Sauv Blancs for Spring - this weekend at Puro Wine

This weekend at Puro Wine, Manhattan's hotspot for Chilean wine, try some Sauvignon Blancs for Spring!

 

Friday, March 26, 5:00-7:00pm  Quintay Wines

Quintay is an affiliation of landowners in Chile's Casablanca Valley, and winemaker Vicente Johnson selects the best plots of each vintage year to make Quintay wines.  The Sauvignon Blancs are fresh, dry and crisp - ideal for the beginning of Spring!  The Pinot offers more fruit and body than you might expect, with concentrated red fruit, dried herb notes and a velvety texture.

2008 Quintay Clava Sauvignon Blanc, $11/btl. or $118.80/case  2008 Quintay Sauvignon Blanc, $16/btl. or $172.80/case 2007 Quintay Pinot Noir, $21/btl. or $226.80/case

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Saturday, March 27, 4:00-6:00pm  Viña Tabali Wines

Puro Wine is proud to introduce Viña Tabali to the New York City market!  Tabali is located in the Limari Valley, where bright sunlight, cool breezes from the Pacific and chalky soils produce remarkable wines.  Winemaker Felipe Müller was named Best Winemaker of the Year by the Guia de Vinos de Chile 2010, and the wines have won high regards from critics around the world.  Check them out for yourself!

2008 Tabali Reserva Sauvignon Blanc, $14/btl. or $151.20/case  2008 Tabali Reserva Especial Chardonnay, $19/btl. or $205.20/case 2007 Tabali Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon, $17/btl. or $183.60/case

Puro Wine

161 Grand Street (at Centre St)

New York NY 10013
212 925 0090

This weekend at Puro Wine: Viña Morande & Haras de Pirque

This weekend, Puro Wine (located at the corner of Grand Street and Centre Street in lower Manhattan) is featuring these 2 Chilean producers for free tastings.

Friday, March 19, 5:00-7:00pm Viña Morande Wines

Viña Morande's Pionero and Reserva wines celebrate the social, welcoming and easygoing qualities of modern Chilean wine.  Morande is based in the Casablanca Valley, a cool region that produces fresh, fruit-forward whites and Pinot Noirs.  Priced at $9 and $12 each, they're the perfect wines to pour for parties too.

2008 Morande Reserva Sauvignon Blanc, $12/btl. or $129.60/case 2009 Morande Pionero Pinot Noir, $9/btl. or $97.20/case 2008 Morande Pionero Cabernet Sauvignon, $9/btl. or $97.20/case 2008 Morande Reserva Pinot Noir, $12/btl. or $129.60/case

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Saturday, March 20, 4:00-6:00pm Haras de Pirque Wines

Haras de Pirque is tucked in the foothills of the Andes Mountains in the upper Maipo Valley, where they produce excellent Cabernet Sauvignon as well as thoroughbred horses.  (Note the winery was designed in the shape of a horseshoe.)  This tasting focuses on two levels of Cabernet - the Equus and the Elegance - that both offer value and finesse well above the price tag.

2007 Haras de Pirque Estate (Equus) Cabernet Sauvignon, $14/btl. or $151.20/case 2005 Haras de Pirque Elegance Cabernet Sauvignon, $45/btl.

ALSO: In support of rebuilding Chile after the recent earthquake, several big importers and distributors are donating their profits to Chile. This month when you purchase the 2007 Errazuriz Single Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon or any wine from Montes, all profits go to relief efforts. 

Chile's Long Hill - Loma Larga

Last week at Puro Wine in lower Manhattan I picked up this bottle of wine for the weekend. I hadn't visited Loma Larga while I was in Chile, but the manager highly recommended it when I said I was looking for a mid-priced Pinot so I took her suggestion. It was really enjoyable, with a powerful nose and flavors of rose petal, red fruit, chocolate, and a bit of funk. It's a silky, fuller bodied Pinot with 14.5% alcohol, and I sipped it without food (unless chips and dip count?) and quite liked it.

The Loma Larga 2007 Pinot Noir received 90 points from Robert Parker, Wine Advocate, and it retails for $21 at Puro Wine (161 Grand Street).

J. Bouchon Wine Tasting this Friday in NYC

Today I was at Puro Wine in downtown Manhattan. Seeing their selection of Chilean wine made me nostalgic for my trip, and I had to restrain myself from not buying the whole store. I picked up a few bottles and learned that this Friday from 5-7pm they will be pouring two J. Bouchon wines - Sauvignon Blanc and Carmenere. I tried these wines when I visited the winery in the Maule Valley and I highly recommend them. Stop by if you can!

J. Bouchon Wine Tasting
Friday, March 12
5-7pm

Puro Wine
161 Grand Street
New York NY 10013
212 925 0090
puro-wine.com

Help Chile - drink their wine

Some of the areas that I visited during my wine trip to Chile were severely affected by the earthquake on February 28. Wineries in the Maule Valley and Colchagua Valley sustained damage to their equipment and cellars, and a significant amount of wine has been lost - hundreds of thousands of liters. Many people lost their homes and some places are still without water and electricity.

These pictures are from J. Bouchon Winery, who lost a fair amount of wine and suffered some structural damage. But everyone there is ok and they are gearing up for their 2010 harvest.

