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.

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).

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.

What you need to know about the July 28th W,W & W Event:

6:00 - 6:30 Open Networking
6:30 - 7:30 Kimberly A. Reid, MNLP will give an interactive mini-workshop, “Motivation vs. Inspiration”
7:30 - 8:00 More Networking

You will definitely want to be present for this powerful and insightful presentation!

Seating is limited, so reservations are recommended. NO COST for Participation!

Prepare to be INSPIRED, EMPOWERED & CONNECTED!

Share this event with others; they will thank you for it!

NEWS:  This WWW event will also be in support of the Relay for Life.  Please consider a donation for this worthy cause.  

While we do not discriminate on gender, this event is geared toward women connecting with other women.

Women & Wine Wednesdays

*EWCo. Sale Fine Print:  no rainchecks, offers cannot be combined, discounts off regular pricing.

Tasting is from 5:30 – 8:30, includes 4 wines and delicious appetizers for $25. A portion of beverage and food sales at the Wine Bar & Wine Shop are being donated to the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

Come out and support event organizers Jody  Tartisel & Jaine Menes as they prepare for the 2 day walk in Santa Barbara September 11^th – 12^th. Click here for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer Fundraiser Flyer & link to info on the Santa Barbara Avon Walk event here.

The Event Organizers & EWCo. encourage responsible alcohol consumption. EWCo. reserves the right to refuse service at its discretion.

Tasting available beginning anytime after 6:30 until 8:30 for $16.99 (includes service of complimentary paired “Tapas”). Reservations appreciated, but not required. What a DEAL: Half Price Tasting for any multi-bottle order!

Among the scheduled Brander selections to be poured & discussed by EWCo.’s Wine Specialist, Jim “Casey“:

Sauvignon Blanc (2009) Santa Ynez Valley, CA

Rose of Syrah, Chateau Neuf de Pink (2009) Santa Ynez Valley, CA

Merlot (2008) Santa Ynez Valley, CA

Cabernet Sauvignon (2008) Santa Ynez Valley, CA

Very SPECIAL Pricing will be offered on multi-bottle orders (pickup available by Friday!). The Essential Wine Co. Food Menu and additional Tasting Night Specials will be available. Exact wine line-up subject to change. More info on Brander Vineyards here.

Brander's Sauvignon Blanc garners critical acclaim

Jim “Casey” is the Proprietor and Wine Buyer of Essential Wine Co. He pesonally selects every wine that is offered for sale and served. He earned a Certificate with Merit in Wine, Spirits & Other Alcoholic Beverages from the Wine & Spirits Education Trust (WSET), the foremost international body in the field of wines and spirits education. More info at http://www.wset.co.uk/about_us/default.asp

Jessy is a member of the Pacific Northwest band, The River Empires. He will appear at EWCo. during a solo swing through SoCal. Jessy will sing and play guitar, keyboard and accordion (anybody requesting “Lady of Spain” will be ejected). The River Empires describe their upcoming record as “Cinematic Bluegrass”. We’ll simply describe Jessy’s Wednesday performance as acoustic/folk music.

More info on Jessy and The River Empires here.  See video from past Essential Music Lounge events here. 

Jessy Ribordy performs with The River Empires in the Pacific Northwest

JUST ADDED! Vocalist Haruka Bree Takeda will sit in with Kai on a few tunes. Their forte together are Jazz Standards such as “Ain’t Misbehavin” and Great American Songbook favorites like “Georgia“. Haruka’s soulful and playful vocals combined with Kai’s Warr Guitar playing creates a unique sound. See video at http://vimeo.com/10171608.

Watching Kai play the Warr Guitar is a performance not to be missed. Mainly influenced by Jazz, Kai’s musical style varies from jazz standards to progressive rock and pop as well as electronic music. He has performed with the likes of Vinny Golia, Ponta Shuichi, Hiromi, Thomas Lang, Charmaine Clamore, Andrea Centazzo to name a few. Kai’s Guitar + Bass instrument creates a unique sound unlike any other.

 

Kai on Warr Guitar is a Unique Sound not to be missed

 

 

Songstress Haruka w/ Kai on Guitar Perform "Georgia" at EWCo.

More info on Kai here and see video of Kai performing here.

For video from past Essential Music Lounge Saturdays go to http://www.vimeo.com/4289170 Music begins at 8 p.m.  Reservations recommended, but not required.

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