WINO 101

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome to final installment of the Carpe Vinum Tour de France Wine Spectacular! This week we’re going where the riders in the race actually did not go THROUGH. But had they continued down a certain road they WERE on, they would have ended up in the Wonderful Rhone Valley. Had they landed there, they might not have been able to escape the tremendous gravitational pull of these lovely and monstrously delicious wines.

The race might be over, and the results may not have been that surprising, with our American Cycling Hero and his Freakishly-Large Heart coming out on top.  We can also consider this tasting a tribute to Lance for what is truly an inspiring story, but I also see this leg of the race as the final lap of my own Tour de France event. . .And a perfect reason to pour some of my favorite wines in the world! As if I need a reason, anyway. . .but it fits the theme.

So after much tasting and deliberation, we will have here tomorrow, 2 wonderful refreshing whites, 1 stunning rose’, and 4 delicious and voluptuous reds from one of the best and most accessible wine regions in France, and the world!

As if that weren’t enough, to accompany the tasting, we will be listening to the wondrous fret-work of local guitarist Carlos Severe Marcelin: Solo – mellow, modal mood music. www.severeenterprises.com . This is one of those tastings not to be missed! See you all soon!

So Friday, July 29th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Tour de France, Week 4: Rhone!
Domaine Lafond 2004 Blanc, Lirac
Domaine de la Beeassonne 2004 Blanc, Cotes du Rhone
Noble Dame de Treilles 2003 Rouge, Cotes du Rhone Villages
Chateau de Trignon 2003 Bois des Dames Rouge, Cotes du Rhone
Cave de Tain 2000 Hautes de Fief Rouge, Crozes-Hermitage

And a Little More Rhone!!
Domaine les Pallieres 2004 Rose’, Gigondas
Vieux Mas des Papes 2003 Rouge, Chateauneuf du Pape

A stellar deal at $10 for the First 5, and $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours
Hope to see you here!
Seize the Wine!

Next Friday tasting is Home Grown: Oregon!

M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome to Week 3 of the Carpe Vinum Tour de France Wine Spectacular! We continue in the journey, retracing the steps of the Tour de France bicycle race through the French countryside. This last week they’ve covered a lot of ground through Southern France. This has led them through a good number of the premiere wine regions in the South. A week ago today they landed in Miramas which, as far as I can tell, is a suburb of Marseille in the heart of Provence. From there they’ve trekked on through the Languedoc into the Southwest countryside which is scattered about with delicious wineries. I mean, the wines produced by the wineries are delicious. . .not the wineries themselves. I imagine the wineries themselves would taste of dirt and timber, were they to be tasted. Not recommended.

So I’ve followed the line on the maps I have here of where the race has led these athletes, to get as close as possible to the regions they rode through. We’re starting with a tasty Viognier from the Pricipaute d’Orange, a small region slightly North of Provence. From there It’s a short jaunt through the Coteaux Varois, where we pick up a tasty rose’, (since many of you asked for one last week). Then just down on the tip of Provence, dipping into the Mediterranean Sea, we visit Bandol, the most prestigious wine region in Provence. After that it’s the long journey through the Coteaux du Languedoc in the South, cruising through Fitou on the way to the Pyrenees, up through Jurancon and through Gaillac on the way towards the tasty Rhone. (They don’t actually MAKE it to the Rhone, but they get close enough to justify next week’s tasting.) In short, it’s quite a large cross-section of the South of France. And a way-tasty one too! And a heck of a lot less tiring than making the trip on a bike!

And in a by-the-way kinda way, due to some misplaced numbers on someone else’s application at the OLCC, there is a list out there that says Carpe Vinum is becoming a pizza place. We’re not. . .but there are a good number of wines I can recommend to go with the pizza I won’t be serving!

And in another by-the-way kinda way, tomorrow is the Carpe Vinum 2-Year Anniversary! I’m afraid there’s no cake or fanfare this time around. Just sayin’. Yep. Two years. Maybe I’ll draw a picture of a cake. It’s not quite as tasty, but it’s the thought that counts, right? And there are a good number of wines I can recommend to go with cake!

So Friday, July 22nd, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Tour de France, Week 3: Southern France!
Domaine de la Janasse 2002 Viognier, Vin de Pays de la Principaute d’Orange
Domaine Castera 2003 Sec, Jurancon
Chateau Routas 2004 Rouviere Rose’, Coteaux Varois
Chateau les Terrisses 2002 Rouge, Gaillac
Chateau des Erles 2002 Cuvee des Ardoises, Fitou

And a Little More Southern France!!
Chateau de Lascaux 2001 Les Nobles Pierres, Coteaux du Languedoc
Domaine du Gros Nore 2000 Bandol

A stellar deal at $10 for the First 5, and $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours
Hope to see you here!
Seize the Wine!

Next Friday tasting is Tour de France Part 4: Rhone!
Plus, we’ll be featuring some Live In-House music with a Guitarist-Extraordinaire:
Carlos Severe Marcelin, solo – mellow, modal mood music. www.severeenterprises.com

M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome to week 2 of the Carpe Vinum Tour de France Wine Spectacular! This week we’ll be visiting the wines from Alsace, which is the region that the Tour de France bicyclists have just ridden through on the way to an impossible mountain climb. It’s a region renowned for their white wines, wonderfully refreshing, yet more spicy whites with tremendous depth of character! We’ll be pouring all whites this week, which may come as a relief, considering the temperature here around Portland. What a welcome respite from the heat it will be. . .but now, a bit about Alsace!