If you want to help Chile, why not check out Puro Chile and Puro Wine in Manhattan at Centre St. and Grand St. - they sell lots of Chilean wines, crafts, olive and avocado oils (there are a lot of avocados in Chile and the oil is really good).

Puro Chile
221 Centre Street
New York, NY 10013
212 217 9362
puro-chile.com

Puro Wine
161 Grand Street
New York NY 10013
212 925 0090
puro-wine.com

Buena Suerte, Chile!

Celebrate Hudson @ New Amsterdam Market with NY Wine

If you're in the city this weekend, why not check out the New Amsterdam Market on Sunday, Sept. 13, for some NY wines, meats, and cheeses?! Brooklyn Oenology, Shinn Estate, and Paumanok Vineyards will be among the NY wineries representing. Plus check out Dickson's Farmstand Meats and several other vendors from local farms and establishments.

Apparently Sept. 13 will be NYC's very own Harbor Day, which will celebrate the 400-year anniversary of when Henry Hudson and his crew explored what became New Amsterdam (and later New York) in 1609. Cheers, Hudson!

NEW AMSTERDAM MARKET
Sunday, September 13, 11am - 4pm
South St between Beekman St & Peck Slip
http://www.newamsterdammarket.org/markets.html

I heart cupcakes and wine

Last night I attended a dream event in Manhattan hosted by Swirl Events and Nine Cakes - a cupcake and wine tasting. This could not have been a more perfect event for me since I LOVE cupcakes (and wine, obvi). The combos were surprising but amazing: sparkling white + carrot cake cupcake; Portuguese indigenous white blend + coconut cupcake; Argentine Torrontes + orange blossom cupcake; Australian Shiraz/Viognier combo + red velvet cupcake.

All the wines were dry or off-dry and complemented the cupcake flavors beautifully. I tried all the combos twice just to make sure of this. Thanks to Swirl Events and Nine Cakes for a fabulous night of wine and cupcakes!

Cleaning out the wine fridge Part 1 - Old v. New PN

Since I'm moving out of NYC this month I've been working on cleaning out my wine fridge before it goes into storage. The other night some girl friends and I did a little Pinot Noir tasting, Old World vs. New World. It wasn't a fair comparison, I fully admit, since the 2 PN's also differed widely in age. But hey, sometimes you have to work with what you have. The wines:

Morey Saint Denis 1er Cru, Cote d'Or Burgundy, 1998 ($70)
vs.
Bella Vida "Tardy" Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley Oregon, 2006 ($35)

The Burgundy was a ruby color with a silky texture and refined flavors of strawberry-rhubarb pie and clove, as classic as your favorite Prada flats. The Oregon PN was a pretty magenta color with a jammy nose and blackberry and cinnamon flavors, more like those platform heels that scream, "take me out, I can walk the streets of NYC, I promise!"

The girls were split over which they liked better. I loved them both. Flats or heels, to each her own!

The Other Cab + Meat Melange

This past weekend some friends and I sampled tasty meats from our friend Jake Dickson, owner of Dickson's Farmstand Meats (http://dicksonsfarmstand.com/). Jake sources his meat from small-scale family farms in New York State and sells it at the Chelsea Market Thursdays - Sundays. He and his fiance, Jen, suggested we do a steak tasting and helped us choose the cuts. We went with ribeye, flat iron, and sirloin. They gave us instructions and we were off!

I paired the meats with a Cabernet Franc, one of my favorite reds and "the other Cab" as compared to Cabernet Sauvignon. Cab Franc is a lighter style red that is less tannic than Cab Sauv and therefore a bit easier to drink. It also tends to have spicier, greener flavors. It is often included in Bordeaux blends in small amounts, alongside the dominant Cab Sauv and Merlot, and in the Loire region of France it dominates the reds. NY's Finger Lakes and Long Island regions also do Cabernet Franc on its own really well. I happened to have Hermann J. Wiemer's 2006 Cabernet Franc on hand for this pairing.

The meat melange was amazing - the cuts were so tender and fresh. In my limited steak experience I've never had ribeye or flat iron, so I don't have much to go on, but these meats had a grassy, organic quality. The ribeye, my favorite, was melt-in-your-mouth delicious. The flat iron was everything I hoped it would be. The sirloin was the best I'd ever had. And the wine - the lightness of the Cab Franc really balanced the hearty steaks. It had notes of cherry on the nose and bell pepper and cinnamon on the palate. With certain bites of steak there was a lingering chocolate finish. It was the perfect marriage of flavor and texture. Cab Franc + meat melange = perfection.

Special thanks to Jake and Jen for their amazing meats and exceptional customer service! And to my fellow tasters for preparing the meat while I napped on the couch.

The perfect summer wine

Now that summer in NY is actually here, Riesling is the perfect wine for it - crisp, fruity, complex, and great with or without food. I recommend Hermann J. Wiemer's Dry Riesling, as does Eric Asimov of the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/dining/reviews/20pour.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=dining

For those who like a sweeter style, Wiemer's Semi-dry Riesling and Gewurtraminer are also favorites. All 3 of these wines in the 2007 vintage are under $20! You can find Wiemer wines at Astor Wines in Manhattan.

Cheers to the weekend!