| NOVEMBER 2023 NEWS November already! We hope you’re getting your holiday menus planned, and we’re looking forward to opening the right bottles to match. We’ll have a couple events this month to give you a break from your Thanksgiving preparations! Read on for details… |
| TASTING EVENTS |
| We may be heading towards our busiest time of the year, but that doesn’t mean you should lose out on the chance to taste some terrific wines! Here’s what’s on the schedule for this month: |
| Wine Tasting: Maison Albert Bichot Thursday, November 9th 4-6:30pm Free! |
The Bichot family can trace its history in Burgundy back to the 1300s, and has been in the wine business since 1831. Today, they operate 6 estates across Burgundy, in addition to partnering with family growers elsewhere in France! We’ve been working with Bichot wines for quite some time now, and find them to deliver terrific quality and value no matter the region. So we’re excited to have Robert Gilroy, our regional representative from Albert Bichot USA, joining us to taste you through a number of their wines from Burgundy and the Languedoc! We’re sure you’ll be able to find a new favorite among the lineup — with red, white, and even rosé bubbles open, there’s truly something for everybody at this tasting! |
| These are the wines we’ll be opening for the Maison Albert Bichot tasting: -Cremant Rosé de Bourgogne -L’Orangeraie Sauvignon Blanc 2021 -Horizon de Bichot Chardonnay 2020 -Bourgogne Aligoté 2021 -Bourgogne Côte d’Or Chardonnay ‘Secret de Famille’ 2018 -Bourgogne Côte d’Or Pinot Noir ‘Secret de Famille’ 2018 -L’Orangeraie Syrah 2020 -Domaine de la Borie Blanche Minervois-La Livinière 2019 |
| Wine Tasting: NOLA Wine Merchant’s Thanksgiving Picks Thursday-Saturday, November 16-18th, 10am-7pm Free! |
We firmly believe that the right wine elevates a good meal to a great one. The only catch is that the right wine isn’t necessarily the same for everyone! With Thanksgiving right around the corner, we want to be sure that you’ve got as much faith in these wines as we do, so we’ll be pulling corks on a dozen wines through the weekend before the holiday! We’ll have a selection of all styles — reds, whites, rosés, and bubbles — all that we stand behind for a classic Thanksgiving table. The earlier you come, the greater chance that you get to pick what we open for the day. We’re certainly looking forward to helping you elevate your holiday dinner to the next level! |
| Wine Tasting: Champagne & Sparkling! Thursday, November 30th 4:30-6:30pm Tickets $40 No wine is as synonymous with a special occasion as Champagne. We love our bubbly, and open it as often as we can, but we know many people try to save it for important days. Luckily, there are lots of those right around the corner, so we think that’s the perfect excuse to hold a tasting focused entirely on terrific sparklers! AJ will take you through a slew of sparkling wines, from California to Cava to Champagne itself. These wines are perfect as aperitifs or party wines, and many will do wonderfully on the dinner table as well! You can use this opportunity to plan ahead for holiday parties or New Year’s Eve, or just take advantage of the chance to liven up your week with a wonderful lineup!  These are the wines we’ll be opening for the Champagne & Sparkling tasting: -Mestres ‘Coquet’ Cava Gran Reserva Brut Nature 2017 -Melanie Pfister Crémant d’Alsace ‘Breit’ Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut 2018 -Roederer Estate Anderson Valley Brut NV -Carboniste ‘Uni’ Pinot Noir Rosé Extra Brut 2021 -Champagne Pierre Moncuit ‘Hugues de Coulmet’ Blanc de Blancs Brut NV -Champagne Waris-Larmandier ‘Racines de Trois’ Brut NV -Champagne Bérêche & Fils Brut Réserve NV -Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte ‘Réserve Exclusive’ Brut Rosé NV The ticket will also include cheese to pair with the wines! HOW WE CONDUCT OUR UPCOMING TICKETED TASTING This event is not seated. Buy your ticket and come during the appointed times up to 30 minutes before the event ends, and you will get to taste all the wines. Call 504-227-3888 or stop by the store to purchase your ticket! |
| HOW WE CONDUCT OUR UPCOMING WINE TASTINGS These events will be neither seated nor ticketed. Simply arrive at the shop at least 30 minutes prior to the scheduled end of the event (or prior to our closing time) and you’ll have plenty of time to taste through the full lineup. Call 504-227-3888 or stop by the store with any questions! |
| Wine Class: Domaine Gerard Seguin Wednesday, November 15th, 6pm Tickets $95 |
