2011 Grapevine Newsletter 1.Pdf

T O O RDER M ORE F EA T URED W INES C ALL 1-800-823-5527 T ODAY ! Volume 19 Number 1 ©Vinesse Wine Club 2011 The SKU 17124 GrThe Officiala NewslepTTer fOrevine ViiNesse wiiNe club MeMbers Exploring Italy’s Langhe Valley How to Organize Your Home Wine Collection The Grades of Beef and Their Wine Equivalents Style: Why Real Maple Syrup Is So Expensive G E T Y OUR D AILY D OSE O F W INE N E W S A T www .V INESSE T ODAY . C O M 2 • The Grapevine • Visit vinesse.com OUR MISSION: To uncover and bring you wine gems diTOr s OurNal from around the world, which you’re e ’ J not likely to discover on your own, and which enhance your wine enjoyment. Steaking Claim to the YOUR GRAPEVINE TEAM: Intrepid Wine Enthusiast, Chief Best Grades of Beef Taster and Winehound: Martin Stewart By Robert Johnson Chief Operating Officer (aka “The Buck Stops Here”): he type of beef Lawrence D. Dutra T that a restaurant Editor: serves can make all the Robert Johnson difference between a Wine Steward: memorable meal and a Katie Montgomery dining disaster. The Grapevine is published by Vinesse, 822 Hampshire Road, Suite E, Westlake Beef is graded by the United States Village, CA 91361; 1-800-823-5527. Department of Agriculture, and as Copyright by Vinesse, LLC. Printed in USA. No responsibility is assumed for loss or is the case with school work, grades damage to unsolicited materials. matter. The higher the grade, the better the beef. Be good to the planet Fortunately, most restaurants realize this and focus on only the two highest RECYCLE grades of beef (there are eight grade RECYCLE levels in all). If you see “USDA Prime” There are other factors to consider. listed on the menu, you’re about to When beef is dry-aged — that is, CHARTER MEMBER enjoy one of the best steaks of your hung in a cold space for around three BENEFITS: life. More likely, the restaurant will weeks — it concentrates the flavors. serve USDA Choice, which is less That calls for a concentrated wine, The Grapevine Newsletter expensive but still of exceptional and that brings Cabernet back to the Premium wine selections at quality. forefront. members-only prices In food and wine pairing, we Cooking style also influences the Wine tasting as a participant sometimes match opposites on the wine selection. If the steak is grilled in on VINESSE’s Gold Medal aroma and flavor spectrum — for butter, for instance, you’d be amazed Award Panel example, an off-dry or slightly sweet by how nicely it would pair with a Free subscription to VINESSE’s wine with a spicy Chinese or Tex-Mex big buttery Chardonnay. That’s right: Cyber Circle Community dish. But when it comes to beef, I’m white wine with beef. Random giveaways of wine more inclined to pair “big” with “big.” Sometimes the greatest challenge and accessories So if you’re fortunate to be dining is learning what type of beef the on USDA Prime, you may as well go restaurant serves. If the grade isn’t Wine Finders Reward — all the way and uncork a big, bold listed on the menu, ask. If the identify a future wine selection and earn a reward Cabernet Sauvignon. This is no time manager doesn’t know or doesn’t for subtlety. want to tell you, you don’t have to Perfectly matched recipes for Likewise, if the beef is USDA stick around. featured wine selections Choice, you may opt instead for a After all, you wouldn’t order a Free wine tasting nice bottle of Merlot or Pinot Noir, or bottle of wine at a restaurant without perhaps a well-aged Cabernet. knowing who made it... would you? Visit vinesse.com • The Grapevine • 3 Tips for Organizing Your Wine Cellar ou’ll be busy with spring cleaning wines that would benefit from several months to several Y soon enough. Meanwhile, take some years of aging. Think of this area as your “wine library,” a time to organize your wine cellar (or closet place to explore every so often, or when a special occasion is coming up. Keep Cabernet Sauvignon bottles with other or rack) so you won’t have to deal with it Cabs, Merlots with Merlots, and so on. at the same time as everything else. On the other side of your storage area, place all of your The more bottles you have, the more important it is to bottles that you intend to drink sooner rather than later. keep them organized for optimum enjoyment. These are your “house wines” (wines that you enjoy often So what’s the best way to accomplish this goal? with dinner or for casual sipping), joined by bottles that Obviously, it depends on the size have been moved over from the of your collection. The bigger the “library” because their time has