Introduction You're listening to another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. Today, we are going to talk about UGC, which is an event that we co-host here. We are a retail partner for the national tour, the North American tour of UGC. The Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux. Also, it's UGC and not UGCB. Sometimes it's UGC. I feel like sometimes we abbreviate it as UGCB. Yeah. Okay. Well, today we're talking about a lovely little wine event that happened yesterday. I'm Lexi. I'm on socials. Jim, Communications. And we're joined today by two of our finest wine managers. Hey, I'm Gabe from the Lincoln Wood Store. I'm Jon from the Oakbrook Store. Previous Barrel to Bottle guest. It's been several years since Jon. A few years and a pandemic. Yeah. Change studios. It's been a while. Yeah. So tell us about this event yesterday. Tell us what it is first and then we'll talk about yesterday. Let's talk about it. Every year when the weather turns to crap and playoff football ends, the French come to town. As is their wine. To share their wares. It seems how it sorts out. Hey, next year, my friends, we're going to be on the Super Bowl. So UGC will happen before the playoffs end. Dead. It'll be a ghost town at UGC. Jon, it's a great question. Can you talk a little bit about UGC and the phenomenon of en premier that it ties into? So every year, every spring, the world descends onto Bordeaux. We're talking retailers, restaurants, importers, distributors, collectors, and even- Writers, press. Everything, every aspect of the wine industry. And Binny's employees. Binny's employees. Oh, Sheridan Bunch. Go to taste the new vintage. So I had the good privilege in the spring of 2024, going to see the 23s as they were in bottle or being bottled. And so we spent about a week going through all the communes and some Chateau visits, some negotiation visits. And it's rigorous, man. It's hardcore. Barb Herman, she really gets you going early in the morning to late at night all day long. Oh, she shows up with hand drawn maps of where to find these Chateaus. That's pretty awesome. Oh, God bless it day. This was my second time going and she said we were going to take it easy. So at the end of the trip, I counted up all my tasting notes and I remember counting like 358 wines. Over how many days? Ten-ish. If you don't count travel, it's like six and a half, seven days. Geez. Yeah. Yeah. And so is that the normal turnaround from spring 2024 to January 2026 or is it different every time? That's pretty normal. So you can expect the wines to arrive three years after the vintage on the label. OK. So in 24, we tasted the 23s. You with me? Yes. I see. I see eyes. And now it's 2026. And now it's 2026. Not exactly three years, but the three years. Yeah. Yeah. Got it. And the wines will arrive throughout the year. But we're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves. So the world descends on de Bordeaux. They taste. Critic Press comes out usually over the subsequent one to four weeks. And then the wines start hitting the market at the futures pricing. These are pre-arrival prices that are as low as they're ever going to be. And a lot of people got really excited about this program because vintages would turn around into legendary wines. Something would get rated. You'll see a range or a window. Something might score 94 to 97 points. It's because they're reviewing in what they're calling kind of like an unfinished wine. It's not bottled. It's not really in its full state of what it's going to be. Or even like what it can be as it ages in bottle. Then bottles reviews will come out, you know, when the wines start coming around. But getting back to the phenomenon itself, other regions do something to the effect of an en premier, but it's essentially a preview of the vintage to be released where the hype gets truly driven home. Leading up to that, you've read vintage reports and little articles here and there. Now is the first time anyone gets to taste anything. Then subsequent with that is the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux. This is a union of producers, but it also is a tour. It starts at On Premier. They have their own UGC tasting event, but they take that show on the road to five cities across North America as well as Canada, and each stop will have a retail partner, and Binny's is fortunate enough to be a partner with the show with the stop in Chicago. It's prestigious enough to be chosen to be one of the cities. Absolutely. Then the company we keep with other retailers like Sotheby's, K&L, it's a niche crew, and there's not a lot of retailers in America that offer a futures program or a Bordeaux futures program as hardy as ours. Or as reliable. Good. To kind of make sure I'm understanding here, so wine is made in Bordeaux about three-ish years later, it comes here on this grand tour, and people get to kind of get like a sneak preview of the wines before they're available, correct? Or as soon