We are thrilled to have enough depth and breadth to offer this dazzling array of top-notch red Burgundy from an estate with a long history that is still fairly unknown here in New Orleans. The founder of this estate was better known as a horticulturalist than vigneron, becoming famous for his grafting techniques while also making wine. He was one of the first in Burgundy to graft his vines onto American rootstock after the devastation of the phylloxera louse. Now the fifth generation is running the domaine and making wines of purity and richness from vines that are 40 to nearly 100 years-old. Join us as we taste three vintages of their Chambolle-Musigny (sourced about 100 meters from the Grand Cru Le Musigny) and four different Gevrey-Chambertin from village to 1er Cru, covering three vintages.  |
| These are the wines we’ll be opening for our Domaine Gerard Seguin class: -Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes 2019 -Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes 2020 -Gevrey-Chambertin ‘Les Crais’ 2020 -Gevrey Chambertin ‘Les Crais’ 2021 -Gevrey-Chambertin ‘Terroir du Domaine’ 2021 -Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Lavaux-St-Jacques 2020 -Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Lavaux-St-Jacques 2021 -Chambolle-Musigny ‘Derriere la Four’ 2018 -Chambolle-Musigny ‘Derriere la Four’ 2020 -Chambolle-Musigny ‘Derriere la Four’ 2021 |
| HOW WE CONDUCT OUR UPCOMING WINE CLASS This event will be seated, and limited to 10 people per class. Please arrive at the shop by 6 in order to allow us time to fully explore the wines. Appropriate pairings of cheese and charcuterie will be offered as well. Call 504-227-3888 or stop by the store to purchase your ticket! |
Appointment Shopping |
| Planning a big event? Need to buy wine for gifts? Or maybe you’re realizing your cellar is in need of a restock? We’re here to help! Throughout the holiday season we have a number of customers who prefer to schedule shopping appointments with us. You tell us what you’ve got in mind, and when the time comes we’ll sit down and taste you through options we think are suited to your needs. This way, you know exactly what these wines are before you commit to a bulk buy! We know there is always a lot going on this time of year, so let us ease the stress of buying multiple cases of wine. We can’t defrost that turkey any faster, and we probably can’t magically create the ideal seating chart for large family gatherings — but we can make sure you have exactly what you want in your glass! Give us a call or send an email and we’ll help work out all the details! |
NEW ARRIVALS |
| Here are a few wines we’ve added recently and want to share with you — while they won’t be part of our Thanksgiving tasting lineup, we think these would sing on your holiday table! |
 Dama del Rovere Soave Classico This wine is a perfect example of Italy’s quality revolution — while the Soave of decades ago was mass-produced and simple, there are producers today making stellar wines in the region. The Pra brothers who own and operate Dama del Rovere are certainly among those producers; they are the fourth generation in the family to grow grapevines, and make their wine in one of the highest-elevation wineries in the Veneto! Their Soave Classico is a terrific wine — round, ripe, and fresh, with a seashell-like minerality underneath that makes it reminiscent of a Petit Chablis! |
 Jacques Saumaize St-Véran ‘En Crêches’ 2021 As the price of Burgundy continues to creep upward, we have to broaden our search for wines that deliver a terrific value at an accessible price. Enter Jacques Saumaize’s Saint-Véran! This Mâconnais Chardonnay is wonderful — delivering all of the richness of fruit that you’d expect of Burgundy’s southernmost sub-region coupled with a racy acidity and minerality that keeps the wine from feeling too heavy on the palate. Decidedly a wine that will hold up against and complement a rich meal, though it drinks fantastically on its own before you make it to the dinner table as well! |
 Collotte Marsannay ‘En Combereau’ 2018 We’re in the northernmost village of the Côte-d’Or here, where we’ll generally find an even cooler-climate expression of Pinot Noir than you tend to see in Burgundy. Phillippe Collotte and his daughter Isabelle make their wines almost entirely from vines 30 years of age or older, and work hard in the vineyard to get the healthiest grapes they can! Their Marsannay ‘En Combereau’ is a terrifically elegant, single-vineyard red, with just the right balance of fruit, earthiness, and oak. Geoff and AJ had the same first reaction to this wine: “This would be perfect on a Thanksgiving table!” |
 Buil & Giné Priorat ‘Giné Giné’ 2019 It’s finally big red weather, and we’ve got the wine to match! Buil & Giné was founded in the 1990s by a fourth generation grape grower, who has since been joined by his grandson. Their Giné Giné is made from 50% Garnacha and 50% Cariñena (Grenache and Carignan, for our Francophile readers), and delivers a sizable wine with rich dark fruits and a floral, spiced nose. There’s also a lovely plush texture — no harsh tannins here — making this wine soft and friendly right out of the bottle. This is meant to be an introduction to both Priorat and the Giné family style, and what an introduction it is! |