@mrhighlife disagree. Different types. Very different types. Gen Z is killing the alcohol industry
@squeakyclean I worked in palm beach and got really into wine. A couple of the partners had obscene wine cellars in their homes. So we’d sit around and they’d open five figure bottles. Snobby AF. So good. I was really into it. Brought a bunch back. Another buddy was the sommelier for lagasse and would ship me some. He’d crack open a $7500 bottle on nye. Xmas get togethers. So good.
started banging a 23 year old after I moved. Her and her friends would drop skittles into seagrams vodka. One night they were giving me shit. Bought four bottles from the grocery store. $12 to $25. And did a taste test against four bottles from my cellar. I kept choosing wrong. I couldn’t tell the Fing difference. Haven’t bought an expensive bottle since.
For $200:...I have had a couple of 200 dollar shots of whiskey in my life, and I can tell you that in both those times, you can absolutely appreciate the quality of those high-end liquors. You get the flavor and the smoothness along with the warm glow feeling without the harsh kick up front as it goes down.
If I'm going to spend $200 for a warm glow feeling I'm getting a hooker.
it's unloyal hipster millennials who were craft beer "geeks" a few years ago and yes, Gen z.@mrhighlife disagree. Different types. Very different types. Gen Z is killing the alcohol industry
@mrhighlife my friends are all into bourbon. 50. Professionals. Married. At home. I think of the craft beer types as having been 20 years younger guys with flannel shirts and scruffy beards and nowhere to be
@bar-down The general rule of thumb for wine is this: most people can tell the difference between cheap wine and expensive wine up to about $50/bottle or so. Not everyone, mind you. And there's nothing wrong with thinking a $10 bottle is great. But most people who compare some really cheap shit with a nice mid-range wine will say the mid-range is better.
After that point, almost no one can tell. Even so-called experts will fail blind taste tests if they compare say, a $50 Cab from Argentina with a $500 Cab from Napa. Usually at that point, you're spending money for the label, nothing more.
There are a handful of exceptions, though. Stag's Leap Wine Cellars is famous for besting all the French wines at the "Judgment of Paris" in 1976, the event that put California wines on the global map. They make three fantastic Cabs we used to carry at the old restaurant (RIP), two of which were single-vineyard. The entry-level Artemis we sold for about $75/bottle, and the single-vineyard Fay for about twice that. Then we had the S.L.V. (the wine that actually won the famous blind tasting) priced at about $250-300 or so, and we only kept two bottles on hand, because almost no one ever bought it. It was mostly on the menu to make the Fay look like a deal. Anyway, I'm rambling. Story is this: my rep was allowed to requisition 1 bottle of S.L.V. for sampling, and each year, he'd bring that one bottle to our restaurant and share it with me, because we were his best customers. And I have to say, this wine tastes like a million bucks. I've never had a better wine in my life, and I doubt I ever will. If you enjoy wine, it's a truly special product, and the rare expensive bottle that stands out as noticeably superior to what you can buy cheaper.
Anyway, treat yourself and drink it at least once:
https://www.stagsleapwinecellars.com/product/slv-cabernet-sauvignon/
Also, another general rule of thumb: no matter how expensive it is, no wine is meant to sit in a cellar for decades. Even the sturdiest vintages will taste best within 3-10 years of bottling, depending on varietal. After 10 years, you aren't holding drinking wine, you're holding investments meant to be sold to someone more gullible than you.
@goat excellent info. This was our non trendy spot:
https://www.cafechardonnay.com/menus/wine-list
That is a really good wine list. But I'm not sure if it's overpriced or if things have just gotten that much more expensive. I used to sell that Cakebread (great Chard, buttery, but doesn't coat your throat, has just a hint of that dirty sock aroma that Chard lovers get hard over for some reason) for like $50. And the Terlato and Santa Margherita I sold for $35. The Fombrauge at $120, that's actually a good price for a decent St-Emilion. Turnbull at $99, I think they are a bit hyped, but that's a quality product, and that's a fair restaurant price. Oh, and then a nice selection of Opus One? I don't think it's worth that money, but if your rich friends see Opus One in your wine rack, they will know you are important. That's a status symbol.
Big judgment of that list: 95% of the wines came from maybe two distributors. He's getting a deal to do major business with them, and ignore some other possible entrants. I had seven different distributors when I ran the bar. The guy with the SLV? He had half my list, which was why he treated me right, but I filled out the list with lots of other reps.
Edit to add: you now have me missing my old wine list days. Currently, if and when I drink (which at my age doesn't happen as much), it's cheap gin and expensive tonic.
@bar-down Sorry if I nerd out in this thread, but when I was still at the restaurant and before I went to law school, I had all the paperwork ready to go to Cleveland and get my accreditation as a master sommelier. Obviously, in hindsight, I wish I had done it instead of UT.
@goat brothers from another mother. I love wine but I’m so out of all that. If I don’t mind feeling old out I’ll get Chopin and cranberry juice or Bombay and tonic.
that buddy of mine that became the sommelier went to unlv with two other buddies. One became a craps dealer. Took the bar and is now a collections lawyer. The other installs kitchen cabinets. He ran titty bars in Vegas and drugs for Sammy the bulls kid. The three of them were best friends
@bar-down Yeah, I'm just not in the scene at all anymore. Probably shouldn't be. Probably be dead from alcohol poisoning if I were. But man, I miss it. The day Ohio Magazine tagged my wine list as the best in NW Ohio, the one I spent six months putting together, that was a rush. Beat out all the high class joints in Toledo. Fuck them. Going to visit Firelands in Sandusky and meet Claudio Salvador, who was going to bottle special wine just for us (he made wine in Ohio, and imported wine his wife made in Italy, great business model if you can get it), felt like a king. At the time, I was just doing a job and having fun, but now that I'm old and decrepit, I look back and realize just how special that job was. I would do anything to turn back the clock 20 years and run that bar again. Some of our regulars back then, they are still friends. Some more of them have sadly passed on. Went to a funeral in the biggest black baptist church in Toledo for our jazz singer and sat in the pew next to the richest guy Perrysburg ever knew (you ever see this? he invented it), who married into the second richest family Perrysburg ever knew, and then had our jazz singer come to his private dinner parties to entertain his guests. Then a few years ago, he died, too. Man, now I'm getting depressed.
Anyway, the 20-oughts and early 20-tens was a banner time for yours truly, and I didn't realize it at the time, because I spent most of my free time drinking what they call "tankards" (read: giant 64-ounce goblet) of beer and playing free pool thanks to anyone dumb enough to put quarters down while I was on the table. Now that I'm older and wiser, I wish I could go back and really, truly appreciate it.
@goat yeah I mean having that list recognized is a really big deal. You could have parlayed that in the industry. But I’m sure that lifestyle takes a toll eventually.
@bar-down Not to get all Sam Malone, but the most successful bar/restaurant folks I know are the ones who quit drinking.
