At the Tasting Bar

Beginning on Friday afternoon at 5:00, and continuing through the following week, we’ll feature flights of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Our Pinot Noir flight will include:

• Paraiso 2006 Estate Santa Lucia Highlands
• Anthill Farms 2006 Demuth Vineyard Anderson Valley
• Segue 2006 Pinot Noir DuNah Vineyard Russian River Valley
• Lost Canyon 2006 Morelli Vineyard Russian River Valley
• Patz & Hall 2006 Chenoweth Ranch Russian River Valley

Our Chardonnay flight will include:

• Storrs 2007 Santa Cruz Mountains
• Lucia 2006 Santa Lucia Highlands
• Molnar Family 2006 Poseidon Vineyard Carneros
• Fort Ross 2004 Estate Reserve Sonoma Coast
• Rombauer 2007 Chardonnay Carneros

New Wines

• Paraiso 2006 Pinot Noir Estate Santa Lucia Highlands @ $25.00
• Lost Canyon 2006 Pinot Noir Morelli Vyd Russian River Valley @ $ 42.00
• Patz & Hall 2006 Pinot Noir Chenoweth Ranch Russian River Valley @ $55.00
• Ramian Estate 2005 La Morra (a Barolo blend of Dolcetto & Nebbiolo) @ $37.00
• Singh Family Cellars 2005 Blend Napa (Red Rhone style) @ $22.00
• Rombauer 2007 Chardonnay Carneros @ $32.00
• Lucia 2006 Chardonnay Santa Lucia Highlands @ $39.00

Returning to the racks

• Kuyam 2006 Thirteen Moons (Bordeaux style blend) @ $19.00
• Storrs 2007 Chardonnay Santa Cruz Mountains @ $25.00 (New Vintage)
• Molnar Family 2006 Poseidon Vineyard Carneros @ $24.00 (new Vintage)

Based on sales last weekend, the Melanto Terrace 2006 Zinfandel Amador led the pack among the red wines. The Eberle 2007 Chardonnay was the favorite white wine.

The single most requested wine since we opened the shop has been Rombauer Chardonnay (followed by Duckhorn). I won’t bore you with a diatribe about the challenges of the wholesale distribution system – suffice it to say that I finally got the green light to order it. We’ll start with a case and if it’s as popular as indicated, we’ll keep getting more.

During National Drop by your Local Wine Shop Week, we’ll offer 10% off all wines in the shop and a 15% break on cases. Stop by anytime from now through Sunday (October 5) in order to take advantage of this opportunity.

Artist Bj Lane has returned and her show, “In the Gardens” is now up on the west wall. This exhibit features Bjlane’s most recent work at the Huntington Library, Museum and Gardens. The brilliantly painted canvases are 30″x 30″ and include several paintings of the sculpture garden, the Library, the Huntington Mansion, the Japanese Garden and the new Chinese Garden. We’ll host an Artists’ reception on October 18.

Wine Class. We will resume classes next Wednesday, Oct 8, with a special Wine and Cheese Pairing evening with both Larry and Jeff sharing the floor. The class will be open to everyone since no “in depth” knowledge of wine is required. The session begins at 7:00PM and will cost $40. You may call or email in your reservations. Six spaces left.

Check out The Orphan Barrel when you’re in the shop. There are at least 20 wines waiting for you to take them home. These wines are all discounted 10%.

Upcoming Events

We have scheduled a return engagement with Sue and Steve Mathis of Phantom Rivers Winery. On October 17th they will join us in the shop and be pouring their 2007 Chardonnay, the 2007 Sauvignon Blanc, the 2006 Larner Syrah, the 2006 Larner Mourvedre and 2006 Paso del Sol.

We’ll debut the wines of Thompkin Cellars on the evening of November 8.

The Cheese Corner

You found the “fix” without the caffeine and overwhelmed us last weekend. The “Barely Buzzed” cheese disappeared faster than congressional support for a bailout!! Barely Buzzed was the surprise hit of the weekend and it was gone before Monday morning. Jeff will order a “double shot” this week and we should be good for you by the weekend.

I am going to re-print a copy of the Barely Buzzed description for those who missed it last week. Seriously, you don’t need a cup of coffee and a pastry with this stuff. It’s the complete package all in one. We may need a drive up window if this gets popular with the commuter crowd. So, here it is again: It’s a full bodied cheese with a nutty flavor and smooth texture. The cheese is hand rubbed with a Turkish grind of “Beehive Blend”.

The blend consists of a mix of South American, Central American and Indonesian beans roasted to different styles. French Superior Lavender Buds are ground with the coffee and the mixture is diluted with oil to suspend the dry ingredients in the rub. The rub imparts notes of butterscotch and caramel which are more prevalent near the rind, but find their way to the center of the cheese. The cheese is aged on Utah Blue Spruce aging racks in humidity controlled caves, and moved to different temperatures during the aging process to develop texture and flavor.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 at 2:06 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.