Death, Debt and Divorce. The unholy trinity that can help you to put together an interesting and inexpensive wine cellar at auction.

You don’t have to be a plutocrat bidding incredible sums for cases (or even bottles) of investment grade Bordeaux and Burgundy to take part in a wine auction. Because every auction will feature hundreds of affordable, interesting and even excellent lots that the rest of us can afford to bid on. And for this we can largely thank the three Ds of Death, Debt and Divorce.

In the case of Death, private collections that lie in dank cellars and dark cupboards are disposed of by the family of the deceased. Debt frequently causes successful businessmen to unload the wine collection they accumulated when the going was good. These guys often buy more wine than they can ever drink, sometimes without even knowing what they are buying. As for Divorce, why shouldn’t it be you who ends up with the wine when the assets are split?

(Of course, Death, Debt and Divorce, or combinations thereof, can also ensue from buying rather too much wine at auction, but we need not dwell on that).

Another reason why auctions are a good hunting ground is that many lots come from shops and merchants who send perfectly good wines to auction because they need to free up space in their premises. Many of these wines will be hitting their optimum drinking window as you catch the eye of the auctioneer.

Bargains galore

Much of my cellar – such as it is – has been sourced in this way. Where else could I have picked up a few bottles of the mercurial Marc Tempé’s 1999 Mambourg Vendage Tardive for just £9 per bottle (including commission)? Or three bottles of ageless 1989 Domaine la Roquette for £20 each? Or, to go up a level or two, a 12-bottle case of Tardieu-Laurent’s better cuvees from 2004 for half the market price? And just recently I bought a mixed case of 12 different bottles of Bordeaux going back to 1961 for less than £10 a bottle including commission. Thus far, all the bottles have been very good.

Those are just a few of the gems I have taken home over the last 20 years and I would encourage anyone to negotiate the risks, rituals and rewards of wine auctions. However, I have made my share of mistakes and I often see the over-optimistic and under-researched spending good money on bad lots. So, how does one go about walking away with excellent low- to mid-priced lots alongside one or two more expensive bottles?

Online or on-site?

There are wine auctions taking place all over the world on any given day, and they all allow you to bid online. The catalogues are available to download in advance and you can often continue to bid on unsold lots for some days after the official auction date. However, it is not cost-effective to have low- or mid-level purchases shipped from the other side of the world. And for all the wonders of the internet I much prefer to attend the auction in person. It makes for a very civilised day out and you can sample some of the wines in the pre-tasting. Even better, I know of at least one auction house that supplies you with complimentary food and wine all day, Las Vegas-style.

The catalogue

The auction catalogue will provide a detailed description of the appearance of the wine and the condition of the capsule and label etc. Perhaps most importantly, the ullage will be noted as an indication of how much of the wine has evaporated over time. The general rule (or belief) here is that the lower the ullage (or ‘fill level’), the more likely it is that the wine will have deteriorated.

However, catalogue descriptions are by no means an infallible guide to the quality of the wine. Youngish bottles of excellent appearance from good producers can be poor, while ancient bottles that appear to have been rescued from a landfill site can be wonderful. All auction houses will allow you to inspect the goods prior to the auction. Ultimately, it’s a case of caveat emptor, although experience with different wine types and vintages will help you to make fewer mistakes over time and pick up that great case of 1980s Madiran that nobody else has spotted.

Do the research

Always do as much research as possible before deciding which lots to bid on, especially if you don’t have a deep knowledge of the producer and/or appellation pertaining to a specific lot. Prior to the auction I will spend a few hours consulting various books and websites, or friends who know more about a given wine than I do.

In this respect John Livingstone-Learmonth’s book The Wines Of The Northern Rhone is a remarkably accurate guide to the quality and drinking life of wines made 15 to 20 years ago. James Halliday is a good guide when it comes to Australian wine. Online forums such as Cellar Tracker can be useful although reviews are often contradictory, and standard references such as Robert Parker and Hugh Johnson help to build up a picture of whether or not to bid. Above all, I have spent many years attending blind tastings of old wines going back to the 1920s. This has given me a good knowledge of vintage Bordeaux, along with experience of older wines from the Rhone, Burgundy, Italy, Spain and elsewhere.

Maximising your chances

Your tastes will not be mine. However, having bought countless lots from around the world, vintages ranging from 1937 to 2015, and bottles priced from £4 pounds to £150, I can offer a few guidelines that will increase your odds of drinking happily, not spitting angrily.

Good value reds

Powerful, tannic reds from places like Madiran, Cahors, Puglia, and Portugal invariably remain drinkable and even wonderful for many decades. They are often available for just a few pounds per bottle.

