May is for Rosé
Tag: old world wine
Italian White Wine Weekend
Most wine consumers are familiar with Pinot Grigio, the Italian white wine that has consistently been at or near the top of U.S. import lists for the past 15 years. As with other wine trends, however, the popularity of Pinot Grigio has cast something of a shadow over many other excellent Italian white wines – Soave, Vernaccia, Verdicchio, Orvieto, Vermentino, and Gavi, to name a few.
This coming weekend, the Colonial Spirits wine team plans to cast some light on the “other white wines of Italy” with a sale and tasting event. Starting at 9:00 am on Saturday and ending at 6:00 pm on Sunday, we will be offering a 20% discount on six or more bottles of every Italian white in the store. In addition, we have organized a Sunday tasting from 1:00 to 4:00 pm so customers can sample and learn about the refreshingly flavorful, food-friendly white wines from some of the Italy’s leading producers.
Premium European Wines Wine Tasting
This is as fresh as they come – for distributors, I mean. Premium European Wines is a small operation based out of our hometown, Acton, MA. Paul and Oxana are the husband and wife team that founded the business, represent the wines, deliver and promote the wines. When it comes to boutique, family oriented, environmentally conscious wineries look no further. With only a handful of brands in their portfolio, you can say that they are starting small. Regardless of their size, these wines are just as serious, if not more than the rest. With fewer hands to feed – Prem Euro Wines is the importer and distributor – and no marketing to pay for, these wines offer up an exceptional value but are still well-made. We will be stocking these wines for the foreseeable future so might as well get not only acquainted with them but also the people behind them. See you all here.
Carpe Vinum!
Blends : A wine norm?
I’ve really been getting into blends.’ A phrase I often hear, and I wonder why? Blending of various varietals has been a norm in winemaking since before the Greeks! 99.9% of Bordeaux wines are blends, and how about the Southern Rhone with its holy trinity of grenache, syrah and mourvèdre?! Yet why is it that I keep hearing this phrase. Why does the concept seem novel? Let’s take a quick look.
Cotes-du-Rhone 2009 & 2010- Buy Them While You Can!!
The past 3 years have been some of the best vintages to date in almost any region; Bordeaux, Burgundy, California, Washington, Oregon and so forth, but only a few have had outstanding vintages both in 2009 and 2010, the Rhone happens to be one of them. Some of the best wines, since 2007, have been recently released and if you follow ratings or don’t, it doesn’t matter because the quality is in the glass. Rich, dense, structured, firm, age-worthy and balanced are just a few of the descriptors when reviewing the wines from these vintages, but act fast because it will all be sold before you know it. So take advantage of the wines from these vintages whether they are inexpensive and ready to drink now, or expensive and meant to be drunk years down the road, because nothing good ever lasts. Continue reading Cotes-du-Rhone 2009 & 2010- Buy Them While You Can!!
A little German
Most of you know me as an advocate for the wines of Alsace when it comes to riesling, but even I have to admit that Germany produces some stunning rieslings. Germany has recently been blessed with a string of good vintages, it seems that year after year German vintners are having great success in making consistently good wines worthy of aging. Rieslings can range from dry to gently sweet to really sweet, from the Mosel, the Rheinhessen, and the Pfalz, all of good to great quality and affordable. In fact, the Germans themselves drink mostly dry wines. Rieslings can also age extremely well (white Burgundy aren’t the only ones that have that ability) and can pair well with a number of different dishes (not just the usual pork, seafood, poultry, etc…).
Many consumers find it difficult though to understand what style of riesling they’ll find when they pick up a bottle of German riesling. With this in mind, I thought I’d take the opportunity to run through some basics on German wines, particularly what’s on the labels.
To help you with some German, here’s a basic sweetness/richness guide for German wines… Continue reading A little German
