Yesterday I had a loooooonnngg pickup of Dave at JFK (flight was on
time, but sat on taxiway for 45 minutes, then half-hour for luggage,
then fighting the Sunday evening vacation traffic). What pulled me
through was knowing Betsy was home trying to recreate the Ligurian
pesto lasagna we had in Bordighera. While we are true foodies, and
Betsy a devoted cook, I must confess this was the first time she ever
used her pasta attachment. The results were great, and she is now
planning pasta after pasta. I was out of Northern Italian whites, so
when I finally returned from airport I went with unoaked Chardonnay,
the 2005 Vrac Macon-Villages. As notes with their CdR, yes that's a
stupid name. But I had tried at a Zachys store tasting, and thought ok
for $9 wine. When Zachys flood sale offered bad-labelled bottles for
$48/cs, I said sure. As with the Pesssac noted earlier, they oversold
the flood bottles, and gave me pristine ones at same price. This is
straightforward Chardonnay- white apple fruit, a hint of lemon, ripe
but with enough zip to keep it fairly lively. Nothing at all complex,
but as good a $4 bottle as I've had in a while! B/B-

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent
wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't
drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no
promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency

On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 07:51:54 -0700
DaleW wrote:

Yesterday I had a loooooonnngg pickup of Dave at JFK (flight was on
time, but sat on taxiway for 45 minutes, then half-hour for luggage,
then fighting the Sunday evening vacation traffic). What pulled me
through was knowing Betsy was home trying to recreate the Ligurian
pesto lasagna we had in Bordighera. While we are true foodies, and
Betsy a devoted cook, I must confess this was the first time she ever
used her pasta attachment. The results were great, and she is now
planning pasta after pasta. I was out of Northern Italian whites, so
when I finally returned from airport I went with unoaked Chardonnay,
the 2005 Vrac Macon-Villages. As notes with their CdR, yes that's a
stupid name. But I had tried at a Zachys store tasting, and thought ok
for $9 wine. When Zachys flood sale offered bad-labelled bottles for
$48/cs, I said sure. As with the Pesssac noted earlier, they oversold
the flood bottles, and gave me pristine ones at same price. This is
straightforward Chardonnay- white apple fruit, a hint of lemon, ripe
but with enough zip to keep it fairly lively. Nothing at all complex,
but as good a $4 bottle as I've had in a while! B/B-


Hi Dale,

Probably the same they sell from the gas pump at 2 EU/l, I'm guessing.

Love the damaged label sales!

-E
--
Emery Davis
You can reply to ecom
by removing the well known companies
Questions about wine? Visit http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

On Jul 23, 11:44?am, Emery Davis wrote:
On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 07:51:54 -0700





DaleW wrote:
Yesterday I had a loooooonnngg pickup of Dave at JFK (flight was on
time, but sat on taxiway for 45 minutes, then half-hour for luggage,
then fighting the Sunday evening vacation traffic). What pulled me
through was knowing Betsy was home trying to recreate the Ligurian
pesto lasagna we had in Bordighera. While we are true foodies, and
Betsy a devoted cook, I must confess this was the first time she ever
used her pasta attachment. The results were great, and she is now
planning pasta after pasta. I was out of Northern Italian whites, so
when I finally returned from airport I went with unoaked Chardonnay,
the 2005 Vrac Macon-Villages. As notes with their CdR, yes that's a
stupid name. But I had tried at a Zachys store tasting, and thought ok
for $9 wine. When Zachys flood sale offered bad-labelled bottles for
$48/cs, I said sure. As with the Pesssac noted earlier, they oversold
the flood bottles, and gave me pristine ones at same price. This is
straightforward Chardonnay- white apple fruit, a hint of lemon, ripe
but with enough zip to keep it fairly lively. Nothing at all complex,
but as good a $4 bottle as I've had in a while! B/B-

Hi Dale,

Probably the same they sell from the gas pump at 2 EU/l, I'm guessing.

Love the damaged label sales!

-E
--
Emery Davis
You can reply to
by removing the well known companies
Questions about wine? Visithttp://winefaq.hostexcellence.com- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yes, I understand the en vrac concept, but silly to come up with a
brand name -for bottled wine! - like that in my opinion. Still, it was
a clean if simple wine.

As to flood sales, I'm ok when I know the circumstances:
we had a lot of flooding in Westchester during a big storm, one of
Zachys auxilary warehouses in Mamaroneck got 2 feet of water, lower
cases ruined. I figure rain/flood water in April in NY is between
50-60?F. And Zachys (though often expensive) is top notch retailer. Of
course, in my case they were sold out and just decided as a customer
relations move to give me regular stock (they said "sorry" re the $14
'04 Cristia CdP). But I would have been happy with crappy labels, a $4
Macon is good to have for cookign wine.

In general though I'd be INCREDIBLY cautious re water damaged labels
in US right now. I would guess hundreds of thousands of bottles were
in New Orleans during Katrina. It's one thing for a bottle to sit in
60? water for 2 hours- no harm at all. But DAYS in 85-90? water is
certainly wine death (actually, hours would probably be enough, as
water is so much more efficient at raising/lowering temperatures).
Flood damaged labels are total no-nos if I don't trust the exact
circumstances.

On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:27:37 -0000
DaleW wrote:

In general though I'd be INCREDIBLY cautious re water damaged labels
in US right now. I would guess hundreds of thousands of bottles were
in New Orleans during Katrina. It's one thing for a bottle to sit in
60? water for 2 hours- no harm at all. But DAYS in 85-90? water is
certainly wine death (actually, hours would probably be enough, as
water is so much more efficient at raising/lowering temperatures).
Flood damaged labels are total no-nos if I don't trust the exact
circumstances.

Yes, you've certainly got a point -- one that I'd forgotten -- there.

We used to live next to a restaurant in the 17eme, La Coquille or something,
long gone now, who bought a bunch of water damaged labels and doled them
out as specials, duly advertised on a slate in front. We had some wonderful
older Bordeaux at unbelievable prices.

-E
--
Emery Davis
You can reply to ecom
by removing the well known companies
Questions about wine? Visit http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

On Jul 23, 1:01?pm, Emery Davis wrote:
On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:27:37 -0000

DaleW wrote:
In general though I'd be INCREDIBLY cautious re water damaged labels
in US right now. I would guess hundreds of thousands of bottles were
in New Orleans during Katrina. It's one thing for a bottle to sit in
60? water for 2 hours- no harm at all. But DAYS in 85-90? water is
certainly wine death (actually, hours would probably be enough, as
water is so much more efficient at raising/lowering temperatures).
Flood damaged labels are total no-nos if I don't trust the exact
circumstances.

Yes, you've certainly got a point -- one that I'd forgotten -- there.

We used to live next to a restaurant in the 17eme, La Coquille or something,
long gone now, who bought a bunch of water damaged labels and doled them
out as specials, duly advertised on a slate in front. We had some wonderful
older Bordeaux at unbelievable prices.

-E
--
Emery Davis
You can reply to
by removing the well known companies
Questions about wine? Visithttp://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

Before Katrina, I often would keep an eye out of damaged labels on
sale. If mold damage, it decreased price,but made it MORE likely the
wine saw good (if passive) storage. Now I'm much more cautious re any
damage. Martins in NO lost about 20,000 CASES, and a lot of
restaurants took big hits too (Brennans lost 30,000 bottles). With
private cellars, there could easily be a million suspect bottles.
Insurance companies sell these as salvage, but easy to reenter market.