I really don’t understand what is potentially so devastating about Paul Ryan and a bunch of corporate flacks or Glibertarian economists ordering very expensive wine. Everyone knows they are perfectly fine with lavishing wealth on themselves while screwing the poor, so I’m not sure what difference this makes. It’s just what they do every day- treat themselves very well while hatching schemes to screw the most vulnerable.
I guess I do have questions about the judgment of anyone who would pay that much for a bottle of wine, though. There’s really no reason for anyone to pay more than 10-15 bucks for a bottle of wine, period. I guess prices are inflated in restaurants, but I think the stuff you get online or at the grocery for under 20 bucks is pretty decent quality in and of itself. Then again, I’m just a hick from West Virginia with no taste, so you all can now proceed to make Boones Farm jokes.
Bruce S
It’s not about wine.
Veblen: “Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability…”
Boone’s Farm is no longer wine, but malt liquor. So you’ve exempted yourself from Boones Farm jokes by your “sophisticated” ignorance of the product. My wife can drink the Two Buck Chuck Chardonnay, but the red stuff sucks…beyond that, there’s some pretty decent wine at TJs for $6-$9.
Yutsano
To me it’s more the fact Ryan is being such a weasel about who he was dining with. And his cover story makes no sense. Especially when he whips out the receipt then says he doesn’t know for sure how much the wine cost.
Eric k
You can get decent enough Cabernet for under $20 retail (figure about double the price of any wine in a restaurant). Pinot Noir has gone insane though, even here in Oregon where the grow it it is $30 fir. Decent bottle
bystander
@ Bruce S:
My very first thought. You beat me to it. It’s not the “taste”, it’s what the price signifies.
Pillsy
This really is the non-story of the decade. I guess the fact that he’s a rich douchebag who wants to dick the poor right in the eye means it’s more of an outrage when he, what, spends a lot of money on shit most people wouldn’t spend a lot of money on?
Even rich people who aren’t real assholes do that. I bet he lives in a really big house and drives an overpriced car, too.
nancydarling
John, I have been known to drink TwoBuckChuck’s cabernet when dining alone and loathe to open a more expensive bottle for myself. It’s drinkable and definitely a cut above Althouse’s box stuff. (Runs for cover from wine snobs).
kay
I don’t get it either, honestly. I hate “gaffes”. I think they’re supposed to reveal a person’s political weakness or hypocrisy or true nature or something, but I think if they aren’t immediately obvious they fail even as gaffes.
Citizen Alan
Personally, I think the mere existence of wine that goes for $350 a bottle is proof that the French abandoned Madame Guillotine too quickly.
dedc79
It’s just another reminder that we americans have chosen representatives whose personal wealth makes them inherently unrepresentative of our interests.
We shouldn’t be surprised to see legislators sacrificing social security/medicare/etc… in favor of tax cuts to the wealthy. They are all generally pretty wealthy compared to the average american.
different church-lady
COLE YOU’RE AN IDIOT! A well-aged $40* bottle of Ridge Zinfandel can be well worth the price for a special occasion.
(*at home, of course)
dan
Corn squeezins in a jug marked XXX
different church-lady
Also: you go to press with trivial story you have. You don’t go to press with the trivial story you wished to have.
cleek
’tis merely class rivalry. people who can’t afford a $350 pinot please themselves by mocking the decadent ways of those who can.
plus, Ryan’s a douche.
Bruce S
nancydarling – get a couple of half-bottles and reuse them, so when you’re on your own with a bottle (my wife doesn’t drink red and I’m not into white) you can “re-cant” what you don’t drink. That’s my MO.
replicnt6
I was kind of hoping for the title of this post to be Red Red Whine. Too easy, maybe.
Yutsano
Sigh.
The wine is the bright shiny object.
Why won’t Ryan name who he was dining with?
That’s the big story here to me. Because Ryan could be facing an ethics investigation.
Egypt Steve
It’s objectively a non story.
Since when is politics about what is objectively true?
Pillory him on anything that works. That’s what I say. Call him an elitist. Compare it to John Edward’s haircut and imply he’s just as sleazy. Cut his throat while you can, and enjoy the opportunity while it lasts.
different church-lady
A priest, a rabbi, and a traveling salesman walk up to the edge of Boone’s Farm, and the priest says…
gogol's wife
To repeat TPM’s question, why is the wine any less outrageous than John Edwards’s haircut? I didn’t care about his haircut either, nor was I surprised by its price, but the media certainly did. Shouldn’t this get at least as much attention? But it won’t.
nancydarling
Does anyone else remember one of the opening scenes in “A Tale of Two Cities” when the wine cask falls off the wagon and breaks in front of DeFarge’s wine shop and the rabble use their kerchiefs to sop it up off the ground to drink.
Rabble R Us.
ciaran
um its such bullshit imo, like even hypothetical if he was right about the budget it still wouldnt make any difference. like if he stayed at home and lived on bread and water he’d still be a sociopathic prick.these people seem incapable of thinking about things in anything but the shallow of fashions.
