I read the Wine Spectator today. Turns out that the current CEO of AIG Insurance is also a winemaker.
You'll recall that AIG is the company that almost sent the American economy into a total disaster. To stabilize the company, they enticed Robert Benmosche to join the company over a year ago.
This Benmosche, who is a New York native who used to run Met Life, turns out to be a "winemaker." Not in someplace nearby like the Finger Lakes, not in Long Island but all the way in Croatia.
I know lots of winemakers and I don't know any of them who could make wine in Croatia from the Board room of AIG in downtown Manhattan. This is biblical imagery -- perhaps someone on Wall Street can turn derivatives into Grand Cru Burgundy!
Winemaker is a term thrown around quite a bit. Robert Benmosche owns a winery. Robert Benmosche owns vines. Robert Benmosche owns wine.
But Robert Benmosche is not a winemaker.
Please don't bother me with arguments about négociants and larger domaines. Robert Benmosche has an investment and good for him. Lots of celebrities have winemaking investments and there is nothing wrong with that. I'm not sure, but I believe I read somewhere that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are also winemakers.
Chacun son métier, as they say in French (look it up), and journalists making a barrel or two somewhere, bored or impassioned businessmen, investors and wealthy wine drinkers looking for a personal angle are not winemakers.
Please, cut out the nonsense.
As does his wife.
They asked to remain anonymous and for me not to name names. I will not reveal the name of the baby although I will say that neither the parents or the baby have anything to do with Southern Wine & Spirits.
Some guy from Southern Wine & Spirits sent us a note today. He would like to represent our wines in Utah and somewhere else.
We are a Southern Wine free national importer and it simply is not going to happen. We're dealing with vignerons, not mobsters. Although no one is saying that anyone at Southern Wines is or has ever been a mobster. In fact, I know that leading members of Southern Wines and Spirits are very generous with many charities, are good human beings, love their spouses, children and animals, and believe in everything that has made America a great nation. I wish them luck.
But they're in another world. Good luck to them. Parker is an another world, I don't care what he likes or dislikes, although I respect his obvious talents. Get off it everyone and create your own universe!
People who think the wine trade is about business structure, profit, competitiveness, market leadership, money, business vision and their idiosyncratic world views are totally nuts.
It is about wine. That's all.
The trick is to be able to make a living selling wine, but not by treating wine like any commodity out there. Yes, it has something in common, but wine is not simply a "product" to build egos, business structures and private fortunes.
I'm an old fashioned guy who believes wine should transcend greed and ego because it is a pure expression of nature.
But c'mon, that's one incredible picture of one beautiful kid. A cycle reborn.
Thank goodness.
I just read a contribution to the Robert Parker wine board.
There is a discussion on why Eric Asimov didn't like some of Mr. Parker's favorite 2007 Châteauneuf-du-Papes and one of the participants writes:
New York is sort of a hotbed for wines in a style that RP doesn't particularly like. Because of Dressner and Rosenthal, there are plenty of wine stores in the city that are chockfull of a leaner, more high-toned style....not just referring to geeked-out places like Chambers Street- almost any wine store in NYC....
I think that as a result of this, you have a lot of NYC-area natives with a taste that's just profoundly different than RPs. Thinking of me, in particular: I grew up in Manhattan and my parents pretty much exclusively drank Rosenthal wines. Since that's what I was tasting since I was 13, that's what I like now....
Eric Asimov is also a NYC-area native and has been with the times since the mid-80's. I would imagine that he too has a palate that may be different from the rest of the US. I couldn't help but notice that his favored CdP was a Rosenthal import which I've enjoyed in the past....
Are Neal and I finally being held accountable for the corruption of the New York wine drinking public?
A distributor called me today and offered to take all our wines. After 15 minutes on the phone, he realized that I wasn't Charlie Woods and abruptly hung up the phone on me.
Some guy named Ab Simon called and made a big offer to buy our company. After 15 minutes I realized Ab Simon is now dead.
I had a wild dream about Victor Schwartz's Parisian brother selling me to VOS Selections at a 11% Commission that Denyse would have to pay, rather than Victor.
I discovered my middle name is Merinoff. Joseph Merinoff Dressner. Someone from The Empire called, whoever they are.