At a slightly higher price level I have been investigating wines from some of the better Languedoc and Australian producers (particularly those under screwcap) from the early noughties, with very positive results. In principle, tannic reds from anywhere are usually worth a punt.

Good value whites

Obviously, dry whites tend to lack longevity, but Riesling is a glorious exception and you can usually find cheap lots of German wines from the 1980s and earlier that are still very nice to drink. Sweet whites can last forever but the more celebrated ones will be expensive. On the other hand, it is often possible to buy wonderful 1980s/90s late harvest Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer from Germany and Alsace, not to mention Coteaux du Layon, for next to nothing.

Burgundy

If it’s more than a few years old and affordable, beware. Even if it’s less than a few years old and affordable, beware. If it’s from a famous producer, beware. If it’s from a producer you’ve never heard of, beware. The debtor’s jails and psychiatric clinics are full of people whose dreams have been destroyed over many years of purchasing Burgundy at auction.

Do as much research as you can and, unless money is no object, restrict purchases to wines that are less than 10 years old for reds and even younger vintages for whites.

Rhone

Syrah from the Northern Rhone can remain in very good shape for 30 or 40 years, and can often be bought quite inexpensively. I will never forget a case of 1979 Gerin Cote-Rotie that only cost a few pounds per bottle. A recent bottle of 1983 Cornas from Delas was excellent, and you can usually rely on the better producers from across all appellations.

In the Southern Rhone good examples of Chateauneuf du Pape from good vintages can last for 50 years or more and be eminently affordable. They might even come in those woozy old CdP bottles. Elsewhere in this region, it is best to stick to more recent vintages unless you have specialized knowledge of certain producers from appellations such as Gigondas and Vacqueryas.

Bordeaux

There are very few bargains to be had but keep an eye out for right bank satellites from the last 15 years or so. In terms of very old vintages i.e. pre-1960, chateau that you’ve never heard of are just as likely to be drinkable as famous estates and can sometimes be bought for pennies. Dry Bordeaux whites can be fickle and often begin to fade after just a few years so caution and careful research are advised. The dessert wines from Sauternes, Barsac and their satellites last forever and you can find enjoyable bottles that are 50 years old for a few pounds.

Italy

It is possible to find good value Barolo and Barbaresco from less prestigious producers but stick to relatively recent vintages. That said, if you spot some ‘Spanne’ (an old local name for Nebbiolo) from the 1960s and it’s not too expensive, give it a go. Be very careful at all price levels in Tuscany as Sangiovese rarely ages well, although I encountered a very nice 1993 Brunello in a pre-tasting recently. Reds from the Aglianico and Primitivo grapes in Campania and Puglia respectively are big, dark and tannic, good value and still drinkable for many years after bottling.

Spain

Red Rioja invariably lasts for decades and will not break the banco. Good reds from Priorat and Penedes can also go on and on but will be more expensive.

Very old wines

Some people are irresistibly attracted to old wines. (For the purposes of this article we can define ‘old’ as pre-1980.) I am one of these people.

Others think such wines are a bizarre indication of necrophilia over oenophilia. It’s a big subject and unless you have a detailed knowledge of aging and vintages as they relate to different wine regions, appellations and producers you should be careful. For instance, that case of old Bordeaux might look like good value at £100 – until you realise that all the bottles are from 1973 and 1974 (two very bad vintages.) Spread your bets and go for an inexpensive mixed lot of different chateau and decent vintages – you don’t want to end up with 12 undrinkable bottles of the same wine.

Good bottles in mixed cases

The professionals and the rich prefer to buy perfect, six- or twelve-bottle cases of the best wines. This sometimes enables the rest of us to find, hidden in mixed cases, small hauls of marquee wines at lower than market prices. I have enjoyed the top cuvees of Cavallotto, Clape and Domenico Clerico, among others, in this way.

Understanding the catalogue

Every lot in the auction catalogue will feature the name(s) of the producer(s), the cuvee(s), the vintage(s) and appellation(s) etc. This will be accompanied by a series of initials that provide a detailed description of every single bottle within the lot. A glossary of these initials will be found in the catalogue.

Here I list a few of the standard descriptors, along with my alternative versions, in amused affection and tribute to wine auction houses everywhere.

OWC: Own Wooden Case/Own Wooden Coffin

WC: Wooden Case/Was Chablis

BC: Below Cork/Before Christ

FL: Faded Label/Feeling Lucky?

SOS: Signs of Seepage/Some Old Sauvignon

WISL: Wine Stained Label/Will I Still Love It Tomorrow?

