Why name a beer tap “Uncle Joe”? When Casey was no taller than a stock broker’s current list of sure winners, Dad took him on Saturdays to Uncle Joe’s house. The brothers would “chew the fat” and drink Rheingold out of steel mugs with glass bottoms. From the perch of a knee, Casey would get the occasional final sip of a tankard. A beer geek was hatched.

Uncle Joe was the oldest of 5 children raised by a single, Irish immigrant wash woman. He was supposed to be on the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, but his orders were changed at the last minute. A college graduate (as were his 4 siblings) he became a successful CPA. Like his mother, he was struck with Parkinson’s Disease.

Patricia Casey remembers visiting Uncle Joe before his passing 8 years ago. She recalls that despite the effects of the disease, Uncle Joe maintained the dignity she always associated with him. Casey recalls Uncle Joe’s uncontrollable laughter at the drop of a hat and believes he would find the fun in the naming of a beer tap in his honor.

The EWCo. “Uncle Joe Tap” was dedicated on January 21, 2009 as part of the “Shake Hands with Uncle Joe” fundraiser benefitting the Parkinson’s Resource Organization.  As of August 13, 2010 the “Uncle Joe Tap” will no longer have anybody pulling on its handles and may rest in peace. 

However, you can still honor Uncle Joe and others suffering from Parkinson’s disease by making a donation to the Parkinson’s Resource Organization.

Darin R. "Shakes Hands" with the "Uncle Joe" Tap at EWCo.

Essential Wine Co. will cease operation at the close of business on Saturday July 31st. Until then, all Out-the-Door Wine, Beer & Merchandise is 50% Off.* Our wine inventory, both current releases & library wines, is posted on our website.

Let us know if you want something put on hold. Out of respect for others, please do not do so unless you can pick it up or pay via credit card on the telephone before Saturday close (you can pick up Sunday noon to 6, or next week as we tie up loose ends here).

Wine bar service available after 5:00 on both days. Happy Hour will not be offered.

“So it goes.”

Casey
 

 The legalese fine print: no rainchecks, cannot be combined with other promotional offers, sale not applicable to wine bar service, 50% Off applied to regular prices, and although practically everything is Half Price there are a few special library wines excluded (e.g. the Magnum of ’04 Sea Smoke Southing Pinot Noir at $200 Cash + tax (reg. $249), since we’re fine with opening it after the dust settles).

Attention-getting bottles are emerging from the Eastern Townships, where wines pair nicely with country pleasures.

There had already been three years of failed harvests. Three straight years of weeding, planting, pruning, every day, into every night, on every weekend, with only the prospect of more work and an uncertain future, by the time Véronique Hupin and Mike Marler made the decision never to quit, no matter the cost.

The tally was $200,000 and rising — far more than their life savings, which they dropped in the summer of 1999 on a tiny vineyard called Les Pervenches, near Farnham in Quebec’s Eastern Townships.

The previous owner, a Frenchman, had the crazy idea to plant Chardonnay. Chardonnay! Possibly the least hardy grape. Temperature-sensitive in the extreme — like setting a duckling down in the Arctic. It was their plan too.

“The old man warned us just to rip out the Chard and start over,” recalls Hupin, as we sat on unvarnished chairs facing the couple’s three acres of vines. “You put so much work in, and nothing’s happening. Finally we said: ‘Let’s buy whatever, do whatever.’ This was our dream, to be home in Quebec and make wine; we had to try everything.”

And so, after 11 hard-fought seasons, Hupin and Marler still produce Quebec’s only Chardonnay — though their fortunes have changed. The couple, who hail from small towns near Montreal, are routinely singled out among the province’s top two or three winemakers.

Now, the only way to sample their certified organic and biodynamic Chards is to find someone with a coveted stash: Vintages sell out to a few loyal customers — sommeliers, mostly, and a few celebrities such as Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones — months before they are bottled. Their latest experiment, a sparkling Chardonnay that is another first for Quebec this season, was uncorked just weeks ago and is sold out.

Failing a restaurant connection, you can drive to Les Pervenches, as tourists have begun to do. Twin silos at a crossroads and a book-sized blue sign depicting grapes on a vine are the winery’s sole road markers. It figures.

Although small wineries have been in production here sporadically since at least the 1860s, the official Route des Vins de Brome-Missisquoi was organized in only 2003 by the Quebec Winegrowers Assn.

