You had me at Merlot

Life is a Cabernet

Salute’ – To Your Health!

Fun Events And News From Enoteca – Fine Wine & Beer

1. February Fine Wine & Beer Club in your Bin this Friday!
       Come taste with us for only $10 / flight (lots of wine!)
2. Now On Tap: Grand Teton Double Vision Dopplebock (Stranahans Barrel)
       1/2 Gallon Growler Fill: $24.99, Pint: $7.99
3. Shipping Services Now Available
4. Great Deals on the Orphan Shelf: Remember the Orphans!
5. Upcoming Tasting Events
   • Home Brew Beer Tasting / Competition
         Thursday, February 4th, 7 pm, Beer Free, glassware to buy for $5, RSVP for space available.
   • WOW! Pahlmeyer Wine Tasting with David Landis
         92-96 Point Wines Being tasted – $674 to buy all the bottles (details)
         Tuesday, February 9th, 7 pm, $20, tickets required.
   • Valentines Weekend Sweetheart Wine Tasting
         Friday, February 12th 4-7 pm, and 13th 4-7 pm, drop-in, $10 per person.
         Special V-Day Treats: Chocolate covered strawberries!
   • 
     Does stemware really matter? Riedel Stemware Event
         Fantastic wine, take home a set of proper stemware from this tasting! (details)
         Wednesday, February 17th, 7 pm, $40, tickets required.
   • Old Schoolhouse Brewery of Winthrop Beer Tasting with Ruud brewery-family
         Thursday, February 18th, 5 & 7 pm, $10, tickets required.
   • Gouden Carolous Grand Cru of the Emperor Vertical Beer Tasting
         Thursday, February 24th, 7 pm, $20, tickets required.
   • Full Sail Beer Tasting with Joe Neese
         Thursday, March 25th, 5 & 7 pm, $10, tickets required.
6. What would be a great gift for someone who likes wine and/or beer?
7. How is wine tasting at Enoteca different?

February Wine & Beer Club is in!

The wine and beer for this month’s Club has arrived and will be in your Bin on Friday, February 5th! If you’re not a Club Member yet, learn about the Wine & Beer Club?

Wine & Beer Club is rolling out this Friday, and tasting is from 4-7 Friday. We will be tasting Saturday from 12-7 as well, which is a great time to taste wine to beat the rush. The cost is $10 per flight (3 oz. each of 3 wines – red or white).


The lineup for Club and Tasting:

Vintage Club

Tierra Secreta Malbec 2006
(Mendoza, Argentina)

Tierra Secreta is a bold, concentrated Malbec from Argentina’s Mendoza region. Mendoza is the world’s premier area for Malbec production, and within Mendoza, the Uco Valley produces wines of particular distinction. Carefully-selected vineyards within the Uco Valley are the superior locations, or ‘Secret Earth’ which give Tierra Secreta its name.

Grown at the foot of the Andes Mountains, the Malbec grapes thrive at altitudes of more than 3,000 feet, an environment that combines ample pure sunlight with dry, cool nights. This results in a long, even growing season which produces perfectly ripe grapes with an ideal balance of fruit and acidity.

In the glass, Tierra Secreta exhibits elegant floral notes, leading to a full-bodied mouthful of rich, spicy Malbec fruit. Tierra Secreta’s long, lively finish reflects the wine’s aging in French and American oak barrels. Delightfully complex and concentrated, Tierra Secreta represents the finest Argentinean Malbec has to offer.

100% Malbec

Pencarrow Sauvignon Blanc
(Martinborough, New Zealand)

Made by Palliser. The maritime climate of Martinborough coupled with thoughtful viticultural practices delivers ripe intensely flavoured Sauvignon Blanc.

Made from fruit drawn from a number of own and contracted vineyards this wine show the flavours and intensity that can be derived from thoughtful viticultural practices in New Zealand’s maritime climate.

Very intense nose of classic herbs and hints of tropical fruits, passionfruit and tamarillo. It is vibrant and fresh with expansive flavours. Its rich mid palate has a seamless juicy texture. This delicious and succulent wine is great drinking now with fresh seafood or light dishes.

100% Sauvignon Blanc

Reserve Club

Balboa Winery Cabernet Sauvignon 2008
(Mirage Vineyard, Columbia Valley, Washington)

This is a classic Cabernet Sauvignon from the Columbia Valley…Big fruit, cassis, and tobacco with overall balanced tannins. Single Vineyard grown.

