Archive

The adventures of Dr. Gonzo continue with his arrival last Wednesday with our new Palm Bay area sales manager Tommy Johnston, bringing in some favorites from their portfolio, old and new: Blue Fish Riesling Pfalz 2008. Grade=Outstanding. Very nice, medium-dry style with some apricot and Rainier cherry notes. Hints of white flowers and mineral resonate [...]

(Editor’s Note: As an homage of sorts to one of my favorite bloggers, Katie from Gonzo Gastronomy, I copped a lyric from an Alice In Chains song called ”Junkhead” for my blog title. Not stealing your thunder, Katie, just reveling ‘neath it.) Last week, good friend and Vintner Select wine guru Gary Boswell came by with Mark Neville [...]

Part Three on my continuing overview on Spanish Wine takes me into three regions: Jumilla, Toro and Campo de Borja. The first I’ll touch on is Jumilla, located within the provinces of Murcia and Albacete, with only 44 vineyards covering an area of 30,000 hectares. This particular D.O. is responsible for producing around 24 million [...]

Last Friday was something of an experiment in controlled chaos, in that my dance card was overbooked and I made a valiant, well-intentioned effort, but you know all about what they pave the roads to Hell with, eh? Day two of my assistant’s sojourn to Miami Beach (a bachelorette vacation that will most likely end [...]

Our favorite wine mama, Wendy+1, came by with the rep from Colombelle, a winery in the Gascony region of France, and we tasted their three wines, in rapid-fire style: Colombelle Vin de Pays de Cotês du Gascogne Blanc 2009. Grade=Outstanding. A really nice blend of Ugni Blanc and Colombard that is crisp, lively and displaying [...]

In the continuing adventures of Dr. Gonzo, (aka our SWS/Crown rep Ray Ray), he dropped by Thursday with some crazy bargains: Callaway Sauvignon Blanc California 2008. Grade=Average. Was kind of shocked when I tried this. Good, solid, fruit-forward SB with lots of lemon and lime notes and splashes of lemongrass, fresh cut hay and guava. [...]

Catching up on tasting notes… our good friend and RNDC/Barkley rep Lou came by with a few very cool values: Murphy-Goode Pinot Grigio California 2008. Grade=Average. Simple, easy-to-drink PG with some citrus and stone fruit notes and a hint of “limon”. Just like flavored vodka, what the world needs is another PG. Loredona Pinot Grigio [...]

Our good friend and Bryant Distributing sales manager Jimmy C. invited Shannon and I out to lunch to kind of catch up with all the samples he had been accumulating for us, deciding we should retreat to a neutral spot – one of Northern Kentucky’s best kept gourmet secrets, the Japanese restaurant Jo-An in Erlanger [...]

Last Tuesday, Shannon and I went were invited by Lauren and our good friends at Cutting Edge to a Champagne seminar featuring the wines of Duval-Leroy, at Cincinnati’s Hugo restaurant. Duval-Leroy is nearly 150 years old, the product of two grape growing families merging their businesses in 1859, where it has remained independent ever since. [...]

So I am coming to the end of all my notes from the Vanguard Trade Show this past Monday, and I am pretty amazed at how I managed to stay upright and coherent enough to speak to people on the way back, but there were so many wines, some of which I didn’t get to [...]