These were very entertaining. Reviews like that should make the limited sales hours remain more than adequate.
I assumed it was intentional. ![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink"){kind=small}
Did he train at Weimax, in Burlingame, CA? I thought Gerald Weisl held the mad curmudgeon retailer title, but maybe not. 
This. I’d also give Weimax the award for greatest content on the worst 1990’s website ever.
Beat it (edited)
We always like to stop in and see Todd when we visit our daughter at Linfield. I find his blunt honesty refreshing and much more preferable than reading that useless swill that Rimmerman cranks out.
Exactly! Use your inventory that will not sell, as an advertising tool. Get a write-off and come across as extremely honest and trustworthy.
Smart.
I agree with Doug.
+1
Seems like he’s mastered the art of teasing in a way that his customers come back chuckling, even if they’re buying stuff he’s declared plonk.
FYI, sometime WBer Dan Posner at GrapesTheWineCo.com in Westchester, NY, used to quote critics’ notes and then poke fun at them.
I drive by there all the time and never noticed the shop in that strip mall. I’ll have to stop in next time I’m there just for fun.
After a period of some normalcy he’s back at it today
- I’ve been at it all day adding new wines to the website. My main distributor has been coming with some crazy deals as we approach the end of the month. Same distributor who is working on a plan to actually sell us less wine. I wish their management would start smoking less crack.
There’s some kind of ongoing feud between retailers down there it seems where he tries to sell wines cheaper and the other guys report him to the distributor or something…
- Clarendelle is a brand that is owned by the family behind Chateau Haut-Brion, one of the greatest wines in the world. It actually says on the label “Inspired by Haut-Brion”. This is pure fantasy. Besides ownership it has little to do with that estate. Nevertheless, if you like a proper dry, slightly earthy Bordeaux this is for you. Not for the CA only drinkers
This is actually a very helpful description from a retailer, just in a very straightforward method.
And really the reason I posted because I’ve never even heard of this wine. Has anybody had it or know the story?
- Yo check out this Bordeaux offer I got the other day. It’s for regular size bottles. Not 16 liters or anything like that. This region is so screwed up. $360k for a case of the 2015!!
I’ve had Clarendelle. Pretty sure it was the ‘05, on two occasions. Decent stuff, which was priced appropriately for what it was. I have no idea what pricing is like lately, though.
An, no, you probably won’t confuse it with a first-growth, or even find it “inspired” by such.
A few entries for Liber Pater in CT and Jeff Leve has entered notes on 2007-2018 vintages (less 2017). Noticed that the CT holdings for the two vintages I looked at are 1 bottle each.
Leve’s note on the 2018 has a bit more detail:
*Edited to add an article from the Wine Cellar Insider, which gives the back story:
"To explain this succinctly, Loic Pasquet want to show what Bordeaux wine tasted like at the time of the original classification and pre Phylloxera. To do this, he using old vines and ungrafted rootstock in sand with gravel soils."
Cheers,
Steve
Dan Posner put out some of the best and most entertaining email blasts. He didn’t insult his customers, he’s too smart for that. But he printed the BS over the top reviews and challenged his readers to try for themselves. Fun reads. This guy seems to have a similar approach.
Actually, even Gary V would do that from time to time. A lot of his stuff was touting some super score from one of approximately a hundred reviewers, but on his WLTV he’d comment on how a wine was pretty bad every once in a while. And of course, he moved pallets of the wine because people wanted to try what he thought wasn’t good.