Oh yeah, that’s because we do have new wines! May 17; Wine Club Exclusive Pre-release We had such a great time at the Wine Club Pre-Release Event! Twice a year we sneak preview our upcoming new releases to our wine club members before they are available to everyone else. Not only do we pull new releases, library wines, and limited release wines, but we also like to share some of favorite food parings for each wine. There was a lot to feel good about at the party; the weather was incredible, Chefs Jan-Marc and Barbara Baker paired some delicious and beautiful food with each of the new wines, and then there’s that. The new releases are just stunning. Everything from the new 2008 Muller Thurgau and Amrita to our Midnight Saignée and the award winning Pinot Gris was on hand…
Memorable dining experiences can usually be attributed to several factors, great company, amazing food and wine, or something intangible that makes the night unforgettable. But when you get all three rolled into one, well, I have one word to describe it…magic.
I turned 44 yesterday and while not a milestone birthday for those who keep score, [...]
From the Vilafonte perspective, 2009 was an exceptionally fine vintage, yielding beautiful fruit, harvested in perfect condition, with exceptional color and flavor intensity, characteristics which easily carried through into the wines. For example, our Merlot may well be the finest in structure, balance and flavors that I have worked with, anywhere. Our good fortune was that our harvest was complete before a siege of hot weather hit the later harvested red varieties, and we were shielded by mountains from the fires that burned around Stellenbosch to Somerset West. This was a harvest to celebrate!
The vineyard: Vilafonte vineyard was in excellent condition going into, throughout, and for weeks after harvest. The vines showed a healthy green and maintained good water status. As a result of the mild weather, the grapes ripened without the hesitation that is caused by hot weather that delays photosynthesis and sugar accumulation; 2009 mild weather gave a very efficient ripening curve.
The harvest: This 2009 weather pattern produced fruit with lovely acid balance from vines with normal but not excessive stress…beautiful grapes, small but not tiny; deeply colored with fresh, lively flavors. Our crop was modest, neither excessive nor tiny. Both total and extractable anthocyanins (color) were quite high; but tannins were ripe and appropriate for the respective Bordeaux varieties. Harvest started February 5 with Merlot, and Malbec followed immediately. Our Vilafonte estate harvest was completed with the last Cabernet harvest on March 2.
Continue reading about Comments on 2009 Vilafonte Harvest – Zelma Long
One cannot turn on the news, read a paper, or tool around the internet without coming across some dire account of the country’s financial meltdown. And to be sure, whereas I’m a firm cynic when it comes to the information the media sends our way (if it bleeds, it leads), this crisis is real and [...]
Sake. Say it with me, “Sa-Kay”, not “Sa-Key”. Correct pronunciation matters. On your next dine out would you ask for a nice Mur-Lot (Merlot)? 
I really enjoy Sake’ and there’s a lot of misinformation floating around about how to drink it. Click below for information on the different grades and types of sake’.
Some general misconceptions I’ve encountered:
1. You should drink sake warm/hot. While a nice warm glass of sake on a cold night is good, most sake should be drunk chilled. Reserve the warm/sake for the cheaper bottles. Warming a junmai ginjo would be a waste of good sake.
2. Only good sake comes from Japan. Japan makes some of the finest Sake in the world, but I’ve encountered some beautiful bottles out of California, very affordable too.
3. Sake is really strong. Sake can range from 13% alc by volume to 17%, about the same as a stronger white wine to a really strong red. Sake is clear but it’s not vodka.
I highly recommend the bottle in the photo above. The Hakutsuru is very light, fragrant, dry but still has a nice sweetness. This is an easy drinking sake, sure to be a party pleaser.
Cheers!
Continue reading about Non-Grape Based Wines, Hakutsuru Sake $13-$15
What a busy season! There’s so much to tell you about: Denver, Taste of the Nation, and Bud Break! The buds are out! And aren’t they beautiful… Sadly, this means the super-cute sheep are back on their side of the fence. But take a look at our gorgeous cover crop – this is one of the ways that we promote the good bugs and keep away the bad bugs. Sustainability never looked so good! Share our Strength’s Taste of the Nation was a great event! It’s a fabulous evening of live music, silent auction packages, and the best food and beverages from around Oregon. Taste of the Nation raises money for organizations that feed hungry children and work to solve the causes of childhood hunger. We are proud to participate in such a wonderful fundraiser. Andy, Ksandek and I had…
Continue reading about Denver, Taste of the Nation, and Bud Break!
|
Cherryflava conference: Brand Hooligans – Creating a brand experience that makes people nuts about you [video link] On Thursday 28 May 2009 Cherryflava will host an experiential marketing conference in Cape Town called BRAND HOOLIGANS – Creating a brand experience that makes people crazy about you. The event will showcase the city’s most creative and successful marketing practitioners in a unique marketing conference format designed to generate maximum insight into their successful strategies and future opportunities as they see it. It’s a must-attend event for marketers, creative professionals, entrepreneurs and strategists keen to gain insight into how a carefully crafted experience can be the most efficient and effective marketing tool a brand can employ. Tickets to the conference are very limited. Only 30 are available for purchase. The speaker line up includes: Rui Esteves & Brad Armitage [founders vida e caffe and and now Brewers & Union] – Building a world-class South African brand: The devil’s in the detail When: Thursday 28 May 2009 Price: R950 per ticket. To book your seat: E-mail Jon Cherry – jon@cherryflava.com |
Continue reading about Brand Hooligans conference – Mike speaks
I started this blog because I wanted to share that high quality wine doesn’t have to be expensive. A LOT goes into the price of wine… you have the acreage costs, growing costs, yields, overhead, storage, shipping, middlemen, market pricing, etc. If you really start to calculate, it’s amazing you can get a quality bottle for $10! But I digress..
Recently I was encouraged by a friend that knows a lot more about wine to splurge on a premium bottle. This wine was not only expensive but it was suppose to be top rate. Normally $60 a bottle, it was marked down to $30, a “steal” for some. Running an affordable wine blog has it’s responsibilities. I really want to practice what I preach, so several times a year I will splurge to see if the extra cost brings the added enjoyment. Usually I’m disappointed, perhaps the expectations don’t live up to the hype. Was the $60 bottle good? Yes. Was it $60 good, no. Was it $30 good, debatable. Perhaps my palate still needs more refining, but I wouldn’t recommend the bottle to my readers at that price.
All this price-to-quality issue got me thinking, there must be a way to equate a general increase in price to overall enjoyment. I’ve been toying around with an unscientific model. Humor me here because this probably very silly. Say you have a $10 bottle of your favorite wine. In my experience a $20 bottle would not be twice as good, but it would probably be 20%-30% better. So the extra $10 in cost gave you a 20% bump in enjoyment. Perhaps an accurate perception will temper our expectations and thus improve enjoyment as well? Or maybe I shouldn’t do math equations while drinking wine…
Cheers!
Yamhill-Carlton District AVA Open House; April 25, 2009 I’ve been thinking about dirt quite a bit lately. In the park near where I live, I recently saw a child pick up a handful of dirt and bring it towards his mouth, only to have his mother flail out her arms in protest,“ Tim, don’t eat that!” she followed in a softer, more composed tone, “it doesn’t taste good.” As they walked past me to leave the park I could hear his mother mutter to herself that, “this is just a phase. It’ll be over soon.” On the 25th of April, almost 500 people tasted the dirt that we’re so proud of here in Yamhill-Carlton. I don’t mean that our guests actually tasted the dirt, but instead, had the opportunity to study the terroir of our AVA by sampling wines from…