| Wine Tasting: Summertime Porch Pounders Thursday, July 25 4:30-6:30 $27 per person – 20 spots available Call 504-227-3888 or sign up online! It’s July in New Orleans, and we all know it’s going to be hot and sticky! To help you beat the heat, we recently changed a display rack in the store to hold six refreshing whites (and all of them are also available cold from the fridge!) To get to know these thirst-quenching wines, we’re going to have a tasting of all six plus four more! These are wines that are perfect for sipping in the heat but they’re good in the air conditioning too. This will be a casual, walk-around style tasting with a selection of cheeses to pair with the wines. Come any time before 6pm and you’ll have plenty of time to taste all the wines. Chehalem Pinot Gris, Willamette Valley, Oregon 2022 Colleleva Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi, Marche, Italy 2022 Hopler Pinot Blanc, Austria 2021 Horizon Chardonnay, Languedoc, France 2021 Mary Taylor Anjou Blanc, Loire Valley, France 2022 Mary Taylor Sauvignon Blanc, Touraine, France 2023 Mesa Vermentino Primo Bianco, Sardinia 2022 Ostatu Rioja Blanco, Rioja Alavesa, Spain 2022 Rodaro Friulano, Friuli Colli Orientali 2020 Zahel Gemischter Satz, Austria 2022 Wine Tasting: Vive la Difference! Thursday, August 22 4:30-6:30 $40 per person – 20 spots available Call 504-227-3888 or sign up online!   This is a tasting designed to explore wines that appear interchangeable from label and pricing alone, but are very different when you taste them. It is not meant to be a competition (though everyone will have their favorites), it is meant to be a reminder that you really want to speak with people (like us) who have tasted the wines and can help get you the best selection for your palate and/or to pair with a meal. There will be two Aligoté, one in the tart, green apple style and one a bit broader and deeper – more reminiscent of classic Bourgogne Blanc. We have two Txakolina rosé, one refreshing and one more serious and minerally. Then we move to red wines, beginning with the two Bourgogne Rouge that inspired this tasting. Both are from the same producer and the same general region but wow, are they different. Two Chianti Classico will follow, both from the same vintage and the same specific area, Greve in Chianti. Finally we will pour two red Rioja from the same vintage and also the same specific area, Rioja Alta. This should all be very enlightening and also delicious. We will have cheese and meat to match with the wines. Vive la difference! Defaix Frères Bourgogne Aligoté 2022 Philippe Gavignet Bourgogne Aligoté 2021 Ameztoi Getariako Txakolina Rosé ‘Rubentis’ 2023 Astobiza Arabaco Txakolina Rosé 2022 Domaine Chevrot Bourgogne Rouge 2022 Domaine Chevrot Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune Rouge 2022 Villa Calcinaia Chianti Classico, Greve in Chianti 2019 Podere Campriano Chianti Classico, Greve in Chianti 2019 Panorámico Rioja, Rioja Alta 2019 Trinidad del Conde Rioja, Rioja Alta 2019 Featured Wines D.O. Campo de Borja Garnacha 2018, 2020, 2023 We have a unique opportunity for our customers this month, and a great way to keep wine drinking interesting. Wines are living, breathing things, and they change over time, developing, maturing, softening, etc…, and there’s no better way to experience this than through a vertical tasting. A vertical tasting compares a number of wines from a single estate or producer, in which all the wines are produced under the same name or label but come from different years. A vertical allows tasters to see the evolution of a specific wine over time, as well as better understand, amongst other things, the effect of growing conditions in different vintages. We recently came across 3 vintages of “50+ Old Vine Garnacha” from Campo de Borja in northern Spain. These vintages include 2018, 2020, and 2023. This wine is 100% Garnacha, fermented in stainless steel, and then aged for 4 months in oak. The plants and the vinification process are identical year-to-year, and so together they represent a great opportunity to enjoy a vertical and experience the differences of time and weather. The bottles are $16 each but the trio of vintages will be available for $45, which makes for a very approachable vertical tasting. We have some longer notes that we will include with every purchase of the vertical. Quantities are limited.  Meet the Staff! As some of you probably already know, we’ve had three new staff members join our team. Dave, Gus, and Jessica have come to us from different backgrounds, but with a shared love and knowledge of wine. Stop by the shop and say hello!  Dave Burns I joined the NOLA Wine Merchant team in March of this year after a lengthy career in audit; It turns out people are a lot happier seeing a wine merchant than they are seeing an auditor! When not in the wine shop or enjoying burgundies and Iberian wine at home, I enjoy catching live music, training for my next ultra-marathon, and getting ready for carnival season as a dancing and fighting member of the Lucha Krewe. I’m originally from Chicago, but my wife Sarah and I have called New Orleans home now for 10 years and counting.  Gus Baganz Sometime last year, what had long been a casual interest in wine became steadily more serious, ultimately leading to a harvest internship with a winemaker in Austria. After moving to New Orleans from the East Coast earlier this year, I feel lucky to have found a place to continue this trajectory at NOLA Wine Merchant. The inventory that Geoff selects aligns closely with my own tastes and interests, and it has been a privilege to continue learning about all of it. When I’m not at the store or working as a technical writer, I like to spend my time reading, working on my car, and thinking about food: both as a home cook and as a diner and enthusiastic student of New Orleans’ culinary history. I look forward to getting to know all of you and hope to see you soon!  Jessica Cogan I’m a longtime enthusiast whose passion for wine was first stoked while living in San Francisco and spending time in Napa, Sonoma, and the Central Coast. Since then, I’ve been pursuing my formal wine education and most recently earned my WSET level 3 certification. With a professional background in communications consulting and education, I’m excited to help others learn about wine – whether by helping you select a wine to go with dinner, running a tasting, or conducting a class. I’m a big fan of light-bodied reds and would be thrilled to help you find a bottle to enjoy!  While the people above are learning your names and tastes, we also wanted to remind everyone to help us help you and give us your name when you’re ready to check out with your wine. We track your purchase history under your name so that when you come back in after finding a new favorite, no one has to remember or recreate the initial discussion that led to that selection. We can also make a note on your account about a wine you did not enjoy, though we are very proud to say that this doesn’t happen often.The biggest bonus of tracking your purchase history is that it helps us learn what you like so that we can make even better recommendations going forward. (Not to mention, sometimes people come in to buy a gift for someone they know who shops here and that means you’ll get a wine you’ll like and you won’t have to fake excitement when handed that bottle!) Cheers! |
