You'll be Whistling Dixie after a taste of WhistlePig 100% Rye Whiskey 10yr. Drop in on Friday, September 10th between 5:30 & 7:30pm to try it!
]]>You'll be Whistling Dixie after a taste of WhistlePig 100% Rye Whiskey 10yr. Drop in on Friday, September 10th between 5:30 & 7:30pm to try it!
]]>Getting this offer together has not been easy.
I've been trying to get enough wine together for this email since May, when the Gahier was, quite literally, fresh off the boat. To be honest, if I didn't really, really like this wine, I would have done the sensible thing and pursued other interests.
But I wanted to get this into as many of your hands as possible. So, through sheer stubbornness (and, yes, some begging), I've finally got enough wine together for this small offering - this is going out only to those who have purchased wines from the Jura and other byroads of the wine world.
]]> Today we offer the 2007 Gahier Trousseau Grand Vergers at as low as $25.65 a bottle on the three-pack. At today's pricing, this is a no-brainer for people who enjoy the airy perfume and nervosity of mountain wines.Trousseau is a tricky, difficult grape. It doesn't yield well, so quantities are often low, and astounding results aren't guaranteed. However, in the hands of the chosen few, it delivers Jura's most structured, savory and ageworthy red.
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Quite simply, Gahier's Trousseau Grand Vergers is a benchmark for this difficult grape. Compared to Puffeney, the elder statesman of Trousseau, Gahier crafts a Trousseau that's more lithe, elegant and aromatic.
This is a red wine with such focus, poise and verve that its structure recalls a white wine. The flavor profile, however, is more in the vein of a wine from southern France born in a brisk mountain environment. Dark cherry fruit is complemented by a meaty quality, crushed leaves, forceful minerality and extroverted aromatics of spice, bright red fruits and game. This is Trousseau with a ton of lift and precision.
Part of what sets Gahier apart from the rest of the pack is surely that his vines are in the sweet spot for Trousseau: Montigny-les-Arsures, a wine village just outside of Arbois where the graviers gras (fat gravel) soils are perfectly suited to Trousseau. Unsurprisingly, Montigny is also home to Puffeney's Trousseau vines. (Pictured Above: Trousseau vines in Montigny. Grand Vergers is near the houses.)
I have to admit that I have a soft spot for this wine. While visiting Jura in 2007, Gahier was recommended to me by Stephane Planche, owner of Jardin de St. Vincent wineshop in Arbois, and Jean-Paul Jeunet, sommelier at Jura's best restaurant. I drank a bottle of the 05 Grand Vergers and promptly returned to Planche's shop the next day to buy two more (the most I could justify carrying in my luggage) to cellar.
When I saw the 07 mentioned in importer Neal Rosenthal’s portfolio as arriving soon, I immediately asked to taste and then, after tasting, tried to buy a large amount. I was told that there wasn't enough wine. Lots of begging later, and here we are - still a small parcel, but worth sharing today.
As we transition into September’s cooler temperatures, Gahier’s Trousseau is an ideal red wine - its bright acidity and well-structured tannins also make it the perfect counterpoint to hearty autumn and winter dishes (one colleague heard I was writing this email and went off quite exuberantly about how well a Trousseau paired with a pork chop and squash purée last fall).
While a vintage like 05 really needs eight years or more to display its full potential, Gahier’s 07 is drinking well now, though it will continue to improve over the next two to three years. Quantities, as has been stated above, are very limited. Give us your maximum order, and we'll allocate accordingly.
To order, please email us at offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Joe Salamone
Wine Buyer
Crush Wine & Spirits
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Special Email Bottle Price: $26.95
Compare at up to $30
Special Email 3-Pack Price: $76.95 ($25.65 / btl)
Wine is in stock!
NET | No further discount
I'll try and be short here - both because the holiday weekend is almost upon us but also because we have only a few cases of this available, and at this price, well, once again we are reminded of the profound values to be found in German Riesling.
