Dex's Aged Wine Newsletter and Wine Cellar store

Levels of wine quality have been judged for centuries. It is all about the type of grape, the vineyard location, weather conditions - but most of all it is the makers art for the best tasting wine. Tradition is most the important factor in this art of wine making. Apprenticeships and passing on of the art of quality wine is more important than any other food related skill. Not surprising - since the Romans times,  France then Italy are the masters of this wine heritage. The makers guard the secret skills acquired with their passing.

Overview:

Bordeaux

Each Chateau in the Bordeaux has been classified by the French government. This Chateau tradition and ranking is very critical to its economic success. This Wine ranking of quality is guarded by each owner as its main asset. No advertising is necessary to maintain the esteem created by this rank. However, over the years some owners attention to traditional details has varied and can drop in the price even with the rank of history. Buyers should consider the entry level price of off years for the major growers compared with a unknown or non ranked Chateau.

Burgundy

The Burgundy Wine combines outstanding history in quality but a with limited growing space and hence smaller production. Prices are higher than Bordeaux because of less volume. I enjoyed traveling with my rented red Peugeot up and down the vineyard fields of this region. The hill sides offered a panorama view of this beautiful neighborhood. The small villages and houses reflect the working man of this region, compared to the estates of Bordeaux. I will share my pictures later.

California

California on the other hand has transcended the Europe heritage by introducing technology combined with educated recipes and testing. They to my taste offer a different approach to wine. It is good but different. They do not concentrate on tradition. Tastes change with the seasons and owners in California.

My Taste:

Many people have asked me the wines I have tasted and those I prefer. The above labels show those taste tested and all are good and some were excellent.  I hate to tell you that most of the wines cost under $10 back then. You can double and triple them now. 

You can tell from my cellar that I started this in 1975, through tasting, much reading and buying I grew in experience.  Robert Parker was one of the best Newsletter because he looked forward to each years growth and made predictions not just looking back to bottled tasting.

The French Red Bordeaux are the best for 10 - 20 year cellars and have proved to be the best buy in my tests. there have been exceptions in California like Heitz but the French culture has a history of great wines. It is built into their wine making and growing family by teaching generation to generation. California seems to make changes with each owner or wine master. 

The French Burgundy is too expensive for mortals - except there have been some of the non ranked growers.

The Germans offer a unique combination of white wines with a hint of sweet with the natural sour white grapes.  They are a case of a maket in decline due to the US taste changes to Chardonnay. Also the German laws required that sons to inherit the farms which caused them to get smaller and smaller grape planting space which required them to increase the price to cover costs. In my mind, the Rheingau region makes the best wine. Kabinet, Spatlese and Auslese are the best here.  The Mosel Saur Ruwer region makes the best light fruit wine Kabinet and Spatlese again. They are hard to find and now cost $20+. The German red wines are not very taste competitive.

Italy make great wines beyond the brand Chianti Classicao Reserva from Raffino, but that they previously seldom exported them. You had to go there to find them. I carried many a case through the airport from Milano. Barolo, when aged is one of the world best red wine. Barbera and Barbesco are very good  red with Italian food. Skip the Chianti in straw covered bottles.

The white wines of France in the flinty Chablis, dry Bordeaux, super Burgundy region set the world stage for the known  jugs wine names. They are exceptional. These chardonnay based wines do not cellar well, so but to drink them now. Pulliy Fusse

I buy red wines like Merlot, Pinot Noir Cabernet Sauvignon from California to use now. The big complex wines to age come from Robert Mondavi Private Reserve, Heitz Martha Vineyard, Spring Mountain, Burgess, St Jean and a host of new releases each year. They offer very good bottles at prices ranging from $10 to $30 for drinking tonight.  To my taste the Dry Creek California Chenen Blanc (Voovray in France) is a super inexpensive wine. The Fume Blanc is like Pulliy Fusse in France.

Links and maps

California Wines  more on California Wines

Bordeaux Vintages are here          The Bordeaux web site

The Bugundy Region

Which Wines?  I started this wine journey around 1975. It all began when I failed in serving a wine tasting sequence at my New Years eve party that year. Steve Kenyon of the Hudson Wine Store told me to simply serve the 6 bottles of white wines in a sequence from sour to more and more sweet.  Well, I got it backwards.  If you have tasted sour after sweet you know the tongue has a problem in tasting. 

But this never happened again because I started the book reading and talking with local Hudson, Ohio experts,  and my wine memorization began. The German and French Regions and Vineyards with ranking complexity requires much study to be understood.