The Hunt for Wine

 Welcome to the very first episode of the Somm and Somm'er Podcast, Hunt for Wine. In this inaugural episode, we introduce the vision behind the podcast and explore what it truly means to hunt for great wine. From hidden gems and boutique wineries to iconic regions and emerging trends, we'll share our passion for discovering exceptional wines and the people who bring them to life. Cheers!

https://www.instagram.com/unwined_boutique/
https://www.instagram.com/sommandsommerpodcast/
https://www.instagram.com/thechosenvine/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the first episode of Som and Sommer. I am Floyd. And I am Aaron. And we are your hosts for our first inaugural episode of Som and Sommer. We're just two guys, we're not Somms, and we're just two guys that love talking about wine and spirits and everything that comes with it. So today we are going to talk about one of our favorite discussions that we always have in my store, and that is hunting. But before we jump into that, let's introduce ourselves really quick. Like I said, my name is Floyd, and I own Unwine Boutique in Millburn. It's a wine store. And we sell a lot of products, a lot of wines and spirits that you know you don't see everywhere. And I think that's what customers appreciate about the store. And, you know, we're just trying to make wine something fun, spirits something fun that everybody enjoys. Aaron, a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

I am the resident wine consultant over at Floyd's store. So uh when people don't exactly know what they're looking at, because Floyd specializes in low production boutique wine and spirits, I'm able to kind of explain which each one is and give the best recommendations based upon uh food and how to drink it by itself and just what my favorite picks are.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

You guys are gonna, you know, listen to this, you guys are gonna get have a lot of fun because you know we we don't always, you know, agree on everything, but when we talk about this stuff, it's always you know good fun and we always talk about some really interesting topics, and we decided doing this podcast instead of having it just in the store for nobody to listen to except ourselves, we're gonna bring it to the masses. So we're gonna start off today with one of our favorite, favorite talking points. And we were talking about this not too long ago, I think it was yesterday. Uh, we're gonna talk about like hunting and chasing down you know, wines or spirits as well that you don't find everywhere. Um, Aaron is I like to call him the Indiana Jones of like wine and spirits because he just likes to go anywhere, he'll drive anywhere to find that spirit that you can't find, or that spirit for you know $200 in New York, but he can find it for $60 somewhere in New Jersey or Connecticut. So we're gonna dive into that discussion today. And I think Aaron's gonna start it off, and we're gonna talk, we're gonna, you know, also as we discuss some of our topics, we're also gonna talk about the wine we're drinking or the spirit we're drinking at that time. So Aaron, you're gonna start it off for us.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

So I brought a bottle today from my place, and uh you should recognize this, Floyd. Oh, I do. It's uh 2005 Chateau LaFon Rocher from Saint Estef.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

And it's a good thing Aaron says it because I usually butcher all these Chateau names. Floyd says as Lafon Roquette. Roquette, that's what I would say.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Roquette. Uh it's a 2005, which uh, you know, later on we'll talk about vintages, but 2005 in Bordeaux is widely known as one of the better vintages out there. So you have uh 2000, 2010, 1982. Uh 2005 is was just considered by many to be a near-perfect year, you know, weather, climate, and everything. Uh I actually went out last year to Bordeaux, and I ended up finding a lot of really interesting picks that you could never find in the States. And I don't know, what was it? Two months ago, I give you a call, and there's a wine shop that's going out of business, and within this wine shop there were about 20, 30 different types of 2005 vintage Bordeaux, things that would normally go for double the price in any retail store, but this guy was just trying to get rid of them. He was desperate to get rid of inventory, and I called Floyd up. He didn't really believe me.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

I I really didn't, but you know, you know, a topic for another day is we're gonna we're also gonna try to dive into the difference between me and Aaron. You know, we'll save that for another another episode. But Aaron is uh he's a collector. I'm a drinker, he's a collector. So, you know, Aaron contacted me as a collector, and when I'm not a big time person that collects things, I was more like, okay, we'll see how this is, maybe I'll go check it out. Who knows? There might be some, there might not be, but it was too good to be true. And for somebody that doesn't drink a lot of older vintage wines, this was you know, this was quite interesting to me, so I definitely had to check it out.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