The glossy foldout map handed to me at Les Pervenches describes 17 wineries along Quebec’s wine route: a self-guided drive (or bicycle ride, as some choose to do it) that starts 37 miles southeast of Montreal and continues for 82 miles of country roads weaving through Brome-Missisquoi, a sort of politically defined voting region.

We were driving through all the oldest of the Eastern Townships, farm communities threaded like beads along the border with Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, which were established by mainly English-speaking immigrants in the late 18th century. This is the heart of minority Anglo history and culture in Quebec. And despite its whispered reputation as the next Canadian wine and culinary tourism must-see, this isn’t a place accustomed to drawing attention to itself.

Few Quebecers, in fact, know that there are 84 wineries across the province, out of 400 in Canada, which makes Quebec the third-largest wine region in the country (after Ontario next door and temperate British Columbia on the Pacific coast).

My unofficial guides to la route were Cory Ciona and Guy Bourbonnière, co-founders of the Quebec-focused wine agent Les Fils de Bacchus and co-authors of a tasting guide to Canadian wines due out later this year. I had driven in from Montreal, a wine novice on my inaugural mosey through the Eastern Townships.

I let each mouthful of red or white linger before taking turns with the others spitting into an oversize plastic grape-gathering bucket. And by the final spits — OK, sips, I was still getting the hang of this wine route thing — I was plotting how to score some bottles next year. And wondering how, after a decade of living relatively close by, I was only just now discovering the townships.

Leaving Les Pervenches, our trio followed successive gravel roads wending past burnt-straw-colored fields; past Anglican, Methodist and Catholic one-room churches, covered bridges and old sawmills; past Victorian red-brick and whitewashed clapboard villages, whose names recall their distinctly un-French-Canadian past: Dunham, Farnham, Frelighsburg, Foster, Knowlton, Brome Lake.

Dunham — the first township, established in 1796 — and Frelighsburg are for the epicure. Knowlton is known for its antiques dealer. Tourists can visit the best wineries — Les Pervenches, Val Caudalies and the second oldest one in the region, l’Orpailleur — and be in Montreal, the largest and closest city, by nightfall. Or they can finish the official wine route of townships within Brome-Missisquoi and venture on through the rest of the Eastern Townships, staying at B&Bs and lakeside inns, and sampling not only wine and ice cider (depending on the season) but artisanal cheese, chocolate, honey, duck and foie gras, and classic French Canadian sugar pie, or tarte au sucre.

Sourced from a July 18, 2010 Article by Sarah Staples in the Los Angeles Times.

Stock up for seasonal meals with a variety from the Mediterranean, Australia, Chile, Oregon, good old California and more.

I’ve heard it said that a good summer wine is like sunshine in a bottle. There’s some truth to that: The ideal wine will have the brilliant, drip-down-your-chin succulence of freshly picked fruit, as unadorned as a cloudless sky. But it’s probably more accurate to say that a good summer wine is sunshine’s foil, capable of turning back the day’s dazzling heat with the cut of its coolness, the quenching prickle of its acidity, the bite of its finish.

A summer wine’s greatest strength, in short, is its angularity. The flavors can be bold and forward, but rather than length, these wines possess a glancing, oblique feel in the mouth, a textural concision that leaves one’s thirst quenched and mouth watering, expectant of another sip. Here are some strategies for filling a working case.

The leanest and meanest

Let’s start our working case by identifying a few of the leanest and meanest whites a given region or country has to offer.

In Australia, for example, Riesling wins that contest hands down. In fact, Australian Riesling might be the driest, most searing expression of that grape in the world, with a thrilling, pulsing acidity in the service of citrus, lime and grapefruit flavors. The standard-bearer remains Grosset Polish Hill ($35); but seek out Pewsey Vale ($15), Leasinghams ($12) and Frankland Estate (about $25) as well.

In France the contest would be held on at least two coastlines. On the Atlantic side, bragging rights fall to Muscadet sur Sevre et Main sur Lie (Muscadet for short). Muscadets are known for their brisk salinity, ideal with the one food it was put on this Earth to accompany: oysters. Heaven. Two of my favorites: Luneau-Papin’s “Le L d’Or” or Domaine de la Pepière’s “Clos des Briords” (both about $18).

