• Connoisseurs' Series
This exceptional program brings you the kind of rare, limited-production California jewels that are often available only on tightly allocated mailing lists. Call The California Wine Club at 1-800-777-4443 to join or learn more.
www.cawineclub.com/
connseries

In This Issue

• Bits and pieces
Today for a change of pace, let's divide the Wine Advisor into three brief topics: Suggestibility in wine tasting, affordable Burgundy, and another wine-price poll.
• Signorello 2004 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($45) From Connoisseurs' Series: From Connoisseurs' Series: Complex and earthy, drinking nicely now but holds potential for a decade or more in the cellar.
• Henri Perrusset 2006 Mâcon-Villages ($12.99) Simple fruit and subtle minerality are well balanced with mouth-watering acidity in this affordable White Burgundy.
• This week on WineLoversPage.com
Richard Fadeley tastes through a flight of Sauvignon Blanc; WineBlueBook summarizes the critics' scores on Bordeaux and Burgundy reds, and our WineLovers Discussion Group discusses whether those special bottles should be reserved to share with serious wine-loving friends.
• Administrivia Change E-mail address, frequency, format or unsubscribe.

• Wine Video Watch
• Learn about our RSS Feed

• Suggestibility and wine tasting: In most wine competitions, judges are discouraged from sharing impressions on wines being rated, because the power of suggestion can be very strong. If someone in your tasting group tastes the wine and yells "licorice" or "wet dog," chances are that most everyone in the room will find the same thing. For similar reason, I try to avoid reading other published reviews or the wine's back label when I'm reviewing a wine.

This came to mind the other night as I was taking notes on today's first featured wine, the Signorello 2004 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon that came in this month's selection from California Wine Club's Connoisseurs' Series. It's a hefty, complex and well-balanced Napa Cabernet, and I was having a time sorting out a particularly elusive flavor element. Suddenly I inadvertently glanced at the fact sheet that came with the wine, and the description "root beer" jumped out at me. Naturally, once prompted, I couldn't think of anything else. I'm sure the description was valid - Charlie Olken, the expert behind Connoisseurs' Series, has an excellent palate. But I'd really rather figure it out for myself.

The moral of the story is simple: Don't read other people's tasting reports before you take your own wine notes. This is particularly true when you're tasting in the company of the wine maker or someone who sells the wine, who will often follow a natural tendency to talk up the wine, even if it's good enough to need no such support.

• Wine Focus - Affordable Burgundy: For those who missed Friday's Wine Advisor, I wanted to highlight again our Wine Focus topic for May, in which we hope to solve the mystery of affordable Burgundy. We'll hope to zero in on - and share information about - some happy exceptions to the "Burgundy is expensive" rule. For purposes of this discussion, we'll set the bar at about $30 U.S. or Canadian dollars, or the approximate equivalent in other currencies.

It's easy to participate in Wine Focus: Find a good Burgundy for $30 or less. Taste it, then visit our online Wine Focus forum at
http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/village/viewforum.php?f=18
and tell us about it. Or drop by the forum at any time to ask questions about Burgundy or share your expertise.

Today's second featured wine, Henri Perrusset 2006 Mâcon-Villages, is a particularly affordable white Burgundy, widely available in the $12 to $17 range and a benchmark style example of Mâon-Villages.

• Another wine price poll: Thanks to all of you who participated in last week's poll on the maximum price you'd be willing to pay for a bottle of "everyday" wine. With good participation from WLDG and 30 Second Wine Advisor readers, we got almost 1,000 votes, with strong peaks in the $10 and $15 categories. Click to see last week's results:
http://www.wineloverspage.com/votebooth/ans20080427.shtml

Now we're following up with a related poll, asking the most you would pay for wine for a special occasion Again, Please take a moment to vote, using the old Voting Booth poll software. The greater the participation, the more meaningful the results.

Click here to vote

Click here to see the current results

• Wine Focus - Affordable Burgundy
Burgundy is rarely cheap, and cheap Burgundy isn't often great. This month's Wine Focus tries to find a few good buys.
• Frédéric Magnien 2005 Bourgogne Pinot Noir ($22) Appetizing black-cherry fruit laced up with fresh acidity and an edge of tannins.
• Administrivia Change E-mail address, frequency, format or unsubscribe.

• Wine Video Watch
• Learn about our RSS Feed

There's some basis for this reaction. Great Burgundy is rarely cheap, and cheap Burgundy isn't often great. Good buys are out there, but you have to work to find them.

In our Wine Focus topic for May, we hope to solve some of these mysteries as we seek affordable Burgundy, hoping to zero in on - and share information about - some happy exceptions to the "Burgundy is expensive" rule.

For purposes of this discussion, we'll set the bar at about $30 U.S. or Canadian dollars; or, for participants in other countries, the approximate local equivalent - 20 Euros, 15 Pounds Sterling, 32 Australian dollars, and so it goes.

It's easy to participate in Wine Focus: Find a good Burgundy for $30 or less. Taste it, then visit the online forum at
http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/village/viewforum.php?f=18
and tell us about it. Or drop by the forum at any time to ask questions about Burgundy, or share your expertise.

To set the scene for the month, let's revisit a "Burgundy quick reference sheet" that I put together for our Burgundy tour in 2004.

• WHERE: Most broadly defined, Burgundy runs north and south along the Saone river in France between the cities of Lyons and Dijon (plus Chablis, which is a good distance northwest of all the rest). The southern portion of Burgundy incorporates the Chalonnaise, Maconnais and Beaujolais regions; but when most wine enthusiasts speak of Burgundy, they are talking about the relatively small section around Beaune, just south of Dijon, where the hillside stretch called Cote d'Or incorporates the Cote de Nuits and the Cote de Beaune, where some of Earth's most favored vineyards grow.

• WHAT: Called Bourgogne ("Boor-gon-yuh") in French, Burgundy wines are almost invariably made from only two grape varieties: Pinot Noir for the reds, and Chardonnay for the whites. There are a few exceptions, like the Gamay grape in Beaujolais and the white Aligote and Pinot Blanc. We'll talk about them another day.

• WHEN: In terms of the length and texture of its vinous history, Burgundy is one for the books. Legend asserts that the ancient Romans found vineyards here when they conquered Gaul in 50 B.C., and vine growing has carried on without a break for more than 2,000 years since: by monks in the Dark Ages through Charlemagne's time, by dukes and barons thereafter, and by small farmers and entrepreneurs after the Revolution, when Napoleon's empire broke up the old holdings of the church and the nobility, a policy further complicated by inheritance to create a jigsaw-puzzle map of tiny properties that befuddles wine enthusiasts to this day.

• WHY: What makes Burgundy so desirable? There is little debate that both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay reach their quality pinnacle in these relatively small places; and Pinot in particular, while one of the most challenging grapes to get right, is one of the most rewarding when it all works out. Two millennia of wine-making tradition and as much experience in selecting the best possible vineyard sites further contribute to the quality factor; and sheer rarity based on limited yields from tiny vineyards drives the supply-and-demand ratio for the most sought-after wines out of all proportion. Most of us will have little opportunity to taste the greatest Burgundies. But with a little effort and care, we can certainly enjoy some good ones.

Again, to participate in Wine Focus, visit
http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/village/viewforum.php?f=18
to talk about Burgundy ... especially the affordable kind.