wine importers you trust

[Rhone]

like anyone, I'll frequently find myself in a shop browsing wines that I haven't had the benefit of tasting or even reading about previously. In these situations, it's obviously common to use shortcuts to figure out what you might like or dislike--varietal, producer, vintage, etc. One piece of information that I'm begining to use more often is the importer. In particular, two that I've cpmeto rely on really heavily are Kermit Lynch and Robert Kacher. I have never been steered wrong by either of them.

Curious whether the oot wine drinkers can recommend any other top notch importers out there...

[BretWeir]

Leonardo Locasio is pretty solid for Italian wines.

[OrigamiSensei]

Terry Thiese

[piradical]

Excellent but very small importer specializing in French wine- Wine Traditions.
Also very good small outfit- Jocelyn Cambier Imports.
Both are in the DC area, and are found in restaurants and wine specialists; Cambier is also in Whole Foods. Worth seeking out as they will rarely disappoint.

[Kirkland]

I don't know much about wine, or which importers are best, but I can tell you the top 3 retailers for Robert Kacher in Washington, DC are:

PEARSONS LIQUORS, 2436 WISCONSIN AVE NW
CALVERT WOODLEY, 4339 CONNECTICUT AVE NW
WHOLE FOODS/FRESH FIELDS, 2323 WISCONSIN AVE NW

[KDawg]

I just always use Cellar Tracker on a wine that I'm not familiar with. Since I normally buy bordeaux, burgundy, and oregon pinot, I can be throwing darts at a board if it wasn't for CT.

as far as importers, I rarely follow who is the actual distributor and since I buy bordeaux and burgundy, most of the negociants that bring in those wines can be nameless unless you are a wine buyer for your store

[ianisakson]

is there a wine thread out there with wine recommendations. I'm just starting to get into wine and don't want to get banned for starting a new thread about something that clearly should already be discussed in this forum. something like a "post your favorite wines" thread

[Cancuk]

[ QUOTE ]
I just always use Cellar Tracker on a wine that I'm not familiar with. Since I normally buy bordeaux, burgundy, and oregon pinot, I can be throwing darts at a board if it wasn't for CT.

as far as importers, I rarely follow who is the actual distributor and since I buy bordeaux and burgundy, most of the negociants that bring in those wines can be nameless unless you are a wine buyer for your store

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you also like Amon Ra?

I just got 36 bottles of the 2006 (100 points). Satisfactory.

What kind of Burgs do you lean towards? I stock pilled a bunch of the 2002's which are just starting to open up. Had a great bottle of J.J. Confuron's Nuits St George Les Fleuriers the other day. Yum!

I LOVE BURGUNDY

[KDawg]

i think clark may have started a thread in here a while back, but many of those wines are hard to get.

Unfortunetly when these types of threads crop up, you will consistently see Kendall Jackson get rec'd or some other over oaked POS wine that happens to cost $12.

Really for recs, what you need to do is experiment within your price point as certain recs won't really work if you need to limit your budget to under 15.

For me, I have a hard time giving recs to people if they aren't willing to generally spend between 20-50 a bottle as I don't drink that much that is under 20 and my pallate is much more old world then many other peoples. This is something that people in general don't take into account.

now, with that said, if you give me your tastes, I can hopefully lead you in the right direction as long as you are willing to be open to a bunch of stuff and don't say, well, I will only drink reds, or I will only drink whites, etc.

For someone that is just getting into wine, I usually give new world recs as those are more accessible to the new wine drinker then a super tuscan, bordeaux, or burgundy. But, you just have to be willing to try a whole bunch of wine and be willing to drink some stinkers.

It took me about two years of drinking wine before I started taking down full on notes and scoring wines as you have to know what a top class wine tastes like and what a bunch of different regions have to offer and what your tastes are

[ianisakson]

basically I just started drinking reds wines and like what I have had so far. I have been drinking napa valleys in the pinot noir and merlot category. to be honest, i've had blackstone and one other maker.

i'll probably just go and buy a lot of bottles in a huge variety and see what I like the most.