Alsace is the region of France in the far Northeast. This region has been a disputed territory between the French and the Germans, the neighbors to the East, for hundreds of years. Control over Alsace has been a veritable tug-of-war, beginning with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 which ended the Thirty Years War (which started about thirty years earlier, I’m assuming. . .) and granted control of Alsace to the French. Then in 1871 the Germans seized control during the Franco-Prussian war. Then the French took back control at the end of World War I. Then the Germans took control AGAIN in 1940 during World War II. THEN the French took BACK control, again at the end of the war. Phew.

“That must be some hot property if folks have been fighting over it for so long,” you might wonder aloud.

“Yep!” I might agree aloud, most likely having heard you wondering aloud.

So it’s been 60 years, or so, and now we see what we have: A culture that shares French and German heritage, and the wines of the region reflect that, including both French varietals (Pinot Gris and Muscat, etc.) and German varietals (Riesling, Sylvanner and Gewurztraminer, and so on). Do you suppose it was the vineyards they fought over? Well, not “over” in the strictly prepositional sense of the word “over”. . .I mean. . .I bet there was fighting IN the vineyards, on occasion. Or maybe NEARBY the vineyards. They possibly fought OVER the vineyards in the World Wars I and II, considering military aircraft at those times. But I digress.

Reworded: Do you suppose the vineyards were a major topic of the struggle? Possibly. They make some tasty juice! Let’s see what they were fighting over!

So Friday, July 15th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Tour de France, Week 2: Alsace!
Domaine Bott Freres 2001 Sylvanner Selection
Pierre Sparr 2003 Pinot Gris
Julien Meyer 2001 Pinot Blanc
Domaine Andre Kientzler 2001 Auxerrois
Rene Mure NV Cremant d’Alsace (Bubbly!!)

And a Little More Alsace!!
Jean Marie Haag 2002 Gewurztraminer
Kuentz Bas 2001 Muscat d’Alsace

A stellar deal at $10 for the First 5, and $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours
Hope to see you here!
Seize the Wine!

Next Friday tasting is Tour de France Part 3: The South of France!

M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome to the First of Four of the Special-Event-Tastings for July! This week we’re kicking off a journey around France, week-by-week, following the internationally known, and notoriously grueling bike race, Tour de Lance! . . .I mean France. . .Tour de France! As luck would have it, every leg of the bike race goes through a major wine region in France. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that France is like one giant vineyard.

This year the race kicked off on the island “Ile de Noirmoutier” which is at the westernmost point of this week’s wine region: The Loire! Quite honestly, I know more about wine than I do about bike racing. I might even know more about wine than I do about bicycles themselves. (I hear they have wheels. . .and some other stuff. . .like a car, only smaller.) So, I’ve found a few different websites online that trace out the route these bicyclists are taking through France, and tried to match it up as closely as possible to the wine regions nearby. Sometimes they drive straight through the region, but more often than not, they just ride nearby. That’s close enough for me, since it’s still a long ways from here.

The Loire valley is situated on the East-Central coast of France and follows the Loire River inland. (Useless Trivia Tidbit: The Loire River is France’s longest river. Over 1000 miles long.) In following the bike race as closely as possible, we’re first trekking through the Pays Nantais region of the Loire with a wine from the region of Muscadet Sevre et Maine, from Domaine de la Quilla. The wine is made, appropriately enough, with the Muscadet grape and is a light and refreshing white wine, a perfect start to our “race”. Next we’re biking on through the Anjou-Saumur with a red wine (predominantly Cabernet Franc) from the Anjou brought to us by Chateau de Fesles. Traveling further East we ride into the Touraine and coast right by another region famous for Cabernet Franc: The Chinon region with the producer Marc Bredif. Not too much further to the East we’ll be going through the Touraine with a Sauvingnon Blanc from Atlantique. On the way out of the Touraine, we’ll be stopping by the Cheverny district for the lovely and popular white from Domaine du Salvard. Finishing out our first leg of this Tour de France will be a couple wines from the Sancerre region, stunning and amazing whites, as well as impressive reds and roses. I’ll be pouring the white Sancerre from Hippolyte Reverdy and a rose’ Sancerre from Henri Bourgeois. (I’ll have maps available to see where this is all going on.)

The bike race then turns Northeast, towards the Alsace Region (Next week’s tasting!), and actually crosses over the Champagne district. Although it would be interesting to try 7 different Champagnes as part of the Tour de France, it doesn’t really fit into the schedule. And they’re kinda pricey. Perhaps next year, eh?

So Friday, July 8th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Tour de France, Week 1: Loire!
Domaine de la Quilla 2003 Muscadet Sevre et Maine
Atlantique 2003 Sauvignon Blanc, Touraine
Domaine du Salvard 2003 Cheverny
Chateau de Fesles 2003 Rouge, Anjou
Marc Bredif 2002 Chinon

And a Little More Loire: Sancerre!!
Hippolyte Reverdy 2003 Sancerre Blanc
Henri Bourgeois 2002 Sancerre Rose

A stellar deal at $10 for the First 5, and $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours
Hope to see you here!
Seize the Wine!

Next Friday tasting is Tour de France Part 2: Alsace!

M