So we've had a few already. Uh Floyd and I are not really strangers to this vintage or having these types of wines. Um, actually, a friend of ours got a few bottles of wine. One of them turned, meaning it tasted like vinegar, and we had this big panic scare. So I went to Floyd's house and said, We we better crack some of these open right now, test them out, and sure enough, they were both fantastic. Uh, we're gonna open this up right now. Got the cork just waiting to be pulled, and we're gonna give you our thoughts. So again, 2005 Chateau La Fon Rocher. Uh been holding on to this for about a couple months now, and figured today would be a good time to open it.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Yeah, so going back to the store, so you know I I was going into it like, you know, I'm not gonna not a big time collector, let me just see what they have. Maybe they have some other wines, you know, from other spots and you know the states. But went there, you know, just looking to see what they had. And it was quite impressive, I must say. I was very shocked to see what they had, so I had to believe Aaron and go with it and step up to the plate and you know, think about am I gonna invest or am I gonna not invest? How many bottles did you end up getting? I can't I can't tell you now until I taste this wine that we have right in front of us. So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna taste the wine, and like we we do on every episode, we're gonna sit here and drink wine as we talk with you guys, and you know, we're we'll drink spirits as well, but we're gonna take a sip of this 2005.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

So off the bat, I'll tell you right now, this did not go bad. No, definitely. This is um it's a bit dry, and I think that it has some years to go before it actually matures. But this is the kind of classic left bank Bordeaux. It's got you know enough black fruit to it, but it's dry, a bit earthier, and definitely has that right kind of balance of acidity and taste. Uh, it's all together just a really good, and I'm I'm looking at you look at the glass right now, the color is fantastic. The color is really nice. The color is definitely really nice on it. This needs an hour or two to decant. I'll just say it right off the bat that if you leave this out for like an hour or two, it's a different wine. And you know what I'm talking about because we've poured some stuff in the past where you've kind of put your nose in the air about, and then we went in your living room for a bit, came back to it, and you said, Oh wow, this is actually wine I can appreciate.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Most definitely. This is a wine if you open it, decant it, go cook, start like cooking your food, and by the time you get back to it with your finished meal, this is just gonna pair nicely with it. I the color is beautiful on it, and the nose and the taste is just on on point right now. So it's it's just a good one, and I think it's gonna open up a lot better than um right now. So it's gonna get a lot more of that air, and it's just gonna open up beautifully. But it this is the this is the the the point of our conversations because we talk about you know this this game, this hunt to find these things, and you use a word for it. Uh it's not a game to me, Floyd. I take it very seriously. Well, you take it more seriously than I do, and you know, you you were talking about it before, like it's like unicorn. It's it's finding something that you can't find anywhere, and it's it's this thing to you. So, you know, talking about these 2005s and these these wines that Aaron found at this one store, it was I went there, I said, you know what, I'm gonna go there. I went there and I can't tell you how many cases of this of not just this one, but these other wines that they had. 2005s, 2000. Clark Malone.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

I mean the best one though, and you talk about unicorn, you can't say all of it was unicorns. All of it was a great vintage.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

I think it's the vintage that's the right thing.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

The vintage is the unicorn in this aspect, but it's not the chateau, it's the vintage. What would you say is the best bottle that you got that people would appreciate hearing about? Because, you know, to me, there were some really, really interesting wines that you never see out there, but there were a few standouts that in other places would cost again two, three, four times the price. So you're like, I have to get this. I have to get it.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

I think I had I think the one I I I and like I said, I just butcher names. So it was a 2005, I think it's Pont Ponté Cinette or something like that. Yeah. 2005, Ponte Cinette. Like looking at the retail price for this, this was like a 2005, especially. I I think if I remember correctly, it was like maybe up to three or maybe I think three's a bit steep. But I mean like in that 250 to 3 range, I think, for a 2005. That's fantastic. That's fantastic, but we didn't pay that. We got it for a hundred. A hundred. Yeah. I think I got it for ninety-nine, ninety nine. It was like, yeah, a hundred bucks.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Which is unheard of, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Unheard of.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

Why wine doesn't go down one year because it's older.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

