That's right!
Our wines will finally be available in Arizona.
We have signed an exclusive arrangement with Vintage Wine International of Surprise, Arizona and the first wines are beginning to dribble into the The Grand Canyon State.
We are looking forward to working with the Vintage team:
There is going to be a great six-course organic meal and Louis/Dressner organic wines at this Two Michelin Star Restaurant!
I'm so excited about this event I've even signed up!
Joe Dressner, along with GILT's Wine Director, Patrick Cappiello, will host an evening dedicated to the finest organic wines from Europe
Two Michelin Star GILT Restaurant on Wednesday, April 14, 2010
6:30pm - Reception
7:30pm - Dinner
Join us for unforgettable wine experience with an exclusive six-course organic menu by award-winning Executive Chef Justin Bogle. Each course will be paired with three flights of organic wine.
Joe Dressner of Louis/Dressner Selections, known for cultivating interesting and unusual wines, telling funny jokes, and spilling sauces all over himself at fancy dinners will present the evening's wines.
Wines served will include:
• Occhipinti Frappata 2008
• Réné Mosse, Anjou Rouge 2008
• Alice et Olivier de Moor Chablis Rosette 2008
• P. Pacalet Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Lavaux-St-Jacques 2007
• Dard & Ribo Saint Joseph 2007
• Clos Rougeard, Saumur Champigny "Les Poyeux" 2004
• Clos Rougeard, Saumur Champigny "Les Poyeux" 2005
• Villemade Bulle, Rose N.V.
• Cazin, Cour-Cheverny "Cuvée Renaissance" 2005
$275 per guest
Tax & gratuity not included
For reservations, please contact Laura Fink at 212-891-8100 or lfink@nypalace.com.
You'll laugh, you'll cry and eat a delicious meal you'll never forget and drink some great wines.
So will Denyse and Lee Campbell.
Can you guess who is Sandi Bartel's niece?
We're going to eat sandwiches and taste wines.
What a great start!
I'm finished with mystics, the Famous Great Neck Endocrinologist Barbara Hirsch, my brother Ira "I Have Found Deep Inner Powers" Dressner and my relentless pursuit of rare cigarette lighters that I resell on E-Bay (I'm seller lightmyfire23 with a 99% Approval Rating by my customers).
Anyone have any good dirt on David Bowler?
Yesterday, Sheila Doherty fell at the corner of Great Jones and Lafayette Street and suffered a mild concussion.
She's doing fine after spending the evening at St-Vincent's hospital and was back to work today. What a trouper!
Unfortunately, she has lost all her powers.
Parenthetically, David Bowler Wine will be our exclusive distributor in New York and New Jersey starting May 1st.
We would like to thank everyone at Polaner Selections for a great 11 year run and we wish Doug and Tina and all their employees continued success.
Joe Dressner
But I'm dreading Tuesday.
Something is going to happen....
I can feel it.
Took a lovely bike ride today on my Biria. I wish I could use a regular bicycle but frankly I'm delighted to be able to ride through New York City again.
I even hit a pedestrian just for old time's sake!
I have a million things to do this week. I have carefully constructed a Todo list, thoroughly itemized, prioritized, ponderized, slenderized and systematized. I've actualized, agenized, categorized, definitized, essentialized, signalized and theatricalized. I've done everything a Coach or Consultant could ask of a human being.
I've done all this without an IPad, but I have used Toodledo, my favorite Todo application.
Three key words come up: Humanity, Alignment and Nature.
How can I fulfill these three ideals? Yes, we are a business but we are in the business of bringing nature closer to people. Our task is humane and the way we do it must be humane. How can we align our business to do this better and in a humane way?
I have to go to sleep.
Spirituality is very tiring.
I don't want to join the IWorld!
Help!
Another important concept is Alignment.
I was able to talk out my Biria bike for a ride today. But every time I used the rear brakes I had difficulty stopping.
I took the bike to a bicycle shop on East 34th Street and they told me I needed a brake alignment. Ten minutes later and with ten dollars less in my pocket, I was back on 2nd Avenue riding and braking with no problem.
Alignment is an important concept. You either have alignment or you don't.
There is no middle course.
Today's Angel Card was Signs.
According to Sheila Doherty, who can see the future, channel the dead and file COLA Registrations to the TTB Agency in Washington, this is a very important card.
I am facing turmoil and asking the Angels for help. Through this card, the Angels are letting me know that they have heard my plea and are there to help. They will give me a sign, no doubt the type of sign I least expect. The Angels often work in mysterious ways.
