Wine Club Insider back with you!

I was searching around the web for what’s new, and came across a pretty exciting new site I hadn’t seen before… Wine Club 101 – www.wineclub101.com – starts out as your normal site, but as you start reading, you start to see the differences…

Here is a bit from their home page:

While many wine sellers limit their club selection to white and red, we offer an unprecedented 5 wine clubs (not to mention our Scotch, Beer, and Tequila clubs). With so many offerings, we are virtually guaranteed to have a club that caters to your tastes and your budget.

Each shipment comes complete with notes and evaluations from the Wine Club staff. If you’re a real connoisseur, you will certainly appreciate the background information. If you are a wine novice, our commentary will have you sounding like an expert in no time.

There is NO long-term commitment. Just sign up for as many months as you would like. If you sign up for three months, you will receive 3 shipments. There is no need to cancel. You will not be harassed. You will be billed for each shipment only when it is shipped.

You might like to keep such a great offer all to yourself. But fine things are meant to be shared. Imagine the surprise when that special friend or loved one receives a 3-month, 6-month, or full-year subscription to the club of your choice.

There’s no good reason not to sign up today. So what are you waiting for? Give someone a gift that keeps giving. And while you are at it, order a subscription for yourself. You deserve it!”

Sure enough, their clubs are pretty well organized, and actually original, which is becoming a rare commodity amongst wine clubs.

They have the standard red and white clubs – Red 101 and White 101 for $40/month- as well as a Gold Club for $100/month, a Champagne Club, and a German Club, which is pretty unusual… two bottles of unique German wine each month. One of the highlights, is they also have a very nice Scotch Club, and even a Tequila Club, both for $75/month, maximum, with unusual, rare blends and labels.

One of the other cool things is that you decide how many months you want, and that’s what you get. no long term contracts, no need to resign… a pleasant touch, really.

Their choices of wines are pretty respectable – even spectacular in some cases – for the price, and it seems that service is a real priority.

I think I might just have to give them a try and see how it works… I’ll let you know in a month or two!

Cheers,

Wine Club Insider out.

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Wine Club Insider back with you after a couple weeks vacation.

I’ve been going some outside stuff; some snowshoeing, XC skiing, even some snow biking, as well as attending the GIANT Outdoor Retailer’s show in Salt Lake City… boy, if wine had a weekend like that, we’d never got sober! Anyhoo, I’ll be back with you on Monday and Thursday from now on, so let’s get to it…

I met a couple of my friends there for the weekend, and I took a nice bottle of V. Sattui Pinot Noir to share, as well as a bottle of surprisingly good Fusee Syrah, which we drank over a late night business meeting.

The Pinot was so tasty that I decided to open a second bottle tonight. Now, Pinot is perhaps the most finicky of all the major red wine grapes, though it can be one of the most magnificent when done properly…

Andre Tchelistcheff said “God made Cabernet Sauvignon whereas the devil made Pinot noir,” while Vanity Fair’s Joel Fleischman described Pinot Noir as “the most romantic of wines,” and Master Sommelier Madeline Triffon calls pinot “sex in a glass”. Peter Richardsson of OenoStyle christened it “a seductive yet fickle mistress.”

No matter which way you feel, it’s becoming an increasingly important wine, being grown (and well!) in Canada, Austria, New Zealand, Germany, and prominently in Oregon’s Willamette valley, and California’s Sonoma and Russian River Valley… Oh, and have you ever heard of Burgundy?

Yup. Pinot Noir is the grape that made Burgundy famous. That and Dijon mustard, Coq au vin and the Cote-d’ Or.

Some of my favorite Oregon Pinots include Willamette Vineyards, David Bruce, Andrew Rich, Elk Cove, and of course Domaine Drouhin… one cool thing about Oregon Pinot Noirs is that there is actually an Oregon Pinot Noir club! Yes, a wine club just for Oregon Pinots.

www.oregonpinotnoir.com has everything you’ll ever want to know about Oregon’s number one wine export.

