the leflaive is available in this country. it is the better part of $40 a bottle. it is tough to find a decent st aubin for less. the other two are of too small a production to be imported.

"driving around" one finds maryland and virginia wines. both are pretty lousy wines, and very overpriced, as "driving around, tasting wine, and buying wine" is a big sport in the area.

if i bought in europe, the cost to transport a reasonable amount of wine would be prohibitive. my vendors in italy used to put my wines in my container, but i am no longer in business, and since xraying of containers, my guess is i could not do it even if i wished.

i now just purchase distressed merchandise(stuff that got too old for the shelf), which is all i can afford. i just acquired a couple cases of '06 latour santenay at $10/ bottle.

We have two very different opinions of what really good white Burgundy is.

OK, I'm willing to be educated. Tell me what you think is a really good wine here and I will drive over to the winery and see how much I can get it for.

Bouchard P�re et Fils Corton-Charlemagne. The cheapest I can find the 2005 in the US is $120.

OK, I'll try to swing by there later this week. I'll check both the price and the taste; to see if it is really any better than some of the other excellent wines I have found around here.

On the Hartmann duffel I use when on longer trips that gets checked, there's a corkscrew in a pocket that stays w/ the luggage permanently. Problem solved. The times I don't check luggage & I've needed a corkscrew in the hotel room & one isn't available, a tip to the hotel bartender usually gets me one

Cheers.

I just bought a bottle of screwtop Argyle pinot noir about 10 minutes ago precisely because I realized that I left my corkscrew in the car (which is parked too far away to justify the walk). I went into the store with no intention of buying a stoppered bottle of wine. How's that for screwtops having their place?

Tim - when are we drinking the 78 Chave? Maybe I'll bring one on the 15th...

I will be your bff if you bring that. We're doing a Chave vertical on 10/26 -- I'm really looking forward to it, unfortunately I'd don't think '78 will be making an appearance.

whatsa chave verticle. the guy makes stuff from just above 2 buck chuck(sells for 15) up to something that a lot of people doo woopee for. bought a bunch of cornas once, for which he is bige time famous. was no thrill for me, but given my pallet, who cares. done a lot of st. joseph, and found a few white hermitage. \

not my style.

JL Chave Hermitage rouge is what I'm talking about. That's one of my favorite wines and will indicate the style of wine I prefer. I do very much enjoy Cornas -- Clape is probably my favorite but do like them with 10+ years of age. I drink very little St. Joseph and don't really like white Rhones in general.

OK, I went to Bouchard P�re et Fils today. It turns out they are just a producer who take some of the best grapes from lots of different areas in Burgundy. So Corton-Charlemagne seems to be what they consider the best of the best Chardonnay grapes. The best current year is 2007 here and that does indeed cost �80. But as Bouchard P�re et Fils is the middle-man, you are significantly overpaying. That said, if you don't know which are the good wines to get around here, you can be assured of getting a decent wine from these folks. You just have to pay a bit more. They have a real nice showroom and give you a nice wooden box for your wine (yes I took one for the team and bought a bottle) and they speak perfect English as it is sure that their clients are not local.

I'm currently drinking a 2006 Ladoix Clou d'Orge which cost around �30 (also a bit overpriced) and it's just about as good as the Corton-Charlemagne.

What's the Domain?

Chateau de Beaune. And of course Chateau Pommard for the Ladoix.

bouchard is still serving time, i think. he mixed acid and sugar, and sold it as corton charlemagne(for real). henriot(i think), owns it now. he has 130hectars in burgundy, which is a huge amount of vineyard. he makes everything from 2 buck chuck up to to montrachet.