The Weekly Re’Wine’der – January 13
Bring out your Jam; Wine at Cost; New Wines
Snow glorious snow…we got our fair share of it yesterday. It took over three hours to plow my way out by which time I figured I wouldn’t be much use to anyone down in Rye so I hunkered down with some juice. IMHO this Shebang jug wine from Morgan Peterson is killer. With its little loop eye-ring on the neck you can attach the bottle to your belt and swig away as you plow – never gets lost, always within arm’s reach, and its weight lets you know when you are in need of a refill. Brilliant stuff.
Last week I mentioned that I would be moving the e-mail blog over to the website in a gradual and orderly fashion. A lot of readers didn’t like that! Seems that the e-mail jolts their memory, which vibrates their taste buds which in-turn vibrates their wallets and they end up buying wine they wanted. However, I still would like to get greater use from the web-site so whilst I won’t stop the e-mails I will send the Weekly Re’Win’der out with bullet point information that when clicked on will beam you over to the relevant section on this web-site.
So, for example, I promised to offer an ‘at-cost’ wine each month in order to redirect traffic. The wine in question is being offered at a 52% discount – that’s even larger than usual because the Distributor is dumping some of his 2005 Bordeaux. This month’s wine at cost offering is the Chateaux Fonroque 2005. Rated 90+ by Robert Parker, the Wine Advocate stated: “Alain Moueix, who farms this vineyard biodynamically, has lowered yields considerably and tamed the rustic tannins and muscular style that had been trademarks for many decades. The medium to full-bodied 2005, a blend of 88% Merlot and 12% Cabernet Franc, offers beautiful notes of kirsch liqueur, loamy soil, spice box, licorice, and roasted herbs, substantial but sweet tannin, good acidity, and a long finish. It should evolve for two decades.”
Of the 2005 Bordeaux vintage in general Robert Parker wrote: “Retasting all the 2005s a few months before they are bottled confirmed just about everything the pundits had declared last year. It is an extraordinary vintage and one that is different from anything I have tasted in the last twenty-eight years. As a general rule, the wines are very concentrated, extremely high in tannin, and backward, but the fresh acids combined with the massive concentration and higher than normal alcohols make for a distinctive vintage that will probably be one of the longest-lived I have ever tasted…In short, this vintage has no shortage of legendary wine. Although the wines came out at absurdly high prices (especially the first growths), no one seems to be complaining except those who did not buy them. Sadly, most of the stock that was offered has been completely sold through the marketplace. The big châteaux with 10,000+ case productions are holding back some wines, but there is little available through the trade, and replacement costs are already 50-100% higher than the opening prices, which I find both incredulous and shocking. In any event, this is a fabulous vintage, and no one who purchased these wines will regret having done so as prices will continue to set new records for young Bordeaux. However, patience will be a virtue for nearly every wine in this perfect vintage for the world’s greatest wines of longevity and elegance.” If proof were needed then Parker’s comments about pricing should make you run to your laptop to order this wine.
Subject to inventory we will sell the Chateau Fonroque 2005 St. Emilion for $36.00 per bottle. Purchases must be for a minimum of 1 case (12 bottles), credit card must be given at time of purchase (no holds) and purchase is non-refundable. Please call or e-mail your order.
Our first Bring Out Your Jam dinner event will be held on January 31. It’s a Monday night and what better way to start the week than by joining a group of like-minded imbibers and tasting each other’s wines. Think about the bragging rights at work for the rest of the week – yea nice Tom, but I drank a Mouton ’86 on Monday night! And you can do this every day for seven days! Nice one! I wouldn’t worry that it’s a Monday night – it’s never too early in the week to drink really good wine. The way this works is easy. If you have a bottle of Bordeaux from 1980-1989 lying in your cellar and you want to drink it in front of other like-minded wine geeks then make a reservation now and join us. Morgan’s Restaurant will be creating a five course dinner to pair with this theme; you must bring the wine to Wine at Five before the dinner so that we can decant and open it in time; during the dinner each guest will drink each of the seven wines on display and at the end of the evening you will have the opportunity to rank each wine. The guest who brings the highest ranked wine will receive a gift certificate from Wine at Five for $85 – the cost of the dinner! There are only seven seats available – please reserve your seat as soon as possible – you must tell us the wine that you will bring, pay the reservation fee and be able to bring the wine to the store before the dinner. So book now – January 31st, Morgan’s Restaurant, 7:30pm. Bordeaux 1980-1989
New Wines in the store this week – we bought some more cases of Road 31 Pinot Noir- this was the pinot that I discovered at the Pinot trade shows last fall in New York. I chose it from hundreds that I tasted and I still think that the distributor has priced it incorrectly. We brought in the last two cases of Michael Forest Russian River 2007 chardonnay, normally priced at $30 but since it was the last two cases remaining we were able to sell it at $25.00. It’s from the Starry Night winemakers and specifically from the prestigious Saralee Vineyard. This wine has a beautiful straw color and inviting aromas of Pippin apples, butterscotch , a hint of oak and subtle honeydew melon. The entry is round and full, leading to a rich mid palate giving way to a long clean finish. Its a terrific value at $25.00. The Shebang – our find of the year last December, (this is the beautiful jug wine) drove through the snow yesterday and delivered up 5 more cases of the luscious stuff. A pair of very good Ozy wines were tasted during the week and we pulled the trigger on Hare’s Chase Springer Blend and Hesketh Shiraz Cruel Intention- both offer up globs of ripe fruit but they are not overwhelming – not retrained because the Aussies don’t go in for restraint – except when they lose the Ashes to the Pommies!!, but still every bit the true Australian fruit forward classic style red wine. We did also find a really tasty chardonnay from Australia – Kilda.It’s from the De Bortoli vineyards in NSW, famous for making exceptional high quality wine less expensively than most – maybe because after 75 years of making wine they aren’t looking to make a quick buck.
A bunch of great new wines and a commitment to keep tasting and finding value and quality – what a way to start the New Year!
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