I was kidnapped by a gang of Lubavitch in a Mitzvah-Mobile going up Lafayette Street serving Kosher St-Pourcain to certified Jews. They wanted to form a joint distributorship.
I realized that two major Spanish Wine Importers are in North Carolina! How do you explain that!
There's a lot of activity these days and it is making it dizzy. Frankly, its very silly.
We're very happy with things as they are now!
Someone named Shoshana Sakolsky is following my twitter feed.
I wish I had made up that name.
If I had, I would have given her a brother.
Shlomo Sakolsky
Jews have played a great role in the history of the wine trade and continue to play a major role, second only to the Catholics.
Today is a major holy day in the Jewish calendar, when Jews from all over the world fill a glass of wine at sundown and turn in the direction of Jerusalem, raise their glasses, and joyfully proclaim "Le Chaim."
Happy Thanksgiving to all you Jews out there!
Everyone else seems to be an enormous fan.
Is there something wrong with me?
I see this term quite a bit.
How come, you never read about Rhône Californians?
Louis/Dressner Black Tuesday is now over on the East Coast but still going strong on the West Coast.
It's been a hectic but rewarding day!
Here is one of the many photo's that have been sent to us today.
Black Tuesday has been amazing!
Blogging seems so old-fashioned. The kids can barely read an entire paragraph. USA Today and text messaging have triumphed!
Does this mean that have a web site and a blog is no longer sufficient? Do I have to get on Facebook and self-promote like every other imbecile other there? Do I have to do social networking?
Awesome!
Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tomorrow is the big day.
Word on the internet is that there will be 20% discounts on all Louis/Dressner wines all over the nation.
Just go into a retail store and convince the owner to give you your Louis/Dressner Black Tuesday Sale Discount.
Five percent of the discount will be donated to Doctors without Borders, assuming the retail store owner goes along with the 20% discount.
Liquor and Package stores are opening at 8 am tomorrow morning. First come, first served!
There are no rain checks.
I had an MRI today.
My oncologist says that there is no cancerous activity noticeable. I will continue to take MRIs every two months and then every three months and then every six months and then every year. Those nasty cancerous varmints are still out there somewhere. But for right now they are dormant or at least biding their time.
In related developments, I saw a doctor who specializes in physical rehabilitation who had all sorts of ideas to help my nerve damaged right foot. I'm bucking for electric shock treatment.
Tomorrow, I'm off to Montréal to make a Thanksgiving dinner with my darling daughter Nancy on Saturday. Tomorrow night, we will be eating at Pied de Cochon to celebrate the good cancer news.
One year we had three wines!
Oh well.
I had been told I had 12 months or so to live when I launched this blog a year ago.
Turns out, I outlived my initial pathology and might even keep going for years to come. So, it only seems natural to update my personal vendettas, all of which I assumed I only had a year's time to clean up before my death.
To my dear cousin Dr. Barbara Hirsch, the famous Great Neck Endocrinolist:
Have no fear, go visit my mother, I won't be there and won't bother you. Make sure my mother tells me the date and time so I won't run into you, but I'm sure we can arrange things to avoid any conflicts.
To my dear brother Ira Dressner, coach and soothsayer of Surprise, Arizona:
Best of luck in the Coaching/Ministerial/Secret Powers profession. We have a new dog named Zaggy who is too aggressive with other dogs. We would gladly pay for any advise or pendants which would help us out with our beloved Cherrier.
All is forgiven, Dear Dr. Ira and Dear Dr. Barbara. You don't have to forgive me or ever see me ever again, but I wish you both well in all your Doctorial duties and your rich personal lifes.
I'm looking for some new personal vendettas to enrich my personal life, but am open to any new candidates.
I'm having an MRI on Tuesday and want to hear the results of the MRI before making any new decisions.
Jules and I went to drink a beer last night at the Cafe Royale on Post and Leavenworth. This is my favorite bar in San Francisco, conveniently located on the border of the Tenderloin and the Tendernob.
There's great people watching here, especially at night. The cafe, really a bar, seems to be a gathering point for hipsters in the dynamic Tender/Entre/Nob area.
