Wine tasting February 3 ’11

Posted at February 3, 2011

Congratulations to our friends at Willows Inn and new chef Blaine Wetzel for their recent listing in a New York Times article entitled “10 Restaurants Worth a Plane Ride,” and yes, that means the Whole World! So if you are flying in for a few days from Tokyo or Capetown or Peoria, remember we have a great selection of wines from Washington and around the world!

VALENTINE’S DAY CHOCOLATE ALERT!
Your local Truffle Mavens (Pat and Janice) are making up a new confection for your Valentine this year– new to us, but a French tradition. They’re called “mendiants:” discs of finest chocolate–dark, milk, and white– studded with nuts and fruit. They will be wrapped and ready for your Valentine, four for $5. Order soon and pick them up next Saturday (Feb 13) in the wine shop. Extras will be available while they last (so come early!) To order, call Pat (758.2959) or Janice (758.2559).

Once again I really enjoyed all of last week’s wines. our little Cheverny sauv blanc really did have a note of thyme that carried through from nose to finish, makes me think it might work with a little  chicken or light fish stuffed with something herby and buttery.

The Tarima monastrell is not fancy, but I notice it disappeared very quickly, one of those: “Wine? What wine?…and where did all those empty bottles come from…??” kind of wines. Just kind of seamless. The “Rebel” from O’Shea Scarborough was showing even better now that it has a bit of bottle age to soften and spread out the mouthfeel. And my favorite of the day was the Belguardo Bronzone, which on my last tasting seemed a little gnarly, but this time it displayed a smooth yet firm texture that lingered pleasantly on the palate…reminiscent of that extra quilt we throw on this time of year. As Bobby Darin used to sing in Mack the Knife: “Oh, that cement is there, it’s there for the weight, dear”…all in all leaving a very satisfying set of sensations.

We are currently trying to solve two lingering problems. First, what are our hours, really? And second, what happened to our blog settings so that we are never sure anymore whether our posts are being sent out to our subscribers as emails?

For the first question, for the rest of this month our hours are Saturdays, 1-5pm, which means 5pm is last pour and we ain’t opening any more bottles today. For the second question, please pop us a note letting us know if you did receive this as an email; that would be very helpful in our trouble-shooting.

I mention this last because sometime after that last Saturday Rachel, Andreea, and Jennifer (the “Talls”) arrived in a boisterous little whirlwind with Sarah and Dena, whom they labelled as “the Mediums.” Well, I know for a fact that Sarah has appeared in these pages (August) before– posing as a Small!! So you have to ask yourself, sure, whatever group arrives with these two is a high-energy party on its way to some nearby Party Planet, but really– can one person (however endearing) be BOTH a “small” and a “medium?” What exactly ARE the criteria, here, anyway?! All YOU need to know is that their arrival is always a welcome burst of delight!

talls and mediums talls and smalls

This week’s wines:

Calera Chardonnay 08 California WA90pts $15
Offers abundant notes of honeysuckle, orange marmalade, white currants, and tropical fruits. Crisp, elegant, mid-weight, and revealing no evidence of its wood aging,

two wines from one of our favorite family wineries in Puglia, on the heel of the Italian Boot:

Palama Negroamaro 08   (Italy)  $11
Elegantly expansive, rich and robust. Although it is 100% “rustic” Negroamaro, it is amazingly balanced; silky mouthfeel, aromas of violets, plums, fresh ground pepper and blackberry jam with accents of cinnamon, leather, tobacco and smoke.

Palama Primitivo 09   (Italy)  $12
Floral perfume aromatics mix with notes of tobacco, citrus, and wild herbs dried in the sun, and while the fruit is ripe, it remains bright and fresh, lush, intense, bright, and approachable, with notes of dark anise, cedar, and blackberry confit.

Cougar Crest Cab Franc 07    Washington
Allowed to thoroughly ripen on the vine this robust wine shows flavors of red currants, violets, herbs, pepper and spice, and a slightly feminine structure with a rich mouth feel and  long, meditative finish with tobacco, caramel, and toast aromas.

Wine Tasting

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