as they order them, they're available then or is it? 5:48 Bordeaux Futures Program We will taste the wines in, so speaking of the 23s, we'll taste the wines in 24. We will start, so that's spring, within the next month or two, we'll start getting offers from Negociants and producers and we'll contract our wines. When we do that, we will post on our website or through our various sales teams what wines we're offering at what prices. And those are the futures. These are the futures. That's the word. So the futures are available to purchase before most people have tried them and they're trusting Binny's to shepherd them to the right bottles. And then if they don't buy the futures, UGC comes along and the prices might be different, but they get to try the wines. Yeah, so that we would be at like first tranche pricing is what they call it, the first offers. And so we'll put them out and we sell them, it's a minimum three bottles per wine. You pay for the wine there, so you own it. It's a real, it's an actual sale. And then when the wine comes in, you pay the taxes when you take it home. Hmm, okay. But as you were saying, this UGC tasting is an opportunity to taste it, you know, anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months before the wines arrive. To maybe give that last opportunity to buy before they hit the shelf at shelf pricing. Right. Gotcha. So just to go back to timeline a little bit, it is the, it is January 2026. The 2023 campaign is still available to purchase, regardless of when you're listening to this. There will be a little bit of a window after, say, the spring. In about two weeks from now, we're gonna cut off sales for 23s because wines are on the way. We're gonna continue selling the 24s even as the 2025 campaign begins this spring. Got it. And in January of 2027, people will be trying what at UGC? The 2024 vintage. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We. We figured it out. Very confusing. It's like we haven't been doing this for 20 years. I mean, it's confusing. There's a lot of different, the pandemic screwed stuff up, probably. I don't know. And if you are listening and you're like, what the hell is 23, 24? That's the vintage on the wine. I don't know if we said that. This national tour brings about 60-some-odd producers from France traveling across the US. 8:18 Chicago Event Highlights This year was the first year that we have a new location for this, which was Morgan Manufacturing in the West Loop of Chicago. Very cool, very posh, very fun. I liked the layout, you know? The Drake, it's a beautiful room. My one complaint with the Drake always was that it's a long, skinny rectangle. And that makes it get a little close shoulder to shoulder. Here, the rectangle is a bit squeezed in more, it's wider. So I thought that the flow was much better. Spacing the ambiance, a lot, lot better, yeah. If you haven't been to, for our listeners, haven't been to this Morgan Manufacturing, it's this big, kind of industrial vibe. It's very chic, it's got these pretty string lights, brick. It's got these big glass ceiling sections, big giant glass walls and plenty of room to walk around. Yeah. We also had the opportunity to have some master classes, some ateliers as they call them. And Jon and I were able to moderate and take part in these. Jon, you were with Chateau Giscours and Chateau Sudarat, correct? Yes. Really excited. Love the producers, love the wines. We did the current release 2023 from both on Chateau Giscours. We did a little bit of a contrasting vintage, very different stylistically with side-by-side comparative of the 2015. And then on Sudaro, we did the 2013. So that was, it was really amazing to see, you know, I think we had 45 guests sit with for this to have people be able to try a current release and another release that was exactly 10 years older. Right. The light bulbs that were going on were very, very cool. And Gabe, what were you leading? I had a Brannier du Creux and Chateau Au Bataillis. And same thing, Brannier du Creux was a 2023 versus a 2019. Au Bataillis was a 2023 versus a 2016. And same thing, just to see that time span. And one thing that got highlighted a lot was even in, say, the window of about 10 years, it was noted how much technology had changed and how bottling had changed over just a couple of years. So really, it was very magnifying to see those two vintages next to each other from both producers. Nice. Yeah, it was very cool. And that was part of a VIP option that customers were able to purchase here. Got you a glass of champagne. Nice. Shout out Bollinger. It got you access to one of these two classes and a voucher for an in-store tasting as well. Oh, nice. So the gift that keeps on giving all year. Check out events at binnys.com. Yeah. When will the 2023s be on store shelves? Some. If there are any left? Some 2023s, particularly some white wines have already hit the shelves. Most are going to be starting in the summer-ish, and it's going to run