Jules and I sat by the large plate glass windows and watched a guy score crack at the corner of Leavenworth opposite our table. It took about 10 minutes for the dealer to arrive and the client was getting very nervous. But finally, the dealer showed up, goods and money were exchanged and everyone left happy. Kind of.
It was a beautiful moment of personal growth and bonding between son and father.
I was dragged out of a New York wine event by an ambulance while I was having convulsions.
I was whisked to an emergency room out of Dante's Inforno, where they did an MRI and discovered a brain tumor. A couple weeks later, I was told I had 12 months or at most 18 months to live.
This was a disturbing experience.
As it turns out, after more complex research, I have a type of tumor that loves to be treated with chemotherapy and radiation and which can respond. Maybe I'll even last another 20 years. Who knows!
I'm now off chemotherapy but still on anti-convulsion medicine. The tumor has been sternly challenged and is lying dormant. I'm back to semi-normal activities, but still suffer fatigue. I have neuro-muscular damage in my right left which might be improved, but which will probably always be there in some form.
I'll be doing a tasting in San Francisco this morning of live wines. Like them, I am delighted to be alive, delighted to be around friends, delighted to love nature and all the people around me who I can give love and enjoyment and who give it back. I hate being sentimental, but what the hell....
Denyse, Jules, Alyce. Kevin, Sheila, Shawn and Lee. My mother. The departed Buster and now Zaggy. Donna, Keven, Wheeler, David Lillie, Linus, SF Joe. Fifi, Jorge, Coppo, All our caring vignerons who did so much to keep up my spirits. The folks who drink our wines who sent generous e-mails. Vicki, Bettina and all the great doctors I have seen at NYU. My neighbors in Poil Rouge and Rick Franco and Eddie Wrinkerman and a cast of thousands who are going to be pissed off I didn't mention their names.
Thank you for everything.
I'm holed up in a hotel in Downtown San Francisco and have been channel surfing.
Modern television seems to be dominated by Jay Leno and celebrity Cake Baking shows. The celebrity bakers make elaborate contests that are judged by a panel of cake experts and an excited champion is declared on each show. The odd thing is nobody ever eats the cake, they just admire the hugeness and design of the creation.
I have no idea what is going on here.
My son and I ate a three hour lunch at Chez Panisse. This is my fourth meal at Alice Water's mecca to great ingredients and simplicity and as always it was a fabulous meal.
It is the the accumulation of so many little things. Only Alice Waters can turn Celery root salad into a sublime experience. Even the little fava beans with the squid were almost painfully delicious. Squid, halibut were also insanely fresh and intense and digestible. No crazy mix of sweet and bitter, or sweet and salty. Just clarity and yummyness. Not to mention the best radishes in North America.
Its the anti-Food Network, anti-Star Chef experience.
Jules and I drank a bottle of Catherine and Pierre Breton's Vouvray Dilettante in the interest of international viticultural harmony. Let bygones be bygones and lets all go forward with lively wines.
I can't wait!
Keven Clancy, Jules Dressner and I will be heading right over to the Tacqueria on 25th and Mission. No trucks for us, I need to sit.
Everyone is doing it so I decided to get together with a few musical friends and record a CD.
Basically, it is 23 variations on Chuck Berry's classic song "Little Queenie."
I was very proud of my work, but still had several close friends and colleagues preview the CD before I released it to the world. To a person, they all strongly advised me to suppress the recording. They felt it would be embarassing to me, my company and my loved ones. The image of an older guy with Brain Cancer, a porcelain gall bladder and four vascular bypasses plaintively singing to an underage girl seemed repulsive to many of my friends. Everyone also seemed to agree that I have no singing voice and sounded like a Cantor from Queens, New York trying to get down and dirty.
But dreams go on:
I got lumps in my throat
When I saw her comin down the aisle
I got the wiggles in my knees
When she looked at me and sweetly smiled
Well there she is again
Standin over by the record machine
Well she looks like a model
On the cover of a magazine
But she's too cute
To be a minute over seventeen
Meanwhile I was thinkin'
Well if she's in the mood
No need to break it
I got the chance and I oughta take it
If she can dance we can make it
C'mon queenie let's shake it
I said go, go, go, little queenie
I said go, go, go, little queenie
I said go, go, go, little queenie
I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be proud of nine years of wine blogging or ashamed of myself. Anyhow, here is one of my first posts from nine years ago.
