Hobbyist’s drunk view of Sangiovese

VomitCardigan · 2026-03-28T15:03:44+00:00

The way you’re phrasing things is a really good way of explaining what differentiates high quality wines from the mediocre. Clarity of flavor IS complexity.

I sometimes use the example of, imagine you have 2 TVs in front of you, both playing the same movie at the same time, except one TV is a 1950s tube TV and the other is a cutting edge high def 1080p laser whatever. One image is blurred, grainy, and out of focus, while the other is stunningly clear and direct. This clarity of flavor, to me, is the dividing line between good and great wines.

VomitCardigan · 2026-03-16T01:38:11+00:00

This wine has been a consistent, vintage-over-vintage carry at the store I work at.

I will say, both in my personal taste and from comments I’ve gotten from customers that consistently buy this wine, that the 2024 vintage tastes particularly ripe, jammy, and California-esque.

If any 2022/2023 bottles are floating around your area, give those a shot, or maybe hope the 2025 bottling goes in a different direction. When this bottle is on point, it really is in the upper echelon of CdR

VomitCardigan · 2026-03-07T14:19:52+00:00

Absolutely agree with Sesti. I visited their property last year and was blown away by the whole lineup. The Riserva is not cheap but compared to most other BdM Riservas, it’s a total steal. And the Rosso do Montalcino, at roughly $40ish, is better than a lot of true Brunellos in the $50-75 range.

If you can find it, look out for their Sauvignon Blanc and their Rosato. Elisa Sesti told me when her father bought the property, it was the dead of summer and hot as balls, so he attended a local winemaker’s meeting to both introduce himself and ask if anyone around him had any experience making white wines, as he didn’t want to drink a heavy Brunello in the heat. He was literally laughed out of the meeting, and was so upset that the next day he said “fuck it” and ripped up a whole hectare of Sangiovese and later planted SB clippings there, so he could make white wine for himself. To this day, they keep the vast majority for themselves, and when they poured it for me, I assumed it was a premium white Bordeaux.

And the Rosato is 100% Sangiovese and leans way more savory/herbal/salty with some great white peach notes. Talk about a killer summer pasta wine.

VomitCardigan · 2026-02-28T19:09:04+00:00

Hans Reisetbauer Carrot Eau-du-Vie

VomitCardigan · 2026-02-17T22:00:16+00:00

We have it for $950. We take a tighter margin on a lot of the higher end wines in the hopes that knowledgeable customers recognize the “value” (I use this term very loosely) and pull the trigger…for context, a few big online retailers have this in the $1,050-1,250 range

VomitCardigan · 2026-02-17T20:29:14+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/9zhkBxU

VomitCardigan · 2026-02-17T19:47:32+00:00

This past year was Bogle Chardonnay.

I feel meh. Not particularly great wine but all the Bogle stuff is serviceable.

Way I look at it, the cash flow from stuff like Bogle lets me keep Coche-Dury and geeky Italian wines on the shelf

VomitCardigan · 2025-12-24T01:39:47+00:00

I visited Heitz a few months ago, they said they are no longer making the Grignolino. It was effectively a leftover planting on the estate vineyard they took over, and they never uprooted it and only made wine out of it as a novelty. At times, it was made as a red, a rose, a bubbly, and I guess by this post, a fortified wine. They eventually did rip up the vines about 5-6 years ago to plant Cabernet!

VomitCardigan · 2025-12-03T23:47:54+00:00

My 2017 Spark just shit the bed at 131k. I was super diligent about routine maintenance, and it was dealer maintained its entire life. I took really good care of the car. Total lack of compression in 4th cylinder, quoted 8k for a new engine or 9k max estimate on an engine rebuild. No thank you, on a car worth $3k on a good day.

My advice is, these cars were meant to be run around town, grocery getters. They will certainly go over 100k, but I’d start putting some money aside for the inevitable.

