I visited several domaines when I was in Burgundy in February 2007, and fell in love with the white wines of Morey-Coffinet – they’re a very small producer that I got hooked up with because I’m friends with the people at Martine’s Wines, their US importer. Michel Morey is a young guy who is utterly unassuming and almost shy about his wines, but they’re stunning. I barrel tasted all the 2006’s when I was there and then most of the ’05s in bottle. I brought back the 2005 Chassagne Montrachet Les Caillerets 1er cru. (Out of all the 1er crus, I thought that was the most accessible in youth, and thought I would be drinking it shortly after I got back; I didn’t plan on cellaring it until now.)

We opened it up with dinner, and it was magical. I just love white Burgundy – at its heights it’s the greatest white wine in the world. Great complexity – primary fruit, minerality, integrated spicy oak, creaminess from lees aging and malolactic fermentation, good acidity, very long finish. Simply lovely; a great way to end the day.

A related note about Morey Coffinet – when we started up the shop, I immediately contacted Martine’s to find out who their WI distributor was so I could carry the portfolio. Turns out they didn’t have one, but my interest helped facilitate them getting one. We’re just about the only place in the state thus far working with their portfolio, since I had the advantage of being familiar with many of the producers. In addition to a Bourgogne Rouge from Christophe Perrot Minot (rising superstar who I also visited; his wines are highly sought after, and I snapped up Wisconsin’s entire allocation of the Rouge – a whopping six bottles!) we now carry three stunning wines from Morey Coffinet – a Bourgogne Blanc, a Chassagne-Montrachet “Blanchots-Dessus” 1er cru, and a Puligny-Montrachet “Les Pucelles” 1er cru.

We wanted to capture the beer sales that Sheridan’s has been doing, so knew for the last few months that we’d need to expand that. The challenge was how to do it. When we were designing the store we thought the bar in the retail side would be a nice asset, letting people look out the window as they had a glass of wine. It ended up being just dead space, though, mainly used as overflow for our paperwork or random bottles. So, a couple of weeks ago we had our carpenter (the fabulous Greg Beaupre of Willow Design) come in to cut the bar down significantly, allowing for another wine rack along the back wall.

On Tuesday, we got in another double beer cooler to put next to our existing cooler; we moved the wood shelving that had been there to the corner near the retail cash register; and moved the wine rack that was there to the newly created space along the back wall. So far, so good.

What we’ve also been noticing, though, is that our wine racks were leaning forward, and it was starting to freak me out. (All that inventory crashing to the ground, plus potential liability….) The manufacturer recommends securing them to the wall, but when we started up the shelving units were several weeks late in arriving and I needed to put them together and get the wine in them ASAP so we could open, and the way the space is configured there was no easy way to secure them. They seemed sturdy enough, so I hoped they’d be fine.  They weren’t. Rather than risk losing several thousand dollars worth of inventory, I had Greg come in on Wednesday morning to fix it. Tuesday night after the sparkling wine tasting we pulled down all of the bottles in the racks (fortunately, there was some sparkling wine left over from the tasting, which made the late night more tolerable). I got back to the shop at 6 on Wednesday morning to help Greg pull back the racks, install 2×4s by the windows, and secure and align the racks. They’re upright and rock solid now, and Greg secured them to each other so that when you look down the row, it’s a smooth unbroken line instead of being herky-jerky like it had been. Little things like that make me inordinately happy.

We also took the opportunity to reorganize all of the wine – the US had been all over the place, with California red in one section, white in another, and WA and OR still another. We unified the US (if only the real world was that easy) and created a more logical flow. (imagine, OR Pinot next to CA Pinot!)

A busy week, but a definite improvement.  It’s hard and all-consuming now, but if we just keep plugging away and working to improve all the time, I know it’s going to pay off.

We’ve got so many great customers, but something like this makes me way more uncertain of people’s motives than I wish I had to be.

As good as it was, for me personally if I was going to spend $40 on a bottle it wouldn’t be on rosé. (The Tempier, though, along with all the other rosés at the shop, has been selling quite well, probably since we put them front and center and talk abou them at the drop of a hat.) For whites a good Burgundy or Alsatian Riesling would be my first pick; for reds Burgundy, anything from Spain (Priorat, Ribera del Duero, Toro, Rioja), a domestic Pinot, or a Barbaresco.

Back to rosé – it’s been great how many people are willing to try a bottle based on our enthusiasm, and even better that most of them have returned within a couple of days to pick up a few more bottles. It’s a great summer wine, but it’s also a great year-round food wine. People drink white all year long, so it makes no sense to me why they don’t drink rosé all year long. The wines have good acidity, the body and red fruit flavors to stand up to richer foods, and the delicacy to work well with lighter fare.

I’ll cut down on our selection for fall and winter (and put another display on the metal tree), but we’ll keep a few choices for throughout the year; I actually just ordered 5 cases of the Triebaumer rosé of Blaufrankisch from Austria, which we’re pouring by the glass and is phenomenal (especially for about a third of the price of the Tempier!)

Basic directions – get on i80E and drive for a really long time. Immediately after my MW exam finished Friday afternoon I took off in my Mini Cooper loaded with whatever the movers didn’t take a week ago along with our two cats for thirty hours of driving. Yep, sounds fun. The cats actually have been great – I let them out of their carriers so they’d quit their yelling and Bonnie just curled up in my lap and slept, while Gigio (the cowardly lion) found the most secluded nook in the car and kept quiet. The trip’s been smooth – going over the Sierra Nevadas (and the infamous Donner Pass) is gorgeous; Nevada is flat, fast, and boring; Utah likewise except in the mountains around Park City; Wyoming confirms why it’s the fastest-declining-population state in the country. A lot quicker than when I did it in reverse moving from Minneapolis to CA almost 5 years ago, when a blizzard hit and a big-rig crash shut down I80 in Wyoming for 10 hours with me stuck on the highway. I’m looking forward to getting to MKE tomorrow to see Aimee in person for the first time in weeks!

Obligatory business news – exciting Thief Wine purchase of the week is…..a killer dishwasher! (actually, glasswasher since that’s all that’s really important, but everyone says dishwasher.) Also locked in some great ‘05 Bordeaux (see below) and older Barolo).

My MW exam – not as good as hoped. I won’t get the results until September, but am not optimistic that I passed. Without going into mind-numbing detail about how the exam works, there’s three tasting papers (white, red, and mixed), and four theory essays (viticulture, winemaking, wine business, contemporary issues). You’ve got to pass all papers of each section to pass that section, and I think I passed the white and maybe the mixed, but bombed the reds; not certain about the theory.

Other fun wine notes. Yesterday evening I enjoyed an ‘05 Chateau Dubourg St. Emilion. Not sure where I got it from, but it was fantastic – classic red berry fruit, some violets & graphite notes from the Cab. Franc – and really well balanced, still very young (didn’t care – at that point I was in Wells, NV after having been up since 4 am forcing the remnants of a house into my car, taking the last day of the exam, and driving for 500 miles – i just wanted a good wine) but delicious. 2005 was a great vintage for Bordeaux in general; if you didn’t buy futures it’ll be hard to get the really good stuff, but I’m working with some connections to get Thief some highly desirable wines at good prices.

Tonight is Chateau Nenin 2004 Pomerol. Also Merlot-based on Bordeaux’s Right Bank and along with St. Emilon are the two top official Right Bank appellations, generally considered to be lighter, a bit more floral, but this is a really ripe and juicy wine for Pomerol. Quite nice, though. Nice way to end the day – after 11 hours of driving, I’m exhausted.