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SATURDAY'S WINES; TERRIFIC TRIBOULEYS; SPANISH WINE CLASS
Come drop in Saturday afternoon and taste some good juice, pick up two of the best wines we have in stock and sign up for our special Spanish wine class. First, our Saturday tasting offerings:
2009 Frank Family Chardonnay (Carneros, $28.99). In 1992, Rich Frank, a Disney executive, and his friend, Koerner Rombauer, bought the old Kornell Champagne [sic] cellars in Napa and started making still wine. He eventually bought out Rombauer and is making some of California's best wines. This Chardonnay is rated 88 points by Wine Spectator: "A bright version, featuring ripe, rich notes of citrus, pear, apple and honeysuckle. This is full-bodied, ending with a delicate aftertaste."
2009 Fritz Windisch Niersteiner Spiegelberg Riesling Kabinett (Rheinhessen, $15.99). This off-dry Riesling expresses a gorgeous floral aroma with peaches and good body. It is a kabinett so there's brightness and good balancing acidity. We're selling more German Rieslings this summer than ever before, so we had to put this one on the tasting table.
2007 Ramsay Cabernet Sauvignon (California, $18.99). Here's what a good Cabernet Sauvignon can be when well-made. The nose is rich with cassis, cherry and vanilla. On the palate, the wine is rich with a seasoning of good oak. The mouth-feel of the wine is round and full.
2006 Donati Family Vineyard Claret "Paicines" (San Benito County, $24.99). This is the fourth vintage of the Donati Family's flagship wine. It's dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, but with complementary additions of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Syrah. The wine is scented with dark red and black fruit and lots of spice, plus sweet vanillin and sage notes.
Our paid tasting wine is 2006 W. H. Smith Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast, $34.99). Bright ruby in color with smoky cherry, cinnamon and clove aromas. On the palate there is rich raspberry, black cherry and spice flavors finishing long with great balance and nice acidity. The way California Pinot should be. Proceeds from the $5 tasting fee will be donated to the Avery County Humane Society.
JEAN-LOUIS TRIBOULEY
Tribouley farms roughly 30 acres (biodynamically) just north of the Spanish border in southern France. He sells no grapes; where in the world does he find room there for wine from 30 acres, you ask? The solution to this seeming mystery is that he has all the room he requires given his pathetically low yields; in a quantitatively good vintage, he bottles only 1,700 cases. But it is fruit from his 10 acres near Maury (situated on reddish Marne chalk and quartzite-rich schist and sandstone) that are the focus for the two cuvées that are sold in the U.S. Both his parcels in the "Les Bacs" just east of Maury and in the Coume du Roi (the basis for his "Orchis") are around 75:25 Grenache-to-Carignan; northwestern in exposure, and, he says, almost perpetually windy.
Tribouley farms using organic and biodynamic methods, never using chemical weed killers and plowing behind a mule. He does not use chemical fertilizers in order to allow the plant to find nutrients on its own, with its deep roots.
Harvesting is not done by machine, but by hand, and all the grapes are hand-sorted. To avoid crushing, harvesting is done in small crates. He uses little or no sulfites, no industrial yeasts, the grapes are de-clustered and put in "cuves" by hand, not conveyor belts. Fermentation and élevage is carried out in larger, used wood demi-muids to allow the fruit, not wood seasoning, to shine. The results of all this fastidious care are a pair of highly-acclaimed wines with unbelievable freshness and richness.
2008 Tribouley "Orchis" (Languedoc Rousillon, $29.99). Wine Advocate 93 points: "[The wine possesses] an impressive sense of sheer energy. Bittersweet floral aromas which vie with bitter-edged black fruits, while iodine, stone, and iron filings seem to suffuse the fluid fruit concentrate to the point of some austerity. This displays an uncanny sense of sheer lift for all of its palpable density, making for considerable finishing exhilaration. Look for it to serve well and fascinatingly for at least the next 8-10 years."
2008 Tribouley "Les Bacs" (Languedoc Rousillon, $29.99). Wine Advocate 93 points: "Tribouley's 2008 Les Bacs Vieilles Vignes is seductively scented with gentian, wisteria, arbor vitae, cinnamon, licorice, and dark cherry concentrate. In the mouth this is rich and velvety yet bright, juicy, and vibrant, with suggestions of stone, iodine, cherry pit adding further complexity to its floral, herbal, and berry melange in a terrifically lingering finish. The positive influences of vinification with stems and a sojourn in previously-used demi-muids to let the wine breathe are evident. This ought to be worth pursuing for the better part of a decade."
Quantities are limited, so if you would like some of these, please call us or email us as soon as possible. Or come in and grab some.
Wines of Italy
Thursday, July 21, at 6:30-7:30: Wines of Italy. If you like Italian wines, especially ripasso and amarone styles, you need to join us for a special presentation by Emanuele Magnini of Sunrise Wines. We've traveled with Emanuele to the Italian wine trade show VinItaly in Verona numerous times and been introduced to drop-dead gorgeous Italian wines, so we're very excited that he's saving us the trip and bringing the best of his best to Erick's for a special showing.
SPANISH WINE CLASS
If you love Spanish wines or would like to learn about Spanish wines, you should come to Erick's this coming Sunday, July 24, 5:30-6:30, for our special program on Spanish wines. We'll show you that Spanish wine is more than Rioja and even more than red wine. For several years now no other country produces wines on such a broad scale whose quality/price relationships approach those of Spain. This program will offer a travelogue of Spain's regions from the Atlantic to the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean and points in between and the exciting monumental and value-oriented wines that are now being produced there.
The class will be a seated presentation in our Tasting Room next door and will include generous tastings of seven special wines (all rated 90-93 points by the way), cheeses and hors d'oeuvres/tapas and written materials. If you would like a seat at the table, please reply to this email, sign up at the store or call for reservations at (828) 898-9424.
LATER
Thursday, August 4, at 6:30-7:30: Riedel Glassware Demonstration.
Sunday, August 7, at 5:30-6:30: Small Vineyards of Italy.
Thursday, August 11, at 6:30-7:30: Beer and Cheese.
Sunday, August 21, at 5:30-6:30: The Many Styles of Sherry.
Wednesday, August 24, at 6:00-7:00: Destiny Dudley returns to pour the Willamette Valley wines of Walnut City Wineworks, for whom she is now national sales manager.
Sunday, September 4, at 5:30-6:30: Port and Madeira.
CALLIE'S BISCUITS
Come try our latest bakery items - biscuits from Callie's of Charleston:
Cheese and Chive Biscuits - $17.95/packet of 12 biscuits.
Cinnamon Biscuits - $18.95/packet of 12 biscuits.
The biscuits come frozen and pre-cooked, so all you have to do is pop out what you want and brown them in the oven.
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