Street Vibrations

Once again it's time for that lively fall fair know as Street Vibrations. Cépage welcomes the often burly participants and their belligerently loud motorcycles to Reno, though it does make it nearly impossible to deliver downtown, but that's pulling hairs. We believe that in no time Fat Daddyz, a biker Valhalla of sorts, will place an order for vast quantities of Domaine de Belliviere's Rouge Gorge. You see the biker mentality, its yearn for the open road and disdain for the shackle, is quite conducive to the subtle and challenging charms of Pineau d'Anis. Yesterday we sent our best schnook over to Fat D's with the sales pitch (you can't miss the grotto of greatness for there is a big sign right across the street pointing to it). Unfortunately, something went terrible wrong and our man on the ground was shanked with his own corkscrew. However, he returned to the office, though pale and still bleeding, positive that they had taken to the wine. We cleaned the wound with a dose of Cappallano Chinato and cauterized it with a smouldering cork. The above picture is all we have on the attackers. The little guy on the left was particularly violent.

Introducing Cépage Financial Solutions

With the financial markets in turmoil and the government running around bailing out everybody that made multiple dumb decisions we offer this unsolicited financial advice: sell stocks and buy wine. What will appreciate more in our new socialistic system than wine of the people? We are talking about inexpensive wines (25.00 and under) that are made by farmers without manipulation. Since the world is turning socialist (down with big business, up with big government), and no one will want to buy wines made by uber-wealthy oligarchies (down with big Cabernet, up with big Gamay), we predict the value of our wines, made by farmers with socialist leanings, to skyrocket. In the vein of your previous money manager, who now has large crescent moon sweat rings on his Ermenegildo Zegna suit shirt, let us put together a properly diversified new portfolio for you, all available and heavily discounted at Washoe Wine. 

12 bottles of La Biancara Masieri Rosso 2006

12 bottles of Franco Noussan Cuve de la Cote 2006

12 bottles of Sansonniere Anjou Blanc La Lune 2006

12 bottles of A et MQuenard Mondeusse VV 2006

12 bottles of Occhipiniti Frappato 2005

12 bottles of Tue-Boeuf Cheverny Rouge 2007

12 bottles of Chignard Fleurie "Les Moriers" 2006

12 bottles of d'Anguera Finca L'Argata 2004

6 bottles of Maestro Sierra Oloroso

Stock these wines away in a cool slightly humid place, like the corner of your garage or under your water heater, and watch your money double/triple and quadruple. Also advised is to keep your current equity portfolio and use these wines to numb the pain until its value starts to rise again, but in today's climate who the hell cares about doing sensible things!

A Moment Of Silence

I like to have a lot of fun with this blog, but the sign of a fool is one who can't recognize moments where sorrow and seriousness are required. So please permit me to change the substance and style of this blog for one particular post. I was informed of Didier Dagueneau's death on the 19th by e-mail while on the beach in Cabo San Lucas.  At first I wondered how he could have died. He was relatively young. It turns out he died, even more tragically, by plane crash. I'll leave the eulogizing to the people that knew Didier, in particular Joe Dressner's beautifully written piece.  Unfortunately, I never had the chance to meet Dider but I admired him from afar, both the man and his wines... After I digested the news I remembered the last time I had one of Didier's wines. It was just barely a month ago and it was a bottle of Pur Sang 2003 at Sezmu that Larry had pulled from his private cellar. I drank it with Imperial Lounge's own Ryan Gold. Earlier that day my girlfriend and I had split up and I was deeply depressed. Needless to say she was a person that I loved dearly and had now lost. That evening, Didier's wine (and the company) gave me a small reprieve from loss, a small sampling of happiness. So sadly, it is now he that is lost.   

Pop Philosophy

People need mechanisms to cope with life.

Religion is a coping mechanism.

Wine is a coping mechanism.

Therefore, wine is religion.

*This blog will more than likely lay dormant for a few days because we're off to Cabo San Lucas until Sunday. Since we are glamours wine distributors we get to take these glamours trips and do comparative tastings of tequila and beer that never end glamorously. 