through about January of 27. Or until they sell. Basically, I mean. Yeah. Okay. I think it's we've we've really done a great job working with our, not only the negotiants, but as well the the people who are actually physically moving the wine. When I started with Binny's almost 20 years ago, we used to only get our futures delivered in the spring and fall because people didn't have the refrigerated movers. Sure. As plentiful as now. Reifers as they call them. Reifers. Now, with the- Now, reefers are legal. We're meticulous with our shipping on these wines, so we get them year round whenever they're available. Yeah. That really helps move things quicker, probably prevents some holding costs of delaying over the hot summer. And every case of Bordeaux that comes to Oakbrook, I put my hand on and make sure that it's cool to the touch. We call you the Jon Hammond of Oakbrook. You're there for every crate. Every crate. And so the price on these is a wide ranging price range, right? I mean, there are Bordeauxs that are inexpensive, correct? Absolutely, yeah. There are parts of this futures campaign that are, I mean, do I say $15 a bottle? Yeah. You could be going in at about $15 a bottle, red or white, sauternes in particular as well, a variety of formats. We might not always list the availability of half bottles or magnums, three liters, et cetera, but you can always request. We do love the requests. And those are usually, they fill as they go on those bigger ones or? We actually have to place a request for the bottle sizes that we want. Cool. So we almost get an allocation of like a liter per negotiant of a certain wine. Oh, okay, cool. Yeah. So yeah, you could be, it's not just for the first growth. It's not for the most elite bottles. Yeah, this is not an untouchable thing for the average wine drinker. You can do this. Absolutely. You can get in on this or you could spend a little more money. I'll say when you are looking at the availability, if you're looking to build out a cellar, if you are looking at your top chateaus and you want to secure that, it is worthwhile to purchase the futures because those are the most sought after. Those are the ones that in theory are going to be the most allocated. At some point, they will run out. Those are the ones that sell out the quickest. If you really want Chateau Margaux, buy it on futures. It's a guarantee you'll get some. Everything else, there's a chance it'll end up in the store more often than not. I think everyone's shopped our Bordeaux section now and seeing that we keep it full. Yeah. We keep it full. Yeah. But yeah, you can go at any rate up and down the scale of price there. Nice. Great. For a long time, and still one of my long time favorites is Chateau L'Avier Cure from Fransac. Yeah. And that'll be on futures for anywhere. I mean, historically, it's been like $16 to $18. It hits the shelf at like $25 or so. I can't get enough of it. Yeah. Nice. Every year. I was doing Chateau Lillian LaDouise for a long time. And that was the same thing I was paying at most $16 a bottle, maybe $18. That's just what I like to have around the house. Very cool. One question that we were getting a lot of yesterday is the talk of tariffs and how that's going to be affected on your futures orders. So that doesn't touch the wine until the wine lands on our shores. And from what I'm being told, it's very much today is 15%. Next month, it could be very different. It keeps changing. It keeps changing. And the best we could say is that we're going to continue to try and get to the best price we can. I've done comparative pricing on futures programs across major retailers. We are neck and neck, if not above major retailers for Bordeaux futures. Below. You mean below. Below. Yes. Yes, sorry. We're going above and beyond to keep you below. That's exactly that. Yeah. Kind of related to Tariff and also the vintage. 2023 has some ups and downs. There were some tragedies, but there were definitely some really wonderful wines. You mean like there was some weather issues, right? Some weather issues, yeah. Some people didn't handle it as well. A little bit of a mildew issue some places. Yeah. One thing I love about Bordeaux is I think that more so than almost just about anywhere else. They will adjust their pricing based on the quality of the vintage. And ever since I want to say the 2019 release, they've been very conscious of what the overall economic market is doing. So what the demand is, the interest, the disposable income. So on these 2023s, prices came down. They were just like record reductions. And for still getting very good reviews, having tasted a lot of the wines in France, I was pleasantly surprised with how great they were priced. And so... It's almost like a cold snap in Chicago. We get this crap weather report online and then we step outside and it's 30 degrees and we're like, that's not bad. That's pretty good. I don't need that jacket. That's kind of what it is. You read a little bit of this