Bordeaux Futures a Bust

Dude, invest in a decanter or something!

Regular readers of Tim's Blog (is there such a thing?) will recall how I slammed the practice of en primeur (pre-selling Bordeaux wine as futures) as a cheat and a scam. Unimpeachable sources, such as Petrus' winemaker Jean-Claude Berrouet agreed with me (clever fellow), saying the system forced wineries to alter the way they made wine, to cater to the tastes of the nouveau riche and dolts with palates of felt and glue who can only taste sugar and alcohol (I'm looking at you, Bob), because the wines have to be 'as seductive as possible far earlier, to the detriment of the Bordeaux style'. Even the ever demure Jancis Robinson hoped the 2006 en primeurs would fail, leaving merchants holding the bag on unsold stock.

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Flakes of Snowy White, Glasses of Ruby Red

Now that's what I call grillin' and chillin'!

Note: Today's blog comes to us courtesy of Peter Mills, Winexpert's account manager extraordinaire from Atlantic Canada. A bon vivant of some note, he shares with us his dinner plans, leisure pursuits and wine matching advice. And here I thought Australians were all ruffians and ex-convicts--it seems I was partly mistaken.

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Coming Clean

Do you suppose he only drinks white wine?

I was doing some bottling yesterday, a two year-old rhubarb wine made from my garden produce, and a very interesting carboy of the original Montagnac Crushendo. I made it specifically to demonstrate racking of grapeskin products at one of our retailer conferences. I do believe it was back in the summer of 2006. It served its demonstration purposes, I racked it again, sulphited it and added 50 grams of toasted French oak cubes and left it until yesterday.

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Commence the Festivalities!

How convenient: a glass of wine with the canapés already in it!

It's that time of year again: the Vancouver International Wine Festival is on. I've attended almost every year since 1987 and it's one of the best wine events in Canada--or anywhere.

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Red Wine is the Greatest Thing in the Universe!

That's amore!

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Unscrewing the Inscrutable

Waiter, I think this wine is corked . . .

Note: Today's blog is courtesy of Peter Mills, Winexpert accounts manager for Atlantic Canada--our man in the East, long may his big jib draw.

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Europeans Lose Their Marbles, Ban Words, Wine

The great thing about the EU was how it abolished nationalism . . .

I've managed to travel a bit, so I recognise that other countries and other societies have different ways of doing things. I also think it's appropriate to pass laws to preserve heritage and prevent the loss of important cultural assets. Heck, I even like the French on the side of my cereal box.

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It's a Major Award!

I hope it's got compact fluorescent garters . . .

You could have knocked me over with the weather. I got an email from the marketing folks this morning congratulating me, and while it took a solid ten minutes to figure out why, I couldn't be more pleased, or more impressed the the company I'm keeping: Tim's Wine Blog declared one of the top 5 business blogs in Vancouver.

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Weekly Wined-Up

Bottles not shown actual size. Thank goodness.

It's nice to have a couple of days off the road to catch up on my drinking. I know I just blogged about the big ol' wine dinner at the FGBC, but that hardly counts--it was work! All right, all right, I know most people would prefer that kind of work if they could get it. Ahem.

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Guilded Fermenters

Is the logo half-empty, or half-full?

It's hard to believe that's it's been a year already, but last Sunday was the Fermenters Guild of British Columbia annual conference. The FGBC represents the consumer wine and beer making retailers in the province, and the annual get-together revolves around their annual general meeting where they elect new officers, propose new measures, discuss important news, attend various educational seminars (that's were I come in) and have a trade show (Winexpert, other kit manufacturers and associated trades) and a pretty interesting dinner.

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Stand Up for Wine

No thanks, I had centipede eggs for lunch.

Once you smell a rotten egg, you never forget the distinct aroma of hydrogen sulphide gas. Winemakers tend to know about it because it's a by-product of yeast metabolism, showing up in all fermentations too a greater or lesser degree. Once in a great while something can go awry, and too much H2S will be formed. Fortunately, in small quantities it can be driven off with a little sulphite and some vigorous stirring, and in moderate amounts it can be treated with copper or Bocksin. In large amounts, the wine smells like a housefull of fart, and it has to be dumped out. You'll occasionally run across bottles of wine that have a wee hint of it, which can be gotten rid of with decanting and airing, or in extremis, a handful of sanitised pennies (the copper bonds to the H2, forming copper sulphate, removing the smell).

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Keeping Austin Weird

Whew, that's certainly a relief! Actual sign on Congress Avenue store.

Gadzooks, what a funny sort of week it's been. We flew from blowing snow and icy roads at 0ºC to absurdly warm sunshine at 35ºC. Locals assured me that it was unusually warm for Texas at this time of year, and I hope that's true because if it's not, they'll be able to melt lead on the sidewalks by August.

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