2009 Planal VDP L’Aude , Cuvée Marsellan
From Corbières, in the South of France comes this unique and delicious wine made from Marselan, a highbred cross between Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine hits your palate with full dark fruit that melts into long dry leathery tannins. Don’t let the VDP fool you. There is a lot going on here. And, it is only $9.
I just wish we had a couple of dozen empties to show you the whole rack, well, that and the paint, stain and glass.
To Swirl, Sniff, Spit, Dump, or Drink? That is the question. In researching the answer we came across this educational item on Slate’s website:
Cold Shower: How to spit with the wine pros.
Spit or swallow? For wine aficionados, the choice is usually dictated by circumstance: At meals you swallow, at tastings you spit (unless the wines being tasted are liquid gold; it would be criminal to cough up even a drop of the 1989 Haut-Brion, [Robert Parker rated 100 points] for instance). But as with so many other wine-related rituals, spitting is no simple matter. Proper technique and correct form count for a lot more than you might think in wine circles.
All of this talk of spitting had some of our customers weighing in as well:
Corbin H. writes: The International Pinot Noir Celebration in Oregon holds a spitting contest for winemakers, which on the occasions I witnessed it the French handily won. It was distance-only, but one did have to muster enough accuracy to avoid hitting the linesmen.
Jill A. writes: Yes, if you spit my 89 Haut-Brion I would kill you, personally.
After a full day in the shop (wood, not wine) we have the center display cabinet mostly done.
The top will be laminated glass with a center bracing rail which will also hold the cards describing each of our hand-selected vintages.
Eric Soloman (famed importer) was in town today delivering a lecture and sampling his French and Spanish catalog at the Pan Pacific Hotel. Together we sampled:
Unfortunately the rosè we were tasting was the 2010 vintage, but it gave us a good idea of what to expect from the 2011 vintage that we will be stocking.
If the wine is in our store, we have tasted and approved it.