LL: Loose Label/Litigation Likely

NL: Nicked Label/Not Likely

TS: Top Shoulder/Tough Sell

DC: Depressed Cork/Disappointed Customer

SDC: Slightly Depressed Cork/Seriously Disappointed Customer

TL: Torn Label/Total Lunacy

TAL: Tattered Label/Tannins Lacking

PC: Protruding Cork/Previously Chianti

HTMS: High-to-Mid-Shoulder/Hit and Miss

VHS: Very-High-Shoulder/Vinegar Hardly Surprising

MS: Mid-Shoulder/Might Survive

Cheap wine from a good winemaker

Friends have sometimes asked me over the years how to pick a 'good' wine when confronted perhaps by a confusing restaurant wine list, since 'good' usually means an enjoyable wine that doesn't cost the earth my usual advice is "Always choose a cheap wine from a good winemaker".
My rationale is that 'good' winemakers put the same care and attention into all their vineyards, all their wines benefit from the same skill and expertise in the winery and any 'bad' or faulty wine would do untold harm to their hard won reputation.  That said a winemaker often has wines that will not command premium prices - perhaps it does not meet the appellation rules because the vines did not grow in quite the right place or maybe the blend contains unapproved grape varieties.  Some winemakers (especially of the 'old school') often make a simpler wine that is sold 'locally' without the expensive marketing and distribution that is aimed at 'sophisticated' (and more affluent) consumers.
The "Coudoulet de Beaucastel" (left) is made by the famous Perrin family of Beaucastel, however the vines grow on the wrong side of the N7 to be included in the Chateauneuf appellation, actually the terroir is almost identical but the wine can only be sold as a Cote du Rhone and therefore not at stratospheric Chateauneuf prices.  I bought this bottle of 2005, maybe not at the winery but somewhere locally for €13.  You can frequently find the Coudoulet on wine lists where the owner knows his wines and it will be a fraction of the price of a good Chateauneuf du Pape.  If you see it try it, it's an outstanding wine that you won't forget - and you can afford!

Here is another example from the Faravel family of Domaine Bouïssière, one of my favourite Gigondas producers.  "Les Amis de la Bouïssière" which is sold as 'Vin de France' instead of Gigondas, probably because it contains a little Merlot, not one of the approved varieties for the appellation, but in every other respect it is a great Gigondas!
I'm not going to tell you how much this excellent wine costs or you'll all be buying up my secret supplies!

With perhaps one or two exceptions I am afraid that the "Cheap wine from a good winemaker" strategy only really works with Old World wines.  New World winemakers are not encumbered by appellation rules (for good or ill) so these bargain outsider wines do not exist.  There is also a widely held belief (in USA for example) that higher prices indicate higher quality and this drives producers to price their wines to meet market expectations.  'Cheap' wine in USA is usually just that, cheap plonk - unless of course it comes from a 'good' Old World winemaker!

Asparagus al Dente

I'm sure some of you will have been following Dominique's excellent posts (see below) on how to cook 'cordon bleue' asparagus - or maybe I should say asparagus "à la Flamande" - whatever you call it it's delicious.
Being a Brit I've always preferred green asparagus and that's the only kind that I have ever attempted to cook - except for one grimly memorable occasion when we entertained the Bauer family to dinner.  Knowing that they would prefer the white variety I attempted to serve that, cooked the way I always cook green asparagus, just microwaved to perfection in a couple of minutes  - unfortunately with white asparagus that just produces twigs possibly suited for firelighters but not anything else.  I tried more cooking, and more ... eventually I served the inedible stuff which we all laboured (silently) to consume.
Later Rita explained to me very discreetly that with white asparagus one has to peel the stuff first, a crucial step of which I was completely ignorant!  Here (below) Rita shows us how to prepare white asparagus for cooking!

'Amuses' with scallops and asparagus à la flamande

Another happy Sunday in Le Temps des cerises, today with a variety of amuses with scallops and once more on general demand a classic with asparagus: asparagus à la flamande.

The first amuse is made with peas, cream, a bit of olive oil and orange zest. The scallops are baked very briefly in butter, with a bit of piment d'espelette on top (by the way, they sell piment d'espelette at the tea market stall in Sainte Cécile) .

Ingredients: peas (about 250 grams), vegetable broth, cream, pepper, salt, scallops, butter, piment d'espelette, a few slices of smoked duck

Recipe: Boil the peas in vegetable broth. Blend them with a bit of the broth and a bit of cream. Add pepper and salt. Done! Bake the scallops very briefly in hot butter, add a bit of piment d'espelette.  Chop the slices of smoked duck. Dress the plate as follows: see photograph

The second amuse starts off like the first one, only you have to add more broth (not too much, it is still a velouté), sieve the peas (in order to remove the skins), warm up the liquid again and add Roquefort cheese that immediately melts in the hot velouté.

