Wine Club Insider back with you.

You’ve got to “love” the Inland Northwest Weather…

Yesterday, we had beautiful sunshine, 48 degrees, and Spring looked like it had sprung. Today, it is 26, the snow is literally blowing horizontally, and there are new drifts across our driveway. Perfect. If you don’t like the weather, wait a few minutes…

In a recent trip to California, I was struck by how much large parts of the Golden State resemble Spain. Actually - gasp - more than it resembles Bordeaux. (I know, I know… heresy)

But seriously, they’re both dry, hot, and somewhat windy, and that’s where Tempranillo rules!

I’ve had a couple of good ones lately, and I’ve got to say that off the cuff, the big ”T” produces balanced, complex wines that are, dare I say, an all around better value than many other, more famous varieties.

Hold on, hold on… before you send me mean comments, give a couple of these a try and see for yourself.

Remember that even though it’s not one of the Big 3 here (yet!) Rioja is a pretty respectable name in wine, world wide… Now, I’m not saying that California Tempranillo is to the level of Spain’s greatest wines (yet…), and some, to be frank, are trying too hard to become instant “classics.”

Here are a couple I recently tried and really enjoyed. Again, I’m not saying these are equivalent to their Spanish cousins - they’re actually quite different, but they both harken to the mystery of an under-appreciated (at least here!) grape that is going nowhere but up!

These choices were recommended by SNOOTH, and I have to say I agree. (BTW, Greg Del Piaz at SNOOTH does a great job… check him out at http://www.snooth.com/talk/. He’s great at answering questions as well. If you get a chance to try some Temp from your wine club, get it right away, and get ready to order more!

2004 Truchard Carneros Napa Valley - Big, deep, plush, really. This is one you can cellar for a few years. Very well balanced.

2006 Garsa Calaveros County - Lighter, fruity, almost like a Beaujolais in depth, I thought.

Okay, here are a couple of Spanish versions as well…

2000 Lopez de Heredia Bosconia - A real Rioja in the grand style! I have a bottle of their 94 which I’m dying to open!

2006 Dehesa Gago Toro - More rustic, but almost jammy it was so rich.

Until next time,

Cheers,

Wine Club Insider out

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Wine Club Insider here on New Years Eve 2008!

What better time than New Years Eve to talk about champagne and the other fine bubblys from around the world!

Personally, I found champagne to be an acquired taste. I wasn’t an instant fan, and since my only previous experience with sparkling wine (and I hate to even admit this!) was with such fine vintages as Cold Duck and Baby Duck (as much as I love them, my parents were obviously connoisseurs… not!).

I tried a few of the less expensive (read: “cheap”) so called champagnes, and much the same as drinking your regular “plonk” still wine, it didn’t blow my skirt up, so to speak. But then… ahhh. At the Millenium New Year, I opened a bottle of 1992 Dom Perignon, and I tell you, my eyes were opened!

Though some folks might say that Dom is over-priced/over-rated, I think it is still a great bottle of bubbles, and the ‘92 was really awesome.

Okay… I’d seen the light, and now the search was on. Over the next couple of years, though it still wasn’t my top priority, I certainly tried my fair share of sparkles, enjoying many. By the way, www.1-800-wineofthemonthclub.com has a pretty nice club for $49.99/month for two bottle.

Okay… here are some of the snazzy champagnes I loved besides the famous “Dom”:

~ Domaine Merriwether (Oregon): Beautiful, soft champagne. One of the best I’ve ever had, especially for the price.

~ Champagne Duval-Leroy: Nice, beautiful bottle, good depth.

~ Taittinger Domaine Carneros Brut: Velvety. About $20

~ Paul Chenau Brut: This Cava is a Very nice Spanish addition.

~ Mumm’s “Millenium Cuvee:” Excellent. Produced for wine club members for the New Years 1999.

~ Domaine Chandon “Etoille Rose:” This unique wine is a Chard-Pinot Noir blend that is one of my favorites from the marvelous Napa house owned in part by the legendary Moet Chandon.

