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I sat down just now to write reviews of all the Champagnes we carry at the store, and about three words into it, I realized that very few of the Champagnes I was writing about were anything less “truly exceptional bottles of wine” in the very grand scheme of things. Yes, the Marie-Noelle ‘03 Grand Cru Blanc de Noirs stands head and shoulder above the rest of them, but “the rest of them” are really phenomenal bottles of wine even when taking price into consideration. So what do you when you’re trying to buy, rate, or recommend wines from a lineup of bottles that are all “really, truly awesome” wines?

For me, there are two ways to choose when all the wines in question are really darn good. You can choose by either the style or the story.

Marie-Noelle handles every bottle herself everyday!

- Choosing by the style means you’ve already decided that you’ll be buying a $30 to $100 bottle of wine, and all you care about is getting a bottle with a set of flavors/aromas/palate that will make you want to drink the entire bottle of wine yourself. Some people look for the biggest or the most delicate body; some people looks for the fruitiest or the earthiest; some people look for aromas of jams were aromas of dried herbs. Ask yourself what do you want to taste (and hopefully ask someone who has tasted the bottle) and then buy it without regard to a bottle being $5 less or $10 more than any other bottle of wine- if $10+tax (i.e., a used book at the strand, a discount movie ticket, or two slices of pizza and a coke*) is going to make or break your bank account for the week, there are so many more less stressful ways to spend it than on one bottle of wine… but if you’re already looking at $45 bottles of champagne, then let’s not wring our hands over what is really just spare change in the long run- go for something that’s going to taste great to YOU!

Unreal

- Choosing by the story means you’re really buying a bottle of wine to give yourself a mini-vacation to a tiny village in a place very far away from any troubles or worries you’ve had that week or this year because - if you’re anything like the people I know - you deserve it. You’re looking at bottles and you know that $45 will get you a very good bottle of wine… will it be far better than any other bottle of $45 wine… maybe… maybe not, but you don’t care about that because “Really darn good” is good enough for you- you need to know how hand-made this bottle is, how much that last rain cloud leaving its mist on the grapes right before harvest helped out the winemaker, and how one of the winemaker’s children might have tousled your bottle just a bit as it was being racked up for cellaring two years before it even made it over the states- much less staring back at you from your glass.

Picking between a dozen bottles that are all between 99% perfect and 99.9% perfect is nearly impossible if you take it too seriously- stop worrying because there are no wrong choices (other than maybe Veuve Cliquot that’s been sitting in the window a midtown liquor store since last new year’s eve!). I, myself, usually choose the story to help me pick which bottle to pour. I kind of love the idea that a tiny woman is wearing clogs one size too big for her turning my bottle of wine every day to shake out the yeasts so I can share it with my friends and we can all sip and smile- I think it’s mighty big of her to spend two hours of her day making sure that my one glass of wine that night tastes absolutely amazing.

* I’m a lactard (lactose intolerant) so I’m only guessing how much a slice of pizza cost- forgive me if I was wrong and keep smiling b/c obviously if you read blog posts about Champagne while you’re goofing off at work, you are living an awesome life.

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After dinner, all I really want in the world is one sip of something truly satisfying. What could be more satisfying than a piece of white chocolate cake smothered in apple/pear marmalade and sprinkled with candied grapefruits zests… I ask this because that’s exactly what a sip of Sauternes can taste like!

It costs $30 for a bottle that will last all week and rate as a world-class wine, and yet tonight, on the night of all nights of binge chinese food eating- when I REALLY don’t need more than just a whiff of something else yummy to feel entirely full - I find myself without dessert wine in the house!

Dessert wine goes far better with cheese than any other wine (save for Champagne… maybe… but then again Champagne makes everything amazing), and it is easy to save 3/4 of a bottle for next time you want some; we should all be drinking more dessert wine.

Last year my New Year’s resolution was to drink my bubbly. This year my resolution is to drink more dessert wine, and this year, I intend to keep it!

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Our memory works in very personal ways, and when you combine that fact with the myriad of aromas and flavors present in the hundreds of bottles of wine that I sell, sometimes the phrases I use come out in a completely zonky way.* But at least to me they always make sense!

• “It really just tastes like being eight years old and eating mulberries and wrecking your back on a dusty, country road.” : Dolcetto/Merlot from northern Italy… I really did wreck my bike… often actually… I was a bad rider.
• “A dry chocolate chip you found under your shoe at the beach.” Routas’ “Wild Boar” Provence Cabernet 2003… I never turn down a chocolate chip cookie, and I never turn down a day at the beach… sometimes the two collide!
• “Dried fruit the Pope found in his pocket… and ate alone in the medicine cabinet.” Mocali Brunello di Montalcino 2004… I’ve met many people dressed as the Pope, and I’ve eating many dried fruits.
• “This wine has an almost lunar minerality.” : Zeta Priorat 2004 … No, I haven’t been to the moon, but I have been to space camp… I think that’s close enough!

* “Zonky” is a portmanteau of “zany” and “wonky,” which is apt because most of what I say during the day is both crazy and nerdy.

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Unlike its cellar-worthy predecessor 2005, 2007 Rhone wine is ready-to-drink. From the Vieux Telegraphe La Crau (yes, it’s f’ing outstanding now - and a bargain at $75 -  so don’t sit on it expecting more) to the Domaine de la Verriere Cotes du Ventoux, the 2007 vintage of the Rhone requires no patience, only a quick decanting.

The best “for instance” I’ve found is the Domaine Le Couroulu Vacqueyras Cuvee Classique. After the lightest decanting, it is all olives and pomegranates and blue stones… oh my yes, there is no reason to age this. The sourness of age has already shown itself - yay for impatience! The minerality of age has already shown itself- WOO HOO for impatience. The petrol heat of this will not fade with age- yay for DRINK-RIGHT-NOW’EDNESS!

Give this as a gift to any relatives whom you know to love good wine, but who have no patience for aging, i.e., everyone on your gift list.

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Hopefully, reading this will give you at least three reasons not to say, “just give me something you like” when asking for a recommendation.

- Number of customers I spoke to today: 124.

- Number of Malbec-based wines I sold today: 48.

- Number of bottles I have in my cellar from Turkey and Argentina, respectively: 1, 1.

- Number of bottles of Malbec I have in my cellar: 0.

- Number of Malbecs I’ve tasted professionally since September 1, 2009: 441.

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