old vintage wines gallore at Foremost Liquors on Argyle.

I feel like i should be keeping this place a secret because of all the old vintage wine they have. but maybe someone will spring on that 95 Barolo that they have so i wont have to drop the $50 on it. They have more old vintages than any place I've ever been to, And ive been to a lot of wine shops. I saw alot of 96,97,98,99,00,01 and a crap ton of 02-05. They have 1995 barolo's.,1999 California cabs, Spanish, French, German, Austrian, and even Romanian. Ive only got 4 bottles from them so far as a testament to my restraint. first 2000 super Tuscan was good, although some said it was slightly off. second 2002 french was corked. i have two bottles sitting on my mantle and one is a synthetic cork so it should be fine. I've inspected the outer rim of the cork on the 02 Valpolicella and it seems fine at first glance. I am suspicious of the fact that they have SO much older wine. did it fall off a truck? did they get it from dodgy distributors? did their store have heating or cooling issues at one time? ...
i took a couple pics but i used the cell phone and they are horrible quality. i did find this exact vintage for at least half the price as it listed here.
http://www.finestwine.com/buy-wine-Chat ... 750-1.html

what are your thoughts?

Foremost liquor Store
1040 W Argyle Street
(between Kenmore Ave & Winthrop Ave)
Chicago, IL 60640
(773) 989-0808

update:

the 02 valpo was bad. not corked, just really off.like an intense cocoa nose with too much upfront acid and kind of flat overal. the 04 temprinillo seemed off at first but was actually quite nice for $10.it was a little less dry than every other temprinillo ive had though. in summery 1 has been corked. 1 was just bad. and 2 were pretty decent. im starting to like these odds.

I worry about the storage conditions of "older vintages" as they sit in retailer bins or shelves. Unless these wines have been kept in a " temp regulated "wine room" I would pass on most bottles unless deep discounts are part of the deal & the ability to return bottles that are DOA. FWIW, synth corks have their issues and I would not say that long term aging is their strong suit.

While some wines get better with age, many just start to taste like "old wine"
which is fine but it is not an improvement over what the winemaker put in the bottle...

Good luck finding the good ones!

I'm not an expert on the Veneto, but 2002 was the worst year in recent memory since, well, since a long time ago for Northern Italy. I'd try to avoid 2002 Northern Italian wines and would not jump to any comclusions about the merits of this store based on that particular bottle.

thorough wrote: i did find this exact vintage for at least half the price as it listed here.
http://www.finestwine.com/buy-wine-Chat ... 750-1.html

what are your thoughts?

Foremost liquor Store
1040 W Argyle Street
(between Kenmore Ave & Winthrop Ave)
Chicago, IL 60640
(773) 989-0808

http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/chate ... r/1989/usa
1989 Ch. Phelan Sequr for $62 so the example listed above is kind of high (x3)

mhill95149 wrote:

thorough wrote: i did find this exact vintage for at least half the price as it listed here.
http://www.finestwine.com/buy-wine-Chat ... 750-1.html

what are your thoughts?

Foremost liquor Store
1040 W Argyle Street
(between Kenmore Ave & Winthrop Ave)
Chicago, IL 60640
(773) 989-0808

http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/chate ... r/1989/usa
1989 Ch. Phelan Sequr for $62 so the example listed above is kind of high (x3)

apples to oranges. Though the OP's link has a picture of a 1989 bottle, the price is actually for a '95

I used to live down the street and stop in fairly frequently. I didn't end up buying too much because they couldn't quite compete on price for things that are widely available, and many of the older bottles were from bad years, or were whites that should have been drunk years before or placed in some kind of caveat emptor section. On top of that the store always seemed very, very warm to me for keeping mature wines in.
So I ended up getting mostly last-minute bottles of bubbly for a party, or something young and sturdy on my way to a dinner.
I can't accuse them of actually selling bad or badly stored wine because I didn't test it, but what I observed made me a bit nervous.

I just find it a bit odd that they have all these old vintages and local specialty wine shops rarely have anything older than a 04 unless its a rare age worthy wine. I will continue to try some of the cheaper bottles and report back but I cant say I am not temped to drop a $50 on the some of the few outstanding vintages that they have. although i may inspect the bottle thoroughly and make sure i do my vintage research.

