Wine at Five

This is a weird Christmas. I know it’s seasonally cold outside, and from a retailer’s stand its good there isn’t a pile up of snow out there, but where’s the spirit? The drivers on the road certainly haven’t got it – I’ve seen more idiots in the last week than probably all year. A classic the other day – lady in curlers, driving a big-ass Cadillac, left hand holding her phone, probably booking herself into the funeral home, right hand holding her coffee, and yes, just two little fingers pressing hard on the steering wheel. Heaven only knows how she got round the corner, but if I thought she would acquiesce after I had given her the famous ‘Palmer’ stare I was sadly mistaken – where she found another finger from I have no idea, but she did. And in the Mall? The retail staff doesn’t seem to realize, and certainly doesn’t care, that this is it – if the tills aren’t stuffed with green they probably won’t have a job next year – do they care? Probably not – probably looking forward to joining the protesters outside Wall Street. I mean really, what does it take to ask ‘can I help you’, can I make your miserable Christmas shopping any easier? Maybe I could open the door for you since your arms are laden down with all those bags that I forgot to thank you for buying? I’m not sure that I have experienced such a non-existent Christmas Spirit as this year. I think what we need is more spirit…and wine.

So in the spirit of giving think on this: Free delivery of wine in the Rye and surrounding towns forever! Actually we’re not giving away anything new, we have always offered free delivery around Rye but it’s maybe more prevalent at this time of the year when you can’t find a parking space anywhere. I usually deliver before 10:00am but we also have on hand Dylan’s brother who can make deliveries for us during the day. So if you want the wine but don’t want to bother with the parking, call us, order up and tell us where to deliver – simple. Also, for all those commuters struggling with their shopping bags put them down for a moment and if you need wine text me: 2039472625. Text me from GCT, tell me what train you are on and arrival at Rye, text me what you want, sign with your full name and we’ll have yet another bag or box ready and waiting at the store – we’ll be open through 7:30 every night next week. If it’s impossible to get to the store and you want delivery to the main parking lot at Rye station let me know – we’ll have your bags/boxes waiting at the car park. How good is that?

The Wine at Five Best of the Best has been published – our choice for best wines in a tidy little Wine at Five six bottle recyclable, environmentally friendly bag. We filled the bags with our Wine of the Month choice (we get to each review and propose our best wine of the year), and then we added two more wines we thought would be special for Christmas – Bench Cabernet Sauvignon and Cyprus Pinot Noir from Brack Mountain – these can be swapped out for wines of your choice. A tidy little bag to stick under the tree. We also geared up on Longboard Wines – one of our old time favorites from California – the Longboard Merlot is quintessential west coast merlot and the perfect pairing for a beef wellington; the Longboard Russian River Pinot Noir was one of our biggest sellers last Christmas and I suspect it will be again this year. For those looking for half bottles, I brought in a beautiful little Molotov cocktail bottle of Luiano Chianti Classico – the bottle looks cute but the wine is pretty damn good too – consider this for a stocking stuffer – all ages from 21 up! Another very tasty white wine for the holidays is Viognier – more commonly found in the Rhone Valley it has all the hallmarks of an oily Burgundian chardonnay with a little more floral note but we liked the Six Hats Viognier from South Africa – lighter than its sibling from France it’s great for aperitifs or better yet, for keeping in arms reach whilst prepping dinner. Along similar lines, the Illahe Pinot Gris is back with a new vintage, 2010, and it’s as good as ever. Bruno also found more cases of the Broc Cellars Carignan, this from our favorite wine-maker in 2010 Chris Broc, an incredibly talented young wine-maker from California. The Chante Cigale Chateauneuf du Pape I talked about last week had huge response and we are left with only a few cases – there are few wines as adaptable as a really good Chateauneuf du Pape and this one won’t be shy at a table of goose, duck, beef or just cheese. The kid (he’s not yet 28) that makes it is viewed as an idiot savant in the Rhone and will probably become something of a superstar status from critics. It’s worth buying up while supplies last, the stuff is amazing. We did sort through a bunch of promising magnums and we have so far brought in a tiny amount of Paul Chapelle’s Santenay Gravieres 1985 – kick ass wine still unbelievably vibrant after all these years and ridiculously priced at $110 per magnum. We are also trying to get some more Abeja Cabernet mags – presently only have 2 left, we have Double Black Cabernet from California and a few of Allan Shoupe’s Chester Kidder 2004. Not in magnums but worth mentioning, the Chateau Rieussec 2005 – possibly one of the greatest Rieussec’s this century, seen on-line at $180.00 we still have it at last year’s price of $110.00 per bottle. If you know of anyone who has, on occasion, bathed in Laurent Perrier Fleur this is absolutely the gift to get them. No question. It’s an outrageous example of how good sauterne is.

Very excited now, but with restraint because the wines haven’t actually been delivered yet, but a promissory note says they will be here today – we snagged a vertical of Dunn Cabernet Sauvignon! Here’s a little quote from the Iron Chevsky blog:  Mike is a “dude” with worldly sensibilities. Well educated, he invests no time in making himself appear an important figure of California wine industry. He is content being a village worker in the small town of Angwin, 15-min drive from St. Helena, where his Popeye-like forearms swell and ache tending to the Dunn family vines. You sit down with him, no white table cloths, no fancy glasses. He hardly even talks about the wines, he just lets you experience them,” I love that. I met his dad once, Randy Dunn – an icon in Californian wine making and one of only 5 vintners to have been asked by the equally iconic Allan Shoupe to make wine for his Long Shadow group of wines. I also personally think that Dunn Cabernet is one of the sole survivors of the ‘I want a Lear Jet’ set of wine-makers. The wine is equivalent to a first growth Bordeaux priced at the fifth growth level – insane but great. We should be receiving a few bottles of every vintage of Dunn Cabernet from 2000 through 2007 (latest release). Awesome. No idea about price yet but as mentioned above, they’re not priced at first growth levels – the vertical can be broken up but if you are interested in taking the entire vertical let me know as soon as possible – as an indication I suspect the price will be around $750 – $850 for all vintages, 2000-2007 – great gift for the man who doesn’t have a vertical yet!

Also in the goody bag this week –some terrific white Burgundies – Puligny’s, Chassagne’s Clos’s…loads to choose from – such fun; really brings the spirit of Christmas in – customers fidgeting in front of the Burgundy section trying to figure out which beauty to buy – just buy them all, and I promise, we’ll open the door for you!

Enough rambling, too much coffee and it’s still dark outside. This Saturday we’ll be opening some bad boys from California – step in and have a taste (don’t forget your friend in leather tucked in your pocket), should be fun.

Safe shopping, have fun – enjoy the moment and have a terrific weekend. And don’t forget…stay thirsty.

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This entry was posted by WinebyCai on Thursday, December 15th, 2011 at 8:55 am and is filed under Weekly Re'Wine'der Archive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.