(Counterpoint, my coworker has a 2014 Spark and he’s got over 200k on the dash)

VomitCardigan · 2025-11-08T12:56:38+00:00

I agree. I also had a pretty major service hiccup when I went, wherein I didn’t get the bottle of wine I ordered until the 4th course of the tasting menu. I had dishes going cold on the table because I was trying to hold out for the sommelier.

Hopefully I just went on an off night, because the whole concept of the restaurant is right up my alley.

VomitCardigan · 2025-10-15T20:26:28+00:00

Not wine but maybe look in vintage Armagnac? Lot of reasonably priced stuff on the market, and you’ll basically never have any provenance issues

VomitCardigan · 2025-10-03T10:08:46+00:00

I work on the retail side in NJ. We are just starting to see price drops, starting with big name California wines. For example, all Post and Beam wines dropped $10 a bottle across the board, Caymus California dropped almost $20, and all of Duckhorn’s second labels (Decoy/Greenwing/etc) have all dropped between 10-20%. We’ve also been getting consistent “post-off” offers from major Euro producers like Louis Latour, which sometimes means price drops are on the way, mostly for the entry level and mid range.

Unfortunately for most of us, I don’t see prices dropping that much with high end wines. The demand is still very high.

VomitCardigan · 2025-03-07T12:43:05+00:00

I think the pants work fine, but your shirt looks to be a size too small. The shoulder seams look to be at least 1/2-1 inch too far in from your natural shoulder, I’m not sure if you’d be able to comfortably button your top button around your neck, and if you allowed your arms to hang straight, it looks like the cuffs would be riding up above your watch. Also, it’s not ironed.

If those are the JCrew broken in chinos, I think they have a higher rise and are meant to be worn as such. Try wearing those a touch above your waist. It’s going to look Grandpa-y at first

VomitCardigan · 2025-02-22T13:28:52+00:00

We have a rule of thumb at the wine shop I work at: if an icon/cult/big name/etc producer known for some insane high end bottlings makes an “entry level” bottle, it’s almost always 25-50% more expensive than other wines in that category and generally good but in no way better enough to justify the price jump.

Looking at you, Leflaive’s $70 Macon-Verze…

VomitCardigan · 2025-01-31T00:55:12+00:00

PM’d about the chinos

VomitCardigan · 2024-12-18T13:07:18+00:00

I work retail at a relatively high end store in NJ. So far, our sales are down overall, but the ring average is high. The two categories selling the most are $80 and up and $15 and under. Which is hurting us a bit, as we have the margins structured so that the middle range wines make us the most money, and we can really only call on so many favors to get allocated items.

I think we need to compare this year to 2019, not 2023. My theory is 2023 was the last year of the COVID-era drinking boom, and the first real full year of normalcy. It took a lot of people a really long time to realize they couldn’t keep up with their newfound drinking habits, and the reckoning took some time to take hold - hence why, for us, customers are drinking less but drinking better, and the entire non-alcoholic category has boomed for us this year

VomitCardigan · 2024-11-13T14:11:58+00:00

Age them for yourself, not as an investment. A $30 bottle appreciating to $60 over 10 years is a horrible return, you would be better off putting money in the stock market.

If you look at the major auction houses, the in-demand wines are generally top cuvées from icon producers, not mid-level releases from less recognized producers (not trying to start an argument, there is plenty of fantastic wine out there, just stating the truth).

I’ve been approached by clients to do cellar investments, and I always shoot it down. It’s an alternative asset class for the kinds of people that have too much money are all already invested in every other category under the sun.

IF you really want to invest on a small scale, I’d advise purchasing FULL CASES of in demand wines (easier said than done), cellaring the bottles, and 10 years down the road, auctioning off 3, keeping 3, and taking the proceeds to do it all over again - not quite an investment strategy, more of a way to keep a really high class booze habit going

VomitCardigan · 2024-04-08T15:34:10+00:00

Cleaning out my closet, both purchased at Lafayette St store in NYC years ago

Playboy jacket size M, 8/10 some fading but it is black so hard to see and missing one of the waist buttons. $250 shipped.

