 JUNE 2024 NEWS Carnival of Rosés June 13th – 15th Sparkling Cocktail Class June 23rd Featured Wines Jean Collet & Fils Chablis Six-Pack of Red Wines Perfect for Grilling Carnival of Rosés June 13th – 15th Thursday – Saturday Three Days of Free Tastings! Our annual Carnival of Rosés will happen this year on June 13th, 14th and 15th (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) so you can taste a plethora of pink wines and choose your favorites for the summer ahead. Over those three days, we will open every still rosé in the store, and the tasting is free! There are lots of new vintages and some brand new wines as well. Of course, there will be a few that will sell out but don’t worry, we’re already on the hunt for more choices. No need to RSVP for the Carnival of Rosés, just show up and we’ll take you on a tour, and the first few tasters each day will be able to choose which wines we open first! Want to be among the first to know when we open the bottles you want to try? Sign up for our Carnival of Rosés Text Alerts!  Sparkling Cocktail Class$45 per person – limited availability! Sunday, June 23rd, 12pm On Sunday (yes, Sunday) June 23rd, Mazie and Anne will be leading a fun exploration of different sparkling wines and some cocktails and spritzes that you can make with them. We will feature our new ‘go-to’ Cava, an old favorite Prosecco and a Crémant de Bourgogne to taste and play with for classic mimosas and mixed with other fruit juices. We will then move on to a comparison of Aperol versus Contratto’s Aperitif with one of the sparkling wines so you can officially decide which style suits you best. Last but not least, a French 75 side-by-side! We’ll make one with Cognac and one with a barrel-aged Gin for comparison. Light snacks will be served to go with your creations. Call 504-227-3888, stop by the store or, sign up online to reserve your spot!  Featured Wines & Curated Cases Jean Collet & Fils Chablis Domaine Jean Collet is a favorite of ours. The wines are properly Chablis without requiring lengthy aging to be enjoyable, and they are reasonably priced. You have probably seen them on various restaurant lists around town for all of the reasons we just listed. We have a handful of their wines in stock but the reason to highlight the 1er Cru Vaillons right now is that we have it in magnum and jeroboam (a three-liter bottle, which equals four bottles of wine). Large format Burgundy is relatively rare and they are routinely very expensive compared the 750ml bottle. That is not the case here!This is lovely wine with subtle depth and acidity. The fruit is ripe and pretty and the acid is present but not in your face. The wine is charming with good minerality and could use some air in the short term, especially if you’re planning to open one of the large format bottles.We have 7 magnums and 3 jeroboams in stock right now. They will not last…We also have 12 magnums of the village Chablis 2022 Six-Pack of Red Wines for Grilling Available for a limited time only We did this last year and it was such a hit that we’re doing it again with new selections! We have a sheet with detailed descriptions of each wine available at the store for anyone who purchases a set, and we have some wooden six-pack boxes available if you would like them packed nicely as a gift. This would make a great Father’s Day present, or maybe a gift to yourself! Gryphees Fleurie – 60+ year-old vines from a single vineyard. Rich, for Gamay, with loads of minerality. Château Bernadotte, Haut-Médoc 2016 – Perfectly mature Bordeaux with good fruit and little tannin. No decant needed. Rainbow’s Edge Merlot, Stellenbosch 2020 – If all Merlot tasted like this we would all drink a lot more Merlot. Ripe, forward fruit, just enough structure and lots of mineral. Eberle Cabernet Sauvignon Vineyard Selection, Paso Robles 2021 – Gary Eberle’s wines have always impressed but this one delivers on price as well! Jean-Jacques Girard Bourgogne Rouge 2022 – A lovely Pinot Noir made from mostly Savigny-Les-Beaune fruit. Grilling some salmon? Or chicken? This will be a great match. Envínate ‘Albahra’, Vinos Mediterráneos 2022 – Mostly Alicante-Bouschet (a rare grape that produces red juice even without skin contact) from high-elevation vineyards in the Valencia area. Deeply colored and aromatic the wine is easy on the tannin but matches perfectly with grilled meats. Wallet-Friendly Wines We would like to share with you that last week we determined we had over 150 wines priced at $20 or less and that we had more than 130 wines priced from $21-$30. That’s nearly 300 selections at $30 or below! While we are proud of our selections from top to bottom, we take extra pride and joy in the quality and variety of our value wines. These require the most work to find (we have to kiss a lot of frogs) but they are an integral part of our success. Wine Writing Contest Finally, there is a writing contest sponsored by Jancis Robinson, one of our favorite wine writers, that anyone can enter. The theme this year is, “The wine moment I’ll never forget.” The deadline is June 17th, and more details can be found on her website. Good luck if you decide to enter! |
