97 Coturri Chauvet Vineyard

[Kcwhippet]

Anyone tried this one? We opened this the other evening in anticipation of having it with pasta. What a surprise! Great big sweet fruit bomb, with what seemed a ton of RS. Emailed Tony Coturri because it tasted like a late harvest. He came back and said it was a little less than 3%. We could have sworn it was easily 10%.

[winoweenie]

KC, If I`m being redundant forgive me but IMHO Coturri wines are not one of my favorites. They vary from bottle to bottle and I personally view their wine-making techniques with the utmost suspicion. winoweenie

[Thomas]

Boy do I second winoweenie on that one. Not only do the wines vary, but they are sometimes so volatile you could lose the hair on your nose at forty-five feet away.

The reason the wines are spotty and often volatile is because they are normally produced in small lots. Handled frequently, small lots of wine can go faster as less volume comes into contact with lots of oxygen. Also, the vintage is often bottled from separate small lots without a comprehensive blending, which invariably gives you bottle variations.

As for the sweetness, they are often sweet, and with high alcohol they taste even sweeter.

When I was a salesmen for a distributor that handled these wines, I used to scream aloud whenever we were forced to taste and evaluate them before being asked to sell them to retailers. But the wines have a cult following and they manage to sell out.

[Botafogo]

>>The reason the wines are spotty and often volatile is because they are normally produced in small lots. Handled frequently, small lots of wine can go faster as less volume comes into contact with lots of oxygen. Also, the vintage is often bottled from separate small lots without a comprehensive blending, which invariably gives you bottle variations.<<

Then don't even THINK of ordering any Paolo Bea or Emedio Pepe (two of Italy's most traditional and revered winemakers) from us!!!
Bea, says "If every bottle is different then they are just like your Grandmother's cookies, yes?"

Here's to inconsistency (otherwise known as real life), Miles Davis anyone?

Roberto

[Thomas]

Inconsistency isn't the issue: the issue is what you get when poor handling practices produces inconsistency. I am not interested in paying $25 for a great bottle and then when I buy a case of the wine half are great and half are shoe polish, and they all cost $25 (less your fantastic discount, of course).

And if inconsistent wines are released on the market, then shouldn't inconsistent pricing accompany them, based on the wine's quality, or lack of it?

[Drew]

You know, Grandma makes great cookies almost all the time but every now and then she nods off while a batch is baking....oh no, burned!
No one ever eats the burned cookies. Roberto please wake up from your dream. Come back to us, back to us....

Drew