Blood Of The Stones

We are very pleased to represent part of Kermit Lynch's portfolio and especially his estate in Vacqueyras, Sang des Cailloux. We got the 2006 in a few months ago and have been letting it sit in the cellar since then. We recently tried one and were overjoyed with the results. The 2005 was big and kind of sloppy of which can easily happen to Grenache in hot weather. The 2006, however, reminds us of the 2001 in that it has more delicate and subtle fruit and is lighter in body. We feel that Sang (and many other wines) is at its best when nature gives less scorching sun. Washoe Wine currently carries both the 2005 and 2006 and a wonderful experiment would be to try them next to one another. Why not throw a tri-tip on the barbecue and go after it?   

In a Sentimental Mood

Besides full blown drunks and schnooks we consider ourselves crackpot business men which is why we read The Wall Street Journal in the morning, while waiting for the phone to ring. However, we couldn't help but notice the dire amount of destruction inked to today's pages, bombings of people and businesses, conglomerates alike, lost dogs and loves, stolen cars and pensions, flooded out houses and parks plus tax cheats and newly filed unemployment reports. A wonderful Pakistani poet once wrote: "This world of ours bleeds/With more pains than just the pain of love;" 

It's easy to bleed with this world, figuratively and literally. Occasionally we hope some bleeding soul might take a bottle of ours and share it with people he or she loves, under many sentimental gazes and grasps. That, after all, is the greatest thing about wine. The fact that it can bring people together and keep them caught in moments of contentment and happiness. We might also recommend the music of Andrew Bird or the poetry of E.E. Cummings, mixed with a slightly chilled bottle of Clos Roche Blanche.

Whole Wines

Since Whole Foods opened up in late June they have become our second best customer. We'd like to dedicate this love sonnet of sorts to John Mackey's brain child. Not only is the big company competently run and easy to work with but they also pay their bills on time! Their regional wine buyers are top notch and understand that the wine world is far larger than California. This local Whole Foods, in little Reno, Nevada, carries such wine luminaries as Franco Noussan, Cascina Tavijn, Francois Cazin, Terres Dorees, Gachot-Monot, Bernard Baudry, Domaine Fontsainte, Thierry Puzelat, Montesecondo, Luberri, Uriondo etc... Please, all 16 readers of this blog, while you're purchasing grass fed beef, stroll over to the wine section and ask for Peggy or Michael, two of the coolest wine salespeople in all of Northern Nevada. Tell them we sent you and that you're in search of real wine. Let us know you did this and we'll throw you a parade downtown, with rose petals and a marching band. Once you are punch drunk on plaudits we'll take you to that high end gallery of gastronomy know as Brickies Tavern for a burger and a beer.

Dard & Ribo

Rene Jean Dard and Francios Ribo must be incredibly pleased to know that their wines are avaiable in the one hipster wine bar in Reno, just as in Paris and New York. The somewhat reclusive and cantankerous duo make lovely Rhone Valley wines, Syrah for red, Marsanne/Roussanne for white. This message is to inform our non-hipster customers that we still have small quantities of Dard & Ribo wines available. Here is what we have:

Hermitage 2004: only a few bottles

St-Joesph Rouge 2005 and 2006

St-Joesph Blanc 2006

Crozes-Hermitage Rouge 2005 and 2006

Please call, text or send telegram for pricing. We can tell you that they are cheaper than Chave, both Jean-Louis and Yann. 

Also please let us know if when drinking these wines you have uncontrollable urge to listen to the music of Devendra Banhart. It always happens to us. Perhaps it's because we could see either Monsieur saying to someone like Philippe Guigal: "I've watched you cakewalk to the immaculate conception for far too long." In French of course.

Do Ferreiro Albarino

Here at Cépage we have decided to burn our neo-Luddite cards and embrace technology by adding pictures when we can. So here we give you the glamours label of Gerardo Mendez's equally glamours wine. Gerardo is one of the greatest farmers in our book. He has five hectares (made up of eight parcels worked organically) in the Rias Baixas in Spain, specifically the Salnes Valley sub zone. He ferments each parcel separately, in stainless steel with native yeast, and then blends before bottling. The final product is an Albarino of weight, depth and incredible minerality. There is no other Albarino in this constricted market place that can compare. Taste Do Ferreiro next to the competition before you accuse us of hyperbole. In fact, show up at our global headquarters on Plumas street with these two Albarinos: Morgadio and Burgans. We'll supply the Do Ferreiro and the grilled calamari. If you don't instantly taste the difference and buy vast quantities of Do Ferreiro, our security team will quickly water board you with the remaining Albarino abominations and ship you off to Pyramid Lake where we have camp set up for dissenters. 