Now, moving south to California, you get a different type of flavor… I think that for years, California Pinot was thought of as light and fruity, but over the past decade or so, the winemakers have been making a great effort to give it some real depth, and have, to a fair degree, succeeded.

My 2006 V. Sattui Pinot (www.vsattui.com) from tonight is a Los Carneros appellation, and I must tell you, depth isn’t an issue. This is a big wine. Maybe not Domaine Drouhin big, but very tasty. You’d like it.

Until next Monday,

Cheers,

Wine Club Insider out.

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Wine Club Insider back!

Here’s to hoping that everyone had a great day today! I managed to get “pleasantly lost” while snow shoeing tonight (on a peninsula, when you can see the NorthStar you’re not really lost) but finished it off with an entire baked fresh crab, some sauteed prawns and potatoes, with the rest of the V. Sattui Zin I started the other night. Heaven!

Before we get back to our discovery of the wines of the world, I’d love to talk about what everybody drinks…

Worldwide, red wine is the most popular, and of the reds Merlot is numero uno around the globe, though Cab Sauv is right there. The two actually go back and forth. In California, Zin is number 2 behind Cab Sauv, and growing every year.

In the white wine category, Chardonnay is the biggest seller worldwide, though it loses to Sauv Blanc in several key battle ground states… France and New Zealand to name a couple.

What do you drink? Around our place, we have a completely eclectic wine schedule… overall, I’d have to say that in the still wine category, blends are number one, but it goes in phases… right now, I’m drinking more Zins than anything else, and also quite a number of Rieslings and Auslaces… I know, I know!

Now, taking all wines into consideration, port and dessert wines take the title hands down! Port is my favorite wine, though some folks have a hard time considering it in the same sentence as Cabs or Chards.

Of all countries, believe it or not, the Vatican (!) is number one, with Andorra a close second. France (surprise, surprise) is the highest of the major countries. The US is 59th, following such notables as Greenland, Falkland Islands, Bulgaria and Bermuda.

In terms of acreage, Spain is number one, and the US is number 5. So, where does all the wine we grow go? I’m not sure, but at least a few of us are doing our best to move us up in the per capita rankings!

Cheers,

Wine Club Insider out!

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Wine Club Insider back, yet again!

Well, it’s the middle of winter, but wine is the gift that keeps on giving! I just got my Pepperbridge Wine Club shipment – www.pepperbridge.com- three bottles of their famous Seven Hills Vineyard Cab, and had to try one, even as young as it is. Let me tell you, if you haven’t tried Pepperbridge, you’re missing out! This Walla Walla winery is among the best I’ve tasted, vintage in and vintage out… between Seven Hills (rated as one of the best USA vineyards) and their Pepperbridge Vineyard, they have the foundation and terroir to make some of the best reds in the USA, and they do. Awesome!

Well now, we’ve touched on some of the world famous red wine grapes… let’s look at the top two whites of Bordeaux:

By far the largest planted and popular white wine is… NOT Chardonnay! That’s right! Especially in France, Chard runs a distant fourth or even fifth, behind Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Ugni Blanc (also called Trebbiano – the most popular white wine world wide, though it is very close with the Spanish-based white wine Airen) abd Muscadelle.

Sauignon Blanc is one of the true indigenous grapes of France, and gets its name from the words “Sauvage” (wild) and “Blanc” (white), and is a green skinned white grape, often described as “crisp,” “elegant” and “fresh.” It can range in taste from somewhat grassy to almost tropical and fruity, and makes wines ranging from dry to the very sweet dessert wines of Barsac and Sauternes.

The Sauv Blancs of New Zealand have risen to prominence as some of the world’s best, and it is grown almost everywhere.

