The Nation's Eyes are on Oregon for the 2012 Special Election in Congress
We received the voter’s pamphlet and ballot for the 1st Congressional District Special Election, and are going to send it in today. Who to vote for? Does it really matter? According to the political pundits across the country it does indeed matter! This election, according to experts, will be a litmus test for the elections in November for the rest of the country, a “Barack-O-Bama-Meter” (I just made that up!) to see if the country believes in the President’s policies.
This is the first mention of politics on this site, and possibly the last! One more thing: check your facts before believing any emails from either party as there are many misconceptions out there (see the 3.5% sales tax on home sales). FactCheck.org seems to be pretty good at clearing misconceptions up.
Now, back to WINE! The wine shops in town are back in full swing, and there are at least 14 really good tastings out there tonight! The Qupe vertical at Cork really got our attention, and there is a huge sale at E & R tonight with Kermit Lynch wines (always and forever, our favorite).
Good luck with the elections, and on a personal message to Dan Savage: we are definitely NOT voting for Rick Santorum!!
Friday, January 20, 2012
Qupe Vertical
Our first epic tasting of 2012 is this Friday, starting at 4pm and going until we run out of these very special bottles. We encourage you to come early so you get to taste all 6 wines. Our plan is to taste the newest release of Central Coast Syrah from 2009 which includes some fruit from Qupe’s Bien Nacido vineyard where the winery is located along with fruit sourced from other sites in the area. Then we’ll show you the 2007 bottling of the single-vineyard Bien Nacido Syrah. We’ll finish it off with a run of 3 vintages, from 2004 to 2006, of the more select Bien Nacido Hillside parcel that sits above the Qupe winery. If we’re lucky, we’ll receive a sample of the just-released 2008 Bien Nacido to also show, barring more snow in the pass slowing down its arrival! Truly a special tasting and great opportunity to see how these gamey Rhone-style Syrah bottlings really unfold with some age. $12 tasting fee* (two complimentary flights per cork club membership). Drop in tasting, no reservations needed.
TBD
5-7 pm, $5
Oregon Pinot Noir
4:30-7 pm, $8-$16.
Tasting of 10 sale wines
6:30-8:30, $5 (refundable with purchase)
No tasting
TBD
4:30-6:30 pm, free.
Through the snow, ice and rain I will be here all this week. Especially on Friday for this tasting when I pour the perfect reds for these cold winter days. The first wine is a monople for Jadot in Pommard. The vineyard is enclosed by a stone wall covered in vines. The second wine is a Bandol from Provence, predominately Mourvedre. The third wine in the flight is a Corbieres made from 100+ year old Carignan vines in Corbieres. Then we will try the newest release from Cameron Winery, the 2009 Arley’s Leap. This is the younger vines (still 20+ years old) of Abbey Ridge planted from the Clos Electrique clones of the estate vineyard. Lastly, we will try the not your typical wine from the Veneto. This is a Bordeaux blend made in the home of Amarone; comprised of Cabernet, Merlot, Malbec and Cabernet Franc.
2006 Louis Jadot Pommard 1er Clos de La Commaraine
2007 Domaine Tour du Bon Bandol
2009 Maxime Magnon Corbieres Campagnes (100 year old vines)
2009 Cameron Pinot Noir Arley’s Leap
2007 Loredan Gasparini Venegazzu della Casa
5-8 pm, $15.
2009 Oregon Pinot Noir
A well-endowed vintage that’s drinking great already. Shea Wine Cellars, J. Christopher, Soter, Thomas and an older vintage for the bonus. $17
I will pour Obscure Italian White Varietals and some Bargain Red Bordeaux
5-7 pm, $5.
What’s Happening in Washington? A taste of Washington State Cabernets and blends.
5:30-7:30, fee
SPICY, PEPPERY REDS FROM FRANCE’S RHONE VALLEY
Just back from a fantastic, relaxing, waist expanding vacation and ready to rock. This week we begin our 2012 tasting schedule with Rhone reds. These are just great wines at all different price points and I think they are the best values in the world of red wine today. 2010 is offering some delicious wines, both red and white, from all over Europe. The Rhone’s are big and full of flavor but are not heavy handed in any way and have beautiful balance. So far I’m a huge fan of the vintage. The Chateauneuf premium pour comes from vines planted in 1896! Talk about craggy, old vine, depth and intensity, this is a relative bargain at $55. I truly love every wine in this lineup. So come welcome us back and any sort of weight loss suggestions will be gratefully accepted!
4-8:00 pm, $15.
German Rieslings
5-7:30, $10
NEW WORLD! California, Washington, South America & more!!
4:30-7:30, $15
Willamette Valley Pinot Noir Comparative Tasting: 2007 and 2009.
2007 and 2009 represent two very different vintages when it comes to weather. This Friday evening we will be tasting wines from each of these vintages to get a better idea of what those differences mean in the bottle. The spotlight will be squarely on the newly released 2009 Cameron Arley’s Leap Pinot Noir and a special library release from Michael Stevenson, the 2007 Stevenson-Barrie Temperance Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir. Other wineries that will have bottles in this tasting include Scott Paul Wines, Beaux Freres and Grochau Cellars. Amazingly, there will be no charge for this tasting. I hope you are able to join us as this should be a very interesting tasting.
6-9 pm, free.
TBD
4:30-8 pm, fee.
Tasty Spanish Gems
4-7 pm, $10 (free with purchase)
Victoria From ODOM Southern Will Be Pouring Wines From Argentina
Layer Cake Malbec
Alamos Torrontes
Don Miguel Gascon Reserva Malbec
Argento Bonarda
Graffinga Pinot Grigio
5-7:30, $5 (waived with purchase)
Best Chianti in Oregon
This Friday we’ll keep going with Italian Chianti in depth. This will be week 2 of Friday Night Wine Tastings featuring this category. We want to try the best of wines offered by the many wholesalers in Oregon in each price range. We’ll go from about $10 to $30 a bottle. Last week we tasted a selection of $10 to $20 wines. This week we’ll taste from $20 to $30 Chiantis. We learned quite a bit last week and found 4 to maybe 5 wines out of 8 that we’ll consider for our wine shelf set. Our goal is to find the finest wine in each price range so we can offer you the best buy for your wine money invested. We may even go for 1 more week of Chiantis and try to bring back a few of the he best from each previous week to end up with our final Chianti selection. The next categories we’ll focus on in a few weeks will be mid-priced red wines from Washington and California.
6:30 pm, $10.
