Tag: wine

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New Arrivals

Who Ordered the 2010 La Tarasque Rhone?

La TarasqueIf you were a fly on the wall in our “secret cellar” last week (and you weren’t, because we don’t allow flies in there), you might have overheard a conversation that went something like this: JOE (sounding a little intimidating): Alright, who the heck ordered this La Tarasque Rhone? DAVID (a little cautiously): Um, I don’t know. JOE: Too bad, I wanted to give them a raise. This stuff is GREAT! When you have around three thousand wines on hand, things can become a bit of a blur. But *whoever it was that ordered the la Tarasque (we still haven’t figured out who it was) deserves a promotion. For one thing, it has a really cool dragon on the label. But more importantly, this little wine is not only a well-executed, old-vine Grenache-dominated Rhone created by Aaron Pott (the only American to lead a Grand Cru Chateau in France), it’s an absolute STEAL at $8.99. And it’ll probably stay at that price, unless we figure out who ordered it, and have to figure out a way to cover their raise.

La Tarasque Bottle From the Producer: Strawberries, cherry, red currants, plum, fig, violets, caramel, coffee, tar, cocoa and wet stone in an incredibly vibrant nose. Cherry, wild strawberry, caramel and peach in a bold attack with medium density. Soft and super supple finish with density, stone fruits linger with persistence. This wine is tasting great! It is refreshing, supple and juicy. ~ Aaron Pott
Categories
Holidays

[UPDATED] Need a Versatile Wine for a Holiday Dinner? Just look for the Curious Turkey!

Curious Turkey Update![UPDATE: We realized that our “Curious Turkey” tags tended to get lost in the mix of all the shelf talkers, so we switched to a bright red ornament to make them easier to spot. So we figured while we were at it, we may as well select more great wines to feature! See below. ] Your Thanksgiving menu may change from year to year, but there’s one thing you can count on with holiday dinners. And that is that when the full spread is a melange of dishes comprised of everything from a classic holiday turkey or ham to Aunt Gertrude’s famous suspended marshmallow bundt-pan jello or Campbell’s-soup-based green bean casserole, there is no single wine that is up to the task. That’s why we’ve once again selected some value-minded versatile wines that have a lighter, simpler, or sweeter touch to better embrace the riot of flavors that are likely to be on the table. As we pointed out last year, that “Bacon Turducken” trend is probably over, so we can at least eliminate the terror of the “Russian egg” birds-within-birds-within-birds hurdle. But holiday dinners remain an impossible challenge when it comes to selecting a “perfect” wine. The solution then becomes almost simple — just stick to certain styles and varietals and it is a fairly easy task. Rieslings, Chenin Blanc, and Pinot Grigios are a no-brainer for the whites, and Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, and a smattering of other reds can cover you for the reds. Below is a short selection from the 3,000+ wines we have on hand. Just look for the “Curious Turkey” tags. If the specific wine we’ve chosen to highlight doesn’t suit your fancy, you’ll at least be looking at the right section to help you make a selection! Our last-minute picks are below.

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Categories
Holidays

Let Them Eat Cake? Puh! We say LET THEM DRINK WINE!

Let's just not have a scene like THIS, okay? Our doors are open 7am-2am

Did you know that retailers use all sorts of subtle store layout tricks to make you buy more stuff? We’ll go into detail about that a little later, but amongst the things they do is put all the pretty, nice smelling stuff at the entrance, to help get rid of shoppers’ “sidewalk momentum”. This is why the produce and floral departments are at the front of most supermarkets. We don’t use tricks like this at Main Party; we don’t have enough room! As a result, we often run into people at the very back of the store, asking why we don’t have any French wine. This is because they walked right past it, first thing! Which is quite impressive, since there are about 200 affordably priced French wines within ten feet of the front door! On the bright side, if you’ve made it to the BACK of the store, you’re that much closer to the premium cellar, where you’ll find some really REMARKABLE French wines. Everything from some familiar and still-affordable items like the 2005 Louis Jadot Pommard Clos De La Commarine (about $55) to the somewhat more rarefied 1997 Grand Vin de Chateau Latour Pauillac or Chateau Haut-Brion Premier Grand Cru Classe De Graves (about $399 & $350 respectively), or even a 6 liter 2008 Domaine du Vieux Telegraphe “La Crau” Châteauneuf-du-Pape (you’ll have to ask). So this Bastille Day, we’ve decided to help you map an attack plan to “storm our fortress” as it were. This Bastille Day, you can have your cake, and eat it too. After dinner with a nice French wine. Maps below.