Dennis SGMM
@dan
Platte Valley Corn Liquor. It’s even packaged in a jug.
Woodrow L. Goode, IV
Someone (I’m pretty sure it was Jay Rosen) said, in talking about “Dick” Halperin, that this is the type of story the media loves, because it gives them the opportunity to sough tough. But because it has absolutely no policy implications, it can’t be used as an example of bias.
The flip is “OMG, Al Gore uses air conditioning” (or took a taxi someplace).
My friends who spend tens of thousands of dollars on wine tell me it provides a unique sensation that can be gotten no other way. Same basic argument my friends who travel, or spend money on loges for football games use.
I try not to spend money on anything ephemeral, but to some people, it isn’t. My brother can still tell me about the dinner he had at Commander’s Palace when he was 13, and he remembers that the Oysters dish seemed overspiced.
Josie
Several people have mentioned their desire for a simple story line that portrays to the common man what kind of hypocrits these people are. This is such a story line.
gogol's wife
#24: Right. We’re talking politics, not wine.
Dallas Taylor
I agree with your general point that you can get pretty decent wine for $10-15. I do want to chime in, though, as someone who’s spent his whole adult life working in restaurants and bars, on wine prices in restaurants, which many folks consider outrageous (they often say the same thing about the markup on liquor).
The thing is, is when you buy a drink at a bar or a bottle of wine in a restaurant, you’re not just buying that drink or that bottle, you’re buying the experience of drinking it at that restaurant or bar, along with your meal. There is also the fact that, even in a restaurant, that markup is where the money to keep the lights on and pay the staff comes from.
Sorry for the tangentiality of my rant. Guess I’m a little sensitive, having listened to too many people bitch about wine and booze prices over the years, as if the profit margins in the hospitality industry were ever less than razor thin.
Now, back to your regularly-scheduled Galtian-overlord-inspired outrage…
Occasional Reader (okay, I'm here all the time)
Boone’s? Given your clear foodie tendencies I’d have pegged you as an Arbor Mist guy. I think $25 is a fairer upper limit than $10-$15 – double that and you still should never be paying more than $50 a bottle in a restaurant. Not that a $100 bottle can’t be spectacular, just that there’s not enough difference between a $25 bottle and the $100 bottle to make it worth it.
It’s just more hypocrisy from a guy who will turn around tomorrow and say that public sector workers are too highly paid and that we have no choice but to cut unemployment benefits and raid worker pensions without raising taxes on millionaires (including US Senators).
gogol's wife
Plus it’s suspicious when someone orders the very most expensive wine on the list. You just know they knew nothing about the wine, they just wanted to order the most expensive one.
ML
Yes, you are a hick.
But no, you’re not mistaken about there being a reasonable ceiling for a good– no, strike that– a great bottle of wine. But it’s not in the $20 range. More like $60-$100 range. With the inevitable exceptions, most wines that are priced above that are overpriced.
Scott Supak
The value of the incident is that it works like a political cartoon. I laughed when I read it. But Republican voters probably just said, hell, I’d drink the expensive stuff if I could afford it. Even though, like most people, they can’t tell the good from the cheap.
On a side note, where’s Dennis G on the crazy slavery shit in that marriage vow Bachmann signed?
cleek
@Josie:
how does this make Ryan a hypocrite? has he said those who can afford to waste money shouldn’t ? does he pretend to be a poor, hardscrabble, common man?
Mojotron
So Nero was fiddling while Rome burned, so what?
It’s easy to become inured to these modern-day “let them eat cake” moments because there’s quite a few of them nowadays, but if you can’t see why a public servant who has been laying off employees, forcing them to take drastic cuts, and prattling on about “belt-tightening” while dropping the equivalent of the monthly food budget for a family of four on a single bottle of wine while dining with lobbyists in “economist” clothing is a very bad thing I cannot help you.
MazeDancer
@different church-lady is right about Ridge Zinfandel. Worth it for special celebrations. Alas, the week after the special occasion your former favorite bargain brands won’t seem like as much of a bargain in comparison.
Something else not to discover is that expensive champagne – or at least stepping up a level – is also often worth it. Once known, this cuts back on the pure enjoyment of cheaper stuff. Doesn’t necessarily cut back on the buying, just the purity of the enjoyment.
And for those who like a deep, jammy red bargain: Apothic http://www.apothic.com/wine.html
$11.99 a bottle.
Paid twice as much for half as good.
And Paul Ryan is, as he always was, an idiot. $350 is absurd. And unnecessary.
Jennifer
I dunno. My favorite wine of all time, Kenwood’s ’96 Jack London cabernet would typically set me back $25 – $35 per bottle, retail, 10 years ago, when I could find it. And it was worth every penny. I’d still be buying and drinking it now at twice the price if I could find it. Sometimes a wine is just that good.
Josie
cleek @30: I apologize. I used the wrong word. I should have said asshole.
