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Wine Emporium March 2011 Newsletter
by Tom West
Hello Dear Friends,
Well if February is the month for lovers, then I was smitten! Here's to love in all its guises. May your lives also be blessed with boundless love!Five Years Old: WE celebrated our fifth anniversary!
Thank you for your business and support. We appreciate it!
Tasting Room: This month Micaela put together a star line-up of some of our newest wines from around the world. These wines are sure to put a little Spring in your step! Please get a glimpse of them here, and come visit us for good times and good wine! WE’re open for tastings Wed-Sun 12-6pm.
The best compliment to a good wine, is a good glass! The right glass paired with the proper wine will refine delicate fruit flavors and enhance your tasting experience. Amplify your wine experiences with glassware from The Wine Emporium. Click here to find the best glasses for your favorite wines today!
In the Gallery: In case you missed out on John Melvin's fabulous artist's reception last month, the paintings will still be up through May Day, so stop by and enjoy fine wines with us in the company his extraordinary art. To view John’s work on-line, please click here , pick out your favorite and we'll send it to you. You can also take a virtual store tour by clicking here. Get up close and personal with our staff while exploring an intimate insider's view of the shop.
From the Annals of Taste: WE would like to direct you to last week's Terry Gross interview on NPR's Fresh Air with Chef Grant Achatz of Chicago's Alinea restaurantwho lost his sense of taste due to tongue cancer, and amazingly got it back. Chef Achatz is one of the leaders of molecular gastronomy and we think you would enjoy listening to it.
Movies: Corked!This month WE are proud to feature Jeffrey Weissman’s most recent movie release, Corked! This film is a wry comedic look at the wine business and its characters from insiders who thoroughly know the process from the vine to the street. The puffy egos of vintners, sommeliers, wine critics, wine marketers and know-it-all fans are lampooned in this faux travel guide through Northern California vineyards. The film weaves a witty texture of these driven, obsessed characters as they struggle to bring their wine to market, leaving no grape uncrushed in their quest to win the ultimate recognition … The Golden Harvest Award. Buy now!
Movie critic Duane Byrge from The Hollywood Reporter described Corked! as, “A satire of “fine wine” that has found its time. A mockumentary in the “Spinal Tap” tradition, “Corked!” pops off the pretensions of the Northern California wine community. This aromatic outing distills all the pretentious sniffing and snobbing that accompanies the wine biz. Drier and frothier than recent mockumentaries made by recognized Hollywood comics, “Corked!” is a pithy delight.”
Books: This month we are delighted to bring you a taste of Dannell Powell’s new cookbook, Shop and Gnaw, A Harelooms Cookbook. This is the second edition of "Guess Whose Coming To Dinner - A Scary Bunny Cookbook". This book is perfect for the young or old homemaker on your gift list; whether newlywed, learning to cook, bachelor or old maid. All will appreciate its practical advice on acclimating the nest! To taste more wonderful recipes, purchase your copy of Shop and Gnaw today! Click here to order! Recipes: Oven Roasted Dungeness Crab (featured from Shop and Gnaw, A Harelooms Cookbook.)
Feeling a little crabby tonight?
Ingredients:
2 whole crabs (at least 2lbs. each)
2 cups white wine (we like a nice Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc)
2 Tb. olive oil
½ stick of butter
3 sprigs of rosemary leaves
3 sprigs thyme leaves
4 Tb. parsley, minced
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. dried peppercorn (mixed black, white, green, and red medley), crushed
White pepper to taste
Dash of allspice
Lemon to garnish
Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
If crabs are alive:
Steam crabs for 5 minutes (until they turn red). Cool in cold water, remove head (using your thumb and index finger, pry open the head). Clean out innards. Clean head area with a little cool, running water.
Mince garlic. Crush peppercorn with a mortar and pestle, sprinkling with allspice. (Some medleys have allspice incorporated; if this is the case skip this step).
In a large cast iron pot, melt butter in olive oil. Add rosemary, thyme, garlic, and peppercorn. Cook until garlic is slightly brown, about 5 minutes. Deglaze with white wine. Add crabs, generously coating with sauce. Sprinkle with white pepper.
