News from Vinestone Wine Company

FEATURE WINES

The following wines will be on feature and open for tasting for two weeks beginning July 23.

It's a goldmine of French wine this week, with a champagne, some great value reds, and one white from Greece.

Rene Geoffroy N/V Volupte
Champagne, France $75.00

Wow, off to a roaring start this week. Come try this great value bubbly from the home of great bubbly. Geoffroy is what is known as a 'grower' champagne, meaning the same guy who tends the vines, grows the fruit, owns the land also makes and bottles the wine. The 'Grande Marques' or 'Big Brands' source and buy their fruit and wine from any number of these small growers. Grower champagnes provide all the quality, but more individuality than the more famous names. The Volupte is Geoffroy's top bottling outside their rare vintage wine, made with 80% chardonnay & 20% pinot noir, 30+ year old vines and fermented in oak barrels for complexity. It offers aromas of white flowers, white fleshed fruit and minerals.

Lantides 2007 Icon Roditis
Nemea, Greece $16.95

With the hot weather our thoughts turn to refreshment. For those who have been there, they also turn to the deep azure oceans, sandy beaches, bright sunshine and fresh octopus of Greece. To complete the fantasy, how about some crisp, floral, COLD white from the same country? Roditis offers a refreshing, intense aromatic quality with light but flavourful body, mineral structure and green peach and elder blossom aromatics. I think some beer-drinkers might even like this as an alternative.

Domaine GalVs 2005
Costieres-de-Nimes, France $20.00

One of our new French arrivals, the GalVus (pronounced Galus) comes from an area within the Languedoc of southern France. With stony soils similar to Chateauneuf-du-Pape, and the quality grapes Grenache, Syrah and Carignan, the vignerons (growers/winemakers) are trying their hand at lending some finesse to these intense wines. Both from Burgundy families, the young couple have ventured south to make their own name. With aromas of fresh red fruit and spice, a medium body and dry, concentrated structure, they suggest this red a little cool at 15 degrees Celsius along side a Veal Chop - that's straight from the rooster's beak!

Ovale 2006 Vin de Pays de Comte Tolosan, France $16.00

That's a fancy way of saying this wine, called Ovale, comes from the large area in France's southwest corner, below Bordeax. The concept? The best of four wineries combined into one in the spirit of sharing and originality, with the challenge of blending four grape varieites with strong individual character. The Malbec, Negrette, Gamay & Braucol offer, respectively, strength and structure, velvet and licorice, fruit and smoothness, spice and freshness. And at this price for great French wine, who can complain? Fruity, fresh and simple, it's a great summer sipper!