Muscadets are rivaled in the south by a seaside appellation in Languedoc called Picpoul de Pinet, which employs a slow-to-ripen white grape by the same name. Picpoul is grown in the Rhône Valley as well, but only in vineyards by the sea does the grape have such a refreshing, lemony nerve, and yes, these wines are also heavenly with oysters or something like squid off the grill. Look for affordable Picpouls from Arnaud Gaujol and La Croix Gratiot (both about $12).

Certainly Austrian whites are among the most limpid, racy wines on the continent. Rieslings and Gruner Veltliners offer edgy, laser-focused textures and herbaceous flavors, tremendous attributes for meals made from the best summer produce. And there is a fairly new-to-market category of Gemischter Satz blends from wineries in and around Vienna, the staples of the city’s Heurige (wine bars). These are surprisingly complex and versatile wines, such as the one I found from Weingut Christ (about $18).

For lean and mean in the U.S., the competition stiffens. Cooler climes such as Oregon are a safe bet, where many (but not all) Pinot Gris bottlings fill the bill as crisp and delineated whites. Two are King Estate’s Signature bottling (about $15) or the better-than-average “Really Good Pinot Gris” from Joe Dobbes ($18).

American Riesling too is getting more and more edgy, especially in Washington state, such as the organic Wallula Vineyard bottling from Pacific Rim and the limpid, poised Riesling produced in partnership with Ernst Loosen and Chateau Ste. Michelle called “Eroica” (both about $20). And Ste. Michelle’s Columbia Valley Dry Riesling is a steal at $9.

Meanwhile in California, Vermentino, one of the varieties that Tablas Creek imported from the Rhône Valley (where it is known as Rolle) has made modest inroads. One of the best is L’Uvaggio del Giacomo, an orange-scented beauty that retails for about $13. And Edmunds St. John uses the variety in his lean “Heart of Gold,” blended with Grenache Blanc (about $18).

In a Mediterranean mood

Probably no region on Earth embodies summer better than the Mediterranean. In outdoor cafes and on beaches from Costa Brava to Kalamata, Mediterranean culture seems drenched in sunlight, and for each port of call there are several white wines on hand to quench thirsts.

Nearly every white wine in Greece serves this purpose; indeed Boutari, its largest wine company, has about a dozen by itself, but their nervy Moschofilero (about $16) or their sun-kissed blend from the island of Santorini (about $20) are worth grabbing. From Santorini, look for the wines from Gaia and Sigalas as well. In the north, meanwhile, is grown the beautiful Roditis called Petra and made by Kir-Yianni (about $20), which has just returned to the market after a brief absence; beautiful flavors of pine and lemon make this wine ideal for grilled seafood.

Italy has more than its share of summery whites to choose from. For a sunny day there is no safer bet than one of the three Vs: Verdicchio, Vernaccia and Vermentino.

Of the three, I am at the moment most haunted by Verdicchio di Matelica, with its bright citrus scents, high natural acidity and the sunny warmth of its flavors, from the likes of Colle Stefano (about $15). A Vernaccia from, say, San Quirico or Panizzi (about $15), from vineyards in and around the picturesque town of San Gimignano, has a more mineral firmness than Verdicchio, with flavors of brisk lime and green apples tailor-made for crudo. Or pour yourself a glass of “Costamolino,” the Sardinian Vermentino from Argiolas, with its golden hue and sharp flavors of ginger and sea salt (about $17); Mancini’s Vermentino di Gallura has a bit more give to its texture (about $15).

Sauvignons of the world

For global ubiquity, no summer wine outdoes Sauvignon Blanc. While its worldwide acreage is still dwarfed by Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc has become a benchmark for lean whites from every hemisphere, from Napa to Chile, from France to New Zealand.

New Zealand Sauvignons have set the standard in recent years for crisp herbaceousness, such as the ever-reliable Kim Crawford, or the newer offering Wild Rock (both about $14). In Australia, the Sauvignons sometimes come spiked with Semillon to broaden their palate weight and add a grassy note, especially those from Western Australia, such as Plantaganet’s Hazard Hill bottling (about $10).

The incredible Sauvignon Blancs of Chile lean more toward marine, saline flavors, such as those from Montes and Veramonte (about $12). Of course, the vibrant whites of the Loire are in many ways responsible for these many deserving pretenders, in particular the wines of Sancerre with their chalky, talc-like firmness, such as Sylvain Bailly’s “Terroirs” bottling (about $21).