It no, it only goes up. It only goes up. And this place was it just was like flowing with all of these older vintages, 2000, 2005s, 2010s. Like I said, all these vintages that end with five or zero, which were known to be like great years of growing wine. And it just it was just great years of producing great wine from the Bordeaux region.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

And uh I would say that the 2005 Alter Ego, which is Chateau Palmer's second wine, that was one of my favorite finds because it was the absolute last one left. But the one that I have no idea when I'd open it, and we're gonna have a whole different episode about when do you open these special occasion bottles? It was the uh Lafort, LaTour's second wine.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Remember for that. Yeah, how much did you pay for that? How much was it a bottle? Because I I didn't I didn't go that extreme. I think there was a certain price I was like, goddamn business. There was a certain price, but I think the cannette I was capped. That was like my top spent amount. I I think my top wine that I bought was that for $100. I think it was lower.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

I think it was a hundred thirty max. Because I I can't see I thought it was more than that. I can't see. I can't see myself spending $150 uh on it just because again, if you're saying that now, that's not true. I mean, um I want to say $130 to $140 range, but it's a $300 bottle. Yes. And that's why it's justified, and it's the closest thing I'm ever gonna get to having a 2005 Chateau Latour. I mean, have you ever had a 2000 or 2010 Chateau Margot? Have you had any of these top producers before?

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Like I've always said, and you know me well, a lot of working in the business, a lot of reps, when you say you want to try something, older vintages especially, a lot of them are not gonna open up a bottle just for one retail store, let's say. Right. So they're not gonna sit there and go, Oh, I have a 2000 this chateau, and yeah, I'll bring it by and Floyd, and we could try it. Like, it doesn't work like that because the bottle costs so much money, and reps have a certain cap where they can take a bottle of wine out and it show a retail you know business how it tastes. So I've always told Aaron, like, the oldest wine I've ever had was like a 2010. I was like, that that that's me in the business was like 2010. So why when this this store that Aaron went to and he exposed me to, it was like a candy store for me because it was all these older vintages for cost, which was great. Right. So for me, it was amazing. It was like, Floyd, you're finally going to try some older vintages and of good stuff, of good stuff, and that's what excited me. Yeah, and I was just like, my mind was blown when I went to the store because I bought I think the first day I bought two. How many did you buy the first time you went there?

SPEAKER_00 13:07

I feel it was only one. I feel like I got one and I said I gotta open up one of these to make sure that this guy is not selling, you know, fake one. I mean, if anybody's sour grapes. If anybody's seen sour grapes, this was a concern. And the fact is, whenever a store owner goes up to you and first of all smells like his products, and tells you, oh, if you go to a restaurant, you're gonna get this bottle for eight hundred dollars and you're getting it for a hundred dollars, you kind of grow a little bit weary of his you know honesty. You're skeptical. I was skeptical beyond belief. And uh, I think this is about the fourth or fifth bottle from all the bottles I've got from him. And I feel like we had one wine that just was subpar, but it wasn't bad. It was the 06 D Armiak. Remember that? I think it was um it was my bottle. I think it was a 2005. Remember we it wasn't bad though. It was just it didn't really have a lot of it. It wasn't bad.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

See, but this is this is what we're leaving out. This is what we're gonna talk about now, too. So Aaron went to the store, and Aaron decided that since he has this gem, he's gonna tell all of his wine collecting friends about this little gem he found. So, besides me, he had another discount. So Aaron's trying to work a discount, that's what he was really going for. He wanted the discount on discounted wine. I think there's a term for this. So he invited another friend that went there, that's a big, big wine person that loves wine, bought all these older vintages as well. And I remember I was working at the store and I get a text message. It was a it was a panicked Aaron. Aaron was panicked because I was crying, I was I was throwing stuff against the wall. His friend had sent him a text going, one of the wines that he bought, which was a pomarole, by the way, too, which is more the right bank, had gone bad. It was tasting like vinegar, I think the tech said. So Aaron, in a panic, in a frenzy, called me up and goes, We gotta open up one of these bottles that I bought. Emergency session. And then all of a sudden, what happened? I said the same exact thing. I go, Okay, we well, we gotta meet, we gotta open up these bottles, we gotta try one. So Aaron brings over, I think, a 2010 or was it 05?