doom and gloom and you can kind of assume. But the overall quality of Bordeaux has become so much more consistent. And you're right, this is one of the probably the only region in the world that I know that does adjust to all of these factors. They want Bordeaux to be accessible regardless of bottle prices reaching in excess of a thousand dollars in some areas. They want to make it friendly for everybody. Now what makes it relevant here and what you were saying about tariff is there's a lot of talk about 10, 15 and 20 percent tariffs. A lot of these wines are anywhere from 12 to 35 percent less than their 2022 counterparts. Some of them are just as good. Yeah. Some of them as a small fragment is better. So we could be looking if you talk to your Binny's go-to, and you talk to them about where are the real winners in this vintage, you could be getting 2023s that are better than 2022s for, even with the addition of tariff, you could still be coming That's really cool. We'll definitely want to touch on what our takeaways were from yesterday, and our steady eddy picks of any futures campaign, producers that we always lean on and look towards in regions. Having tasted 2023 fresh out the gate, month or two in a barrel, and then having tasted it yesterday where most wines were in or around, and maybe they've been bottled for about seven months, not quite ready to be released, but somewhere in that neighborhood. What was your impression of 2023, Jon? I'm glad you asked. I looked up my notes from when I had just gotten home, and a couple of takeaways from being there. Pricing very similar to 2019s. I thought the strongest regions were Pomerol, Pessac Leognan, and Saint-Julien. Okay. Margaux and Saint-Esteff had some really good successes, but they also probably had more struggles than some of the other regions. Great wines to be had, you just got to be a bit more choosy. Some of my favorite hits there, Vieux Chateau Sertan. I don't know if I'm just partial to that. That's just every time I have it. It's amazing. Whenever I've opened a bottle at home, my wife's like, why don't we drink this more often? It's expensive. Because it's VCC and I didn't tell you how much it's cost. I thought my best value over there was the Petit Liglis, the second wine of Liglis Clinet. Extra shout out to the Durandou family. I thought they had the best full line up of 23s. All of their Castillon, Saint-Emilion, Le Land de Pomerols, Pomerol, everything they did was just on point. Some of those wines are under $20. Yeah, nice. Other hits that we tried in Bordeaux and definitely followed through to yesterday's tasting. I thought Brancatenac, the 23, might be my favorite vintage I've ever tasted from them. And it delivered just as well yesterday. Le Carme d'Aubrillon was another big hit. I think that was our last appointment in Bordeaux and it was the last wine I tasted at the tasting again. And it was right there. And the guy standing on the other side of the table just smiling, knew that he had gold in the bottle. Yeah. That was when that Barb came over and was like, remember we tasted this? Have you tasted it yet? And she's just smiling like, all right, I got to do this. I went yesterday to the tasting and this event is, for those of you who have no idea what the hell we're talking about again, it's giant room with all of these amazing wines all over the place from Bordeaux. And for someone like me who gets, I get a little bit intimidated at something like this. Everyone is so friendly and there's so many things to try and there's approachable wines and then there's also, like I call them the big adult, real adult wines. But there's also just like light, really pretty, it's just an amazing event really. And if you haven't tried it, check it out. So from a first time perspective, even though it is a big mess of room with a lot of people and a lot of wine, did you feel that it was fairly easy enough to get around? Like regions and stuff were represented well? The information that was laid out was sufficient for you to like know what you were getting in the glass? I think so. There's big signs everywhere. Every, everyone is more than willing to chat with you and kind of talk about things if you want to, not so much if you don't want to. It also seems like, you know, the people that do pay to be there are really excited to be there. And vintage totally aside, Bordeaux produces some of the world's most serious wines. It's like heavy-duty, kind of cerebral wines. From what you tasted yesterday, did you feel like it was tough to break into Bordeaux? Did you walk away liking something? Did you think like, oh, I could drink more Bordeaux? Yeah, definitely. There are three tables in particular that I remember. I took a photo of them somewhere, but there are three tables that I tried that was like, wow, I gotta remember this for someday down the road or order it now, you know? Hell yeah, cool. 21:37 Expert Wine Selections Let's taste some wine. What's number one wine that you brought for us, Jon? This is the 2023 Chateau Carbonnieux Blanc. This is a long time. I think this has been on the shelf at Binny's in all of my years working here. It's classic. This is white Bordeaux through and through. 