Buy Wine Now

I was reading the local paper and there was an article in the finance section entitled "Autumn Bargains". I love shopping. I can spend all day looking through stores so the name of the article was the first thing to entice me. What intrigued me further though was that the author, Marshall Loeb, took the art of shopping to a new level.

Shopping is a cyclical sport. For instance, in Southern California, buyers send us fall clothes in August when it is 100 degrees outside - like a nice wool sweater looks even remotely tempting. However, all of the cute summer clothes go on clearance and we can still wear them for several months. Makes sense right? That's the premise of the article.

In a nut shell, September is a great time to buy cars, holiday airfare and, yes WINE. The reasoning for the wine went :

"Last year's harvest begins arriving in stores in September. Because of the surplus of vino, winemakers face heavy competition and bottles tend to be priced to sell"

Intrigued, I found that BevMo has started their 5 cent sale and my local wine shops also seem to have some bargains. I don't know if I will remember the cycle next year, but I am excited that October is a great month to buy jeans and November to buy sneakers and wedding gowns.

It was an odd little article but it comes down to this - look around at your favorite wine stores right now and it's possible that you might find some bargains. I wonder if there's a tequila or beer season too?

Wino Club's Wine Journey

I was reading a post last night by a fellow blogger at Rockss and Fruit where Lyle was complaining that the big wines he used to favor and subsequently built his cellar around just don't make the grade anymore. And it got me to thinking about Darcy's and my wine journey.

There was a day when wine was just another drink. Two-buck-Chuck did the job just fine. Bunko was Drunko and the number of empty bottles at the end of the evening meant the difference of walking on the sidewalk on the way home or trying to find home. It was a beautiful place to be.

Then we started our own wine tasting club a few years ago with a bunch of friends and for a while we continued our naive tasting experience. Our palettes developed a little and we outgrew Two-buck-Chuck but weren't quite knowledgeable to venture much beyond our safe California wines. When Darcy and I started making our Wino Club Kits (shameless plug: a party in a box with instructions and materials to start your own monthly wine tasting club with friends) we started taking wine classes and certification courses in wine and the business of wine.

And our wine tasting world exploded.

Suddenly we knew what Chardonnay was meant to taste like and how the complexity of a wine was so much more important than the initial pop. And the more GOOD wine we drank, the pickier we became. And it's getting worse. I was at a party last evening and just couldn't drink any of the choices available because, well yuck. My palette doesn't crave yuck. It wants yum. So I drank beer. It seemed the better alternative (I may have to cancel my upcoming beer tasting classes though because I need some naivety in my palette).

It is horrible to go from one preference to another. We have to morn that blissful ignorant day when a glass of Two-Buck-Chuck hit the spot. And don't get us wrong, it's not that the more expensive is better. Some of our favorite wines are under $10. We don't need to reopen the debate about the State Fair again - it's not about that. It's about a subtlety of flavor that at an earlier point in our palette development just didn't matter. Now we're wine snobs. How horrible!

For me personally, I guess I will just have to serve the stuff I've outgrown for my friends who are still blissfully ignorant. I can't serve it to my Wino Club but my Drunko group will drink anything. Sorry ladies, but I can't let even bad alcohol go to waste!

Cork, Screwtop or ZORK?

No, we are not talking about some imaginary creature from Dr. Seuss (although I think I may need to re-read "There's a Wocket in My Pocket" again just to be sure). The Zork is a new method of sealing and re-sealing your wine.

That's right: the Australians are at it again. Australians are at the cusp of every maverick wine making tool and gadget. Screw tops have long been used there for their superior seal and airtight portability that eliminates corked, or spoiled, wine. Screw tops also don't have the environmental implications of the Cork closure. What screw tops lack however was the romance of hearing that 'pop' provided by removing the cork.

Never fear, the Zork is here (yes, I saw Underdog this weekend). It has the same airtight seal of the screw top. It's easy to remove requiring nothing but you hands and unlike swollen corks, is easy to re-insert into the bottle to save your wine. And the best part? It 'pops'. And if you're worried about the environment, it's 100% recyclable.

