Hopefully we don’t have any tricks this week for you, it’s all treats here at the Wine Merchant!
Calendar of Events
October 24th – Thirsty Thursday! Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup!
November 5th – Tuesday Fall Alternative Wine Dinner **Just had a few spaces open up**
November 21st – Beaujolais Nouveau!
Do I really need to say more…We’ll taste as many Nouveau’s as I can bring in, I’ll prepare as much Bourguignon as my kitchen can handle, bring in way too much Brie and Baguette and we’ll just have a party! Nobody really does this anymore, but…we do, and we do it right!
December 3rd – Champagne Tasting ***SOLD OUT
We’re bringing in all grower produced Champagnes this year, six of the best we found. We’ll have a special guest from the distributor (Jason) here to help explain each and every one of them. Of course we’ll choose some great heavy appetizers to accompany these beautiful new Champagnes. It’s bubbles all night long!
December 25th – Closed Christmas Day
January 1st – Closed New Years Day
New Wines
Southern Belle Red Blend 2017 Spain $19.99
Precious Syrah 2017 Spain $19.99
Burgess Topography Red Blend 2014 California $45.99
Mollydooker Maitre D’ 2018 Australia $34.99
New Beers
Abita Office Party 6pk Bottle $12.99
Bell’s Blackbeard’s Bear Hug 4pk Bottle $24.99
Epic Big Bad Baptist 4pk Can $19.99
Flying Dog K9 Winter Warmer 6pk Can $10.99
Odd13 Codename: Superfan IPA 6pk Can $11.99
Shiner Cheer 6pk Bottle $8.99
Jackie O’s BA Black Maple $11.99
Revolution Deth’s Tar 4pk Can $24.99
Revolution Café Deth 4pk Can $29.99
Beer Tasting
All new beers once again this week, Champion Brewing from Charlottsville, VA. & Duck Rabbit from Farmville, NC. First we’ll start with an appropriately named Pils “Shower Beer” from Champion. Number two also from Champion is “Water Boys IPA”. Next for number three will be Duck Rabbit’s “Hoppy Bunny American Black Ale” and to finish this week’s tasting we’ll try from Duck Rabbit their Brown Ale. It’s always nice to try something new and we’ve got four new ones for you this Saturday, hope to see you then.
Feature Item
Was very fortunate to have lunch last week with Steve Burgess. Burgess Family Cellars is one of the original founders of Napa Valley and although their wines had fallen off the radar they are definitely back on it now! Steve and his brother are third generation producers and believe me they produce wine the way California wines were meant to be produced. So, this week we’re featuring Topography, their iconic Red Blend, comprised of 62% Merlot - 20% Malbec - 10% Petit Verdot - 8% Syrah makes this wine as the winemakers notes read,” A classy and quafable wine with valley suppleness and a mountain core”. Tasting notes go on, “Topography has bright red fruit, cherry, raspberry, floral, bramble and tea leaf, cherry cola, hint of vanilla, great flavors and well balanced acidity”. Personally I like the quafable part, we learned a lot about Napa Valley and their wines from Steve but what we learned most was this family and their lands on the slope of Howell Mountain know how to make great wines and they’ve been doing it since 1972. Sure it’s not cheap and cheerful but at $45.99 this wine will remind you of how California wines should taste.
Dan’s Pick
There are very few surprises in the world of wine retail but two weeks ago there was one… Sitting in the back room I was to meet a national wine representative, it had been a long day and these meetings aren’t always the best way to end a day. Sitting down I picked up the first bottle, turned it over to see the back label and simply said, “I used to purchase a lot of wine from this importer and I thought they were long gone”, the response I received was , “well then you used to buy a lot of wine from me”… Dan Phillips of Grateful Palate Wines was in my back room, one of three or four people I still want someday to meet. Needless to say I was having a good day, Dan brought us some new wines from Spain that he has been working on, two of which came in this week. So my pick this week is Precious 2014 Syrah. This $19.99 bottle of wine has been made in the timeless fashion that his Australian Reds had been made, big, bold and of course with high alcohol. This 15.5% red will over deliver, Dan’s wines have always had a place at the Wine Merchant and if I need to say more, during the Argyle fire I was allowed to enter to remove the contents of the safe and one bottle of wine, it was one of his…
Friday Special
Sticking with the meatballs, we all but ran out last week and let’s be honest, they’re a perfect accompaniment to a glass of red for a buffer on a cool fall night. Which coincidentally we have both for this week’s enjoyment.
Final Thought
For a variety of reasons it’s been a busy and difficult couple of weeks here at the Wine Merchant but what always makes it better and obviously worth it are the three that are here to help me, Chelsea, T.J. and Jess. Without them I’d just be another cranky old man selling wine. I’m pretty certain you will all agree there are few others like them, so as a final thought (I mean not the final, final thought) I’d like to say, thank you for all you do each and every day, it’s truly appreciated, by all of us.
P.S. Happy Birthday G.E.M. 10/24/19
Cheers from all of us at the Wine Merchant!