Did You See That (Part 2)?

Here are a couple of posts from the past month or so that really stand out for me. Take a peek and see if you read them already, if not - worth your perusal.

Rusty Gaffney, the Prince of Pinot, writes and publishes a whole newsletter every week! His newsletter is called Pinot File and it is completely and endearingly devoted to Pinot Noir. Pinot from all over the world is discussed and reviewed, but California seems to appear more often than anything else. In the March 27th issue of PinotFile the Prince offers a report on a recent Australian Pinot Noir festival that includes tasting notes on the Domaine Romanee Conti's Grand Cru offerings from the 2004 vintage. Fun to read because I, with all due respect, have no faith whatsoever in "professional" reviews of DRC wines - too many thousands of dollars at stake for objectivity. But the Prince has no financial stake in this at all. He is just absolutely passionate about Pinot.

What really intrigued me about this issue is the Oregon tasting (page6). St Innocent makes an appearance, as does Shea, Soter, Domaine Serene, Sineann, and the cultish Sine Qua Non. Interesting to see how his tasting group scored the wines. I don't think this is a blind tasting, but I'm not sure. Prince? Are you out there? Was this a blind tasting?

If you have been reading this blog with any regularity you know that I'm a fan of the Wine Doctor. Not a blog, as you cannot post comments, but an amazing online resource. Before deciding whether or not to buy Loire wine, for example, I often check to see if Chris has posted anything about the producer. I have learned about many wines that I now love via this site. Doc is focusing more on Bordeaux this year, but the site is easy to navigate and well archived, so if Bordeaux isn't your thing, you should still check it out.

The Doc recently posted notes from a mammoth Champagne tasting. The notes are in two parts: first the non-vintage (NV) wines, then the vintage bubbly. Mostly large houses, not the grower stuff that I've been slowly tasting, but it's good to read about Perrier Jouet too, right? What impresses me most about this review is the attention to detail, the patience and stamina for tasting the goes into this. There are many bubblies reviewed here along with notes that really make me feel that I could choose NV champagne wisely. See what you think.