68% Sauvignon Blanc, 32 Sémillon. This comes out of Pessac Leognan, and this to me is just the identity. I've probably had close to 20, 25 vintages of this, and every year it's just crystallized lemon and chalk. I love that. It's a fun departure. White Bordeaux for me is this great balance of Sauvignon and Sémillon. What Sémillon does to the Sauvignon Blanc is help broaden out the fruit, tame that acidity a little bit, but also add a little weight, a little texture, a little bit of oily quality to it. You still get a lot of the hallmarks of Sauvignon Blanc, with these added layers of complexity. Richness, tropical. What's great about this producer is that some of them get ripe and bombastic, because there's always this Barrel aging on here, there's lees contact. What I like about these guys is that they do keep it bright and aromatic, and like Jon said, that tropical citrus is prominent versus those kind of tertiary qualities, which makes it for a really fun and easy bottle to drink. Yeah, it's very bright and zippy. Just enough acidity. Kind of reminds me of like apples, kind of like a Granny Smith-ish. Yeah, definitely a Granny Smith. Not quite as tart as a Granny Smith, but. It's almost got like a snap to it. Crunch. Yeah. Maybe like a tart golden apple. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, just a little, probably a little bit of lees contact in there helps give it a little bit more weight. But this is the style of Sauvignon Blanc, generally white wine that I gravitate towards the most. White Bordeaux is where it's at. I know the world is crazy for Sauvignon Blanc in a lot of ways. They're right. But white Bordeaux is the future. I've been saying it for a few years now. Every time we entertain at the house and we open white Bordeaux, it's the first wine to go empty. It's the first wine that people say, hey, what was that wine we had at your house? You know, this probably historically has been retailing between $35 and $45 a bottle. But there are also great values in the 15 to 20 range. We do a lot of that around the house too. Yeah, Clos de Lunes, that little Southerner de Dry. Yeah, I love that. Lyon de Southerno, Art de Riasseck, G de Giraud. It's a big thing that the Sauternes produces a lot or taking a turn over there for... Which is fun because you'll start seeing a little bit of this like candied fruit quality, maybe a little bit of that honey kind of thing happening, which again adds a whole other element to these wines. They're really fun, they're really complex. They can get expensive. They can also get very, very accessible. I mean, even Chateau N'Cote for a whole $9, that's a really... That's expensive. It reminds me of the kind of Sauvignon Blancs that I like, which are tropical and acidic and easy to drink. And as we say around here, Porch Pounders, this is a veranda value, I think. Ooh, a veranda value. Oh yeah, it's a little swing set zipper. Do we have a price on that or? Yeah, this usually... I haven't seen what we... It's obviously going to change, right? Current vintage is... Actually, the futures price is $36.50 a bottle. Okay, nice. Yeah. Nice. You get three of them for like right around 100 bucks before tax. Nice. Cool, cool, cool. Amen. All right, so what's next? We're going with a 2023 Chateau Giscours. You want to liberate your... Oh, look at you, you guys. I'm slacking my glass. Jon, you and I have spent a fair amount of time drinking wine together, probably because we both like the same things and we both love Chateau Giscours. Chateau Giscours to me is textbook classic Margaux. It is a hot knife cutting through butter. It is not the most in your face. It's not the most aggressive wine out there. It is a slow burn. It is a crescendo of flavor and texture and complexity. And that's just in every sip. I love how it doesn't try and attack you. But it ends up being so, so generous. Yeah, I have a bit of a love affair with these guys. It was one of the first Margaux for me that really helped me make sense of what is this area about. It's the first time that I smelled the violets. And that to me, that's the hallmark of Margaux is you get that Merlot-y fruit, a little bit of that clay-rich vibe in the texture, and then it's just violets, just fields and fields of wilting violet. I thought you said you smell the violets. Oh, no. You should go to battlefield. This is a little bit more forward for Giscours. You're getting a lot of that purple fruit, black fruit. This seems more expressive than it did yesterday, I thought. Yeah, it's a good bottle. Yeah, there's definitely like some purple plum kind of notes, but it's floral. I can definitely get the florality here. To me for the left bank and maybe even for Bordeaux on the whole, when I smell flowers blind, I'm going Margaux for my guess. Yeah. This is a sneaky good window right now. This wine will mature decades. Twenty years is a really comfortable spot to pick this bottle up at. And if you check out, this is the 23 that's available on Futures right now. Current Futures pricing is $54, but they hit the shelves somewhere in the neighborhood between 80 and 100 or so, depending on the vintage. Some Binny stores do still have 15s and 16s available. Some might still have 18s. A little round of applause for Chateau Giscours. The 2022 vintage was Spectator's Wine of the Year. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So they're coming off the heels of a really hot vintage in terms of quality. And I think 23 is staying on par. I put my money on that. Yeah, they're one of the producers. I buy a couple bottles every year just because I love them. I don't know. Maybe they got in my brain and figured out what I like in wine. And like, we're going to make this, this. He will, and he, we will always be guaranteed to sell John Adam at least six bottles a year. Chateau Giscours also has a second wine, Lasserine. So if you love everything that we're talking about and think, golly, I don't want to spend $54 right now, take a stab at their junior label. Futures for 2023 is about $27 a bottle right now. Nice. You're getting a lot of the same hallmarks. You're getting a lot of the identity of the Chateau in these second labels. And they're, generally speaking, in around half the cost and a lot of the same gratifying qualities. Nice. Very cool. Seek out their rosé too. Oh, they make the rosé. We don't see it in America too much, but. I think I've sold like one vintage in 10 years or something like that. I think it was like the 2015. Yeah. I think I lived off of it for a summer. It was lovely. What's our third wine here? I see there's more over there. I was going to call out, so I love Bordeaux. I love tracking these futures as they come down and seeing how they're stacking against previous vintages, how pricing looks. If you're ever curious and seeing a spreadsheet, ask, we'll be happy to send you one. But over the last few years that I do this, I always end up gravitating towards a handful of producers that are just like steady eddy every time. Good, bad or ugly, these are good wines to buy on futures or on the shelves. So some of those for me are what we have coming up right now. Chateau Clinet, Giscours is high on the list, that Lillian LaDouise I'm a big fan of. Chateau Cure 1 out of Margaux, love that on the futures world and always comes in very well priced, very accessible wines. Smith Hout Lafite Blanc is always something that I look out for. And then your first growths of the world. That's what I look at. And again, I think pricing on O'Brien has steadily maintained itself and been high but accessible, especially on the futures market. Jon, any go-to producers for you? On that upper tier, I'm a little bit more La Mission O'Brien. I like the rock and roll more than the classic. I agree. Especially, I mean, the Blanc of that is just... Even though the pricing might be about the same, depending on the vintage. Pricing is usually double or triple the red, but I love that. Another one that one of my go-to is the Ceylon Segur. I love them. Just St. Esteph, so under-appreciated, so overshadowed by Puyak. History behind Ceylon's cool. I also like them in a vintage like this, or some of the more challenging vintages, like when we saw Frost of 21 and 17. They're so close to the river that like I think in 17, they might have been the only producer that did not lose fruit to Frost. Really? Their 17 is pretty complete. The Giscour, of course, the La Vie Cours that I had mentioned before. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think that I'm as much of a die-hard for consistency. I have a little bit of, not a little, I have a lot of wine ADHD where I'm just like everything. I want to try this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and I don't want any repeats. Give me something new. No. That's why I don't like re-watch TV shows or re-read books. I need new stimulation all the time. Have you tried watching West Wing? So this wine is quite tannic and quite dry. Oh. And not so, working back 2023, Chateau Clinet from Pomerol, not the same like lush forward style that I think we typically see out of Clinet, at least on the nose so far. I haven't gone, I haven't taken a sip yet. It has like a mouthful of Velcro at the end there. But damn if that's not delicious. Wow. That's what I anticipate most wines to taste at On Premier or at UGC. The times when you do get lush fruit and accessibility, it's such a surprise and it's so welcoming. But when you taste something like this, this is what peaks curiosity. This makes me think what is this bottle going to be in the next seven, eight, 12 years? Absolutely. Yeah, that's exciting. I'm always a fan of Clinet. And I think for the world of Pomerol, it's maintained high value at