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Categories
Specials

Ben Hogan Wine – A Master Stroke?

5 packGolf and wine have at least a couple of things in common. One is that they both involve a pursuit of perfection that mostly ends up falling short, but results in a very enjoyable experience. Enjoyable, that is, if you like golf or wine! Another is that a big part of what makes both enjoyable is based on companionship and storytelling. Can you imagine truly enjoying a wine if you couldn’t share it with a friend, and talk about where it came from, how it was made, or the unique story of the vineyard owner or winemaker? And likewise with golf – if it was all about perfecting your game, there would hardly be any reason to have a bar back at the club, now *would there. And these are the sorts of things that make these special Ben Hogan wines we’re featuring worth a look, and probably a great gift idea for Father’s Day, or for the golfer in your life, regardless of gender. The wines themselves are not exceptional wines, but they’re actually pretty good. And pretty good is usually more than enough when it comes to wine or golf. As a woman we know who is both a wine rep AND a golfer said, “who cares about 90+ ratings when the juice is good, and you have good company!” And you’re in pretty good company in this case; if you know anything about golf, you know who Ben Hogan is. And if you don’t, there’s Wikipedia. And the story of how this wine happened is a fun story in itself. Especially the little details like how when the California vineyard’s owner Matthew Talbert – who is Australian – printed his newly hired (and award winning) winemaker Chris Cameron’s business cards with his name upside down. Get it? Talbert is from “down under”. The wines are in fact made in partnership with Ben Hogan products, so if you’re thinking about gifting, you might want to check out Ben Hogan apparel and golf gear to accompany the wine. Oh yeah. Back to the wine itself! We have a limited number of the collector’s sets, finished with each bottling matching numerically (only 500 were produced), individually wrapped, and containing a Certificate of Authenticity. We also have a few of the three and two bottle packages, and a lot of individual “Tribute” series wines listed below. These wines are a good value anyway, but the numbered collections are a steal. We got a good deal, and are passing it on to you. Remember:

As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round.
~ Ben Hogan

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Categories
Holidays

The Mythical Perfect Wine For Thanksgiving (and the holidays in general)

Just look for the colorful little wreaths

[UPDATED: We will continue to feature these wines through December] Some of you may have been clever this year, and planned an exacting menu for Thanksgiving dinner, with carefully selected courses, and no mystery dishes brought by guests. This information is not for you. We’re sure you’ll have no trouble finding what you need amongst our nearly 3,000 wines on hand. But the rest of us are left with the age old challenge of deciding which wine is perfect to accompany smoked ham, deep-fried turkey, canned onions on green bean casserole, those horrifying fluffy fruit-and-cool-whip based conconctions your aunt Millie brings (deviously named something like “ambrosia”), and sweet potatoes with marshmallows. Gone are any hopes of an intimate and loving relationship between the food and the wine. No, a better analogy would be a public orgy, or maybe a even riot. Yes, on Thanksgiving, you almost have to think of your wine choice more as riot gear. You need a wine that’s simpler, bolder, lighter, sweeter, more acidic, and a whole range of other words that don’t belong together. In other words, a good basic strategy is to have at least three wines on the table. The good news is that this doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Some of the better choices to do battle with the Thanksgiving spread are coincidentally often less expensive varietals. For reds, a Beaujolais or other Gamay, a hearty Spanish or Italian, or a Pinot Noir will fare well. And grandma will love the pretty label on the easy-to-quaff Beaujolais Nouveau that you might ordinarily turn your nose up at. For whites, a Riesling, a Torrontes, or white blend will be fine, and don’t forget the utility of a nice Rose or mid-priced sparkler for cutting through the dense palate of a holiday dinner. So even with this knowledge and freedom, picking three wines out of the thousands in our store could still be a bit of a challenge. So we’ve picked some FOR you. In the center of the store is a section devoted entirely to about 30 holiday wine choices, with a selection focused mostly on Banfi, Trivento, Georges Duboeuf, and a few other familiar names. We also picked out about thirty more throughout the store, and marked them with the curious Turkey you see on the left. Below is a sampling of what’s amongst the section in the middle of the store. So have fun with it! Pick a nice bottle to make yourself happy, and then freestyle a bit!

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