MikeJ
@ML:
$60-$100 in a liquor store. Sadly, in a restaurant that puts them in $150-$300 range.
Yevgraf
Red wines over $15 retail/$60 restaurant are wasted on me – my palate is limited. I do like good champagne, though – a Moet or Veuve Cliquot is pretty awesome, and I’ve got a soft spot for Prosecco.
Rum is a different story. I’m a rum snob.
cleek
i’ve had a $200/bottle wine. it was quite delicious. now, there’s no way i’d spend the money to buy a bottle myself (it was a gift), but there’s also no way i can honestly say it wasn’t better than the $10/bottle stuff i normally drink. it was better. not 20x better, but it was better.
cleek
@Yevgraf:
i have a little bottle of Pirat i like to sip on now and then. i asked my wife to fetch me a tiny glass of it, a couple of weeks ago, and she came back with a tumbler full, loaded with ice. i almost shed a tear.
different church-lady
DA-Yum… that was good stuff.
The thing you really don’t want to fall into is single malt scotch.
But then again, at least scotch keeps after you open it…
Ken
To amplify on Bruce S. @1, it’s the equivalent of the $670,000 Ferrari Enzo. If you just think of a car as a way to get from one place to another, that’s insane. But in this case it’s really a way to signal that you can afford to waste that much money.
Or, to hark back to another recent political scandal, there’s the $5000 prostitute. Again, strictly in terms of what you get for the money, it’s silly – but you are really signalling that you have the money to spend. (Just who you are signalling is another matter. It’s a bit like the people who buy stolen art which they can’t show in public.)
jacy
All I can say is my senior year in high school would have been much less, er, colorful without Boone’s Farm.
I’m a beer connoisseur, but if I’m drinking wine, I stick with something inexpensive that I know I won’t hate, like most anything from Beringer. Maybe if we’re at a fancy-schmancy special occasion dinner we’ll order a bottle, but anything more than $30 we’d have to really talk ourselves into it.
Valdivia
I once went on a date (horrid from beginning to end–safari outfit with purple socks? check. 30 minutes late? check. spent the whole lunch talking about how he proposed to a woman at the same restaurant and she said no? check) where the guy ordered a $500 bottle of wine. I almost fell of the chair when he did that. It wasn’t worth it, and the wine could not paper over the disaster that was the whole thing.
different church-lady
I noticed that Veuve Cliquot is what the Bruins sprayed each other down with during the Stanley Cup locker room celebration. No austerity in the NHL.
Curious to know where Appleton 12 year old fits into your rating system.
Suffern ACE
I thought the flak over Edwards’ hair was that only ladies should be spending that much on a haircut…and Clinton spent a lot on haircuts, too! Kind of combining anti-Gore and anit-clinton narratives and plopping them onto Edwards head. Wine doesn’t work that much. How could he represent Wisconsin and not order beer like any many would probably have more impact…but who cares.
Obama’s wife takes her kids on trips while her husband talks belt tightening!
(Most expensive wine I ever ordered was $450 a bottle, although in my defense, I didn’t know it cost that much or I wouldn’t have ordered the 2nd bottle. I hadn’t ordered the first. I wasn’t paying, although I don’t think the person who was paying intended for a mean for five to come to $1,200.)
Ken
Yutsano @16: That might be the real bullet, especially if the other person picked up the bill as a business-expense deduction for their corporate taxes. There are huge sectors of the restaurant industry that would be wiped out if deductions for business meals were limited. For that matter a lot of sports and entertainment events would lose ticket sales without those generous deductions for business expenses; it’s a widespread and rather peculiar government subsidy.
SiubhanDuinne
@Maze Dancer #32:
I loves me some Apothic Red! And I’ve recently found a package store where I can get it for $7.98/bottle.
JoyceH
Here’s why this is a story. Three guys, who consumed $700 worth of wine at one meal, are making decisions that will drastically effect people who spend less than that on their month’s groceries.
Or, to put it in terms that pertain to Ryan specifically – if his plan that replaces Medicare with vouchers goes into effect, that’s roughly how much more per month will be coming out of the pockets of Medicare recipients who aren’t lucky enough to be grandfathered out of the Ryan plan.
The increase in out of pocket costs for seniors, which constitutes more than many people’s monthly grocery bills, doesn’t bother Ryan, because he sees nothing wrong with blowing through that amount of money AT. ONE. MEAL. It’s classic let-them-eat-cakeism – he seems to be genuinely unaware that his draconian plan would have severely negative consequences for a lot of people, because those sums are pocket change for him and his cronies.
Svensker
@ Valdivia
Oh you poor, poor dear. Ha ha ha ha.
FlipYrWhig
Sounds like one of those “Who orders orange juice in a diner?” stories that occasionally send the Dowd/Matthews Brigades into a tizzy. It makes us all marginally stupider.
MonkeyBoy
John COLE
There is no functional reason for a lot of purchases and many people have lousy taste buds and use price as a proxy for quality.
