Wine Tasting 1/2/10 and January announcements
In case anyone is online today (New Year’s Day) we WILL BE OPEN JANUARY 2 for our regular Saturday tasting, usual hours from 1-5. Then note WE WILL BE CLOSED TILL JANUARY 23 to take inventory, clean up the shop, maybe rearrange the furniture, who knows? Or maybe will take a weekend off and go somewhere there are hot pools, ya never know .
I have to say I LOVE our East Coast New Year’s Eve party. Last night was the fifth in the series, and maybe the best so far. We asked you to bring a plate of finger food, and oh, my did you ever! Everything I tasted was absolutely yummy, so deep bows of gratitude to all of you for sharing your culinary talents. We put out an array of wines, some single bottles, some lonely bottles, some huddled bottles yearning to be free, and fortunately for us, the food was so good they all showed adequately for the occasion, especially of course tha bubblies for the New Year’s toast at 12pm EST, or 9pm our time, an hour that seems more and more appropriate every year.
One of the big challenges each year is appointing a Designated Timer, whose personal chronometer is in such “accord with the great sidereal movement with which time is generally reckoned” that we may be reasonably sure that we are celebrating at exactly the right time. Last night it was Jerry, sporting his new watch that continually checks in with the Great Vibrating Crystal kept at Greenwich or the Naval Observatory, or wherever, which keeps the Official Time of the World. So Jerry (an Alaska man taciturn enough to pass for a Maine Man) got the nod, and we all chanted JER-RY! JER-RY! JER-RY! JER-RY!, which might possibly have been the worst moment of his life, but we hope not. And speaking of Maine, a special welcome to our seldom-seen friend from Maine, Sarah here for the holidays with Bob and Marnie.
Said watch performed flawlessly, and our countdown 5!…4!…3!…2!…1!…ZERO!!!! and the crowd roared and soared and hugged and toasted and burst into a surprisingly Vigorous and Heartfelt rendition of Auld Lang Syne, two verses worth at the top of our collective lungs. AWESOME! or as Livvy would say “TOTES LEGIT!!” which we are not yet quite comfortable saying audibly, you know, in front of people.
Great food, wonderful people, plenty of wine, and all over at a decent hour…it just doesn’t get any better than this, so thanks and cheers to all who made it happen, and Best Wishes for 2010 and the coming decade.
Which leads me to one other point, which may or may not be discussed more fully on a separate “Rant” thread someday. For no particular reason, during the 80’s I was so dismayed by the way the country was headed I named the 80’s the Decade of the Bottom Line. In the 90’s I was so dismayed with the way the country was going I named them the Decade of Vapid Pragmatism. Through the 00’s I have CERTAINLY been dismayed (actually we are now way, way, way past merely “dismayed”) that I have sought to find the slogan that captured the decade for me, never quite feeling satisfied. I am happy to report that a flash of Inspiration brought the words to me yesterday afternoon while I was out walking the dogs. We have now officially completed the Decade of Bullet-Headed Hypocrisy.
Maybe the best we can hope for is that things are perhaps no longer, as Kevin once put it, “getting worse faster than we are getting older.” However you look at it, here’s wishing us all the best year of our lives in 2010!
Wines this week:
Kurt Angerer Gruner Veltliner Spies 07 (Austria) $20: WA 91 pts Sauvignon-like notes of lime, caraway, and honeydew melon on
the nose lead to a juicy, glossy, satisfying palate of
cooling melon fruit, with lingering finish of rich nut oils, caraway, white pepper, and
wet stone.
Stephen Vincent “Crimson” red blend 07 (California) $9: Firm and spicy, with appetizing blackberry, wild berry, pepper, spice
and chicory notes that firm up on the finish. Syrah and Cabernet
Sauvignon.
Marquis Philips Shiraz 07 (Australia) $14: WA 92 pts Fruit forward, with mouth-filling notes of crushed
strawberry, blackberry, and dark chocolate.