The important thing is that I notice and trust these signs. The Angels will make their presence felt.
I was very touched to read your entry about Shelley Karol.
I knew Shelley back in the early 80s when I was acting/trying to act in nyc. We performed in a children's theatre group in the village. Shelley was great. She wrote an amazing song for a version of the Three Little pigs. Friends of mine still recall that song today.
Over the last 2 years, I had looked Shelley up on google from time to time and was surprised there was no information about someone who had been a pretty prolific writer of sitcoms. They are usually not the type to hide. And since she was as you say, so charismatic and funny and talented, I was curious to know what great plays or stories she might have written. And tonight I came across your post.
I was so sad to read it. I enjoyed the time I had hanging out with Shelley. She introduced me to great cheap restaurants all over the city and knew where to get all kinds of prize items. She was also very compassionate and had great insight at a pretty young age. And yes, I remember cute little Chutney, who went everywhere with Shelley.
I had tried to stay in touch for a bit but she suddenly was nowhere to be found. And now I've found your blog.
Sorry to hear about your cancer but I am glad to come across your writings, about your personal life and ways of dealing as well as the wine part.
I love wine and my boyfriend is an enthusiastic collector. I'll have to show him your blog. I look forward to reading it more.
All the best,
Ruth
Kevin McKenna, our partner, recently contacted an Italian winemaker we are interested in importing. Kevin just received the following response (translated):
Dear Kevin:
Thanks for your email
I am happy that you contacted me especially because I see that you work with some really great producers, but I have to tell you, at the moment, I am not interested in exporting to the USA.
The reason is that some years ago when the US invaded Afghanistan and Iraq I decided I had to do something against the war....
In the future, however, if i decide to send my wine to the USA be assured it would be a pleasure to be able to work with you.
Honestly, can you blame him? He sounds like a thoroughly reasonable guy and I hope to drink his wine in the near future.
Even I'll be attending! I had a trial meal there and this is going to be a great dinner. According to their Press Release:
Acclaimed wine importer Joe Dressner,
along with GILT's Wine Director, Patrick Cappiello,
host an evening dedicated to the finest organic wines from Europe
Two Michelin Star GILT Restaurant on Wednesday, April 14, 2010
6:30pm - Reception
7:30pm - Dinner
Join us for unforgettable wine experience with an exclusive six-course organic menu by award-winning Executive Chef Justin Bogle. Each course will be paired with three flights of organic wine.
Joe Dressner of Louis/Dressner Selections, known for cultivating interesting and unusual wines, will present the evening's wines.
Wines served will include:
• Occhipinti Frappata 2008
• Réné Mosse, Anjou Rouge 2008
• Alice et Olivier de Moor Chablis Rosette 2008
• P. Pacalet Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Lavaux-St-Jacques 2007
• Dard & Ribo Saint Joseph 2007
• Clos Rougeard, Saumur Champigny "Les Poyeux" 2004
• Clos Rougeard, Saumur Champigny "Les Poyeux" 2005
• Villemade Bulle, Rose N.V.
• Cazin, Cour-Cheverny "Cuvée Renaissance" 2005
$275 per guest
Tax & gratuity not included
For reservations, please contact Laura Fink at 212-891-8100 or lfink@nypalace.com.
I met author Alice Feiring. She is very intelligent, charming and has a lot to say about the state of today's wine market.
Rad wines
This wine rocks
Awesome
They are all untrue.
Artisan
Artisanal
Hand-crafted
Natural
Linus
Sustainable
Boutique
Green
Putain
Crafted
Small batch
Family (many people come from a family)
Culture
Varietals
Fashioned
Entry Level
I heard today that Shelley Karol died two years ago from Cancer.
I met Shelley in High School. She convinced me to go to college in Buffalo, hoodwinked me to join some crazy Communist group when I was 18, got me to go to Berkeley where I was thrown off the campus for participating in an anti-Vietnam War Guerilla theatre troupe, was my roommate in Buffalo, had a father who was the largest importer of Pistachio nuts from Iran before the Shah was deposed, was a screenwriter for a series of horrible TV Sitcoms (Who's the Boss) and then disappeared and withdrew from everyone who knew her except her husband of many years.
Shelley was beautiful, charismatic, plenty crazy, paranoid and a joy to know when she was still herself. I only heard from her once in the last 10 years and it was not a pleasant call. But I will always remember Shelley Karol in her 20s, sneaking Chutney, her Yorkie, into restaurants and movie theaters, telling jokes, weaving tales and making everyone laugh hysterically.