Ingredients: peas (about 350 grams), vegetable broth, Roquefort or another blue cheese, scallops, butter, salt, pepper.

Dress as per photograph (right)

Our main dish today was Asperges à la flamande, served with butter, parsley and boiled eggs. You first have to prepare the asparagus and boil them in salty water. When the asparagus is almost tender, remove the water and let the asparagus stir for a bit longer in butter (see photograph). Mash the boiled eggs, add parsley and the butter you used for the asparagus.

Dress the plate as per photograph (left)





Our aperitif today was a sparkling rosé wine Les bulles sauvages (grenache, syrah, muscat, méthode traditionelle) from the Pays du Ventoux, from the Domaine du bon Remède: absolutely excellent: dry, yet fruity and brisk, with a long aftertaste and beautiful flavours!

Our white today was an absolutely fantastic Riesling from one of the top domains of the Pfalz: Von Winning. Astounding, as always.

Signs of life ...

Here's an encouraging sign - the pizzeria opened up, for takeaway only, about three weeks ago.   Claude delivers pizzas that have been previously ordered by 'phone though the window - no customers go inside.  Business is not that brisk yet but Claude is having the garden area tidied up so that he can serve diners out there in a few weeks when no doubt there will be more tourists around again.

Sunday lunch at Le temps des cerises

Dear all!

Every Sunday I try to cook something special to go with the right wine. Because we are now in the middle of the white asparagus season, that is a bit of a regional specialty over here, I'm preparing either an entrée or a main course with 'the white gold' while the season lasts. This Sunday I did asparagus with smoked salmon, honey-mustard vinaigrette and North Sea grey shrimp.

Recipe

Peel the asparagus and boil it in salted water

Prepare the vinaigrette: mustard (about a teaspoon) + honey (about a small tablespoon), add wine vinegar, stir until the honey dissolves, add olive oil (softens the taste) and majoram. Make sure the vinaigrette is not too acid or too sharp.

Put a slice of smoked salmon on a plate, sprinkle with the vinaigrette (this really gives a very fresh, somewhat sweet-sour touch to the salmon, but don't overdo, otherwise you risk ruining the delicate taste of the asparagus).

Arrange the asparagus on the plate with the shrimps on top.

Wine

Very good wines to go with white asparagus are Grüner Veltliner (Austria) or dry Riesling (although the list of suitable wines does not stop there of course).  These past few weeks we have been enjoying some excellent Austrian Riesling, apart from the Grüner Veltliner (see picture).

Our main dish today was something quintessentially Flemish, involving (obviously) beer, pork cheeks, a slice of bread with mustard and a bit of brown sugar! : 'Pork cheeks stew with Rodenbach'. Rodenbach is a pretty unique beer, that is hard to catalogue. It also has a 'grand cru' version, and rightly so! A bit acidulous and yet also with a touch of sweetness, it has great gastronomical potential!

Recipe

1 liter of Rodenbach

1 kilo of pork cheeks

1 bouquet garni (thyme, laurel, 1 clove)

parsley

1 onion

1 garlic clove

pepper & salt

a slice of (white) bread

mustard

2 tablespoons of brown sugar

Slice the onion. Bake the sliced onion and the garlic until the onion slices turn glazy and the aromas have sufficiently come out. Put aside and bake the pork cheeks on all sides (so they remain juicy when they are slowly cooked in the beer). Remove the cheeks (still raw inside) from the pan and put them in a casserole with the onion and the garlic. Meanwhile pour the beer in the hot pan in which you baked the meat, so the flavours of the meat can be absorbed by the beer. Pour the beer in the casserole, add the bouquet garni and the parsley and two tablespoons of brown sugar and put a slice of bread with mustard on top. Close the lid and let the stew stir for about two hours at a low temperature (slow cooking). Season with pepper and salt and serve! (with fries, puree, gratin....). The meat will be so tender you can 'cut' it with a teaspoon! 

Wine

A Stew like this one is often served with beer, the Rodenbach grand cru for example, but as this is a pretty tertiary recipe, there are loads of tertiary wines to choose from that go perfectly with it, like for example a beautifully aged (8-10) years Chianti Classico

Going for Growth

It seems as if the virus has infected everyone with the kitchen gardening urge, almost everywhere I look our neighbours are raising pots of tomatoes and lettuces while tiny patches of garden are sprouting beans and peas.