In California, more than ever, producers are fermenting in steel tanks to retain fruit freshness and bright acidity. One of the country’s most reliable comes from Honig, in the Napa Valley; other worthy Napa producers include Cliff Lede and St. Supery; from Sonoma, seek out Quivira or Kunde (all between $15 and $20).

In a category all its own: Moscato d’Asti

As fresh stone fruit reaches the market in abundance, leave room in your working case for one dessert wine, an Italian Moscato d’Asti. Made by venerable Piedmont producers such as Vietti, Chiarlo or G.D. Vajra (about $15), there simply isn’t a more glorious accompaniment to summer fruit plates than this fizzy sweet wine, redolent of peaches, orange zest and minerals. With their exuberant effervescence and sunny disposition, they’re practically the most mood-altering, happy-making wine I know, and that’s everything a summer white should be.

Sourced from a June 17, 2010 Article by Patrick Comiskey in the Los Angeles Times.

Jean de-Roze 2008 Sauvignon Blanc

Petillant Originel sparkling wine, to which sugar and yeast may not be added, is a product of the Loire Valley’s Montlouis appellation. 

Reporting from Paris —

At L’Ebauchoir, an upscale bistro in Paris’ 12th arrondissement, a quickly gentrifying neighborhood east of Bastille, a swarm of wine professionals — journalists, bar owners and sommeliers — is diligently tasting a range of Chenin Blancs from the Montlouis area of France’s Loire Valley.

At the stroke of 7 p.m., two vignerons, Bertrand Jousset and Damien Delecheneau, interrupt the tasting with an ear-splitting call to attention.

They are standing at the front of the restaurant, beside an oak wine barrel attached to a small bottling machine, and are about to demonstrate a crucial step in the making of a new kind of Montlouis: a thoroughly dry, gently sparkling wine officially named Pétillant Originel but often called by its makers Pétillant Naturel, or more affectionately, Pet’Nat.

Montlouis is an appellation just east of the city of Tours, where white wines are made from Chenin Blanc in a multitude of styles — from bone dry to unctuously sweet; from still to two traditional types of sparkling wine, méthode traditionelle, made like Champagne, and Pétillant, which, with half the bubbles of Champagne, is creamier and less vigorously fizzy.

And now comes Pétillant Originel, which won legal status from the Institut National des Appellations d’Origine in 2007, different from traditional Pétillant. Most significant, Pétillant Originel must be absolutely natural, a product of the grapes harvested and no more. It is illegal to add either sugar or yeast at any stage of the wine’s production, although both are commonly used in Champagne.

Hyper-naturalists view these additions — not to mention the use of other additives such as enzymes and bentonite — as nothing more than chemistry, all of which undermines the purity of the wine.

While eschewing additives may be a matter of principle for all Pet’Nat producers, for Montlouis vintners like Delecheneau and Jousset, it is also a matter of law, not to mention painstaking, meticulous work in vineyard and cellar, as Jousset is about to demonstrate.

A rangy 35-year-old with the square-jawed good looks of a latter-day Marlboro Man, Jousset explains that the barrel is filled with new, unfinished wine. The wine stopped fermenting in January while it still had 14 grams of residual sugar and has been kept in a refrigerated room since then.

Behind him, a small assembly line of vintners suctions the wine from the barrel, through the spigots of the bottling machine and into bottles that are then capped like Coca-Cola. Jousset continues: Once warmer weather arrives, that residual sugar and any remaining natural yeasts will restart the fermentation and, in the process, produce the bubbles that make the wine sparkle.

“It dawned on me,” recalled winemaker Delecheneau, 31, of Domaine de la Grange Tiphaine, “I don’t add sugar or yeast to my still wines, so why do I add them to my Pétillant? This was in 2005. That’s when a group of us started talking about Pétillant Originel, although we called it ‘Pet’Nat’ at the time.”

Honest approach

Whatever you call them, the wines are made, for the most part, by resolutely organic, doggedly noninterventionist vintners, among them Christian Chaussard, who, Delecheneau observes, inspired him and a lot of other young winemakers.

Way back in the 1990s, when Chaussard was located in Vouvray — across the Loire River from Montlouis — he made a fizzy, not-quite-pétillant simply by letting his Vouvray re-ferment spontaneously in springtime.