This wine is ideally served at room temperature to accompany beef, steaks and other meats, as well as mature cheeses. 500 cases produced.

90 Points – Wine Enthusiast

Matt Erlandson, wine maker, called us a few months ago to tell us his Cabernet earned a 90 point score in the Wine Enthusiast. As is typical, once a wine makes a high score in a magazine, folks who didn’t previously have a relationship start buying the wine and supplies dry up. Since Matt had poured his wine at a popular Enoteca wine tasting, he’d offered to make sure our Wine Club members could enjoy the last remaining cases. Here it is, salute!

100% Cabernet Sauvignon

Odesia Veritable Quandry White Blend 2008
(California)

The wine begins with aromas of orange blossom, honeysuckle, which lead to honeyed citrus and tropical notes with hints of crushed stone. Beautifully fragrant, fresh, and flavorful, displaying a smooth, supple texture and medium body. A refreshingly dry and complex white that still manages to come across in a crisp, zesty style. Difficult to resist drinking right away for its pure pleasure.

Only 219 cases produced.

50% Roussanne, 25% Marsanne, 20% Viognier, 5% Grenache Blanc

Premier Club

Mill Creek Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2005
(Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma, California)

The grapes for the Dry Creek Zinfandel are grown on the eastern bench of the Valley, very near the Healdsburg Airport. Red soils and minimal irrigation contribute to the impressive body of this wine. Deep purple in color, plum, tobacco, and black pepper leap out the glass of this rich, complex wine. Flavors of berry, licorice, and black pepper combine with a full, concentrated mouth feel giving way to chewy tannins and a long, full finish.

Food Pairings: Pan seared duck with a cassis demi-glace, or reduced blackberry sauce. Almond or apple wood rotisserie chicken. Mesquite grilled, cured pork chops.

100% Zinfandel

Saviah Cellars Stillwater Chardonnay
(Stillwater Vineyard, Columbia Valley, California)

Big and rich this is a clean, sophisticated Chardonnay that offers an exotic nose of tropical fruit, green apples, and nectarines. A delicious mixing of ripe and vibrant fruit flavors are complemented by a touch of toasted hazelnuts that resulted from nine months of aging in light oak. A round mouthfeel and balanced finished, make this wine a delightful experience. Pair it with scallops or halibut to see it really shine.

2009 Winery of the Year – Wine & Spirits Magazine

226 cases produced.

100% Chardonnay

Anniversary Club Red

Bergstrom Shea Vineyard Pinot Noir 2007
(Shea Vineyard, Oregon)

Bergström Wines now receives fruit from five different clonal blocks from within Shea Vineyard’s East Hill totalling 13 acres! The 2007 is the first bottling that includes all clonal selections and it is one of my favorites to date! Dark ruby in color, this wine is extremely mineral in the nose with lots of spice and earth, lush dark fruits as well as some toasty oak spice character to accent. The mouthfeel is focused and rich at the same time with very dark red fruits showing up again. This wine has a great purity to it with nice acid and tannin that will make this one of the longest lived Shea Vineyard Pinot Noirs that Bergström has made to date. Drink from 2010 to 2020.

93 Points – Wine Advocate

Winery is Sold Out of this fantastic wine

100% Pinot Noir

Beer Club

Beer Club members receive 2 bottles of beer this month! Beer Club selections are not open for the tasting event, but a few bottles are available for purchase.

Midnight Sun Obliteration VI Double IPA
(Anchorage, Alaska)

Number 6 in a series of Obliteration beers, this is one fun hoppy offering. Here’s info on the series from the brewery:

With passion and purpose, we present this series of hop-centric beers. Using different hop varieties and brewing techniques, we aim to capture bold, distinct hop characteristics in aroma, flavor and finish. While we explore the world of hops, we invite you to learn along with us: these beers offer an incredible opportunity to experience the diversity of hops while engaging the palate and obliterating the senses.

Hop varieties: Summit, Summit and Summit. Check for grapefruit/citrus, pine, and floral aromas and flavors. Resinous, hop oil mouth coating as well.

8.5% ABV, 95 IBUs, 22oz bottle

Trappists Rochefort 10
(Belgium)

The Abbey of St-Remy, in the southern part of Belgium, was founded in 1230, and the monks began to brew beer sometime around 1595. The beautiful small brewery in the abbey, Rochefort Trappistes, is one of only seven Trappist breweries in the world (all 7 are represented on Enoteca’s shelf) and makes full-bodied, deeply flavored dark ales. They are bottle-conditioned and among the world’s most highly-respected beverages.