This also brought up a good question. Is it exceptable to return a corked bottle to a wine shop/liquor store? You can totally prove it and people turn down corked wine at restaurants.

what does everyone think of this vintage guide?
http://www.erobertparker.com/newsearch/ ... hart1.aspx

[quote="Kennyz"]

apples to oranges. Though the OP's link has a picture of a 1989 bottle, the price is actually for a '95[/quote]

My crystal ball was a bit cloudy and as the only picture I saw was a bottle of 1995 with a picture of a 1989 label. I don't really know what vintage the OP meant. I think maybe you meant apples to watermelons? $164 for a Phelan Segur is a suckers bet from almost any vintage. The 1995 does not enjoy a good reputation. I believe it merited an 84 point rating from Robert Parker upon release. While you may not agree with Mr. Parker 100% of the time, you'd be hard pressed to say that there was no correlation between his scores and wine pricing. Here's a link to some 1995 currently available: http://www.wineconsigners.com/wines/det ... PHELAN+SSE . While it is not offered by a traditional retailer, it's much more indicative of the value of the wine. For $164 you buy 1989 Pichon Lalande or Lynch Bages.

There are oftentimes bargains available at this Foremost location. The storage is questionable, but if you are interested and cautious you can definitely find a gem or two. I recently bought some Tollot Beaut Corton for $39.99 and ended up with a very good bottle of wine. The best wine searcher price is $69.99. I also purchased a case of 1996 Bordeaux a few years ago which had been in the store for some time for less than I could have bought the wine at auction. I've had no condition problems from the few bottles I've consumed from this case, and they are five years away from the commencement of the plateau of maturity. For full disclosures sake, I also bought some 1997 Huet Vouvray Le Mont Moellux (Premier Trie) for $19.99 that wasn't worth it even thought the best price in the country is $100. It doesn't matter how cheap it is if it is destined for the drain.

The store is very interesting. Their pricing on current releases is not always great, but if you poke around there can be some good values or hard to get bottles available.

^yeah i thought it might be confusing since the picture was of a 89 but the price for for a 95. no worries. Thanks for the reviews of the bottles you have enjoyed. Do you have a good online guide available besides the one i posted a link too in regards to vintages and maturity? the only other one i found as far as maturity was vague.
Im more interested for the sake of knowledge since i doubt i would hold on to a bottle for a signifigant amount of time. Lets just say i was to spend 30-50 on a bottle that i would want to hold onto for a couple years what should i be looking for?

they have a 1982 California Cab. I should of wrote down the name.

thorough wrote:what does everyone think of this vintage guide?
http://www.erobertparker.com/newsearch/ ... hart1.aspx

The Robert Parker vintage guide is very good, but it is important to know the limitations of any vintage guide. There is a great deal of variation in quality within a given wine growing area, in a particular year. Just because a vintage is poor doesn't mean that all wines are bad or not worth buying. Some vineyards are known for producing wine that doesn't vary much from year to year. Others are able to produce good wine, even in bad vintages. Also, prices tend to be higher for good vintages and lower for poor ones. Finally, depending on the wine, a poor vintage may mean that it doesn't age well, but drinking it young may still deliver a quite good wine.

thorough wrote:^yeah i thought it might be confusing since the picture was of a 89 but the price for for a 95. no worries. Thanks for the reviews of the bottles you have enjoyed. Do you have a good online guide available besides the one i posted a link too in regards to vintages and maturity? the only other one i found as far as maturity was vague.
Im more interested for the sake of knowledge since i doubt i would hold on to a bottle for a significant amount of time. Lets just say i was to spend 30-50 on a bottle that i would want to hold onto for a couple years what should i be looking for?

If you want hold a wine for a couple of years, it is really important that you have a decent storage system. It doesn't have to be a temperature controlled cellar. Ideally you want to store the wine at 55-60 degrees, away from light. But wine stored at 70 degrees will be fine, especially if you drink it within (say) five years. Ideally you want to avoid large temperature swings. So, an area in the basement or a closet will likely be fine.

Second, you don't need to buy the most expensive Bordeaux in the world to age for 3-5 years. Those wines are capable of aging 30 to 50 years. Most well-made wines will change a bit if you give them 3-5 years. If you want to spend $30-$50, my inclination is to buy two bottles that total $50. You'll likely appreciate the variety--either trying two of the same bottle drunk a year apart, or just the experience of drinking two different wines. I am a big believer in working your way up the quality/price spectrum slowly. If you don't normally drink wine in the $30-$50 price range, you may not appreciate the subtle difference between a good $50 bottle and a good $25 bottle.

I'd recommend going to a good wine store and asking advice about specific bottles. I've been buying wine recently at Perman a lot recently (Craig Perman took over Bennett's Fine Wine). I like small shops where the staff (or in this case, just Craig) personally selects the wines and are intimately familiar with them. But Sam's has a lot of knowledgeable people who specialize in particular wine regions (they also have a lot of people who aren't experts). I've been meaning to check out Wine Discount Center, but haven't been yet. Anyways, a knowledgeable salesperson will be able to suggest wines that might be good candidates to hold for 3-5 years.

Perman Wine Selections
802 W. Washington
Chicago, IL 60607
312-666-4417
http://permanwine.com/Home_Page.html