Am I the only one who’s noticed the wine guides and tasting notes do not match what’s being sold at BevMo? While browsing for wine in the store, I read the reviews, look at the point scores on the little markers above the wine to help me decide which wine to try. When I look at the label, I often find that the vintage does not match the helpful review’s vintage. Definition: A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year.
Come on, we all know vintage switch happens in poorly run restaurants, but this should never happen in a retail wine store. Wine is not engineered from the same products year after year. Variables such as weather play a big part of determining the final product and ratings must be updated for each vintage. Come on BevMo, you gotta do mo than that! Any other thoughts…….
Additional 15% discount for volume purchase of 1 case
Indie Winemakers Sale -$36 plus free shipping fees. This week, Indie Winemakers is offering hand-crafted, ultra premium artisan wines produced by Tofanelli Family Vineyards. Both the Zinfandel and Charbono are from the same old vine (planted in 1929) vineyard managed by the Tofanelli’s for 3 generations. Pick one or try both! Indie Winemakers has obtained a very small allocation for this featured wine. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Tasting Notes – 2006 Napa Valley Charbono
Our tasting notes include sight, aromatics and palate. For more information, see our Tasting Techniques
Sight: This wine is dark ruby in color. Huge teardrops with no color variation.
Aromatics: Dark fruit aromas with blackberries, slightly mineral and a slight tobacco, and leather aroma.
Palate: Very smooth soft mouthfeel, big body and mostly balanced. A bit of tannins were noted in the finish suggesting another year will round out the wine. Will gain complexity and harmony in a few months.
Tasting Notes – 2006 Napa Valley Zinfandel
Our tasting notes include sight, aromatics and palate. For more information, see our Tasting Techniques
Sight: This wine is dark ruby in color. Huge teardrops with a slight color variation.
Aromatics: Ripe fruits with cherry jam and licorice, slight pepper and herb aromas.
Palate: Very smooth soft mouthfeel, medium body with ripe fruit richness; balanced. A great Zinfandel for those who like their Zins on the big side.
Food and wine
We suggest you pair the 2006 Napa Valley Zinfandel and Charbono with Vegetarian or Meat Chili.
Kosher Wine – this wine was produced according to Jewish dietary laws
Indie Winemakers Sale -$16.80 plus shipping fees. This exceptional wine comes from the Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley. A perfect wine to share during the Hanukah-Chanukah-Januca-Hanukkah Holidays!
With its light sunflower hue and green apple, guava, and kiwi bouquet, Hagafen’s newest Chardonnay presents an integrated, melodious blending of bright apple, apricot, and pineapple, with a kiss of toasty oak. With one hundred percent malo-lactic fermentation yet light on the palete.
WORLD WINE CHAMPIONSHIPS AWARD: Gold Medal
RATING: 90 points (Exceptional)
Our tasting Notes:
Our tasting notes include sight, aromatics and palate. For more information, see our Tasting Techniques
Sight: This wine is clear with a Light straw yellow hue. Some teardrops with no color variation.
Aromatics: Fruity with green apple, slightly floral and a slight butter, butterscotch, and oak aroma.
Palate: Very smooth soft mouthfeel, light to medium body with some richness; balanced. Nice wine that shows the youthful tendency toward freshness and simplicity; should gain complexity and harmony in a few months.
This is the first time Ketcham Estates has offered their wine outside of their mailing list allocations, and we are proud to offer it for a limited, one-time only sale.
$38 each – $32.50 for 6 or more – 2 free passes to Pinot Days 2010 ($100 value) when you purchase a case. Order here
Michael Browne, (Wine Spectator has anointed him, ‘The Prince of Pinot’) from the famed Kosta Browne winery is the winemaker for this wine. Perfect for food pairings during the holidays, this wine will also make a special gift.