This beer is dark brown color. Great strength balanced by a complexity of flavors and firm malt backbone. The bouquet covers a wide range: port wine, leather, apricots, oak, spices – a deeply intriguing beverage.

Serve with lamb shanks with juniper berries, wild chantrelle mushrooms, truffles, or dishes with intensely reduced sauces. Serve in the traditional stemmed Trappist style goblet, or a brandy snifter at about 60-65 degrees F.
11.2oz bottle

Can’t Buy Me Love? Valentines Romance available at Enoteca

Gentlemen, start your preparations!

We’ve made it easy to find the perfect finishing touches to your Valentine plans with copiuos displays of love-themed wine. For example, Terra Valentine Cabernet, sure to please the serious wine afficionado, and Primo Amore Romeo and Primo Amore Juliet – red and white bubbly, slightly sweet wines anyone can enjoy. Some great choices can be found from Il Cuore, which means “The Heart” in Italian, and don’t forget dessert with Trentadue Amore Chocolate port, or stir something up with Rosenblum’s ‘Desire’ Chocolate port, or Alexander Valley’s “Temptation” Zinfandel.

Beer is near and dear to my heart

Check out these beer selections to make anyone’s heart flutter. Southern Tier Choklat – it’s like a Hershey’s bar in a beer, Lindeman’s Framboise – raspberry beer that goes great on its own, or blended with one of several Chocolate beers, Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock – tasting more chocolatey now than ever, and more…

Start V-day Weekend with wine tasting? Don’t mind if I do…

We’re putting together a little something special for wine tasting on V-day weekend, so keep an eye out in the newsletter for details as the date gets closer.

May love be like good wine, grow stronger as it grows older.

Remember the Orphans – 20% Off Tasty Wine

What is the Orphan Shelf? It’s our fun way of closing out wine & beer to make way for the new stuff. It’s located right at the checkout counter, and we offer a 20% discount on these products to our Wine & Beer of the Month Club Members.

Why are products orphaned? Well, basically they are forgotten. Selling great one week and yesterdays news the next. Forgotten greats that need a home. Maybe the label isn’t show stopping or it’s from an area people are not familiar with so it just sits quietly, patently waiting to be adopted. Open your heat and mind these are really great wines!

The orphan shelf has had some recent admittants. Several bottles of wine were discovered that have been waiting for a home, and some beer has even migrated to the orphan shelf. Club members receive a 20% discount whenever they adopt an orphan. Find it in your heart.

A wide range of very delicious bottles are currently up for adoption. Come peer into the glassed-over eyeballs of these little fellas and see if one of them doesn’t tug at your heart. Pleeeze sir, can I have some more?

Enoteca Fun Tasting Events Calendar

Mark your calendars for tastings at Enoteca – Fine Wine & Beer. Some are classroom format, which means we all sit down at the same time and can interact with the presenter with questions and whatnot. Our Friday & Saturday wine tastings are drop-in format, which means you can stop in any time during the tasting hours and try some excellent wine. We price our tastings to just break even on the quantity we pour for you, and our pours are quite a bit more than a typical winery tasting room experience. Join us for these excellent tasting events!

Home Brew Beer Tasting / Competition
Thursday, February 4th – 7 pm [$5 glass only, drop-in]

More than a couple Beer Club Members happen to make some home brew. Some of them would like to share the love and get some quality feedback from experienced beer tasters. A few home brewers have already said they’d bring thier stuff on February 4th, if you’re a home brewer and would like to participate, shoot us an email. Come taste, learn more about beer, share your ideas, maybe we will find a winner!

$5 to buy a glass, the beer is free, RSVP for space avialable!


Pahlmeyer Wine Tasting with David Landis
Tuesday, February 9th – 7 pm [$20 flight, classroom]

David Landis represents the premium marquee brand of Pahlmeyer, a cult status winery from Napa Valley. Pahlmeyer is a brand that has enlisted the wine making talent of Randy Dunn (Dunn Cabernet, Long Shadows Feather Cabernet), Bob Levy (Harlan Estates), Helen Turley, David Abreu, and Erin Green (Sonoma-Cutrer, Colgin, Bryant Family and Martinelli). Consulting is done by Michel Rolland, winemaker of Long Shadows Pedestal Merlot, Ornellaia, and more.