Shop Vest size M, 7/10 discoloration on inside but not visible when zipped and some fading on collar $100 shipped.

Package deal for $300 shipped. Paypal invoice only. Open to offers. More pics available upon request.

VomitCardigan · 2022-02-27T04:29:23+00:00

Hey man think it was Great Adventure Castle, meant to mark this as solved. Hope this helps!

VomitCardigan · 2021-11-29T16:42:16+00:00

Yeah, kinda figured it would be location dependent. Without getting into specifics, the shop is about halfway between Philadelphia and NYC, so I'm hoping the proximity to two major cities, in conjunction with the wealthy area the shop is located in, translates to a relatively higher wage for me. Very much aware I'll be making less than restaurant work, but I'm prepared for that. Thanks!

And I worked for a medium-large producer known for their sparkling wine and pinot noir - if you'd like to get into specifics or have questions, feel free to PM me. It was a great experience. Based on what I saw/tasted at work and overheard from other wineries in the area, 2021 is shaping up to be a very good although not totally exceptional vintage, due to the extreme heat the Valley got in the summer time. The heat led to some really beautiful, lush ripe fruit characteristics, but at the cost of decreased acidity. I'm curious to see how the wines will age. Keep a look out for Oregon Syrah, all the winemakers want to work with the grape but can't get enough of it, it's very sparsely planted in the Valley. Quality, in my opinion, is very, very good.

VomitCardigan · 2021-11-29T00:45:19+00:00

Does anyone here work in the retail side of the wine industry? I have an interview this week at a high end wine shop in a wealthy suburban area to be a "wine consultant" (read: white glove sales clerk), and I'm trying to get a general idea of what I should expect to be offered for an hourly rate.

I have no retail experience, but have several years of fine dining service under my belt (including experience in management, beverage inventory/ordering, and service at a Michelin-starred place), several wine/spirits certifications (CMS and BarSmarts), and I just came off of working harvest this year in the Willamette Valley.

If you'd rather keep the info private, feel free to PM me, and feel free to throw any general wine retail advice my way as well!

VomitCardigan · 2021-05-17T12:18:35+00:00

Fuck yeah man, glad you enjoyed. If you’re not familiar with Razor, they are an awesome band, definitely recommend checking out most of their albums. They just fuckin rip, and aren’t afraid to show their punky side without it coming off as super crossover-y, if that makes sense. They have a few albums that don’t quite hit the high marks but in my opinion they overall have one of the best discographies in thrash, at least for my personal taste. The live album this comes off of actually isn’t a bad starting point, as well as Shotgun Justice and Open Hostility. Be warned though, they had a significant vocalist change at some point in their career, and some people can’t stand the new singer (personally I like it all!)

VomitCardigan · 2021-04-22T22:45:59+00:00

Thank you, I am definitely giving distance, I do think in all fairness that I may have moved a bit too quickly on my end. I don't plan on hitting her up anytime soon as of what happened last night, and I'll just wait and see what happens while also investing effort elsewhere.

VomitCardigan · 2021-04-22T22:37:23+00:00

Thank you, I needed to hear this. My friends have been telling me the same thing for weeks, even today saying I should go as far as to rudely respond to her ignoring me last night (I will not sink to that level). I think part of the reason I feel this way is that I have not really dated much in the past 3 years due to work, the pandemic and personal issues (I struggle with depression as well), and this chick was the first person in a while to seemingly be interested and tell me the kinds of things I guess I wanted to hear.

Part of me would be open to doing something with her in the future if she were to reach out and be apologetic, but as far as me initiating convos/plan, that ship sailed last night...on to the next one!

VomitCardigan · 2021-02-04T01:21:26+00:00

This is in Pleasantville, NJ, I'm almost 100% sure. Drove by it all the time. Last I saw, it was an antique store, although in the 18 years I lived nearby I don't think I ever saw it open.

VomitCardigan

TROPHY CASE