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A number of ludicrous calculations provide quality entertainment. How about 28 cents for every year of life for the oldest vines that made this wine? How about $3.33 a year for nearly a decade's worth of storage in the cellars at Schmitt-Wagner?
At $29.95 a bottle for an awesome nine-year-old Riesling, let's just call this a very, very, very good deal.
Bruno Schmitt made traditional wines the traditional way (he's in semi-retirement; since 2008 the wines have been made by Karl Loewen). His style was never showy (ripeness is something he didn't seek for its own end) nor flashy nor even exceptionally elegant, but they are honest, chewy, buxom, and they are deeeeeeeeep - especially the Maximiner, which features the old-vine plots from the Herrenberg.
Yes: At 105 years of age, these vines had a lot to say in 2001. While the glorious, taut, needle-nosed form of the vintage is so wildly evident in this bottle (the freshness is also likely enhanced as these bottles have been buried in the cellar for the last nine years), still this is a kaleidescopic Riesling, a merry-go-round of flavor, ranging from passion fruit to blood orange, cherry blossoms, rock candy, musk, minerals and flowers. What it lacks in refinement, it makes up (in spades) by its joyousness and by... well, it's deliciousness.
(I give the deliciousness of this wine 100 points.)
The town of Longuich is tucked a bit upstream from the most famous parts of the Middle Mosel, a few bends past Trittenheim's Apotheke - in fact, Longuich and its grand Herrenberg Vineyard appear closer to the Saar than their Middle Mosel brothers.
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Herr Schmitt had the good fortune to farm some very, very old vines here. Terry Theise, his importer, has written: "This is possibly the largest-oldest stand of ancient ungrafted vines in Germany, perhaps in Europe."
And while it'd be righteous and good to focus on the quality of the raw material and the rarity of old, ungrafted parcels like this, I'd rather focus on the simply beautiful structure of the magical 2001 vintage in the Mosel. As good as these wines were thought to be when they were released (and they were thought to be great), they have only gotten better.
I could go on about the balance, or the finesse, or the purity, or the hauntingly taut and crystalline shimmer of the acidity present in this wine - and while all this is part of the beautiful story of 2001 in the Mosel, it's not the whole story... honestly I don't know what the whole story is - just one of those magical gifts from nature. But the story is available, in the glass. You have to taste.
Unfortunately, this is a small, one-time parcel - so the story is short. Think of it as a novella from the Mosel. Given the reputation of 2001, the earnest fans of Schmitt-Wagner and... well, the price, we expect this parcel to disappear quickly. It is in stock, so if you act quickly, you might be able to grab a few for the holiday weekend.
To order, email us at offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Stephen Bitterolf
Wine Director
Crush Wine & Spirits
Special Email Bottle Price: $29.95
Compare at up to $48
Wow - what a pungent, wild, complex nose, with ripe juicy notes of passion fruit, orange, tangelo, purple fruit (I get a distinct purple grapeyness), blending into saturating red flavors - cherry blossoms and even macerated cherries. These deep, meaty notes are balanced and bouyed by the finer elements, rock candy, slate, slate and slate with a salty wash, musk, a sassy spice and flowers. On the palate, the shape is bulbous and raucous, joyous, playful. It's a bit rustic, but the super-fine acidity of 2001 pulls it all into form, an elongated and elegant tail... awesome ocean-water finish. A WICKEDLY mouthwatering, peachy finish... Try and keep some in the cellar, though my guess is you will fail and drink it all quite soon!
Wine is in stock!
NET | No further discount
Labor Day is here, and before waking up to the realities of back to school/back to work without summer Fridays/back to sweaters and not-white pants, if you’re anything like us, all you want this weekend is a boat or a big backyard and lots of cold, delicious beverages.
]]> Preferably beverages that scream SUMMER.And then, come late September and October, we still want a few beverages that scream, defiantly. Hello, January blizzard? Take this! Summer here in my glass!
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That’s why we’ve just grabbed a final grand parcel of 2009 Copain Rosé “Tous Ensemble,” and today we’re offering it at the sharpest price of the season: down to $13.75 a bottle on the case.
