Postscript: Lee Je-chun on French Wines vs. American Wines
(Image from Wikipedia)
In a follow-up to yesterday's post on the idiosyncratic views of Mr. Lee Je-chun, proprietor of Jell Wine in Itaewon-dong, I did a Google search and found a document consistent both with Bruce's view that Mr. Lee is repeating the words of "someone who is selling French wine" and with Jon Allen's view that Mr. Lee "has been taken in by his French wine seller."
According to this pdf French document from 2004, or thereabouts, Mr. Lee's stock of wines for 2003 amounted to about 1000 sorts, with French wines being somewhat under 50 percent but principally "des Grand Crus ou des vin haut de gamme," meaning that he has his shop stocked up on a lot of expensive French wines that he needs to sell.
The document also states that he recommends wines from Chile and Australia -- which, I suppose, means that he also carries them.
American wines are not mentioned, which would perhaps suggest that he does not carry them in stock -- hardly surprising since he warns us to "avoid American wines." He wouldn't say that if he were trying to sell some.
Be that as it may -- and perhaps someone who has shopped at Jell Wine can let us know if the place carries any American wines -- Mr. Lee's emphasis upon the superiority of French wines probably reflects what he's learned from his French wine sellers, but it also likely expresses his own business interest in selling the many expensive French wines that he's stocked up on.
For the record, I'm sure that Jell Wine carries in stock a large selection of excellent wines, and I wouldn't wish to discourage anyone from shopping there, but I would advise shoppers to take with a grain of salt Monsieur Lee's views on American wines.
Labels: Wine
posted by Horace Jeffery Hodges @ 4:33 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
CIV's spouse has a friend who gets an instant headache if he drinks American wine. Always orders French. If I cared about wine, I'd have a blind taste test and see if he can really tell. (Perhaps so -- many years ago we held a blind taste test of beers, and he could name nearly all of them.)
CIV, a true person of taste, ( to tell the truth I know I'm about to misspell connieuseur- I did, I know) if he/she has that particular ability to determine the actual potable. Anyway.
Jeff's friend Bruce has the uncanny ability to determine the qualities of the vine. Anyone who knows him admits it freely.
A true test of spirits, in my humble opinion should be of single-malt scotch. It's expensive, but so is Bruce's wines more or less.
If he has a hankering, see if he can determine Glenfiddich, neat. But, CIV be there to get him home. All single malts should be tasted neat.
By the way, I'd ask, did he guess "Billy Beer" correctly? I'd guess not, it is conservative in VA isn't it?
I don't know how Jeff got us to this point but it is his fault. Well at least that silly girl or the Ivy League guy doesn't comment on such.
Now that I thin about it, well; thanks Jeff.
JK
CIV, I met a woman in Germany who claimed to get headaches from American wine. I was skeptical, but maybe the American wine-making process uses some chemical. We should ask Bruce, but I don't want to plague him with too many queries in a short time.
Personally, I thought that it was an Anti-American Headache...
Jeffery Hodges
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JK, I think that we've not heard the last of Silly Sally aka Harvard Man.
But if I had to choose which troll to have, s/he'd be the one.
I'd rather have no trolls, however.
Silly Sally's clearly intelligent and learned, so I don't understand why she wants to go around trolling. There are better things to do than that.
Jeffery Hodges
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Jeff,
You may recall I once asked you about "trolls". I'm usually using a different language when it comes to this internet stuff. I'm kind of a virgin. Well I was born in the 50's.
I really didn't know. A story, true story. I was on Shore Patrol (late 70's) in PI. Marcos had martial law going. Me and this Marine guy were walking up Magsaysay Blvd and we saw this guy with a rod and reel.
Every door he came to he'd toss a cast. We watched him do this for oh, maybe 20 minutes. Sometimes he'd cast several times.
After a bit, I have to admit we were, I guess bumfuzzled would be the proper etiquette, we asked him something like, "what are you doing?"
His exact words were, "I'm fishing for trolls." The Marine I was with said, "Billy Goat Gruff you ain't, and there ain't no trolls here".
We walked on a bit but soon enough we got a word from the Filipino "Chrome Domes" there was a US Marine acting, well, "weird". We went back and asked, "What are you doing"?
He said, "I'm trolling for hogs."
I guess you just had to be there. But after Marcos was gone, doggone that was a wonderful land. Thank the Good Lord, they asked us to leave. And of course Mount Pinatubo.
JK
Amusing story, JK. You seem to be rich with such experiences.
Jeffery Hodges
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