really good costs. You're getting your 120 to 150 dollars for the wine out of this. And you're not, and especially in this vintage, you're not spending that much. Many of the recent years have been teetering around that, like, 90 to 120 bucks. I think this is also a really fun wine for the Cabernet drinkers of the world, because guess what? 75 percent below. Now, with them in their last couple years, they have been doing more Cabernet in their blend. I think their 22 had the most Cabernet ever in a Pomerol, but that was still, you know, somewhere around 20, 25 percent. This vintage is clocking 80 percent new oak, which will certainly do it great, really strong press through and through, currently available on Futures for $78 a bottle. Lexi, you had a question, a thought, amusing. I was going to ask how much of us, so there we go. The world of Pomerol will escalate in price incredibly quickly. And what's coming south of 100, you pick your favorites, but the ones that live over 100 and over 200 or 300 are the ones that are really, I think, defining the region, which is tough because we all want to drink more Pomerol. Clos Renais. You buy Clos Renais on most vintages and futures, don't you? I have. Yeah. We bought that quite a bit. Is that what that one is or no? I think we've got some Clos Renais 19 in the stores right now. That sounds about right. Pretty reasonable. Under 50 bucks maybe. Yeah. That's always a strong producer. Yeah. And I like, they show well early on, so that's a fun one to try, you know, two years after release, so like five years after vintage or, you know, 10, 12 years. But I think Clinet is a really great example of Pomerol with lasting power without having to get into that 200, 300, 500, $6,000 price range. You know, I had some from the late 80s maybe last year and singing. What's next? Final bottle. So the last bottle, I'll call it out, Chateau Dozy Dane. Did I get that right, Jon? Dwasi Dane. Dwasi? Yeah. Barbara Herman, 2022 Vintage was her pick of the year on the podcast. A few weeks going to the buyer's pick. All right. It's one of the few times that the French is totally phonetic. I don't know. Dwasi? It sounds like there should be a W in that. Yeah. Dwasi. It looks like it's Dwasi Dame. Yeah. I think that's just the Midwest coming through. Yeah. Dwasi Dame. Dwasi. Let's have a little bar side. Dwasi Idaho, right? I got a cousin from there. UGC Pro Tip. For anyone that has listened to this podcast and that I need to attend this event, this is going to be so much fun. I like all the things I'm hearing. When you do go to UGC, start at the saw turntables. They're usually the ones people save for last. Right. It's the shortest line. Yeah, you got to go in with a plan. Was it next to the Charcuterie this time also? Yeah. That's usually kind of where it is. Yeah. Going in with a plan is really smart. And Lexi, you mentioned about maybe feeling a little bit lost when there's so much. And certainly fancy wine can be intimidating. But going in with a plan, what I always tell people is try one or two of the whites to just kind of wake up your palate, run through some reds, hit one region of red. So go commune by commune. And then when you start feeling a little bit of palate fatigue and things are tasting the same, go back to where the whites are, hit two other whites. And then just do that, rotate that pattern two or three, four times, then hit a couple of sweets. And then start all over again. Whites, reds, whites, reds, whites, reds, sweets, white, red, white, red, sweet. Definitely don't save the sweets for the end because there's always a mad dash. And you'll just miss out on so much wine and so much time. Yeah. My plan for the last few years has been less geographic and more just trying to build out producer profiles. So the vintage is going to be the vintage. And wines will have to lean into it for one direction or another. But Bordeaux, I think, has by and large become more consistent vintage to vintage to showcasing a house style. Like I know what to expect from Giscours. I know what to expect from Clinet. I like being surprised. But I like having built out these kind of profiles in my head of what should I be looking for out of ex-producers. And so maybe some vintages I don't get to taste everything I wanted to or every producer that I like. But I focused in on, okay, I need to get my Pouliac guys down this year. I need to get whites down this year, something like that. That's my nerdy approach to it. So we've got Duazidaine, Chateau Duazidaine 2023, Sauveterne. You can have an entire podcast just describing the aromatics of Sauveterne. This is... Maybe we should do an episode of all these kinds of wines throughout the world. Just slow smells. Sponsored by Insulin. We are tasting this out of a 750 milliliter bottle, which is Decadence. These are typically sold in half-sized bottles, 375 milliliters. This guy right now, and a half bottle, is going for $22.50 on the 2020-23 market. It's pretty