Those were the very early days of the hyper-naturalist, noninterventionist winemaking movement in France — when outliers like the Puzelat brothers (Clos du Tue-Boeuf) and Claude Courtois (Cailloux du Paradis) in Touraine and J.J. Brun in Beaujolais (Domaine des Terres Dorées) began opting for organic or biodynamic farming and forswearing industrial yeasts, enzymes, sulfur, added sugar, added tannins — you name it — as well as just about any technique counseled by modern enologists.

Since that time, hyper-natural winemaking has become a movement, spreading the gospel of “natural wines” throughout France and well beyond.

And the Pet’Nat movement is spreading throughout France as well. Now relocated an hour north in the Coteaux du Loir appellation, Chaussard remains true to the cause, making a variety of quirky hyper-natural wines including Pet’Nats such as “You Are So Happy,” a herbaceous blend of Chenin and Sauvignon Blanc, and “You Are So Bubbly,” a foamy weave of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Grenache and Cinsault.

Other popular producers such as Pierre and Catherine Breton in Bourgueil, Thierry Puzelat in Touraine, and Dominique Derain in Burgundy are among the growing number of eco-serious vintners adding some Pet’Nat fizz to their line of still wines.

Most of these Pet’Nats from outside Montlouis are sweet — ranging from slightly off-dry to as sweet as Dr Pepper — and many hark back to old-fashioned styles of winemaking (appropriately called méthode ancestrale and méthode rurale) in the regions of Limoux and Gaillac.

An important subgroup is deep pink, in the style of Cerdon, a sparkling wine in the Savoie’s Bugey appellation. Emile Heredia from the Domaine de Montrieux outside Vendome, for example, makes a Cerdon-like Pet’Nat called Boisson Rouge from old Gamay vines. Simon Hawkins of Domaine de Fontenay in the Côte Roannaise makes a sudsy Gamay with the sweet-tart flavors of cranberry relish.

Montlouis Pétillant Originel is totally dry, however. And it differs from Pet’Nats in another significant way: Most, if not all Pet’Nats, are vins de table or vins de France — in other words, not part of any official wine group, with all the anarchy and qualitative differences that implies, from the urbane to the outlandish. Montlouis Pétillant Originel is governed by law and aims to be reliably urbane.

Quality charter

Jousset and Delecheneau, along with Xavier Weisskopf (Domaine des Rocher des Violettes) and Domaine Alex-Mathur wanted to make a Pétillant that was not only ultra-pure but also a full-fledged wine — ripe, vinous, consistent in quality and fine enough to serve in Michelin-starred restaurants, but reasonably priced. (Most sell in France for $10 to $15.)

To this end, they drew up a quality charter with exigent requirements. In addition to abolishing the addition of yeast and sugar, the charter mandates low yields, greater ripeness of the grapes than is anticipated for most sparkling wines, as well as aging for a minimum of nine months before being disgorged.

“It’s very difficult and very risky,” Delecheneau says. “The danger is that the wine might stop fermenting.”

Less consequential risks include off-flavors resembling beer or cider, which is why Jacky Blot of Domaine de la Taille aux Loups decided to add just a bit of yeast for the prise de mousse when making his very successful “Triple Zero,” a Montlouis Pétillant.

According to Delecheneau, his Pétillant Originel is catching on nicely in the U.S. and the wines are beginning to surface in up-to-the-minute wine bars and shops in Paris like La Quincave and Cru et Découvertes.

To understand the simple yet huge pleasures that are Pétillant Originel, try Xavier Weisskopf’s 2006. Disgorged in 2008, it’s rich and appetizing, lightly salty, with subtle, intriguing flavors of apple and stone. Downright gourmand. Add grace notes of ginger and you’ve got the 2007 version.

Weisskopf sells almost his entire production of Pétillant Originel to Denmark. “They’re crazy for natural wines,” he explains.

It is also available in Southern California at Wine Expo and Hi-Times Wine Cellars. Indeed, availability of any Pet’Nats is spotty — though that is supposed to improve by early summer —it’s a new product made in startlingly small quantities.

Risks combined with the very newness of the wine explain why only four Montlouisiens currently produce it and why there is so little of it — roughly 20,000 to 25,000 bottles a year.

But as Delecheneau and Jousset point out, the wine has no track record. Other vintners may be waiting to see how it catches on; others may be experimenting until they get it right.

