Here’s to the ladies
Posted on July 10th, 2009 – 11:40 AMBy Bill Ward
I’m having a space-cadet kind of week (OK, not a totally uncommon occurrence, to be sure).
I meant to do a blog post Wednesday to call attention to an article in the Home & Garden section. It appeared there rather than in Taste because it was about collecting, and they have regular features on that theme. I figured — and have since had confirmed — that a lot of wine folks don’t always look at our Home & Garden section and missed the package.
I interviewed three women wine collectors, who are much less of a rare breed than they used to be. It’s interesting stuff because I tried to get out of the way and let these women tell their own stories. Among the cool quotes that didn’t make it in there:
Lynne Alpert: “Margaux I find interesting but I don’t find it to be great. I’m also not that crazy about Cheval Blanc. … A lot of the memorable times were these encounters with quirky winemakers, Jacques Reynaud [of Chateau Rayas] and Joe Heitz. I also had an opportunity to have lunch at the café with Angelo Gaja. … The one winery that I wish I had collected was Henri Jayer.”
Nancy Norling: “My next dream, I want to become a wine goddess like Heidi Barrett or Helen Turley or Mia Klein of Dalla Valle.”
Diane Rucker: “We started off [sampling wines that were] mostly French, because we had the theory that French wine was good wine. We found that that actually wasn’t something we liked at the time. So we switched to Australia, and that worked really well for new wines to try. That gave us more of a ‘here’s the fruit, do you like it or not?’ Then we moved to California.”
3 Responses to "Here’s to the ladies"
Enjoyed the article. I can still taste a great 99′Chateau Margaux that Diane brought to a wine dinner last spring. I’d would have liked to met Reynaud from Rayas too. I did get to meet Joe Heitz briefly with my dad in the 60s.
Thanks Bill for the great columns!
My only close encounter with such a legend was at Premier Napa in ‘08. Warren Winiarski put a peacock feather in my shirt pocket and declared “My wines spread like a peacock in the mouth.”
Hard to argue with that point, much less that man.
Not only did Lynne get to meet Reynaud, she also got a clean, uncracked glass to sample his wines — by all accounts an extreme rarity.
I encountered Robert Mondavi at the Oakville grocery. What a nice humble man.
On another topic:
We went to dinner at Murray’s this evening (Friday). No corkage, adequate glassware for both Bordeaux and Burgundies. They have a a special 3 course dinner Monday through Friday evenings. It looked good but our waitress told us of another special on Friday evenings. The 24 oz Chateaubriand for two was reduced to $69.
We brought a 92 Merryvale Oakville
Grade Cabernet that was at it’s peak and went wonderfully with the medium rare beef. I think we shall make this a regular stop for us.
The basket of bread and toasts was delicious. The Caesar salad was generous and tasty. The meat came with al dente new broccoli and carrots and mashed potatoes. We ended the evening by splitting a creme brulee.
To make it even nicer Murray’s validates parking at the parking ramp on the same side of the street.
Free parking,no corkage, proper glasses and great food, life is good. We shall return.