good. Yeah. I think when Barb was here, she said there was a 2015 still in our stores for a pretty reasonable price. Oh, yeah. Going outside this producer, I mean, we had like 11 hanging around for a little bit for, I don't know, sub $20 easy. That's part of the great thing with our relationships with the Chateaus and the Negociantes is just how frequently we get these back vintages at almost like release pricing, initial release, or maybe even just a small percentage up. Very cool. Sauternes is always rich, decadent, viscous. In their youth, I appreciate their acidity, and I think that's what gives them a lot more flexibility in terms of consumption than some people would assume. This doesn't just have to be for dessert. Savoury dishes, salty dishes would go great with this. If you want more of that concentrated honey, honeycomb, golden fruit, raisiny kind of thing, wait on them for a little while or hit your local Binny's and see what's the oldest bottle they got. You'll probably walk away with the steel. But if you want to play around with it and have something that is maybe consumed more like it is in France as an aperitif, as a start to the meal or with appetizers, look for these younger vintages and chill them down, you'll find surprisingly good No, it's not overwhelming. And then you said appetizers, so you can do a... I mean, I guess you do this after dinner too, but I mean, obviously cheese. Yeah. Cheese before and after. Yes, blue cheese, but charcuterie also would go with this, right? The foie gras is a big thing. You know what? Salty. Yeah. Like roasted nuts, salted meats. Yeah. Shout out to Ben at Lincoln Park. His favorite Sautern pairing is a classic Chicago dog. Yeah. The way he talks about it, it just makes sense. Relish, mustard, you know, it all... Spore peppers. That sounds great. Sautern is the perfect match to that combo. I'm sure that they were making this wine and they were like, wow, you know, it would be so good with this. Hot dog. Would you believe it? We were in Chicago. We tried this thing they called the Chicago dog. We need a wine to make. Wine Spectator did a pairing football cities with wine. Really? In Chicago with Italian beef with some big red, big Cabernet. That's too easy. But Sautern and hot dog. Sautern and hot dog. They missed it entirely. Maybe an extra. God, we got to have something better than just an Italian beef and a red wine. I mean, that's just basic. Yeah, that's too easy. Give me the dog and the sweet. Sautern and dog. That sounds great. Yeah, if hot dogs ever came back. Yeah, foie gras. Do a foie gras dog. Foie gras dog with Sautern. Hell yeah. I wonder if you could put a percentage of Sautern into the oil to deep fry the dog. Yes. You could do this. Oh my God. Do like duck fat fries with Sautern. Yeah, Sautern duck fat fries. On that note. I'm hungry again. Cool. 40:52 Future Events Contact UGC, one of the funnest, coolest, most unique wine tasting experiences to come to Chicago, let alone the Midwest. It is every January. We will continue to be the retail partner, God willing, for as long as we can. And I hope you check us out next year. If you have questions about purchasing futures, you could reach out to any given store that you like. Ask them, we'll be happy to help. You can jump on our website. You can filter through for futures. It should have its own tab. If you see something on social, send it to us on social and we will do what we can. And there's always the wine hotline. If you want to go in depth and talk more and have questions about the whole process. Is the wine hotline still a thing? I don't know. You're it, buddy. Oh, geez. That's a good question. It goes to Oak Brook. The switchboard just goes and puts the little plugs in. It goes from Niles to Oak Brook. Maybe we, I appreciate that kind of a plug, and I'd love for that to be valid, but I don't know what the. It's on the darn website. The phone number's on there? It's got a phone number. I mean, we call it the wine hotline, but it's an actual. Yeah, no, 866-975-6188. Call it. I mean, we still have the whiskey hotline. Brett, Dan, or Rob will answer the phone sometimes, so. Put it on speaker. I bet it's Doug. Good afternoon. Wine hotline. How may I help you? Juan Torres, you're live on the podcast. That's who I am. Hello. We wanted to make sure the wine hotline was still available and accessible to us. Thank you for answering. You're welcome. What do you guys need? Futures. Lots and lots of support of futures. Just to know you exist. We'll make sure the listeners call in. Awesome. So yeah, with any questions, feel free to give us a call. Thanks Juan. Bye. Okay. Well, thank you for listening to another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. If you liked this podcast, share with your mom and your dog and your neighbor and your grandma, and your favorite bartender and the person at the grocery store. Leave us a review and thanks for listening. I'm Lexi. I'm Jim. I'm Jon. I'm Gabe. Keep tasting.