The first wine out of Pahlmeyer earned 94 points from the renowned Robert Parker, shocking wine connoisseurs and critics nationwide. The concept is “Bordeaux in California” and he seems to be succeeding.

We’ll be tasting the entire line-up of Pahlmeyer wines, including some incredible high-end top shelf wine. The Proprietary Red gets 95 and 96 points from Parker, Napa Chardonnay 92 points, Napa Merlot 94 points, Sonoma Pinot 94 points, Sonoma Chardonnay 95 points… The list goes on and on. To buy all these bottles to taste at home would cost $674. Don’t miss this amazing tasting event.

Come learn, taste, and discover on this special Tuesday evening tasting event.

Only $20 per person, Reserve your tickets early.


Riedel Stemware Wine Tasting Event
Wednesday, February 17th – 7 pm [$40 flight, classroom]

Does the glass you’re drinking from really matter? We believe it does, and that’s why we only use genuine Riedel stemware at Enoteca tasting events. Ever have a wine that tasted great in the restaurant or tasting room, but seemed to fall flat at home? Inappropriate stemware is the most likely culprit.

This event will be unlike any other we have held. The ticket price will include a personal set of your own stemware, each designed for a different type of wine. At this event we will demonstrate by tasting the quality of the beverage experience in each type of glass.

An expert in stemware from Riedel will be on hand to share the story of how these were developed, and to educate on proper stemware use. This promises to be a fun and rewarding experience!

Tasting will include such excellent wines as: Robert Hall Cabernet Sauvignon, Rombauer Chardonnay, Groth Sauvignon Blanc, and Chehalem 3 Vineyard Pinot Noir!

$40 per person, take home the stemware! Reserve your tickets early.


Old Schoohouse Beer Tasting with Ruud Family-Brewers
Thursday, February 18th – 5 & 7 pm [$10 flight, classroom]

The Ruud family took over the Winthrop Brewery and turned it into the Old Schoolhouse Brewery. They turned it around and are making some excellent quaffers. Come meet the beer making family and try these new crafts. After tasting a bunch of beers, you get to take home a glass from the brewery. We’ll be holding 2 tastings, one at 5 and one at 7 pm. $10 per person, reserve your tickets early! (be sure to specify 5 or 7 pm)


Gouden Carolous Beer Tasting
Thursday, February 24th – 7 pm [$20 flight, classroom]

February 24th is Gouden Carolous Day, join us for this one of a kind beer tasting. Taste a vertical of Grand Cru of the Empreror from 2005-2009. Attendance strictly limited to 30 tasters.

After tasting a bunch of beers, you get to take home a glass from the brewery. $10 per person, reserve your tickets early! (be sure to specify 5 or 7 pm)


Full Sail Beer Tasting with Joe Neese
Thursday, March 25th – 5 & 7 pm [$10 flight, classroom]

Joe Neese is coming back to Enoteca – Fine Wine & Beer for a Full Sail beer tasting. Full Sail of Hood River makes a fantastic set of Reserve Line beers and we’ve been stashing some here and there to fill out a great tasting lineup. Joe is excited to hold his 2nd tasting at Enoteca, and this will be one fun event! After tasting a bunch of beers, you get to take home a glass from the brewery. We’ll be holding 2 tastings, one at 5 and one at 7 pm. $10 per person, reserve your tickets early! (be sure to specify 5 or 7 pm)


Pinot Noir Tasting with Dan Gorden
Thursday, [DATE TBA] – 7 pm [$15 flight, classroom]

Dan Gorden represents a bunch of fantastic Pinot Noirs as part of the Northwest Core Collection, and will be sharing several of them. Come to find out more about Pinot Noir, taste some great examples of the wine, and have a good time!

Unfortunately the February 11th date had to be postponed, as soon as we have a new date we will announce here.

Only $15 per person, Reserve your tickets early.


You can keep yourself in the loop on Enoteca events! Subscribe to the Enoteca Google Calendar to keep up-to-date on the latest happenings!


Thank you for your support of our local family business.

Salute’

Russell and Sarah

Enoteca – Fine Wine & Beer
208-457-9885
service@corkjoy.com

Enoteca is open:
Tuesday-Saturday: 11-7


Directions, hours, and more about Enoteca: www.corkjoy.com

We’re always looking for feedback! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to let us know. Did you like a certain wine or beer? We’re here to serve you so let us know how we can help: service@corkjoy.com