A Cool Dip Into The Metaphysical

Tonight at close we were left contemplating the great Robert Hass line: "All the new thinking is about loss." It's a line we often return to but can't always figure out why; of course that never stops us from soliciting a guess. Have you ever felt as though you are on the precipice of everything you want only to suffer one intrusion or last minute depletion, everything you could ever want in a person, a wine, a business, a life etc... What is left then, the shrug of the shoulders, the vulgar dismissive and the inevitable yoke of going on? 

Here at Cépage we firmly believe that Jean-Paul Brun of Terres Dorees makes some the greatest wines in the world, in particular an utterly endearing Rosé. Yet, on its own, say without a plate of carnitas or a loved one and the warm spring sun, something seems to go missing, between the thought and the expression so to speak. Sadly, this seems to happen so much in life.

A good friend of ours, thankfully somewhat of a romantic, recently told us that he'd finally met a common ground girl, yet, predictably, she was tied to another. However, he was determined not to let it go to nameless dust. If we were to relate that to wine, and we relate everything to wine, we might say it's like the first time you have a wine and all the pieces fit: tasteweightdepthatmospherepersonfood... 

And that's talking about hope.

Louis/Dressner

There is a lovely article on Joe Dressner, his wonderful wife Denyse Louis and their incorrigible dog Buster (whose likeness graces the rear bumper of our delivery truck) at Wine Terriors. Wine Terriors is wonderful blog written by a savvy Frenchmen named Bertrand Celce. You can find a link just to the right of this post. The so-called world of "natural wine" or "real wine" has been getting a lot of publicity lately. It started with Wine and Spirits, then Imbibe and now Wine Terriors. While we don't necessarily like to see our growers bunched under one banner or catch phrase we are still awfully pleased with the publicity. Very soon we expect the world, from hockey mom to pompous commentator, to ransack our global headquarters on Plumas street and loot our stash of Puzelat and Breton.

"Blindfold yourself with some suitable object."

Here at Cépage we are not just all about wine. We are deadpan supporters of the arts. In fact, most of us are failed and frustrated artists ourselves, musicians, writers, painters and statisticians. Unfortunately, many years of wine drinking have diminished our creative talents to a single firefly in the woods, and left us as consumers only. Whereby, bloodthirsty readers, here is something for your consumption: a small early seventies book by W.S. Merwin called The Miner's Pale Children. It is a collection of prose poetry and shows Merwin at the top of his craft and the top of the genre. In particular is a piece call "Make This Simple Test." Do read it. We feel it is Cépage's call to arms, along with some various Camus quotes, and one of the reasons we sell delicious but deliberately esoteric wines like Domaine Mazel from the Ardeche. 

Las Vegas

Cépage's leadership decided to take Labor Day Weekend in the City of Sin. While we don't accept the doctrine of sin we understand its concept and see how it can contextually apply to Las Vegas. The trip's dossier was mostly to escape life's slings and arrows of which, sadly, there have been a few lately, but we also wanted to check out the wine scene which we envisioned would be a dry dirty desert of Bordeaux, Burgundy and California Cult Wine. Happily the scene seems to have evolved past that terrible and tawdry trinity to include, but not be limited to, the irresistible champagnes of Anselme Selosse. Here is an incomplete list of what was consumed followed by their appropriate scores on our 1 point scale.

Selosse Substance .09 points

Selosse Initial .06 points

Edmond Vatan Sancerre 2004 .04 points

Chave Hermitage 1994 .08 points

Dalle Valle Maya 2001 .06 points

Beaucastel 1994 .08 points

There were many other great wines, but most importantly nothing could compare to the company, the inordinate amount of time spent laughing, and the planning of our hostile takeover of Southern Wine and Spirits.