This wine will be in stock and ready for pickups Thursday evening or delivery Friday!
The 09 Copain rosé has held court as one of our favorite rosés from the season, surprising even the passionate Provençal loyalists with its great balance of vibrant, sun-soaked California berries and juicy, thirst-quenching watermelon matched with a dash of white peppery spice and chalk and fantastic acidity. Copain’s “Tous Ensemble” is sourced from a variety of vineyard sites in California’s Anderson Valley, and the cooler climate of this region is in evidence here.
If you’re looking for the super-ripe fruit, weightiness or plump profile that can be common of Cali wines, you’ll be sorely disappointed. This is gorgeously fresh and dry, with poise and length on the palate that are impressive for a category of wine that’s usually content just to host a high guzzle quotient.
And as great and guzzle-able as this is on its own (ideally in the aforementioned boat or backyard), Copain’s wines seem to be even more impressive when paired with food, their balanced fruit and bright acidity playing well with a wide variety of dishes.
Owner/winemaker Wells Guthrie is a super quality-conscious producer who could be considered a member of the “new school” of New World winemakers now looking to France (especially Burgundy) for inspiration. He recently told Eric Asimov of The New York Times, “Wine should make you think of what you want to eat.”
His 09 rosé makes me think of grilled chicken slicked with apricot glaze, a spiced-up late-summer succotash with seared scallops, a giant bowl of salty potato chips, or, as we ease back into hectic work days, almost any Asian takeout. I’d definitely keep a few bottles of this on hand for those dark autumn and winter evenings when you could use a little sunshine (in a glass).
This specially priced stash of Copain rosé is in stock and ready for your Labor Day weekend drinking pleasure. Pick it up Thursday as you head out early, or have it delivered to you Friday. Our final Hamptons delivery is this Saturday, as well!
You know what they say: Just like summer, today’s pricing… To place your order, please email us at offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Ian McFadden
Director, Fine & Rare Wine
Crush Wine & Spirits
Special Email Bottle Price: $15.75
Compare at up to $20
Special Email 6-Pack Price: $88.20 ($14.70 / btl)
Special Email Case Price: $165.00 ($13.75 / btl)
Wine arrives Thursday!
NET | No further discount
If you're at all interested in experiencing Pinot Noir at its most nervy, ethereal, and resolutely mineral form, Bara's is certainly the one to try.
Simply put, Paul Bara rules the category of red Coteaux Champenois, his name looming large in experts' writings on this unique non-sparkler from Champagne.
]]> Today we offer Bara's 02 Bouzy Rouge at as low as $39.50 a bottle on the 3-pack. It's difficult to situate pricing on a wine like this - there's none available anywhere else in the country; it might just be best to say that last year we sold the 2000 vintage at $55. |
Making Coteaux Champenois rouge is a labor of love. This is Pinot Noir grown in the cool climate of Champagne - one of the northernmost limits of where most grapes can properly ripen. Here, Pinot (especially in non-sparkling form) requires the best southern- and southeastern-facing slopes and often the domaine's oldest, lowest yielding vines in order to achieve ripeness.
In these extremes, Pinot Noir can be exhilarating, utterly pure and clear and vibrant, shocked with pristine minerals.
If you like wines from Jura, Beaujolais, Val d'Aosta and mountain Nebbiolo or if Riesling and Chambolle compete for space in your cellar, then Bara's Bouzy rouge is worth a look.
Comparisons aside, though, Bara's wines stand alone by delivering superb concentration and complexity while simultaneously maintaining a sense of poise and almost ethereal lift. The signature here is one of cherry and crushed berry fruit backed by a fragrant wild strawberry perfume, exotic spices, and an emphatic chalk-infused minerality.
All of Bara's vineyards are in the Grand Cru village of Bouzy - top-notch sites famous for producing Pinots (especially still ones) with a dark-fruited, earthy opulence - though that's relative in these northern precincts. Bara's well-situated slopes (they deem only three of their 11 hectares suitable for producing Bouzy rouge) allow grapes to ripen amply, receiving a double dose of sun as it shines down and is reflected back by pure belemnite chalk soils, which also lend a distinct mineral element to the wine.