Thierry Bruneau, general manager and wine buyer for L’Ebauchoir, which specializes in hyper-natural wines, was impressed by what he tasted and intends to add a Pétillant Originel to his list soon, most likely Jousset’s 2008 “Bubulle” or his favorite, Delecheneau’s 2008 “Nouveau Nez.”

“It was creamy, dry and mineral. I liked it a whole lot. They’re a hard sell right now because people don’t know them, but once they try them they really like them and order them again.”

Sourced from a June 3, 2010 Article by Jacqueline Friedrich in the Los Angeles Times

For all of us who are married, were married, wish you were married, or wish you weren’t married, this is something to smile about the next 
time you see a bottle of wine:

Sally was driving home from one of her business trips in Northern Arizona when she saw an elderly Navajo woman walking on the side of the road. As the trip was a long and quiet one, she stopped the car and asked the Navajo woman if she would like a ride.  With a silent nod of thanks, the woman got into the car.

Resuming the journey, Sally tried in vain to make a bit of small talk with the Navajo woman. The old woman just sat silently, looking intently at everything she saw, studying every little detail, until she noticed a brown bag on the seat next to Sally.

“What in bag?” asked the old woman. Sally looked down at the brown bag 
and said, “It’s a bottle of wine. I got it for my husband.” The Navajo woman was silent for another moment or two. Then speaking with the quiet wisdom of an elder, she said, “Good trade”.

Thanks to Essential Wine Co. Supporter Duane W. for bringing the above to our attention.

In November of 2008, Dan Hawks was our initial musical performer in the “Essential Music Lounge“.  In 2009, we had a run of weekly Friday and Saturday night performances. Later that year, we placed music on hiatus as the difficult economy affected attendance.  Performances returned in the New Year to initially enthusiastic participation.

Unfortunately, it’s become apparent again that presenting free weekly music isn’t viable.  I will not take up your valuable time with a lengthy explanation as to why.  Suffice to say that our consumer driven business has a Nielsen Ratings aspect to it.  If our offerings (be they wine, food or entertainment) do not garner sufficient patron interest, we cannot continue to offer them.

After much soul searching and with a deep sadness, we are taking a hiatus from weekly live music.  The “show will go on” this weekend with Jesse Bradley & “Sir” Roman Sirwinsky on Friday (5/28) and “Sand Two Guitars” on Sunday (5/30). 

We greatly appreciate the support of the many performers that have graced our humble performance space (from the Legendary Guitarist Jimmy Wyble to Harpist Lori Rasmussen to Dan Sawyer on Jazz Ukulele). 

We may present music on an occasional basis in the future, but doubt that regular weekly scheduling is feasible in the near term.   We extend our Appreciation and at the same time our Regrets to the past performers and supporters of the “Essential Music Lounge”.

Sincerely,

Jim “Casey“, Proprietor

Essential Wine Co.

Paul Weitz, Mark Hammond, Jimmy Wyble & Pete Thoennes (l-r)

Excerpt from an Article by Josh Raynolds (May/June 2007 Issue of Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar*)

C. Donatiello Winery

Chris Donatiello, who was formerly a sales honcho with the massive wine distributor Charmer Industries, moved to Healdsburg to overhaul the former Belvedere Winery. Two thousand six was the first vintage under the new regime, which includes winemaker Web Marquez of Anthill Farms. The focus is on pinot noir and chardonnay made in small (sometimes very small) lots from single vineyards in the Russian River Valley, and winemaking is in the back-to-the-future school of basket presses, open-top fermenters, gravity flow and small tanks.

Despite the obvious Anthill Farms connection, these wines are richer and weightier in style, with darker fruit character and more apparent structure. Donatiello told me that 2008 reminds him of 2006 in the Russian River Valley as it produced pinots “that are very approachable on release. In contrast,” he added, “the 2007s will be really slow to develop and need some time to loosen their structure.” He added that his winery bottled ’08s “a little earlier than usual to capture the fruit.”

Currently Essential  Wine Co. is proud to offer the C. Donatiello 2006 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir:

Pinot Noir, C. Donatiello Winery (2006) Russian River Valley, Sonoma, CA – Made by Winemaker Webster Marquez (William Selyem & Anthill Farms).   Barrel aged for 10 months 100% French Oak (40% New).  Seamless, balanced, and imbued with complexity and spice, it marries the warmth of ripe, sunny fruit to the powerful viticulture born from the Russian River Valley’s climate. Featuring notes of black pepper, dried cranberries, mocha, and cherry, it comes on strong and finishes clean.   91 Points from Pinot Report  Pairings: Prime Rib, White Cheddar Cheese.  14.2% abv Call EWCo. for Sales Price!