Semillon (pronounced SEM -ee-on) is another famous white wine grape, and the wine it produces range from the very dry Bordeaux Blanc, to the sticky sweet, world famous dessert wines of Sauterne, made famous by Chateau d Y’quem. For the sweet varieties, it is exposed to Botrytis Cinerea, or “Noble Rot,” which basically turns it in to a giant raisin. d’Yquem’s website is at http://www.yquem.fr/yquem.php?lang=uk, and it is truly one of the most spectacular wines in the world, and one of my all time favorites. I actually plan to do an entire posting on this magnificent winery sometime soon… I mean, there aren’t that many wineries that still have verticals back to 1860 in perfect condition!

Back to talk about Chard tomorrow!

Cheers,

Wine Club Insider out.

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Wine Club Insider back with you.

Celebrated a beautiful mid-winter day here today, with temps in the mid-forties (almost balmy!), sunny and no wind. Celebrating a beautiful mid-winter evening with a glass of Mission Hill “Oculus,” a WONDERFUL Bordeaux-style blend made with 20% Cab Franc from Canada…  www.missionhillwinery.com. This is a beautiful wine. Deep, rich and succulent, it’s a real treasure.

Coincidentally, today is Cab Franc day… Used often as a blending wine, it’s a bit lighter than Cab Sauv, and lends a bit of pepper and finesses to other wines.

Cab Franc is one of the real foundations of Bordeaux wine. It’s the parent of both Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and is written of back almost 300 years. It’s a bright red wine that is gaining immense popularity in cooler climates, including Canada. In the past couple of years, more and more vintners are trying to make pure Cab Francs, with increasing success. There is precedent, as Chateau Cheval Blanc of French wine fame is almost a pure Cab Franc. As a matter of fact, it’s the main grape from the Loire Valley.

There are some very nice Cab Francs being mae by Del Dotto, Crocker & Starr, Robert Sinskey, Vineyard 29, Arger-Martucci, Barrister and Rubicon. Maybe the best among, however, are the Cabernet Francs from Lang & Reed, a small St. Helena operation that grows only Cab Franc! Talk about putting your beliefs in the line! In most years, they have both an early release, their North Coast, and a reserve release, their Premier Etage. The North Coast Cabernet Franc is usually bottled in June, and the winery will produce less than 3,000 cases of the 2006 vintage.

In Canada, one of the best Cab Francs I’ve ever tasted is by Pillitteri vineyards, located on the Niagara Peninsula. Firm tannins, long lasting finish… a serious wine for sure.

Now, I must apologize… I said that Paul Giamatti drank a bottle of Merlot in the final scene of Sideways, but I went back and watched it, and was laughing part way through, because not only did he dish Merlot, he dished Cab Franc throughout as well, and the wine he consumed with passion at the end was a Cheval Blanc – a Cab Franc!

Cheers!

Wine Club Insider out!

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Wine Club Insider back with you.

Just got back from a triathlon club meeting… I’m aiming for a 70.3 (1/2 Ironman) in a couple of months, and was actually presenting some stuff tonight… great fun, good fitness, and it justifies the wine as a “training aide…”

It’s coincidental that we’re talking about Merlot today… I got to try the VERY nice 1999 Willard Family Merlot from Caterina Winery - www.caterinawinery.com – that I mentioned last week… it was even better than the last time I tasted it a year or so ago, and looks to have another 5 years or so until its prime… wow, what a nice wine!

Merlot is the other Grand Daddy of red wine grapes, or should I say “Grand Pere?” The other key Bordeaux grape, it is also, like Cab Sauv, an offspring of Cab Franc, and predates the Cab Sauv by a few years.

Merlot is a more medium bodied wine, and ripens earlier than Cab Sauv. It also blends very well, making it uber-popular with wine makers world wide.

The movie “Sideways,” for all its quirky charm, and heaped with blessings from the Pinot Noir industry, did many wine drinkers world wide with lead character Paul Giamatti’s irrational dislike for Merlot. One of the bits of ironic humor was in the final scene when he sits at the table in the diner to drink his treasured bottle of French Bordeaux… which ends up being a Merlot!