Charles McCabe, My Favorite Critic
I get so sick of Parker, The Wine Spectator and all the various other wine journalists that I often think of Charles McCabe, my favorite critic.I should note here that I do like Steve Tanzer, who I know personally, for being more reasonable than the his colleagues. And of course, Steve is a helluva-a-guy!
McCabe was a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle along with Herb Caen -- a powerful one-two morning punch for City residents. I lived in San Francisco from 1975 to 1980 and greatly enjoyed both columnists, McCabe was perhaps best know for his motto Any clod can have the facts, but having opinions is an art, but I always remember him for his muckraking columns against America's razor blade manufacturers.
McCabe's theory was that America's razor manufacturers were intentionally making blades that required weekly replacement. Periodically, they would develop new shaving technologies that were seemingly superior -- the twin-edged and then triple-edged blade come to mind, although McCabe did not live to see the triple-edged. At product launch, these new blades would be extremely-sharp and last weeks. But as months and years went by, the razor companies would purposely lower the level of razor quality, ensuring that once again the shaver had to replace the blade on a weekly basis. This would create a perceived market need for an even newer technology and a new product would be introduced yet again that would work fine for several months and then once again degrade in quality. Ad infinitim.
I was very happy with Gilette's entry into the triple-edged market and was perhaps one of the first consumers to buy the Mach III when it was introduced. In fact, I was so overwhelmed with the performance of this machine, I was enthusiastically converted to Gillette's contention that this was the most important shaving innovation since the 1960s (although I was too young to shave until about 1968). But two years have gone by and I note that the blade cartridge, which seemed almost immortal at product introduction, now requires constant replacement. And those hard to get smooth spots are becoming the impossible to get smooth spots.
Happily, Alyce Dressner, my 12 1/2 year old daughter, constantly peruses the Drugstore.com site and I learned that the Schick company has now come up with its own triple-bladed system, the XTreme III (Schick XTreme III Site). Of course I immediately seized the opportunity to order these new razors and found the overall experience to be qualitatively superior to the Mach III. But still, it lacked the excitement that was there when the Mach III first came into the market. The XTreme III is incrementally better than the Mach III, but nothing more than that.
During this time of disappointment, I accidentally tried out another Schick blade. I am currently going to a physical therapist three times a week to remobilize my chest. My chest, which was once mobile, was recently cracked open to make way for four heart bypasses. Or quadruples bypasses, as they say in the medical trade.My physical therapist turns out to be organized like a luxury gym and oddly my insurance pays for the whole shebang, including the luxury showers outfitted with luxury cosmetics and razor blades. Just this week, they changed blades from an uninteresting Gillette disposable to a fascinating ergonomic Schick twin blade that I had never seen and that I decided to try out. What a shave!
It is not principally the ergonomic design of the razor that makes it so interesting as it is the inclusion of the One-Push Cleaning System. The shaver pushes this button during the shave and a clever mechanism pushes a small plastic strip between the twin blades, quickly dislodging any dirt or whiskers that might lead to clogging and eventual blade dulling. Again, I cannot recommend this blade highly enough and hope all interested readers will take the time to look at Schick's inspired web site dealing with this new technology: The Schick ST Disposable. Not only is this the best blade in the marketplace but it is also one of cheapest -- I bought a 15-pack today at Rite-Aid Drugs for only $5.99! Of course, there is always the possibility that the razor will go dull in several months or in a year. But until then I'm convinced.
There is a lesson here for wine lovers. They've been making twin-blades and disposables for some time now. Finally, it is an incremental improvement to an old and tested design that qualitatively advances the shaving experience. Not fancy new shavers or elaborate blades. The market always come back to the tried and true and demonstrably effective. Novelty, for the sake of novelty, eventually fatigues.
There is a lesson here for wine lovers.....
According to their web site:
Louis/Dressner $15
Thursday November 12, 2009, 6:00 PM
Internationally famous importer and wine blogger, Joe Dressner, will be here pouring hand-harvested, native-ferment wines of France and Italy.
The shop is located at:
384 Hayes St
(between Franklin St & Gough St)
(415) 863-1104
www.arlequinwine.com
The tasting is open to everybody (over 21-years-old) and I am offering valet parking to the first three people who show-up.