C. Donatiello Winery's Bottles have its distinctive logo of the letter "D" comprised of smaller letter "C"s.

* Stephen D. Tanzer is editor and publisher of the critically acclaimed bimonthly International Wine Cellar, an independent journal read by wine professionals and other wine lovers in all 50 states and 34 countries, and the first American wine periodical to be translated into French and Japanese.

The term “Super Tuscan” describes any Tuscan red wine that does not adhere to traditional blending laws for the region. For example, Chianti Classico wines are made from a blend of grapes with Sangiovese as the dominant varietal in the blend. Super Tuscans often use other grapes, especially cabernet sauvignon, making them ineligible for DOC(G) classification under the traditional rules.

In 1968 Azienda Agricola San Felice produced the first ever “Super Tuscan” called Vigorello, and in the 1970s Piero Antinori, whose family had been making wine for more than 600 years, also decided to make a richer wine by eliminating the white grapes from the Chianti blend, and instead adding Bordeaux varietals (namely, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot). He was inspired by a little-known (at the time) Cabernet Sauvignon made by relatives called Sassicaia, which openly flouted the rules set down for traditional wines in Tuscany. The result was one of the first Super Tuscans, which he named Tignanello, after the vineyard where the grapes were grown. Other winemakers started experimenting with Super Tuscan blends of their own shortly thereafter.

Because these wines did not conform to strict DOC(G) classifications, they were initially labeled as vino da tavola, meaning “table wine,” a term ordinarily reserved for lower quality wines. The creation of the Indicazione Geografica Tipica category (technically indicating a level of quality between vino da tavola and DOCG) helped bring Super Tuscans “back into the fold” from a regulatory standpoint. Since the pioneering work of the super-Tuscans there has been a rapid expansion in production of high-quality wines throughout Italy that do not qualify for DOC or DOCG classification, as a result of the efforts of a new generation of Italian wine producers and, in some cases, flying winemakers.

The 2005 Galatrona by Petrolo is a "Super Tuscan" Merlot

The history of Mother’s Day is centuries old and goes back to the times of ancient Greeks, who held festivities to honor Rhea, the mother of the gods. The early Christians celebrated the Mother’s festival on the fourth Sunday of Lent to honor Mary, the mother of Christ. Interestingly, later on a religious order stretched the holiday to include all mothers, and named it as the Mothering Sunday. The English colonists settled in America discontinued the tradition of Mothering Sunday because of lack of time. In 1872 Julia Ward Howe organized a day for mothers dedicated to peace. It is a landmark in the history of Mother’s Day.

In 1907, Anna M. Jarvis (1864-1948), a Philadelphia schoolteacher, began a movement to set up a national Mother’s Day in honor of her mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis. She solicited the help of hundreds of legislators and prominent businessmen to create a special day to honor mothers. The first Mother’s Day observance was a church service honoring Anna’s mother. Anna handed out her mother’s favorite flowers, the white incarnations, on the occasion as they represent sweetness, purity, and patience.

Anna’s hard work finally paid off in the year 1914, when President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as a national holiday in honor of mothers.

(France is celebrating Mother’s Day - La Fetes des Meres - the last Sunday of May)

Slowly and gradually the Mother’s day became very popular and gift giving activity increased. All this commercialization of the Mother’s day infuriated Anna as she believed that the day’s sentiment was being sacrificed at the expense of greed and profit.

Regardless of Jarvis’s worries, Mother’s Day has flourished in the United States. Actually, the second Sunday of May has become the most popular day of the year. Although Anna may not be with us but the Mother’s day lives on and has spread to various countries of the world. Many countries throughout the world celebrate Mother’s Day at various times during the year, but some such as Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, and Belgium also celebrate Mother’s Day on the second Sunday of May.

Mothering day

The early Christians in England celebrated the Mother’s festival on the fourth Sunday of Lent (the 40 day period leading up to Easter) to honor Mary, the mother of Christ. Interestingly, later on a religious order stretched the holiday to include all mothers, and named it as the Mothering Sunday. People working out of their homes were expected to return to the “mother” church (the spiritual power that gave them life and protected them from harm). It also became an occasion for family reunions.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY

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