At this point, we'll only be seeing the Zork on the mid-priced wines in the $15-$40 range although it is sure to trickle down into the lower priced wines as the production becomes more cost effective. Will you see it anytime soon on your higher prices wines? Probably not... can you see it now? You're in a fine restaurant ordering $100 bottle of something nice, being offered the Zork to sniff? Right.

For a really cool video and information go to Zork's Website here.

Happy tasting!

Wine and Cheese

Just a quick little tip today about pairing wine and cheese. There are entire books dedicated to how best to pair up this wine to that cheese. I've seen cool wheels and gadgets that make putting these items together easy and have been sorely tempted to buy them for our wine tasting parties.

I don't like to make my life more difficult than it has to be though. Most cheese are salty or acidic that make matching them, well, hard. So instead of making sure you have the right cheese with the right wine, add a 'bridge' food. Fruit and nuts help bridge the gap in the palate so you can serve the wine you want with a cheese you like.

Simple right?

Wine in Paris Au Naturel

Wine, Naturally
Forget brasseries. Paris is enticing epicureans with a new wave of wine bars.

Not quite as seductive as it sounds but while flying to Denver, I noticed a good many articles about wine in the Hemispheres Magazine on United. I only sit still if I'm reading and the book I brought lacked the 'must read' quality I had found in my Harry Potter book so I started flipping and came across this article:

Evidently the newest rage in tasting wine in Paris is wine that reflect only the terroir and wine making without any additives. No we're not talking just organic/ We mean to the extreme of letting the bubbles occur completely natural in the bottle. Will these wines be exported to the United States - highly doubtful. So unless our next trip on United takes us to Paris (World Cup Rugby this year would be a great gift!) I won't be trying these wines any time soon.

For the full story go to Hemispheres Magazine here.

Darcy & Stacy,

The Original Winos

Chardonnay: The Queen of Whites

When it comes to white wine, there is no white grape grown as much as Chardonnay. Therefore it is the most well sold grape varietal in the whites as well. It has a reputation for it's big yellow buttery oakey impact and can be temperamental to pair with food because of its big pow.

But guess what? Chardonnay does not have to have that big oakey flavor. You see, New World vintners make it so because the American palettes have asked for it. I guess it's a 'Bigger is Better' mentality (which applies to a lot with the exception of gift boxes right ladies out there?). In reality, Chardonnay is all about the winemaker. Many wine makers consider Chardonnay a blank slate capable of becoming anything the winemaker wants, from crisp and cool steely dryness to huge oak and butter.

So when you pull down a bottle of Chardonnay, what can you expect? Well, if it's a typical New World Chardonnay (which means everywhere but Europe), then expect that big bold flavor. It's like the Cabernet of whites. The exception would be a naked Chardonnay, meaning it was made in Steel rather than Oak. Then we're getting closer to the crisp dry wines found in Chablis, France where Chardonnay is made in steel or used oak barrels. Yum, let's talk about French Chardonnay now.

White Burgundy, not to be confused with any other label with white in it (like White Zinfandel) is not a blush wine. It is 100% Chardonnay and is worth every drop that comes from the bottle. By far Stacy's favorite white wine to drink, it can be quite a shocking taste experience for a Chardonnay drinker for it has a crisp richness instead of the heavy flavors of the oakey Chardonnays. They have a zing to them with nice toffee and honey at the end.

I would like to encourage you to taste a New World Chardonnay, most likely a California one and then taste a Premier Cru (meaning top quality and it will be listed as such on the bottle) Burgundy, preferably from Chablis and taste the difference. Email us your results please or post your comments on our blog under Chardonnay at www.thewinoclub.blogspot.com because we'd love to hear from you!

Happy tasting and we'll see you at www.thewinoclub.com!

Sincerely,

Darcy & Stacy

P.S. to show our commitment to the cause, this post was written with a cold glass of Chablis in our hand!

Sauvignon Blanc Down South

We’re going far South, as far South as vineyards grow in fact, to the Beautiful coastlines of New Zealand. New Zealand is a New World wine producer, and in fact was only legally allowed to sell wine in bottles sometime the 1960’s. These two beautiful islands were formed via volcano making their soils high in minerals. Most of their production here, as opposed to Italy, is white, a full 75% in fact. They produce many wines (Chardonnay is their most planted grape varietal) but it is their Sauvignon Blanc that put them on the wine maps.