It was a privilege to know Shelley. I've missed her for many years and will now miss her forever.
Make sure to read this article.
It is amazing how dynamic the New York wine scene is these days.
Congratulations to all the shops mentioned!
I asked one of my colleagues in another state about a distributor I just met recently in New York who comes from my colleague's state.
My colleague wrote back:
They are an awful plague of wine "professionals" who prize marketing over any reasonable appreciation of the intrinsic quality of a well made wine. For me they embody everything that is wrong with the wine business. There is no point in having a conversation with them as they only traffic in solipsims -- I'd rather drink Argentinian malbec than waste any time thinking about them.
Not surprisingly they are very popular confirming my belief that humanity is hopelessly doomed.
She's very opinionated and I'm sure that there are some Argentinian Malbecs which would be great fun to drink.
Maybe.
Not that I went.
But I heard it was great from several people who attended. The highlights included Frogmore Creek from Tasmania and Côte Bonneville from the Yakima Valley.
I also heard there was a delicious spread of food put out by VOS for their clients. But frankly, no one beats the LDM spread at our tasting events. You'll see on the 22nd!
Once again, we have been nominated for the James Beard Best Catering at a Wine Tasting award for 2010!
I'm beginning to think this is the case.
I recently met three guys from Cream Wine of Chicago. They are a distribution company that is into "small batch" wines, although some of these small batches seem awfully large to me!
I'm an importer of French and Italian wines who often gets 25 cases of some wines from many vignerons. Currently, we are tormenting Jura lovers across America because our allocations from Emmanuel Houillon/Pierre Overnoy are so tiny. These Cream Wine folks deal with California wineries who boast about having 300,000 bottles in barrel and they package that as "small batches." Another one bottles from 28 acres and farms 500 acres!
My God! They call that small batches! I can't get one barrel of Poulsard from Manu and Pierre!
I smell some hype!
Anyhow, I was looking at Cream Wine's suppliers of "small batch" wines. One of these worthies is Booker Vineyard, run by the estimable Jensen Brothers. Honestly, I know nothing about them, their vines or their vineyards. All I know is that the descriptions they write on their web site tell me to avoid their wines as if they are the bubonic plague.
Am I being unfair?
Here are some examples:
2007 Fracture lingers in cigar box, espresso beans and black fruits, which all leads to a massive mid-palate and long fruit-driven finish.
100% Syrah. "The deepest, darkest wine I have ever made."
2006 Fracture 30mos. Soft, black fruits, gentle coffee and cream moving into a dense, soft mid-palate. The finish shows a serving of gorgeous french oak and then back to a lingering blackberry and eucalyptus finish that is soft, supple and seamless. Aged for 30 months in french oak.
2007 Alchemist is a big, dense, tannic wine with hints of cassis, creme de cocoa, blackberries and strong tannins on the finish.
2007 Vertigo is for my Chateauneuf-du-Pape fans, expressing beautiful ripe, red fruits while displaying a dense mid-palate with a light espresso and cream finish.
2007 White displays bright notes of orange marmalade, honeysuckle and tropical fruits.
2006 Fracture shows blackberry, cassis and soft hints of all-spice and chocolate with a beautiful texture.
2006 Vertigo is drinking its best now, reminding me of why I thought it was my best wine from '06. The Grenache and Syrah complement each other beautifully in this wine, which is made in the New World style of "rare back and let it rip"!!!
I know I should be open minded, but these Jensen brothers are making it very difficult.
Once again, this year's Polaner tasting was an enormous success.
All our thanks to Doug, Tina, Nina and all the other people who worked hard to get this tasting together.
Not to mention Sam Bolshoi and the New Jersey Death Squad Team!
It's a tense time at Louis/Dressner. Lots of trouble brewing about.
So, I consulted the Angel Cards. I asked the angels to help me and to tell me if the decisions we are making these days will be good for our vignerons, our company, our customers and the little people out there who drink our wines. After shuffling the cards and concentrating on Angel help, I picked the following card:
According to Sheila Doherty, Channeler and Certified BDC (Business Directions Coach), Blessings is a very important card.
Sheila said:
The Angels are all around you with more love and support than ever. Additional angels have been sent to be with you, giving you even more love, support and resolution. Joe Dressner is truly blessed."