SPEAKER_00 15:35

No, no, no. It was it was the uh Chateau de Saint. Chateau de Saint. That was a really, really good Margot. And that one, uh again, this Lafon Rocher is great. This one was one of the better wines I've had, period.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

And that's big of me to say because I would trash what I was shocked you brought you I was shocked you brought that wine. That's how panicked you were. You opened up the best one, and I said, you know what? I bought some two because I think the first time I went there, I bought two. The next time I went there, I sent Aaron a text, like I bought five. But I bought five more of on the inexpensive side, more 2005s, but they were like maybe $29, $30 in that range. So I bought like five. I thought it was a better investment.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

Wine is tricky though, because unless you're going to somewhere like a total wine, um, and and again, I'm trying to kind of segue into different areas of this supposed hunt, you know, going, driving an hour, two hours to find something really good. But you know what you're getting with spirits. No, no, nobody's no nobody's cracking open. Spirits are straightforward. They're straightforward because you know that they're not gonna go bad.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Yes. Right? The worst thing that can happen to French wine too. They a lot of people, you know, a lot of people out there that don't know much about wine say the same thing about French wines. How come French wines age better than California or certain other areas?

SPEAKER_00 17:00

New world, let's say ultimately everything in wine has an expiration point, and I don't think that the same rules apply to spirits. I think that once you open a spirit up, you can slowly watch it evaporate. That is that it's a thing, but you'll you're never gonna get a spirit and be like, oh my god, my uh my my my bourbon's gone sour.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

No, I don't think unless you leave it like in a steam room and it's just in a terrible spot, the sun is beating down on it, it might go bad. Uh it that's where but we're not we're talking about we're talking about people that conserve it. So, you know, once Aaron came over, he brought his his his wine over, and then I said, I'm opening up one of mine, and I think I had the 2005 as well. But I had a I think it was like a third label, I believe I had, or was it a fourth?

SPEAKER_00 17:47

No, that was a fifth group. No, that was a fifth growth. It was a fifth growth. Like me meaning it was still a uh a valuable sound pick, but uh from a young it's from a younger vine.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

So when they say growth, it you know, if it's first, fifth. So first growth can be from a vine that's been there for centuries.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

No. No? Well, why not? No, you're just wrong. Why am I wrong? Because um growths have to do with the classification system of 1855. Like, meaning um uh a first growth, it's just a way of kind of saying that it's a tier. So Chateau Latour, Chateau Margot, Chateau uh Lafitte, they're all So I'm maybe I'm thinking about labels. You're thinking about like if basically uh give me a wine this tour that's a that's a second wine. Okay, perfect. Um what's the Marco that you have? Uh what is it, Lafief's Lagrange, right? Isn't that no the the one that we always talk about, like um uh Viven. Viven. Yes. Yeah. So Floyd has this wine in this store that's a second wine or second label.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

This is why I I French wines drive me crazy.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

No, no, but but again, you know, you just discipline yourself a little bit, but it's a second wine, like meaning that that comes from less desired grapes. First growth, second growth, third growth, that's a classification system that kind of tell you how they're ranked in terms of tier. So when you say fifth growth, it means that it's just of a lesser tier or value.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

See, I I always look at it. It's confusing, but I've always looked at French wine where it's like, and this is me getting into business learning it. It's you learn about years on a vine, right? So a lot of people come to you and say, oh, well, you know, this is a second, this is a third, because it's younger or it's older. So a lot of people there this is why, like I said, I just can't take it because there's so much to learn about wine. It's wine is especially French. There's classifications, there's growth, there's labels, there's you know, like it's the first, but it's not really the first growth. It's like there's so much to learn about it. And as much as I sit here and I talk about wine, you know, I'm always constantly learning. So that's what makes it great, is like I could be wrong and I could sit there and I do I just don't pretend to know everything about wine, but I love talking about it. And there's some things that I learn on the spot too. And with wine, it's it's that's what's great about it. But I think this wine that we had that night, that 2005, to me was just kind of like eh, it was just missing something. But Aaron, you know, explaining you know what he's doing right now, proving me wrong when I'm right, but he's proving me wrong. It's he's talking about, well, 2005 is you know, it's just it it that 2005 is just a different vintage, it's just from a different, you know, it's a different growth, blah blah blah. Going through it, and his wine that he had was just a Margot that just knocked my socks off. I thought it was just more body, fuller. And we actually, after that, it was like a deep breath. We actually calmed down and we said, Okay, our wine's not that bad. Comparing it to his friends' wine. Buy some more, buy some more so buy some more so. So we went to the store, we bought more, and you know, to this day that's what we constantly talk about. It's you know, trying to find these things that you can't find anywhere. And for collectors, what's the difference between a collector and a drinker, such as myself and such as Aaron? Two different people, but how do we look at wine you know, when you're looking for something you can't find anywhere? To find a 2005-2000 is crazy.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