stash, the greater the organization come. required. But for most of us, a Rather than organizing these simple two-area approach works. wines by type, arrange them No matter how you choose to by “drink by” date. Obviously, store your wine, make sure the you don’t have to drink them bottle labels are clearly visible. You in the order you set up, but want to be able to see not only the this type of system provides an name of the maker and the type of easy-to-understand road map for wine, but also the vintage. consumption, and helps prevent On one side of your cellar, cooler, wines from being stored beyond basement or closet, place all of the their prime. THE ONE THAT STARTED IT ALL! • Hand-crafted gems produced by little known or small estates • Limited-production bottlings • Under-the-radar wines you won’t find in supermarkets EACH SHIPMENT INCLUDES: WINE COLOR MIX: Reds, Whites, or Both — Your Choice! • 6 bottles from all over the wine world FREQUENCY: Monthly • Detailed Tasting Notes for each featured wine • Latest edition of The Grapevine newsletter PRICE: Only $12-$15 average per bottle plus shipping To learn more about this Club, call 800-823-5527 or visit www.Vinesse.com 4 • The Grapevine • Visit vinesse.com ÉLEVANT SOCIETY™ IT’S NOT FOR EVERYONE. IS IT FOR YOU? Vinesse created the Élevant Society to meet members’ demands for super-premium wines. While virtually all Exceptional Wines Help Put members of the original Remote Winery on the Map American Cellars Wine Club were very satisfied with their ltamura Vineyards and Winery, established in 1985 monthly selections, some Aby Frank and Karen Altamura, is the only winery in wanted more, and they Wooden Valley, which is located within the Napa Valley were willing to pay for it. appellation. The Altamuras are Napa natives who wide at its widest point. It’s located EACH ÉLEVANT SOCIETY take a hands-on approach to every nine miles northeast of the town of SHIPMENT INCLUDES: step of the growing and winemaking Napa, and is reached by a winding process. Thus, a natural production mountain road that originally was • 2 or 4 bottles — your choice — limit is established and the wines show carved into what was called Napa of super-premium wines, mostly off the couple’s deep commitment to Mountain by Chinese laborers in the big and bold red varieties or reflecting the terroir of their Wooden 1800s. The valley is bordered by the blends Valley Ranch. Vaca Range to the east and “Napa • Detailed Tasting Notes for each Wooden Valley is a small, almost Mountain” to the west. featured wine round valley, approximately two miles The warm summer days in Wooden • Latest edition of The Grapevine newsletter FREQUENCY: Approximately Monthly PRICE: $84.94 average per shipment plus shipping To learn more about this Club, call 800-823-5527 or visit www.Vinesse.com Visit vinesse.com • The Grapevine • 5 Valley are cooled by dramatic fog working at Caymus for five years,” banks that pour over the palisades, Altamura said. “We developed many along with mid-afternoon breezes grape varieties — from Burger to which can produce temperatures as Zinfandel — refining the concepts much as 10 degrees lower than the of soil and climatic influences, and Napa Valley average. This results in a growing for quality rather than long growing season. quantity. Wooden Valley was named for “As we worked to get the most John Wooden, a giant among men from each vineyard site, I learned at 6-foot-8, who purchased the area that it was important not to have pre- in 1852 from Jose Ignacio Berryessa conceived ideas about what to expect and became its first resident owner. from a vineyard, but rather to discover Originally from Virginia, Wooden the flavors that the vineyard offered. traveled west in a wagon train that My job now as a winemaker is to embarked from Missouri in 1846. successfully get those flavors into the Today, Wooden Valley is reminiscent bottle.” of an earlier age when cattle roamed More than 20 years later, richly WINES THAT MATCH the hillsides; orchards, grain and textured Altamura Cabernet Sauvignon THE SEASON hay grew in the fertile soil; and the and Sangiovese are lauded for their children were educated in a one- intensity and silky integration of Summer — wines for room schoolhouse. Winegrapes were the elements unique to each of the barbecues, picnics or just for first planted in 1905, but pulled vineyard sites on the ranch. sipping. Fall — wines for hearty, out 30 years later during the Great Many of the early vintages of harvest-time dishes.

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