Special Discounts – Receive 15% off for a 6-pack purchase. Receive 15% off and 2 free passes to the Grand Festival of Pinot Days 2010 ($100 value) when you purchase a case. You may choose the location:
Los Angeles – January 2010
San Francisco – June 2010
Chicago – November 2010
Our tasting Notes:
Our tasting notes include sight, aromatics and palate. For more information, see our Tasting Techniques
Sight: This wine is clear, dark ruby red in color with a slight strawberry color rim variation. Big, slow teardrops with no color.
Aromatics: Light red fruits such as strawberry and raspberry.
Palate: Smooth and medium round texture. Fresh red fruit flavors of strawberry, raspberry with a bit or cedar and Dutch cocoa.
Food and wine
We suggest you pair the 2007 Pinot Noir with Coq au Vin.
The 2004 Milagro is a Spanish style blend of 60% Tempranillo, 36% Graciano and 4% Cabernet Sauvignon. Earthy aromas of cedar, anise, vanilla, blueberry, tobacco, oak are highlighted by hints of black pepper and caramel. Crisp on the palate all around, nice finish and integrated, soft tannis. A great wine to cellar for 10+ years..
Our tasting Notes:
Very dark and extracted color. Raspberry and some cedar on the nose. Crisp acidity, coupled with firm, well-integrated tannins and generous fruit. Tastes great now – dig in.
This event allows Indiewinemakers to search for small production, hard to find wines. Use this LINK to get free wine alerts when we begin our promotions this fall.
Discounted 30% and free shipping for one week only.
$22.99 or $19.75 for volume purchases of 6 or more. Order here
Accolades
88-91 points Wine Spectator “Well-structured, with a dark fruit medley of ripe, zesty red cherry, currant, boysenberry and blackberry. Ends with a smooth, tapered finish and fine-grained tannins.”
Located in eastern Santa Barbara County in the Cuyama Valley, Alta Mesa Vineyard sits perched above Barnwood Vineyards at 3200 feet in elevation. Planted in 2000 to 8 X 5 spacing (1089 vines per acre), this vineyard is home to 9.5 acres of Grenache (Tablas clone A on 1103P & 101-14 rootstock). The soils consist of decomposed granite and clay loam with large rocks of schist, quartzite, basalt, and gneiss. There is a massive swing of daily temperatures that is very beneficial to the growing of these grapes, most often a 40 – 50 difference between day and night. Daytime high temperatures are lowered by the arrival of cooling breezes from the north at approximately 2:00 in the afternoon.
Our tasting Notes:
Ridiculously good wine! Very dark and extracted color in the glass. Red berry fruit nose. Tastes of cherry, vanilla, raspberry – just like trying fruit samples at the farmers market. Incredibly long finish with a little bit of tannins. Give this a few more months and then dig in.
Discounted 30% and free shipping for one week only.
This flagship wine comes from side-by-side blocks planted on the very top ridge of Tierra Alta where the afternoon winds gets stronger and the limestone-infused soil gets thinner. The fruit was handpicked just before dawn, then carefully sorted before it was laid down nice and cold in 1.5 ton open top fermenters. 80% of the fruit was de-stemmed, and 20% was left whole cluster. This entire picking, sorting, and destemming effort is finished by around 8:30 am. The Syrah has two different clones of Syrah ENTAV Clone 877 (80%) and UC Davis Clone 1 (20%) and just a touch of Viognier (2%) to add elegance and lift to the finished wine.
Our tasting Notes:
Clear dark ruby red color. This wine has medium viscosity with clear tear drops. It has great focus with blackberries and a smokey bacon nose. The tastes are similar along with some pepper that was not picked up before. Well structured, the wine has a velvety feel in the mouth. Nice medium-long finish.
If you know the characteristics of a wine varietal, you can blind taste a wine and give a pretty good estimate of the type of wine, age and region it came from. We’ve created a powerpoint that gives you a methodology to build these skills. We hope you enjoy and let us know if you have any success stories after following this process.
2004 Milagro Reserve – a Spanish Tempranillo Blend
![tierra_alta_fall2[1]](http://indiewinemakers.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/tierra_alta_fall21.jpg?w=448&h=272 "tierra_alta_fall2[1]")
