Above: people from left to right are Iacopo di Teodori, Tim and Alison Coleman, Bruno de Conciliis, Carole and Geof Gaddis, Albert Neher, Marty Ramsburg, Craig Wells.

This Saturday, March 6th, buy a case of wine and save the usual 10% (or 5% on 6-11 bottles), plus an additional 6% since you won’t be charged tax.  If you want to save a little more, pay cash. Everyday you save 1.5% when you pay cash; add that to the case savings and the tax holiday and this Saturday you can buy a case for 17.5% savings– now that is compelling!

If you cannot make it to the shop on Saturday, no problem. Call us with an order anytime between now and then (802.246.6400), leave us a credit card number, and we’ll charge your case or half case on Saturday, sans tax.

We have two new $99 cases to entice you as well. Unlike previous $99 cases that included some wines that were being discontinued and therefore were heavily discounted, these cases are comprised of wines we typically carry and usually sell for $9-$12 per bottle. These wines are, in our view, the best wines available to us at these price points. The red case consists of 12 different red wines while the white case includes 2 bottles each of 6 different white wines. Please call us if you would like to have one of these cases so that we can reserve it for you. Don’t forget about our “Drive-Through” service– give us a call to let us know you are on your way and we will meet you in front of the shop with your wine to save you any parking hassle.

Mas Igneus Barranc dels Closos, Negre, Priorat, 2006, $20.99
This is a serious mouthfull of wine, consistent with the rich, extracted character of many wines from Priorat, a region in NE Spain, just below Barcelona. The wines of Priorat are amazingly rich and powerful and, like the Mas Igneus, Negre, often comprised of Grenache and Carignan. The Mas Igneus was reviewed in Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate and given a score of 91. Here is the review: 
“Purple-colored, it offers up an expressive perfume of earth, slate, espresso, black cherry, blueberry, and licorice. This leads to a full-bodied wine with intense liquid mineral and black fruit flavors, outstanding depth, and enough ripe tannins to support an add’l 2-3 years of cellaring. It should be at its finest from 2011 to 2021.”

Let’s get the ball rolling with a question we received recently from a customer who tasted and purchased a bottle of spanish red:

“We attended the wine tasting last month and really loved some of your wines, so we purchased several bottles, one of which was the Atalaya Almansa 2007…We had friends over tonight and were raving about this bottle, until we poured the last glass.  My future mother-in-law gagged on her last sip due to a hard woody substance in the glass.”

The experience that you had is not uncommon, particularly for Spanish wine. When we had the wine bar open and had a Spanish wine on the menu, glasses often came back with residue, sometimes much larger than what looks like was in your future mother-in-law’s glass. In the days before filtering wines, that was so common that decanting was de rigeur. Decanters were made to trap sediment, hence the Bordeaux decanter’s shape that makes it very difficult to pour the last ounces– you’re not meant to!.

There are two processes in winemaking that are meant to prevent the kind of stuff your future mother-in-law found in her glass: fining and filtering. Fining is meant to “clarify” the wine from the unstable proteins the molecules of which change charge over time and, in so doing, foster bonds among molecules and create larger particles. Most wines are fined and while fining removes the colloids (larger molecules formed during fining through the introduction of oppositely-charged sustances to attract the unstable proteins), it is likely to have tartrate crystals form after the wine is bottled and also be thrown when the wine is poured.  While the latter may look unpleasant, they are harmless to ingest and should not influence the flavor of the wine.

Filtering occurs later and is meant to capture larger particles in the wine, such as skins and stems that may have remained suspended in the wine. In the past 20 years, though, filtering has been the subject of considerable controversy with traditionalist arguing against filtering. In a nutshell, that argument runs something like this: historically we did not have the sophisticated filtering techniques available today and therefore much stuff was left in the wine. That stuff does influence flavors. If we think there are great wines made in 1947 and 1961 (two great Bordeaux years) and we weren’t able to filter as effectively as we can today, we can’t know the extent to which the larger particles left in the wine (and for which we need those decanters) contributed to the ethereal flavors those wines developed over time.  Many wines today are not filtered. In fact, Kermit Lynch, a widely respected wine importer, has long championed unfiltered wines and based his portfolio on them. I could not find out whether the Atalaya is unfiltered. It would not surprise me in the least if it is not.

Further reading:

http://houston-uncorked.com/2008/06/05/wine-sediment/

This Saturday, we’re tasting Austrian wines at the Wine Gallery at 4pm.  If you’re in town for the Harris Hill Ski Jump, why not stop by for a taste of Austria in the afternoon? Please RSVP to info@windhamwines.com if you plan to attend. Tasting fee: $15, plus tax

Saturday, February 27th, 4:00-6:00
Bordeaux, Deconstructed

We’ll taste the varietals that are allowable to make Bordeaux’s famous blends, then taste a Left and a Right Bank Bordeaux. Please RSVP to info@windhamwines.com if you plan to attend. Tasting fee: $15, plus tax.

Saturday, March 13th, 4:00-6:00
Biodynamic Wines

What is biodynamics and how does it apply to winemaking? Come learn about this way of life and its impact on wine as we taste some delicious examples from different winemakers. Biodynamic producers tend to be smaller, artisanal winemakers with lower yields. Please RSVP to info@windhamwines.com if you plan to attend. Tasting fee: $20, plus tax.

This Spanish blend includes the following-varietals: Monastrell, Tempranillo, Garnacha, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Merlot. It received a score of 90 points from Wine Advocate. 

As our wine of the month, each bottle receives a 5% discount bringing the price to $8.54. This is an unspeakably good value.

Stop by the shop for a bottle, enjoy it over dinner, and write a review. Post it on our blog as a response to this post, and you could win a $5.00 gift certificate. Olay!

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American Double / Imperial IPA style beer from Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in United States.

Stop by the shop for a 5% discount on this outrageously tasty beer.

Drink it, enjoy it, and review it, by commenting on this blog post for a chance to win a $5.00 gift certificate to the shop. Feel free to let those creative juices flow with your review.

Check out this informational page from vinquire.com on how to construct an effective wine review.

Stay tuned!