And now, probably my two faves of the past year or so:

~ Schramsberg “Cremant Demi-sec:” Cremant means “creamy,” and this demi-sec is a sweeter, softer wine using the rare “Flora” grape (a combination of the Semillon and the Gewurtz).

And possibly my favorite champagne ever…

~ Scramsberg “J. Schram:” served at White House dinners, consistently wins taste tests against Europe’s best, this vintage wine from perhaps the USA’s best champagne house is also one of my favorite wines ever. A bit pricey at $100, I could easily drink this every day, but will have to settle for tonight at midnight!

Schramsberg is found at www.schramsberg.com, and you’d be well served to give them a try!

I wish you all the best of the season, and hope you have a safe and happy celebration tonight. Blessings to all of you for a healthy and prosperous 2009, and may all your gifts be wine club gifts!

Cheers,

Wine Club Insider out for 2008!

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Wine Club Insider back, with only two days left in 2008!

First I would like to apologize to any of you who have written comments to us. It appears we have been “hijacked” by spammers, and are getting literally hundreds of spam emails daily. We hope to get this sorted out very shortly, so we can answer your comments. Again, our apologies, so please bear with us.

I’d like to share a great online wine club with you today.

Vinopolis is a great wine shop right in downtown Portland, Oregon, and their wine club is excellent! They are at www.vinopoliswineshop.com, and unlike a normal club, they send you a monthly newsletter with the specials and sales they have, and you can order directly by replying to the email!

They have a great pipeline to tons of French, Italian, Hungarian, South American and other international wines as well as the best from the USA. Here are some of the selections from their most recent offering:

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WCI here again!

How’d you like to have snagged “wine.com” when the whole Internet thing started? Yeah, me too.

Well, www.Wine.com is a pretty cool site, though I hope they do even more with it over the next while… with a name like that, you’ve got to be the best, right?

Anyway, one of the things they do as well as anyone is organize their wines in their online “store,” and then offer you a truly amazing selection!

They are big on “name” wines… wine’s you’ve probably heard of, which is always a help when you’re not able to spend a lot of time perusing and tasting many of the smaller (Many excellent, some not!) production houses.

They have an excellent “Collectibles” section, where you can get your Silver Oak, your Caymus, your Chateauneuf-du-Pape, your top Barolos and the equivalent. Their prices are very comparable, and they have some oft-changing specials which are great deals. For example, right now, they have the highly acclaimed 2005 Concha y Toro “Don Melchor” Cab from Chile for only $59 per bottle, and the awesome 1995 Charles Heidsieck “Blanc de Millenairres Brut” for only $99, and this is an awesome bubbly, let me tell you! I’m actually thinking of serving it for our Christmas dinner this year.

Wine.com also has a variety of wine clubs, and though they are based on the seemingly-obligatory three levels system, the thing they do better than most is offer you almost guaranteed “No Miss” wines… Everything they send out has been judged and awarded high scores by a number of “reputable” (or at least famous!) wine critics. Now, there are lots of arguments, pro and con, about this system, and we’ll get into them over the next few weeks, but for all of the potential problems, they provide at least a fairly common ground for conversation, and even if, like me, you have never detected “the essence of underbrush with a tar finish,” you know the big boys won’t give a good grade to “plonk.”

Wine.com’s “90+ rated” club really has the good stuff, including the Jim Barry 2004 McRae Wood Shiraz (95 pts James Halliday’s Australian Wine Companion), Clos Pegase 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon (92 pts, Wine Enthusiast), Valdisanti 2004 Toscana (91 pts, Wine Spectator) and Parson’s Flat 2004 Cabernet/Shiraz (93 pts, Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate) as examples.

Also, if you act quick, they have “1 penny” shipping on orders over $99… a perfect combination for the wine lover on your list!

See you down the dusty wine roads!

Cheers,

WCI

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