All this despite the fact that Gigondas is a compact little village that still follows the original medieval street plan so gardens are a rarity and most of this horticultural bounty is appearing on the streets in front of the houses.  As you can see from the picture (left) I am not immune - I think these are tomato plants of the variety "optimist" - I'll keep you all updated on the crop if they survive the voracious French snails, the howling mistral and the cats sleeping on them in the hot weather!

Actually my own efforts began right back at the start of lockdown, but without garden centres where I could buy plants I had to try raising them from seed, unfortunately seeds that were left over from previous gardening enthusiasm at least ten years ago.  The results were predictably disappointing so now that lockdown has been eased a little I have started again with nursery grown plants.

I do wonder just what has inspired all this gardening enthusiasm?  Boredom maybe?  Surely we have not fooled ourselves that a few tomatoes and peppers will make us self sufficient and able to avoid those risky trips to the supermarket?  Maybe this is the 21st century version of "Digging for Victory"?
Perhaps it is more likely that we want reaffirmation of nature's power to bounce back, a need to cultivate a little growth and fruitfulness to confound the Grim Reaper?

Whatever the motivation I also felt the need to broadcast a message of recovery by bringing some colour back to the permanent flowerpots in-front of our house, pictures right and above left.

Considering Beauty’s “Objective” Nature [Sociology w/photographic evidence]

We’ve always been told, “Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder”; i.e. a subjective, personal, internal state. While that’s “true” there is more to it — maybe the most important part, beauty’s objective nature. 

Sociology

This blog offering is plagiarizing the scientific principles of Sociology to support the concept that beauty is also objective; i.e. create a hypothesis, predict behavior, observe repeated behavior patterns as objective evidence, and the evidence either supports or refutes the hypothesis.

Hypothesis

Beauty is a common, near universal, repeatable cognitive experience that people, in significant numbers, find esthetically pleasing and will seek being exposed to — will seek experiencing. 

The hypothesis can be objectively tested by measuring human behavior, without reliance on having to measure anyone’s internal subjective state. We can see and measure the behavior of people seeking beauty. 

Test Sample

Our test sample of beauty is randomly eroded rock [see previous blog post for evidence].  A benefit of this test sample is that it is not beautiful as the result of a deliberate human act. We can assume the randomly eroded rock did not consciously create itself for the pleasure of humans; i.e. there’s no bias in the test sample. 

[BTW in the case of human observed randomly eroded rock beauty, synonyms for beauty include awe, wonder, splendor, etc.]

Sociology: observed behavior as objective evidence

Humans stumble on beautiful randomly eroded rock, recognize it as a kind of beauty that will be widely appreciated, and create national parks such as Zion, Arches, Bryce Canyon, etc.  The confirmation of their hypothesis is the measurable behavior of millions of people showing up to experience the beauty. 

And the visitors are so confident in their good taste and the surrounding beauty, that they take selfies to send back home to family and friends.

Selfies with Randomly Eroded Rock Beauty

When I Google “the most beautiful national parks” I get answers such as…. https://travel.usnews.com/rankings/best-national-parks-in-the-usa/
“Today, 61 national parks in the United States draw more than 300 million visitors a year to unique natural wonders and unforgettable terrains.”

The objective nature of beauty is also important to artistic effort. Because of beauty’s objectivity, artists are able to [at least partially] predict and take advantage of a viewer’s reaction.  This is true even when the artist innovates beyond current “critical standards” of beauty; e.g. Vincent Van Gogh. 

And so on. Point made. 

Ooops, there’s more….

Sunsets

One of my fav sociology examples is people who go to the coast to watch the sunset.   

Sunsets include more than mere beauty.  They include a sense of ending/beginning, cosmic connection, transition, transcendence. 

Maybe it can be asserted that all natural beauty has a touch of the transcendent to it.  Yet sunsets seem more insistent about it.  But we’re here for beauty.  [Thoughts on transcendence may be another blog.  Maybe not.] 

People are drawn to sunsets regardless of their complexity.  They’ll show up for ho-hum sunsets.  So it seems like just the idea of a sunset is enough. They’ll walk to the water’s edge or out to the end of the pier to get “closer” to the sunset.   

Sunset viewers at the end of a tall pier

Actually, how close you are to the sunset is controlled by geometry: the curvature of the earth and the altitude of your eyeballs.

BTW when standing at water’s edge the horizon and therefore the sunset is about 3 miles away.  For some reason I was hoping it was farther away, as if farther away added to the grandeur.   

Hopefully that factoid doesn’t dull your response to your next sunset. ;--)

Cheers, Kurt