Judging from some of the low-price range wine that I sampled from bottles brought to parties you can often get more quality/buck from wine in a box but that would be too declasse so instead people will bring nasty stuff just because it comes in glass.
eemom
@ JoyceH
This, exactly.
Y’all “why is this a big deal”ers are over-analyzing this.
The man is a heartless, soul-dead monster gorging himself on luxuries while doing his utmost to force old, poor, and sick people ever deeper into deprivation. Isn’t that ENOUGH?
becca
TPM says some should recognize Ryan’s companions. I can’t tell, myself.
Anybody here know?
birthmarker
Wasn’t the point that if the men were lobbyists, the meal and wine would be an ethics violation? (That’s why Ryan hopped in and paid, right?) Have the men been identified?
Meantime, I am really enjoying the wine recs!
JoyceH
Something else to consider. Ryan, when confronted, said he didn’t know how much the wine cost, because he didn’t order it. So the other guys at the table ordered it. That happens when someone is buying you a meal. It was only after the civilian with the cellphone confronted him that he had them split the check.
I rather wish the cellphone woman hadn’t confronted him at the table, because if she hadn’t, I’m quite confident that Ryan wouldn’t have paid a dime of this, that he came to the lunch expecting to not pay a dime of it. And that would have been, y’know – illegal. Wish she’d just kept her mouth shut and kept snapping pix.
cleek
@JoyceH:
$10 says you won’t find a single politician in DC who doesn’t do that from time to time.
Valdivia
@Svensker–yeah, that was one for the books. did I mention he had no hair on top of his head but had very very long hair on the sides tied together in a ponytail with a matching purple scrunchi? The knife in my hand during lunch was tempting me to cut it off.. I know I am a horrible person :)
nancydarling
Ken @40. Thanks for the heads up. All this time I’ve been thinking those high dollar women know things I don’t know.
Maze Dancer @32. I’m writin’ it down. Went to their web site to see if it was available locally. The laws of my state prevent them from telling me. This IS Arkansas.
Mary Jane
Real Murkins feed fifty dollar bills into Stars & Stripes slot machines, make 3 easy payments of $29.95 (plus shipping and handling) for Princess Catherine dolls, and buy $110 Nascar tickets. I doubt there will be much tsk tsking over that handsome young man having a nice night out at one a them fancy restaurants.
taylormattd
John, I kind of agree with you on the need to buy such an expensive wine. Let me be clear: I will drink absolute crap for wine. $3.99 at the Safeway? Sure, why the hell not.
But. I have to tell you. Those $100+ bottles of wine are quite frequently amazing. Just wonderful. Not that I have enough money to purchase them, but when a friend cracks one open, holy god.
nancydarling
Valdivia, Why in God’s name didn’t you walk away when you first got a look at him?
The Spy Who Loved Me
I’d be outraged if the taxpayer had picked up the cost. Instead, Ryan paid for it, and his meal, on his personal credit card and left a nice tip too. I’d be outraged if the men he was with were lobbyists and were trying to buy Ryan’s vote with expensive wine. Instead, they were a couple of economists he was having dinner with, and they paid for the other bottle of wine and their own meals. I’d be most outraged if some nosey assed drunk busybody interrupted my dinner to bitch at me about what my fucking wine cost. The same nosey assed drunk busybody that just ate at the same over-priced restaurant and drank a half bottle of what was also probably some overpriced wine. I wonder what kind of tip the nosey assed drunk busybody left her waiter? I demand to see her receipt!
JonF
I found it funny that he had to reimburse the economists for a large portion of the wine(even though he didn’t have much of it) because of FEC rules.
Yutsano
Your proof of this is…? Especially since Ryan is playing Hide the Dinner Companions.
Ed Marshall
I don’t get it either, but I’m watching the usual pack of filth in the Politico comment section go absolutely nuts. There is something about the optics that freak out the usual suspects.
Valdivia
@nancydarling yeah it was one of those internet things and I always try to give people a chance. Also, too, I have to be sincere I was curious to see what this creature was all about ’cause who shows up in an outfit like that at the MoMa? Sort of like a sociology experiment. In reality this was not the worse date ever, I had much worse, and the only time I cut it short, was with a guy that started making plans for our future together within 5 minutes. That turned into a meet and greet and I ran out!
Ed Marshall
@62 Do you really think he would have paid for it if someone hadn’t noticed him and confronted him about it? I don’t believe that for a second.
gogol's wife
#66: In what direction are they freaking out? (I don’t want to click on them.)
birthmarker
JoyceH-I’m with you–what a great little investigative news story this could have been. Watch who paid, then scarf a copy of the receipt from the waiter. Maybe you could even get the name of the person who made the reservation from the maitre d’. Throw around a few twenties. She might have even been able to record some of the conversation.
ruemara
I’ve worked around rich bastards all my adult life. I’m outraged, but just as a filthy peon. I wish I were a $350 bottle of wine. Takes
a full week2 full weeks to earn that much. I’m less skilled than a bottle of wine and I have a degree.El Cid
I’ve tasted wine of $200 bottles, and they really are fantastic. But then, Ferraris and Bentleys are awesome too. Thankfully I wasn’t buying that wine myself.
