Spring Fling Tasting!

Whether the weather cooperates or not, we’re celebrating!

Ok, here is the debate… Which is better: that it’s the first day of spring or it was the last day of winter? An informal poll revealed that the latter is the winner!  If you are anything like us, we were beginning to think that this winter would never end.  We know that this is New England and anything can still happen, but the tide is turning and we are all looking forward instead of hunkering down in hibernation! You don’t want to be caught on one of the first beautiful spring days without a crisp white to sip on the balcony, porch,or window sill that you are pretending is one of the former.

Enter Our Raffle to Win a Private Tasting!

In the mood for an evening of amazing wines? Enter our raffle to win a Private Wine-Tasting Party for ten!

Ok, so there is a bit of a catch… just fill out the brief survey listed below, and we’ll enter your name into the store’s FIRST wine-tasting raffle.
Click here to link to the survey…
If you win (and we hope you do!), you and nine of your favorite friends and family members will enjoy an evening of fine wines in our charming old world wine cellar.
Thank you and as always, we value your loyalty and hope to see you soon.

Don’t Judge a Wine by the Size of its Package!

Tonight we seek the answer to the age-old question: “Does size really matter?”

Why is it that with so many things “bigger is better”, but put wine in something over 750ml and people start to get skeptical of its quality?   Our goal is to de-bunk yet another wine myth and show you that good things don’t have to come in small packages. wines are a triple threat: tremendous value, environmentally conscious and let’s face it, solve that problem of a single bottle not being quite enough wine for two to share. You’ll find something among tonight’s selection to meet the most challenging of your wine needs.

Rah! Rah! Ree! Kick ‘em in the Knee!: A Tasting of Lazio

Poor Lazio… (Located at Italy’s “knee”) The first I ever heard of winemaking around Rome, was in a guidebook about the majestic city.  It warned that if you were offered “local wine” to immediately demand something from Tuscany.  While in general it is best to drink local, the Lazio wine scene was sufficiently underwhelming to deserve this disparagement.  Even in Jancis Robinson’s latest edition of the World Atlas of Wine, a thorough ode to the vine if ever there has been one, she devotes only 59 words to cover the region!  However, when we decided to tackle Lazio this month given its proximity to Umbria, we were delighted to see the first signs of improvement.  Read on…

The Eve of Open That Bottle Night - Friday Tasting

Tomorrow is possibly the most important day of the year on the wine calendar! (No silly, my birthday isn’t until August)  For the past ten years, the last Saturday of February is designated as “Open That Bottle Night”, the brilliant invention of one of my favorite wine couples, Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, wine columnists for The Wall Street Journal.  (I highly recommend their book – Love by the Glass for anyone who enjoys wine or a remarkable real life love story) Dottie and John created this evening to encourage everyone who has been holding onto a special bottle for the “perfect” occasion to actually open that bottle up and enjoy it! 

Matteo’s Recent Underground Riesling Trocken Tasting

“I recently took part in a covert Riesling trocken (dry) tasting the auspices of which; time, place, and tasting colleagues will remain enigmatically undisclosed…The tasting was organized in a double blind fashion, so that even the organizer, who was gracious enough to share 16 or so of his wines, did not know the order in which they appeared.  All the wines were bone dry Rieslings, most of which were of German origin (more on that later).  It was not expected by the host but I brought along a wine of my own (a Bottega selection of course) that we threw into the first flight of wines but then later revisited allowing the wine to breathe a bit.