If you have ever tasted a Sauvignon Blanc you still might not recognize one coming out of New Zealand. It can only be described as having an aggressive herbal vibrancy that’s like freshly cut grass. The high minerals in the soil, the chilly climate, abundance of rain and the proximity of all the vineyards to the ocean (about 80 miles at the furthest growth) make their grapes prone to mold and can lead to under-ripe tasting wines. But it also leads to one of the crispest Sauvignon Blancs around.

Technology is the New Zealanders’ best friend. When I say that this wine growing region is New World, they take it to extreme. There are no oak barrels or deep wine caves here. The grapes are mostly picked by machines and are grown on special trellises to avoid some of the mold issues in their dense canopies. Large steel tanks give an almost sterile look to the wineries here but it is what drives the bite in their green fruit.

It is hard to avoid using the term green with this Sauvignon Blanc. Just a quick look at New Zealand and all you can see is green amongst the steep slopes. But there is also some beautiful fruit like kiwi and passion fruit that lend to the wild nature of this white.

The best part of course is that you can buy fantastic Sauvignon Blancs from New Zealand starting at about $8. I personally look for wines coming out of Marlborough on the cooler South Island although 40% of the vineyards are located on the Northern Island from Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne and Auckland.

Have a favorite Sauvignon Blanc? Post it here for us please because as summer gets going in full steam we’re going to need some good refreshment!

Happy tastings and we’ll see you at www.thewinoclub.com!

Stacy & Darcy

The Wino Club at Temecula Balloon and Wine Festival

How much fun did we have this weekend at the Temecula Balloon and Wine Festival? Darcy and I split our time between chatting with great people at our own Wino Club booth and volunteering our time to the festival in the VIP booth pouring up some great wine.

We were able to raise $230 for Michelle's Place through the sale of The Wino Club kits as well as from the sale of special coasters donated to them for this purpose. On top of it we raffled off a beautiful basket that was won by Samantha Edwards of Corona, CA. Congratulations.

Huge thanks goes to our INCREDIBLE friends and fellow winos who helped us out all weekend long and a special shout out to Diana Fox of Fox Interiors who completely rearranged our booth after we had it all set up. She made it way better let me tell you.

Looking forward to next year's event already. Hopefully you can come out for the weekend and say 'Hi' to your fellow Winos.

Now What? (Wine Wino)

You already bought the kit…
Want a reason to use it?

The Wino Club™ is a Wine Tasting Club Starter Kit that goes beyond a normal wine party kit. It includes all of the materials and instructions to start a monthly wine tasting group with up to 40 friends.

So you have received a box for a gift or gifted one to yourself. Now what?

If you’re asking us that question then you probably have not read the instructions inside your box… but that’s o.k.. You can start by picking a day that works for you in the next 4 weeks. Don’t push it out further than that because then you’ll forget that you even have the kit and your club will never get started. Trust us – just commit to a day, pick your wine and then invite your friends.

A tip on picking your wine for the first party… you can go with our suggestions each month and then print out the newsletter for your members for tasting tips at www.thewinoclub.com/newsletter.html . Afterwards, we highly recommend that your club members subscribe to the newsletter themselves since it is free!

Make sure you have your members sign up to host a month. We find that they are more compliant after the tasting!

After your first meeting log into our site at www.thewinoclub.com and post your party comments on our blog or email us some photos of your group and we’ll post you up.

Thank you so much for joining The Wino Club! We know you’ll love it!

Sincerely,

Darcy Jones & Stacy Nelson
Owners and Original Winos

P.S. Don’t have a Wino Club kit? What are you waiting for – fun doesn’t just make itself you know? Go buy one right now and start your journey of wine and laughter with friends at www.thewinoclub.com.

Welcome to The Wino Club Press (Wine Wino)

We are so excited to launch our official website at www.thewinoclub.com that we just had to blog about it. If you like to drink wine then this blog will enhance your knowledge about this beautiful juice. If you don't like to drink alone and like to hang out with friends then we encourage you to buy one of our kits and start your own Wino Club today.

In our blog, we'll be talking about a different wine each month so be sure to subscribe. We will also be posting our podcasts in the next couple of weeks so you can take our pearls of wisdom on the road with you. Please send us your questions... and you could win a free wine holder.

-Darcy & Stacy