But I sure as fuck wouldn’t be doing that making a giant public figure of myself as an awesome mighty Ben Franklin-esque budget watcher and poor-fucker-over.
MazeDancer
@SiubhanDuinne Apothic @$7.98 a bottle! I’d be adding a closet to stock up. It sells out here all the time at $11.98. Some stores jacked it up a buck in fact. This area is not unknown to progressive, food-oriented, culture- seeking citizens who feature multiple homes. Bargains appeal to the economically advantaged as well.
Have you had Urbanite Cellars RedArt? Also very good. Prices vary. It’s 14 bucks here. About two more than it’s worth, IMHO. But nice.
@nancydarling Just ask at your nearest decent wine store to order Apothic Red. It’s pretty widely distributed. Which makes it also surprising how well it’s made.
PIGL
@ different church-lady 39: Keeping a bottle of wine fresh long after it has been opened is seldom a major concern of mine. When I want it to last, I buy a decent 2 or 3 litre box of Oz Shiraz. Those keep just long enough, I find.
tbogg
I will have no opinion on this until Ann Althouse slurs out a post on it.
ML
I wrote: “More like $60-$100 range. With the inevitable exceptions, most wines that are priced above that are overpriced”.
At which point I was righteously reminded by Mike J, “$60-$100 in a liquor store. Sadly, in a restaurant that puts them in $150-$300 range”.
Which is absolutely correct. And which is why is I invariably order by the glass in restaurants.
ericblair
Which resonates with us leftycommiesoshalists, but we hate the guy’s guts anyway. The goopers who love the guy don’t give a shit about fairness or the poor. After all, he’s an alpha of the pack so he gets the good part of the kill.
Ed Marshall
@69 He is drinking rich ass, wine empress, Nancy Pelosi’s wine, that’s why it cost so much!!!!! The prole drones of the wingnut mass are invested in this idea that they are against the elite (and the elite are the people who drink a couple $300 bottles of wine at dinner, not the billionaire who orders a nice steak and a $30 bottle of wine).
nancydarling
Well, tbogg. I made the sacrifice and went there for you. The goddess of Franzia or whatever it is they call her here at BJ has logged in. The gist of her post is that TPM should be ashamed and is guilty of hackery.
ericblair
From what I understand from random sources on the intertoobs, cheap-ass wine has gotten a lot better than it used to be fifty-odd years ago. Then, cheap wine was the crap at the bottom of the cask, barely drinkable, and probably adulterated with nasty substances. Now, it’s perfectly fine, but usually some blend of leftover vintages. I’ll drink the $3.99 stuff too; there’s some nasty-tasting stuff out there but others are not too bad for a glass in front of the TV.
gogol's wife
#78: I was too curious and went over there. Of course it’s all about Obama and how much money he blows. But the good thing is, they’re in defensive mode. The story seems to be all over the place. (I know, I know, it’s ridiculous that this is what gets attention — but it does, and in our favor for once.)
Ed Marshall
@81 No, that is really me, someone asked me what the flavor of the trolls at politico and I was doing my impression. Sorry!
gogol's wife
#84: I can’t follow the players on here, but at any rate what he said in comment #78 was an attempt to characterize the comments on Politico, not speaking for himself.
I wish we could have a reply button. I don’t know how to kluge.
different church-lady
None of those things are elitist. Wine, mustard, and haircuts are.
celiadexter
Ultimately Paul Ryan just doesn’t care how it looks when he indulges in sybaritic pleasures while telling poor and old people to starve. It’s not costing him anything politically — if anything, it impresses his base and his donors because he’s sending out a huge fuck-you.
That said, I have a houseful of wine at almost all “price points”, and although I’m a serious believer in good cheap plonk, some of the expensive wine is a whole different experience (definitely a sybaritic pleasure). The Ridge Zin an earlier commenter mentioned is well worth the $40, but I’d even be willing to drop over $300 in the right circumstances for a bottle of Quintarelli Amarone. Tell you what, John, next time you’re in NYC, I’ll be happy to take you for some of the really good stuff.
nancydarling
@84.
Me neither. I have just barely mastered block-quoting.
PopeRatzy
I think rather than a Boone’s Farm joke:
You are just like the best named Annie Green Springs Wine, Plum Hollow.
MonkeyBoy
@ericblair:
My brother is a professional wine maker. From him I’ve learned that the cheapest/worst wine is produced from really nasty stuff. The thing is that stuff sold as wine really has to be wine made from grapes. Say you are a winemaker and you have a 20,000 gal tank that gets contaminated with the wrong stuff growing in it and tastes disguising. You don’t just empty it down the drain because that is valuable “real wine”. Instead there are companies who will buy it and chemically strip out most everything but the alcohol and water, or at least most of the bad taste. The result can be sold as wine though it is usually blended with things to give it more flavor.
dogwood
Following politicians around and recording every move they make isn’t some triumph for transparency or citizens “taking their country back.” Saturate the market with enough of these types of “gets” and the public will become immune to it. A video of a politician actually breaking the law gets trumped by a video of Harry Reid picking his nose every time.
