New Summer Cocktails Menu - to help battle the heat!

Soave DOC - Allegrini (Veneto, Italy) Bottle $32 - Glass $8
A blend of 80% Garganega - an indigenous grape - and 20% Chardonnay, hand harvested between late September and October from 25 year old vines. Allegrini uses the cold-maceration technique to pursue fuller flavor extraction from the skins, giving the wine a rounder body and longer aging ability. Fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks to preserve the freshness and integrity of its fruit aromas, Allegrini Soave is refined in bottle for two months and is ready to be enjoyed upon release.
Bright straw yellow in color, Allegrini Soave offers a fresh bouquet of herbs and flowers on the nose. The crisp, citrus aroma lingers on the palate and is framed by great acidity and minerality. Recommended with fish dishes, risotto, and poultry.

Morellino di Scansano DOC - Poggio Alle Sughiere
(Tuscany, Italy)
Bottle $38 - Glass $10
The Poggio alle Sughere estate in Magliano in Toscana - in the heart of the Maremma zone - produces Morellino di Scansano with a blend of Sangiovese (90%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (10%). This warm environment with perfect rainfall means that Morellino di Scansano is a very pleasant and agreeable, harmonious and elegant wine, with impressive and persistent perfumes accompanied by hints of violets, raspberries and pomegranate. This wine is refined for eight months in small barrels and then four months in the bottle.

CAPRICCIO

This week we are doing flights of 4 wines. This is a very enjoyable way of seeing the differences between 4 great Spanish wines:

Bierzo - Martin Sarmiento Cuatro Pasos Menc�a (Bierzo DO, Spain) Bottle $28
100% Mencia grape from the increasingly fashionable Bierzo region. At times linked to Pinot Noir or Cabernet Franc. It's subtle with an aromatic red berry nose and a powerful palate showing flavors of red cherry and redcurrant fruits. It finishes off with flavors of toasty oak and hints of vanilla.

Garnacha - Abrazo (Cari�ena DO, Spain) - Bottle $19
An unusual find! This wine is a mixture of 80% Garnacha and 20% Tempranillo - they both get the thumbs up when combined. A light and fresh red wine with a well rounded long finish. This wine has a light spice smell. The taste has forward fruit, a very slight sour body with soft tannins.

Syrah/Monastrell/Cabernet - Carchelo (Jumilla, Spain) - Bottle $26
Very dark garnet, with bright glints of reddish-purple against the light. Subtle and earthy, red berries, cherries and hints of "tree bark," a pleasant earthy woodiness that is often found in Mourvedre (or as the Spanish call it, Monastrell). Full-bodied, dry and tannic.

Monastrell - Altos de la Hoya (Jumilla, Spain) - Bottle $28

Stephen Tanzer of International Wine Cellar gave 91 points and wrote, "Deep ruby. Ripe, powerful scents of blackberry, cassis and candied plum, with a bit of garnacha in the blend seeming to brighten the darker fruit character. Fat and lush, with deep, sweet blackcurrant and blackberry flavors and no rough edges. Finishes dense, fresh and long, with a repeating blackberry note. This has the concentration and sappy texture of a much more expensive wine."