Townshend T3 red blend (Washington) $15: Full bodied, slightly jammy, non-vintage blend of cab, merlot, and cab franc
Fifth Annual East Coast New Year’s Eve Shindig
Don’t know about you, but we tend to flag around 10pm, New Year’s or no, so for a bunch of years now we have hosted our Annual East Coast New Year’s Eve from 7-9. When the Ball drops in Times Square, we hoist our glasses of bubbly and toast the New Year! Huzzah! You youngsters can then go on to your Real Parties, and those of a certain age can waddle off to bed at a decent hour!
WE will provide wine including something bubbly to toast 2010.
YOU need to do TWO things:
1. RSVP that you are coming (space may be limited!)
2. Bring a tray of tasty finger foody things to share with the other revelers.
That’s all there is to it! See you there!
Wine Tasting December 26 ho ho ho
Last week was interesting. Different and fun. In the spirit of Solstice, we poured wines from Lost River, and took turns reading passages from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. And then every time there was a word like dark or gloom or oppression, everyone would repeat it and moan and wince. Definitely got into the spirit of the thing. And trust me, it is a dark (Daaarrrrrrkkk, oooh ooh daaarrrrk…!) story.For example, this from the second paragraph: “The air was dark above Gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth.”
This week, being Yuletide season, Boxing Day after all, we have no idea how many will venture out to lift a glass to the Season. But what we do have to offer besides the usual Good Cheer are:
On the Day after Christmas my True Love gave to me (sing along…!)
Three French reds, Two-oo purple gloves, and a Martorana In-sol-i-a…
Well you get the idea, any excuse to help figure out what to pour.
The wines:
Martorana Insolia White 2008 (Italy) $16 : Lush, aromatic, crisp, and lovely with fish, fowl, or pasta.
Domaine Piquemal ’05 (France, Roussillon) (video) $13 : Nose of blackberry, flint, and leather gives way to sumptuous flavors of fresh, ripe cherries.
Domaine Faury Vin de pays Collines Rhodaniennes syrah (France) $20: Gorgeous, sense-filling, rich, and sensuous, this is a current favorite!
Perrin et Fils Gigondas “La Gille” ’05 (France) $23: Perfumed nose of cherry, rose blossom, plum sauce, charcoal, and spice; plush texture, long finish of wild berries, black currant, cocoa, and tar.
Wine Tasting December 19
Well, here it is, Winter Solstice 2009, and we wanted to do something special to mark the turn away from the Dark Times toward the Light. I looked around for a copy of Heart of Darkness with John Malkovich, and figured we could show it in the wine shop in the early part of the afternoon. But lo, Netflix doesn’t even list it, go figure! Not that it was that great a movie, but definitely Dark, dark, dark, the template for Apocolypse Now! So I guess we could show that, but that’s not just Dark, it’s also a little close to home, a little too crazy, a little too much like what is now happening all over the place, so we oughta stay away from that. So maybe there will be a movie. Or maybe not.
Whether there is or is not, there WILL be POPCORN! We just didn’t have the energy reserve to do the food thing we were planning, but Pat had the idea of popcorn. We are gonna try a bunch of different savory spices, butter, salt, whatever, and see how it goes. Of course, we want to match munchies with the wines for the day. In keeping with the Darkness theme (sort of), we will be pouring a selection of wines from Lost RIver winery in Winthrop. Winemaker John Morgan spent many years in Bellingham, and makes some great wines for sitting by a cozy fire and making winter actually quite pleasant after all.
We also have a new shipment of Theo’s chocolate bars just in time for stocking stuffers or pigging out all on your own, including a couple of new concoctions…the new 92% bars from Costa Rica beans, and a new dark bar featuring spicy chili…warms you up just thinking about it, huh…?
The wines:
Lost River Pinot Gris 08 $14: aromas of citrus, pear and tropical flowers; fruity and crisp with just a hint of residual sugar.
Lost River Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 $23: Smooth and silky with notes of ripe raspberries, black currants and spice.
Lost River Cedarosa 06 $25: Cabernet Franc and Merlot blend, rich and pruney with notes of blackberry, currant, cassis and licorice.
Lost River Syrah Walla Walla 06 $23: distinctive black pepper and cherry notes with strong character of dark chocolate, coffee, and meat.
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