And by the way RIP Betty Ford. She was a great lady and I’m glad there are no videos of her falling down drunk.
Svensker
@ Valdivia:
Om my lands. How in the world did you keep from breaking out laughing?
Mustang Bobby
I stopped drinking booze almost 19 years ago when I put my then-partner through rehab and decided enough was enough, so I wouldn’t know how much a decent bottle of vino goes for. But my dad is a connoisseur of fine wine and he says that any wine that costs more than the entree is the sign of either a show-off or someone who doesn’t know shit about good wine. Plus, the restaurant is screwing you with your pants on.
eemom
Valdivia’s story has been much more pleasant Saturday reading than Paul fuck him with a giant rusty wine cork Ryan.
hey Cole, we can haz Girls Only Date Thread plz?
JCT
That’s where the expensive wine comes in.
Sounds like a real beaut, Valdivia. I actually met my husband on a blind date — my first and his 300th. The best part was when I paid for dinner — he almost fainted in surprise.
andy
On the outskirts of Versailles, a courtier and two of his bankers walk into a bar…
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
you should stop spending more and more for wine, spirits and beer when you stop noticing an improvement.
the funny thing when it comes to wine is, the most expensive stuff is usually more earthy and less acidic than some of the cheaper, if not cheap alternatives.
americans are used to the ultrafruity acidic wines that make the european wines, especially french seem boring by comparison.
its like with beer, many of the craft brews can be fine for 1 or 2, maybe a couple after that, but if you are drinking much more, you begin to appeciate the lighter american style lagers.
the only dumb thing,the only douchebag move, is paying for a refinement you can’t taste, or appreciate. of course if they had to sell expensive alcohol only to people who have spent the time refining their tastes, the market would dry up, and that hootch would get cheap. so to maximize profitability, they have to oversell people for tastes they haven’t acquired. people who have the money, rarely have the time.
marcelluc shale discount sale
burp
JGabriel
John Cole:
Nothing wrong with Boone’s Farm wine — it’s perfect for relatives.
.
Valdivia
@Svensker much much practice :D seriously though, it was very hard, and it took much effort. and though the wine could not mask the disaster it did help put me in the mindset of being a participant observer….
@eemom I promise if JCole gives us that thread I will tell stories that will have you laughing for days. Even if they’re at my expense. The best was when I replied to a NYRB add and the guy that showed up was close to 90. Kid you not. At the time I was 35.
Mike Kay ( Geronimo!!)
Actually “everyone” doesn’t know that.
Besides, even if everyone did know that, one of the major principles of marketing is constant reinforcement.
One of the major faults in Democratic messaging is the lack of reinforcement.
This is why we can’t have nice things — elite bloggers don’t want to get their hands dirty with pedestrian grunt work.
JGabriel
@Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal:
… then you’re on yer fifth or sixth beer, ya fuckin’ alkie!
.
Linda Featheringill
eemom #95
Oh, that would be fun!
Ella in New Mexico
Cynics here–or trolls–will disagree, but this Ryan story is GREAT NEWS!!!
I am no Pollyanna, but all I can hope for is that this little lunch date gets held under the microscope and beat to death on the teevee for the next week or so, just like what happened in the Weeeeener case.
Yes, yes I know–what’s the point? Our side knows this is business as usual, so it doesn’t surprise us when Ryan is a total hypocrite and sell-out to lobbyists. It’s not gonna change OUR opinions. And the deep-shit Republicans don’t care either–they think it’s exactly the way the world should be–privilege merits self-indulgence because you wouldn’t be there if you didn’t somehow “earn” it.
Why is this story–or the ones like how Walker in Wisconsin is practically running small brew-crafters out of business or the whole focus of the new Media Matters project worth anything?
Because these kinds of stories (the ones where suddenly people realize that THEIR HEROS have the same thing in common with the Arugula Kenyan) are going to be the only things that will punch a hole through the God-damned slow-witted fog of the average Joes who think Republicans or the Tea Party is on their side. I squealed in delight reading about Walker’s huge sell out to big brewers because I instantly realized that story will have a profound whack on the back of the head for people like my brother in law, a small craft brewer himself who still votes loyal Republican.
The only way to get these people out of office and prevent more of them from being elected next time around will be to push every single one of these so-called “who cares” stories on the folks at home, in hopes that the tiny crack of truth that THEY are now the enemy will penetrate their thick fucking gourds.
trollhattan
@tbogg –
I trust this means resurrection of “The ice cubes soaked up my vodka” tag.