Yes, two of the world’s most famous, rare and expensive wines are both close to 100% Merlot…  Petrus (around $3000/bottle for futures) and Le Pin (even more than that!) are both Merlots.

Merlot is also going to be the number one red wine grape (again) by the end of 2009, it looks like, surpassing Cab Sauv.

Merlot is often used to add body and softness to the oft-harsher Cab Sauv, and is grown most everywhere Cab Sauv is, though tends to do better in the cooler areas of the AVAs where it doesn’t ripen quite so early. It is the largest varietal in France, and is becoming more and more popular world wide. In the USA, it is hugely popular in Napa, and is making greater inroads in the Pacific Northwest, where wineries such as Leonetti, Chateau Ste. Michelle, Isenhower, and yes, Caterina are making notable and praiseworthy wines.

Myself, I love it. A great Merlot is a joy to drink… softer somehow than other reds, often “fleshy,” and filled with flavors of currant and plum, two of my favorite tastes in wine.

So, put whatever prejudices you might have aside, and take up a glass of good Merlot and join the rest of the world in appreciating this grand old grape! There might even be a Merlot wine club out there somewhere… hmmm…

Back tomorrow with Cab Franc, another of my favorites!

Cheers,

Wine Club Insider out.

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Wine Club Insider back!

One of the cool web sites I frequent on at least a weekly basis is www.winezap.com.

Winezap is kind of like a little community where you can actually get to “know” your online “neighbors” as you rate/discuss/argue about wine.

So, every week or so, I get an email in my regular box about the latest wines that have been rated by their distinguished panel of experts…

I think that having a few folks with respected, or at least educated palates can give us a basic groundwork to at least discuss wine, so I appreciate their efforts.

Some of the wines I received reviews on tonight were (and the reviewer):

Bordeaux, Burgundy, California Wine, Chardonnay, Fine Wine, French Wine, International Wine, Italian Wine, Pinot Noir, Red Wine, Shiraz, Sparkling Wine, USA Wine, Vintage Wine, White Wine, Wine Cellar, Wine Club, Wine Club Gift, Wine Education, Wine Lovers, Wine Reviews, Wine Tasting Wine Club, Wine Club Gift, Wine Reviews, winezap.com

Wine club Insider back!

We’ve done a lot of talking about different wine clubs, and, yes, the choices are almost endless, with a variety of wines and prices almost to match.

But what about if you want to really purchase an investment-quality wine? Where do you look?

There are several high end wine auctions, ranging from “reasonable,” to “you need six figures just to look at the catalogue.” Seriously. There are wine auctions-public(ish), and private-that cater to those where money isn’t an issue.

If you’re looking for “cult” wines, or aged, classic, rare vintages, these are the places to start looking. If it is or was in a wine bottle, especially if it’s rare, there’s a good chance you can find it with a little looking.

Hart Davis Hart wine company – www.hdhwine.com – offers fine and rare wines.

Edward Roberts International – www.eriwine.com – concentrates on traditional live auctions, and their choices are awesome!

Bonhams – www.bonhams.com – is another top seller.

Of course, there are always Sotheby’s, Christies and Zacchy’s, if you prefer the champagne and caviar set!

Now, if you want to privately drop some REAL change, you might want to see if you can get yourself an invite to the “Angry Men,” which are a group of billionaire wine collectors who buy and sell wine in such quantities and such quality that it will make your head spin!

There’s a great article in Men’s Vogue that kind of explains their game… http://www.mensvogue.com/food/cellar/articles/2008/09/billionaire-winos?currentPage=3

Check it out!

Now, if you’re more of a regular joe, but still are looking for some classic wines, I’d recommend you check out www.vinvinwine.com, which is the website of VinVin Wine. Paul collects some of the best wines anywhere, and offers them at fair prices. Here’s a sample from their latest mailing:

So, as you can see, while it might not be ’45 Mouton, I’d love to have any of these grace my cellar!

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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