It's very nice to know in these troubled times.
Sheila hasn't picked a card for me in a few days.
We've been very busy. Yesterday was the annual Polaner Selections tasting. It was a smashing event and included Josh Jensen, a guy with very long hair from Washington State, the wacky Malbec/Sake2me crowd, lots of Californians, lots of French and Italians and a guy who pushed me and threatened to stick my cane up my a..
I'm tormented about business these days and today Sheila had me pick out an Angel Card from a deck she had energized.
The card read Soulmate.
According to Sheila's confidante on the other side:
The Angels are asking me to open my heart to accept a new Soulmate. I need to trust the Angels, follow their lead, and be open to a new relationship.
Denyse stormed out of the office, ostensibly to attend her Pilates course.
Seattle, April 19th, 11 am - 3 pm (trade only)
San Francisco, April 20th, 12 noon - 4 pm (trade only)
New York City, April 22nd, 12 noon - 5pm (trade only)
New York City, April 24th, 2pm - 5pm
(open to public, contact: Chambers Street Wines)
with:
Jean-Paul Brun, Terres Dorées, Beaujolais
Damien Coquelet, Damien Coquelet, Beaujolais
Georges Descombes, Georges Descombes, Beaujolais
Geneviève Cormerais & Marc Ollivier, La Pépière, Loire Valley
Matthieu Baudry, Bernard Baudry, Loire Valley (Seattle and NYC Only)
Manuéla & François Chidaine, François Chidaine, Loire Valley (NYC Only)
François Pinon, François Pinon, Loire Valley
Thierry Puzelat, Clos du Tue-Boeuf, Loire Valley
Thierry Puzelat & Pierrot Bonhomme, Puzelat/Bonhomme Négoce, Loire Valley
Alice & Olivier De Moor, Alice & Olivier De Moor, Burgundy (NYC Only)
Jean Manciat, Jean Manciat, Mâcon (NYC Only)
Peggy & Gauthier Thévenet, Domaine de la Bongran, Domaine de Roally, Mâcon (NYC Only)
Franck Peillot, Franck Peillot, Bugey
Eric Texier, Eric Texier, Rhône Valley
Virginie Maignien, Causse Marines, Southwest (NYC Only)
Grégoire Hubau, Château Moulin Pey-Labrie, Bordeaux (NYC Only)
Olivier Rivière, Olivier Rivière, Rioja (NYC Only)
Sonia Torretta, Cascina degli Ulivi, Piemonte (NYC Only)
Alessandra Bera, Bera Vittorio & Figli, Piemonte
Luca Roagna, Roagna, Piemonte
Mauro Vergano, Chinati Vergano, Piemonte
Francesco Maule, La Biancara di Angiolino Maule, Veneto
Saşa Radikon, Radikon, Friuli
Silvio Messana, Montesecondo, Toscana
Francesca Padovani, Campi di Fonterenza, Toscana
Arianna Occhipinti, Arianna Occhipinti, Sicilia
Its my special recipe.
We will be drinking some wines from Pierre Breton with dinner.
We're all very excited.
Few things are perfect in life.
I watched Preston Sturges' The Lady Eve last night. I can't remember laughing so loud, alarming Zaggy, and having such a great time. The movie is simply comedic perfection.
Get it from Netflix or your DVD source of choice.
Sheila Doherty got into her car this morning on West End Avenue and found a deck of Angel Cards mysteriously placed on her front seat. These are the original Angel Cards, designed by Kathy Tyler and Joy Drake.
Sheila drove to the office and placed all the cards in a bowl. Denyse volunteered to be the first person to pick a card.
Denyse has been very worried about the company's finances. Business is tough. So, Denyse moved into an open, receptive space and declared her desire for her goals to be met.
She then invited an ANGEL to join her in making this wish come true. She let the Angel move into her, raising and heightening her consciousness. Denyse felt the contact had been made and immediately opened her eyes and picked a card.
At least that's how this is supposed to work in the Angel Cards User Manual.
The card Denyse picked is pictured below.
Denyse asked for a gift from the ANGEL, following the instructions in the User Manual, and is waiting to see what comes her way. She is also pondering the word ACCEPTANCE in all its multi-faceted and profound shades.
Mine can't. With or without Novocaine.
Sheila can channel some woman she sees in the rear view mirror of her car (see below),
but that's all.
I've been anxious to speak with my father and former New York City Mayor Abe Beame the past few days. Does anyone have a psychic who can help me out?