Also, too, good wine is good and frequently cost more, often lots more. I treasure my wine nut friends who can suss out very good, affordable wine. It requires kissing more frogs than my liver can handle so I need lots of scouts. Living in California don’t hurt.
Also, also, too, too, Ryan’s earned his national name by pissing on that proverbial third rail and his hair is still perfect. His big claim to fame is he wants to take a LOT away from the takers and parasites (read as: us). If the fuckhat’s guzzling three-digit Burgundies and doesn’t have the foggiest idea what it is, just what it costs, then by all means flay him with barbed wire.
NobodySpecial
All I know is, for a bottle of wine to cost $350, it better come with at LEAST a complimentary humjob from the server.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
@NobodySpecial:
there is no sex, or wine, in the champagne room.
Scott Supak
Yglesias has a good point on Winegate.
pablo
Let me explain wine-gate to y’all. If Henry Reed, or Nancy Pelosi had bought a $350 bottle of wine, after asking that $4 should be cut from the defense budget, Fox News, Limbaugh, etal would have pounced on this for 2 or 3 weeks, and hammered the Libs till they were a bloody pulp! Doesn’t matter if it makes sense or not.
So maybe we should tear a page from their playbook, and nitpick their bullsh*t till the cows come home…. or something.
Ron
@different church-lady: I love single malt scotch, and yes, it can be VERY expensive, but you can find decent stuff for relatively cheap (like in the $30-$40 range) if you look for it. Not as good as the better stuff, but still worth drinking.
Spike
@ different church-lady: Not only did the Bruins spray the good stuff, they almost certainly bought it here in the soshulist paradise of British Columbia, where you can take all of the wine prices discussed in this thread and basically double them (and multiply by something slightly north of 1.0 for the prevailing greenback-to-loonie exchange rate).
Lojasmo
Oregon Pinot is the Shiz. When I drink wine, I drink nothing else. Count on $30/bottle for something good…really good.
My everyday beer is $10 for four pints.
Spending $350 for a bottle of wine shows poor judgment. Of course, that comes as no surprise.
Cain
@Eric k:
I know… I have no idea why Pinot is so expensive even for Oregonians. I got some Sokol Blosser pino for like 15 bucks on a 30% off sale at a grocer.. whew! Saving that for my neighbor who likes a good glass of wine.
Cain
@cleek:
Shit man.. when EMC used to buy us corp folks for dinner.. the bill would easily be over 2000 for like 10 of us. Pretty much could buy anything.. including 100 year old scotch. The bill was insane.
I’ve never been comfortable at these places.. so I always order cheap shit.. of course.. I can’t help but order a porterhouse :-)
Josie
OK, how about this as an approach? We need to preserve the tax cuts for rich people so that they can buy more bottles of $350.00 wine.
the exile
You expect restaurant markups to be 100% or so. This is a $100-$120 bottle of wine from a good but not great estate from a fair but not great year in Cote de Nuits. So I figure he got ripped off by about $150 bucks and even though we don’t know what he was eating, he probably would have done better with a supertuscan like a Solaia, depending on whether the restaurant takes usurious markups on non-French wine too. This is typical American new money bourgeois poseur bullcrap. yes, I am being sarcastic…..
Myles
There’s really no reason for anyone to pay more than 10-15 bucks for a bottle of wine, period. I guess prices are inflated in restaurants, but I think the stuff you get online or at the grocery for under 20 bucks is pretty decent quality in and of itself.
Price correlates very strongly with quality at up to $50 for a bottle (excluding Sauternes and champagnes), more weakly at up to probably $80 (again excluding Sauternes and champagnes), and not really noticeably beyond that.
So the thing to do, I guess, is pick the more expensive one among lower-priced wines. And be more careful about spending money as prices climb. But at the same time, wine under $10 (and pretty much most of the cheap Australian ones) has good chance of being undrinkable, while wines in the $15-25 range are often significantly better than $10-15 ones.
*Sauternes are different because the quality of Sauternes often correlate perfectly with price, because even the cheaper Sauternes are fairly costly.
*Champagnes divide into actual champagnes from the Champagne region, which are priced at a sizable premium, and sparkling wines from others areas that are made from the methode Champenoise. For the same quality, the latter will be seriously cheaper, although you should probably try to avoid Californian champagnes if possible.
trollhattan
@ 114 Cain
Pinot is very difficult to grow, has low yields and is a challenge to make into nice wine. Must be why it’s soooo dang tasty; also, too, has the noble task of becoming Champagne.
PurpleGirl
Read as far as comment #27. The problem is that by law he’s not supposed to accept a gift worth more than $100. Sharing a bottle of wine with a lobbyist, especially when that wine cost $350 a bottle… that’s more than $100. The dinner is considered a gift. That’s why he made the big deal of paying for his own dinner.
Cain
@trollhattan:
Sadly, I don’t really like pinot.. too earthy for me. Cabs are what I generally prefer.