You can come meet me and taste our wines if you're a card-carrying member of the wine trade.
Farm Wine Imports will have an all-star cast:
Featuring
Joe Dressner and the wines of Louis/Dressner
Jose Pastor of Vinos & Gourmet
Steve Edmunds of Edmunds St. John
Local debut of the Champagnes
Cédric Bouchard & Ulysse Collin
Larmandier-Bernier
More bubbles from France, Italy, Spain
Indigenous varieties, unique terroirs, well-farmed, un-manipulated, digestible wines.
The trick is you have to RSVP by calling:
408-644-2077 Jeff Vierra
415-999-8944 Keven Clancy
The tasting is in a small room and attendance will unfortunately be limited.
My colleagues are making millions of dollars and I house my living room television set in an armoire with the doors falling off.
I'm just an honest guy, trying to make an honest living, selling honest wines.
I'd earn a lot more money in the spoof market, but I'd have to go to The New York Wine Experience, be friendly to everyone in the Wine Industry, talk endless about product and brands, and accept phone calls from the Sopexa people who tell me they are now the official promoters of the Beaujolais and I better be nice to them if I want The Wine Spectator to review the 2006 Michel Tête Juliénas. The 2006 Michel Tête Juliénas has not been on the market for two years and the Sopexa is calling me for details about the market penetration of this wine!
This morning, I fell on 56th Street while trying to clean the droppings of my wonderful new dog Zaggy. Some guy valiantly offered to help me up. My suspicion is that he is not a member of the Wine Industry, but I didn't ask him.
MasterCard has a sentimental commercial about how their are things that money can't buy. Like your children, your spouse, and your wonderful in-laws (in France they call the in-laws the "beautiful family). But let me assure my readers, selling great wine made from great terroir by creative, hard working and militant peasant/vignerons is something that can't be beat. I'm proud of what I do, even if I will never have the money of the spoof merchants.
You can't have everything. I can't even lean down and pick up dog droppings because of the neurological/muscular damage I suffered on my right foot from my brain tumor. But between Buster and now Zaggy I have had two wonderful dogs, both of whom were mutts and who cost me only a token fee when they were rescued from Kennels. They were/are sometimes wild, crazy, badly trained and uncivilized. I didn't have the money to hire first-class trainers for these two pooches and I don't care.
We don't have any great brands or products that sell in millions of case.
Thank goodness.
Not to mention my son and daughter!
My doctor told me today.
I had x-rays to figure out why I am having so much pain in my right rib.
My ribs are ok, but I am now the proud owner of a Porcelain Gall Bladder. I thought this was something they sell on the Home Shopping Network. Turns out that years of calcification lead to having your Gall Bladder in this state. According to a site I found on the internet, I might have Gall Bladder cancer!
Here's what my Gall Bladder looks like:
He's looking for our wines in Minnesota.
I had no idea that Extract was a family name.
No one can explain what's going on!
We're all left flummoxed.
Bordering on the brink of bafflement!
There are lots of visionaries out there but I'm feeling old, feeble and blind.
Breaking apart on the brink of bewilderment!
There are visionaries out there who see better than I.
If only I could see what they see.
I only see a vine, a vigneron, a wine and happy people drinking those wines.
A guy from Detroit told me at our tasting that it I was so 1990s.
Over 477 people attended our two day tasting in New York last week.
Some attended twice and some attended three times.
Frankly, I couldn't believe it was happening.
Unfortunately, it gives the illusion that we are fabulously successful company with gobs of money.
In reality we are brinkering on the brink of bankruptcy!
Many people ask what the differences are between the two days.
Both days will have the same all-star group of vignerons serving the same wines.
But this is a portfolio tasting for our entire book, and there will be additional wines served each day. Each day's list of complementary wines will be different.
The vignerons have about 70 wines and each day there will be another 90 wines served. Frankly, Thursday the 29th looks much more interesting and I might skip the Wednesday tasting.
Many people say we're nuts to have a two day tasting. But frankly, who can actually taste 350 wines in one day. This way, you'll have the time to taste in a leisurely fashion without being elbowed by the other annoying people who will be in attendance.
See you then!