Roast crabs in a covered iron pot until heated through, about 12 minutes if warm-presteamed, 25 minutes if cold. Stir and coat with sauce once, midway through roasting. When done, remove crabs and place on platter. Put empty head shells back on and wipe with a touch of olive oil to shine. You may also serve without their little heads, if you please! Spoon sauce over and around crabs, garnish with parsley and lemon. Serve with a fresh bread, Caesar salad, and a nice white wine.
The Wines: This month WE are proud to feature some of the newest additions to our family of fine wines. This eclectic selection offers a beautiful range of bright flavors and well balanced structures that are sure to entice your palate. Celebrate the coming of Spring with the bountiful fruit of these refreshingly honest wines. WE're here for you!
Best Wishes & Thanks, Al, Micaela & Tom .
Tormaresca Neprica 2008
Wine Advocate 88pts
Wine Advocate 88pts
| Category | Red Wine |
|---|---|
| Varietal | Negroamaro, Cabernet Sauvignon, Primitivo |
| Region | Italy : Puglia |
| Producer | Tormaresca |
| Alcohol | 13.5% |
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$12.00 SKU1222 |
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Color: Intense ruby red with violet hues. Scent: Red fruits, black-cherry with light violet notes. Flavor: Soft, sapid, balanced acidity, justly tannic.
| Category | Red Wine |
|---|---|
| Varietal | Pinot Noir |
| Region | California : Sonoma County : Russian River Valley |
| Producer | Balletto |
| See more |
Our Favorites What's Popular |
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$20.00 SKU1140 |
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This dark, garnet colored Pinot Noir exhibits floral aromas of rose petals intertwined with spice components of ginger, dusty earth and a hint of vanilla. Fruit aromas of raspberry and cassis form the core of the wine, and in the mouth, create a long, delicious finish that can be tasted for several minutes. It's full in the palate with fine, coco-powder like tannins and a nice dose of astringency that lends additional grip and complexity.
Belle Glos Meiomi Pinot Noir 2009
| Category | Red Wine |
|---|---|
| Varietal | Pinot Noir |
| Region | California : Sonoma County : Sonoma Coast |
| Producer | Belle Glos |
| See more | What's Popular |
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$22.00 SKU1160 |
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Bright, deep garnet color. Aromas of cola, blackberries and a sweet cedar note. A greatly layered palette abundant in flavor and texture. The first entry encases the mouth with a velvety richness. Then the wine unloads with flavors of bright cherry, cola, dried leaves undertoned with vanilla, leather and high style oak. The many layers emerge independently, then refocus while the supple tannins carry the wine through to a lingering, succulent finish.
Adelsheim Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2008
Wine Advocate 91pts. & Wine Spectator 90pts.
Deep quiet well-defined blackberry fruit is the driving force of this rich and generously filled Zinfandel and however ripe this delicious wine may be, it is never in the least bit excessive and remains in sharp fruity focus from beginning to end. Rounded in feel and full on the palate, it is firmed up nicely by a last minute streak of finely fit tannins
Adelsheim Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2008
Wine Advocate 91pts. & Wine Spectator 90pts.
| Category | Red Wine |
|---|---|
| Varietal | Pinot Noir |
| Region | United States : Oregon : Willamette Valley |
| Producer | Adelsheim |
| Alcohol | 13.3% |
| See more | Great Cabs, Pinots & Chards |
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$25.00 SKU1586 |
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“With its broad array of origins and clones, this wine displays both red and black fruit aromas (cherries and raspberries), on the nose and the palate. In addition, one finds a light touch of brown spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice)."
| Category | Red Wine |
|---|---|
| Varietal | Syrah, Grenache |
| Region | California : Sonoma County : Russian River Valley |
| Producer | Grey Stack |
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$27.00 SKU1626 |
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Plush and lush, this wine has great fruit on the front and then that great mouth-feel that the original Folly had. A great all around wine that can go with just about anything, including a quiet night by the fire.