If you're a teacher or a student of wine and your purpose is to learn about wine, or it's to have an education on wine, the idea is that uh you're not seeking uh a 2005 Lafon Rocher. Uh you're going after an example of a Saint Estef. You're going after um anything that you haven't tried yet. So often what's kind of happening is When it comes to hunting, it's really about finding those rare bottles that you know are not out there, but you just have to have, and you're willing to go anywhere you want for it. And if you're smart, you're not willing to spend over the amount that it's actually worth because it'll drive you crazy and it'll make you broke.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Well, for another another topic we have is we're gonna talk about how this goes with spirits. What Aaron is doing now when it's like spirits, because now he's on a whole new level. I'm going in every direction. No, you're no no no, you're in a whole new level. Before this was one when I first met him and he started working for me. Only wine. Only wine. Bordeaux is king. You can't, you know, everything was Bordeaux, Bordeaux. And every time I would go back to the store, Bordeaux were sold out, you know. He just loved wine. Now all of a sudden, and especially if you follow him on Instagram, what's changed about Aaron? What's changed is he's all of a sudden into bourbons, whiskies. So now every time I talk to him, it's not wine anymore, it is bourbon and spirits. Anything, and it's not tequila, it's not any of that. It's more well, that's what he's hoping. But I think that it's he's transformed so differently. It's like watching your your your your kid grow up. It's like go, oh my god, all of a sudden he's he's forgotten about wine. What got him here? But it it just showed we're gonna talk about the transformation of Aaron at the Chosen Vine on Instagram. That's gonna be our next podcast episode because I think that's an important topic to talk about. Wine is very easy, and wine is something to learn about. Like, Aaron can correct me about wine, and I could correct him about wine, but you know what? It's all about learning different things about wine. It's you know, I always tell people stay positive, learn so much more about wine because people come in with such an attitude of like, you know, they just want something inexpensive and cheap, and it doesn't taste like this, it has to taste like this. It's that's not the way wine should be looked at. We look at it with such passion and drive because it's always evolving. You're learning about classifications, you're learning about growth. And I think our first episode, what we're talking about now, is just like a it's a prelude of other things we're gonna really dive into. And I think, you know, with Aaron's expertise and my expertise, I think you're gonna learn a lot from this. Because I think a lot of people look at wine and spirits and they just drink what people tell them to drink. You know, what's good? Oh, what marketing is out there, what commercial is out there, what what what celebrity is drinking this champagne? What celebrity is making his own tequila all of a sudden, because that's what the market is flooded with. And I think we're here to not just talk about it, but to help educate you know customers on different things out there, and not to just drink something because somebody told you to drink it, but to try something different, expand your horizon, spend a couple of dollars more. We're all on budgets, but we are here to help, and we want to kind of not just talk about it but educate. And I think that's why we started this podcast. It was more of why talk about this in a store where nobody's listening, to let's bring it to everybody where we can talk about it and people can enjoy. So I think our first episode was just a little, just a little start. It's like feeding something to people and saying, look, we're gonna get you hooked on it. But we hope you guys continue to listen and continue to download our podcast and uh continue to come back for more. That's it for our first episode, signing off. It's Floyd from Unwine Boutique. Hey, stay stay safe out there. Coronavirus is real. It's too much wine. Wine and liquor will kill the germ. All right, just keep on drinking. We'll talk to you next time on our next episode of Som and Sauber. Bye bye.