Cain
@Myles:
When I want cheap wine, I go for some Chilean wine.. yum
SoINeedAName
You just gotta love how Ryan whips out the receipt, and it shows that he first thinks …
And this is the person who Repubicans think can solve out nation’s complex economic issues?
Photo documenting Ryan’s receipt:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/documents/2011/07/rep-paul-ryans-receipt-for-350-wine-1.php?page=1
Myles
@Cain
Chilean whites are absolutely fantastic (as are New Zealand whites), especially on a value-per-dollar basis, although I know much less about their reds.
Gopher2b
He really should be more careful with his father’s money.
PanAmerican
Clinton’s haircut. Fire away at these fuckers.
ExurbanMom
Chilean reds are also great values. I love Santa Rita 120.
And I love California Roederer champagne. Yes, it’s a California wine made with the methode champenoise, but it’s very tasty and not super fruity.
And this whole situation is relevant because, dollars to doughnuts, those two dudes were lobbyists, and he was thisclose to committing an ethics violation by accepting something of such high value from someone trying to lobby a U.S. Congressman. Plus it just underlines his general douchebaggerist persona, which we need to do as often as possible.
The Spy Who Loved Me
This was one of the wines that the White House served at the State Dinner for the Chinese Premier:
http://www.raederswine.com/sku056956.html
I guess they ran out of Boones Farm.
Yutsano
@ Spy:
No wine from here is worth $399.99. And whoever is selling it like that is one helluva marketer.
AAA Bonds
Yeah, expensive wine is a bunch of bourgie bullshit
AAA Bonds
I’m not sure what kind of preener picks wine over liquor in this day and age anyhow.
Myles
No wine from here is worth $399.99. And whoever is selling it like that is one helluva marketer.
Truth. If you are spending that much on wine, buy it from France.
Oriscus
A quick check reveals that Jayer-Gilles Echezeaux GC 2004 runs around $180-200 retail, so $350 isn’t that bad a markup, actually. It’s great stuff, if out of my personal price range. Ryan’s a dick, but don’t dis the wine. (I’m in the trade.)
I agree that fantastic wine can be had in the $12-15-20 range, but it generally requires poking around the lesser-known regions of Spain, southern France, southern Italy, Lebanon, Portugal, etc.
Also, working conditions for grape pickers and other vineyard workers are generally better in the soshulist hellholes of Europe than they are here.
Also, too, Two Buck Chuck kills people: http://www.ufw.org/_board.php?mode=view&b_code=cre_leg_back&b_no=4444
Halcyon
I read this far, and an important point nobody seems to have picked up is that drinking booze is a no-no to a fair bit of the tea party. A good chunk of them are tea-totalling evangelicals. They’ll forgive you for drinking the cheap shit and beer as long as you’re not ostentatious about it, but $350 for something that’s a Sin™ is unacceptable. It commits the great sin of demonstrating that you’re not One Of Us and that you’re not willing to play Our games. THAT’S why it matters. Not because he bought overpriced crap, but because he bought the *wrong* overpriced crap.
Poopyman
Well crap, since I’ve got, you know, a life, I couldn’t get to this earlier. So ….
This isn’t about wine. It’s politics. It’s branding. Right at the top of the Atlantic article it says “Remember John Edwards’ $400 haircut?” Yeah, everybody does. It didn’t mean anything then, nor now, but it added to how he was perceived.
I doubt this’ll get any traction, because he’s a Republican and different rules apply. But it does beg the question of who paid, and who were those guys he was dining with and who presumably picked up the tab. At least I’m presuming, until contrary evidence comes along.
spark
In Ryans’s world, the conspicuous enjoyment of wealth is just a way to let everyone know that you are one of the Market’s (crosses self) elect. Sipping brandy and smoking big cigars whilst the proles press their cold noses to the window is a feature, not a bug, of Ryanville.
RandyH
I don’t personally have a problem with Paul Ryan spending $350 a bottle on wine (or tipping $80 on that bottle,) though I never would. But it really isn’t about wine. What it is about is the fact that this douche bag is out to dinner with some “economists” that he refuses to identify and are probably lobbyists/lawyers for powerful interests. They ordered the most expensive wine on the list (expecting to impress him and expense-account the bill) and he doesn’t even know how much it costs because he is accepting an illegal campaign contribution by accepting even a glass of it. To cover, after being caught red-handed and told off by a concerned citizen, he pays for one of the bottles consumed at the table. If you look at the receipt, it is filled out by an obviously drunk person.
I think the impoverished people of his district in Wisconsin will see this as a MASSIVE scandal if only it were reported on Fox News. But it will not be. So who knows?
hal lewis
Is this the Paul Ryan that when his father died and he was 15 years old he received Social Security? He saved it for college. YES is the answer…same guy different day.
HobbesAI
Sadly, I have no taste, but if you like wine you may enjoy seeing Bernard and Manny drinking a £7000 bottle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTvfG3HSDYA
As for Paul Ryan, I can’t see the village media using this to brand him, after all this is the same media that treat his incoherent economic proposals as if they were serious.