Bodega Colomé Estate Malbec 2007
Wine Spectator 92pts.
| Category | Red Wine |
|---|---|
| Varietal | Malbec, Tannat, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah |
| Region | Argentina : Calchaqui Valley |
| Producer | Bodega Colomé |
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$27.00 SKU1217 |
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The color is deep magenta with a purple hue. This wine is sophisticated on the nose with violets, black fruits, clove, and black pepper followed by flavors of elderberries, nutmeg and cassis. It is a full bodied and rich wine with thick, mouth coating texture. Subtle French oak and toast flavors are well balanced providing vanilla and toasted bread flavors. The wine is long, rich, fat and round on the finish.
Yorba Barbera 2007
| Category | Red Wine |
|---|---|
| Varietal | Barbera |
| Region | California : Sierra Foothills : Amador County |
| Producer | Yorba |
| See more | What's New |
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$27.00 SKU1124 |
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The third vintage of Barbera shows a beautiful palette of blue tone fruits, plums and blueberries, layered with exotic spices. Notes of cinnamon and cloves pair with a soft roundness that is downright plush. Great acidity allows the wine to pair with a wide range of food - from comfort stews to spicy pastas.
Carol Shelton Wild Thing Cox Vineyard Old Vines Zinfandel 2006
Wine Spectator 90pts.
| Category | Red Wine |
|---|---|
| Varietal | Zinfandel, Carignan |
| Region | California : North Coast : Mendocino |
| Producer | Carol Shelton |
| See more |
What's Popular What's New |
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$27.00 SKU1079 |
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Ramey Claret 2007
Wine Spectator 93pts & Wine Advocate 91pts
| Category | Red Wine |
|---|---|
| Varietal | Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Merlot |
| Region | California : Napa Valley |
| Producer | Ramey |
| See more | Great Cabs, Pinots & Chards |
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$33.00 SKU1617 |
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Sicily’s Nerello Mascalese is undoubtedly unique in its provenance, and doubly in its flavors. Perfumes explode from the glass—cherries and caramel char, cinnamon and cranberry flood the room once the bottle is opened. Flavors are at once lush and precise—during one tasting we called them micro-berries—as every sip delivers something new and unexpected. Plums, raspberries, orange rinds blend with rose petals, pomegranate jam, even hints of red apples.
| Category | Red Wine |
|---|---|
| Varietal | Pinot Noir |
| Region | California : Sonoma County : Russian River Valley |
| Producer | August West |
| Alcohol | 14.9% |
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$47.00 SKU1625 |
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This was the first Graham Family Vineyard Pinot we’ve made at August West that consisted entirely of free run wine. This is the wine that comes from the fermentation vessel freely, before the pomace goes to the press. Free run wine is usually more concentrated with fruit than the press wine, so the resulting ’09 Graham is packed with ripe Russian River Valley berry fruit, and has more weight, color and tannin than previous vintages. Expect this 2009 Graham Family Vineyard Pinot Noir to drink well from late 2011 through 2017.
Black Kite Kite's Rest Pinot Noir 2009
| Category | Red Wine |
|---|---|
| Varietal | Pinot Noir |
| Region | California : North Coast : Anderson Valley |
| Producer | Black Kite |
| See more |
Great Cabs, Pinots & Chards Great Pinot Noirs What's New |
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$48.00 SKU876 |
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Château de Pibarnon Bandol 2005
Wine Spectator 95pts!
Wine Spectator 95pts!
| Category | Red Wine |
|---|---|
| Varietal | Mourvédre, Grenache |
| Region | France : Provence : Bandol |
| Producer | Château de Pibarnon |
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$56.00 SKU1621 |
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When young, Pibarnon Rouge displays a massive floral bouquet with black cherries and spices. The firm acidity of the Mourvèdre gives good definition and a solid foundation for long term development. With time the wine mellows, exhibiting a harmonious elegance and wonderful heady flavours of truffles, wet leaves and cinnamon.
