheaded. But they can all get on more or less well and if you know how to
treat them, they can all make a contribution.

> and Shiraz vs. Syrah vs. Sirah,

Ah yes, that was once a town in Persia, but it got bombed by mistake, so
it's now in Australia making wonderful raisins. It was the home of Omar
Sharif. You know, the guy who said "A glass of coke and a thou, and thou,
and thou and thou beside me." Though I may have that a touch wrong.

>and why Alsatian wines have so many German names if they're actually from France

Well, the alsatians are always barking, you see. And they cultivated them
first, and anyway they speak it.

>are all those numbers on German bottles,

The Germans are so proud at being allowed into the Common Market, that this
has gone to their heads, and from time to time their printers slip a cog and
print enigma code series.

> and why doesn't everyone put the grape name on the label

They do. All except the french, who never do what anyone else does on
principle.

> and use English like normal people.

Ah, but only Americans use english line normal people, Orstrilians speek
crook, and Brits can't speak english, everyone knows THAT. Who else is
there?

> Also vintages and stuff.

Well, that's when they were picked, loike.

>to ask follow-up questions, if I have time for those. Oh yes, also, where
>can I get exceptional well-aged but inexpensive wines that few people know
>about but with high ratings. (Those will impress my friends.)

Ah, that's easy. You go to an auction house and pay cash.

>2. We have a bottle of Silver Oak Cabernet

That's the Ernie Arfterburn bottling isn't it? He was hooked on minced
habaneros, and so he sometimes put a few Red savinas in his bottlings. I
have also heard it called "Red Rim Cabinet."

>that was absolutely definitive. The wine got 96 points which means it must
>be near perfection, yes?

Absolutely.

>wine with the advice of the newsletter. The bottle is unopened, it's been
>carefully on its side behind our refrigerator and not too hot (except a few
>weeks each summer), some stickiness outside the bottle but I can clean that
>off, and still almost three-quarters full.

Well, with really old bottles like this, I strongly recommend re-corking,
this is much easier than you may think. You get one of those corkscrews
called "Waiter's friend" or less politely "Dishonest Butler", it has two
prongs which you push down the side of the cork. So take the foil off (it's
useless and not even decorative by the time it's got a bot corroded). Take
out the cork, and very carefully pour in a mixture of brandy and some
cabernet, to top it up again. This is most important and it helps the cork
to seal again. Then using your cork screw again, push the cork back into the
bottle. Don't worry too much about the capsule, many good winegrowers don't
use them nowadays.

> I've heard that bottles of this age (five years storage!) can be worth big money.

As long as you've recorked it, and topped it up, yes, that's right. Just put
it into auction. Actually, thinking about this you could always have a look
on the auction website and see the wines that seem to sell really well, and
print up a nice fresh label with its name on. You might get a lot more that
way, and as no one ever drinks these old wines, but only keeps them for
showm it won't matter, will it.

>I want to do something nice for my nephew from the proceeds. (After his
>layoff and the trouble over payments, he was living in his car when we last
>heard from him.)

I hope I've given you a couple of ideas.

--
All the Best
Ian Hoare
http://www.souvigne.com
mailbox full to avoid spam. try me at website

(For an example of the venerable tradition of 1-April postings on
newsgroups, see my salute to today's 20th anniversary of Piet Beertema's
Chernenko / kremvax hoax, and its subsequent effects, posted early yesterday
(31-March) to comp.misc and soc.history. It was technically impressive at
the time, as well as wit. --MH)