The result is an intriguing combination of flavor intensity and nimble, searching elegance. It's almost impossible to imagine this wine coming from anywhere else in the world.
2002 in Champagne is poised to go into the history books as one of the top vintages of recent years, and the high level of ripeness makes it a perfect vintage for Coteaux Champenois. Peter Liem nails it: "There is certainly a sense of richness and depth in the 2002s... Yet rather than emphasizing their ripeness, the 2002s consistently demonstrate a feeling of clarity, finesse and poise."
It's also worth noting that 02 is the current release. Eight years aging in the cellars is practically unheard of in these parts, yet Bara crafts their Bouzy in a decidedly ageworthy fashion, and at eight years old, this still holds much in reserve. A bottle of 2000 drunk last winter showed plenty of youthful vigor; given the great 02 vintage, this one should be fascinating to track for the next 3-5 years - at least.
As noted earlier, Bara's Bouzy rouge has been very hard to find in quantity (in the past we've gotten a case or less). We were very excited to find this parcel and are thrilled to be able to do an email offer on this unique Pinot Noir.
To place your order, please email us at offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Joe Salamone
Wine Buyer
Crush Wine & Spirits
Special Email Bottle Price: $42.33
No compare-at pricing available
Special Email 3-Pack Price: $118.50 ($39.50)
Wine arrives Fall 2010
NET | No further discount
My initiation came, at last, Thursday night at Gramercy Tavern: 1999 Monprivato on the list for $195! Screw tasting menu pairings – I had to have this.
I mean, sure, the trout with pickled onions was weird without Kabinett, but in the end it was worth it: Alongside fettucine with guinea hen and summer beans and a veal loin smothered in shiitakes, the Monprivato was drop-dead sexy, like spending a Sunday afternoon lying naked in silk sheets tossed with rose petals, gorging on ripe raspberries and the highest quality bittersweet chocolate. So pure, so captivating, so bad-ass… I wish I was in a position to have blithely ordered another bottle on the spot. When my boyfriend offered our server a small glass to sample, I may have audibly snarled.
]]>He's right: Vincent Dauvissat’s 2008 Les Clos is certainly an utterly brilliant bottle in the making, a grand-scaled tribute to Chablis in top form.
Today we offer one of the only tranches in the nation, at $129.95 a bottle.
]]> While the 08s' footprints haven't quite set in the cement yet - they were just released earlier this year - it's already clear that these are phenomenal. Yes, 2007 was legendary in Chablis, and after stellar vintages, retailers and collectors sometimes seem to sleep through the next vintage with a hangover. If this is you, wake up: These 2008s can go toe-to-toe with the 07s. |
If 2007 was all about high-acid electrical force touching down on beds of layered rock, 2008 takes that voltage and puts a rolling thunderhead of perfectly ripe, round, yellow fruits behind it. There’s more aromatics, more flesh, more push here in 08, all wired up with Chablis’ requisite acid and mineral.
Really, this is Les Clos as it’s supposed to be - dense, statuesque, nearly chewy it's so concentrated, and heartbreakingly mineral. Yet for all its grandeur, this doesn't parade as imperious or showy; like Vincent Dauvissat himself, this is sure-handedly detailed and calm with confidence.
As Andrew Jefford asks in The New France, “Do winemakers make wines in their own image? If so, who would you rather have make your Chablis for you than a pure-spirited vigneron? Chablis, after all, should be the purest of wines, limpid and uncluttered... That more or less sums up the Dauvissat style.”
While this purity, the delineation of each individual element is evident (and beautiful) even in youth, this is also very tightly packed right now; time (a decade to three... or more?) will be good to this, will open every component up, allow it all to unpack, stretch out and really blossom into its full potential.
Every year, we quickly sell through our tranches of Dauvissat’s Les Clos - this is, after all, the Granddaddy of Chablis’ grand crus, from one of the indisputable greats of the region… an extraordinary wine year in and year out. As this 2008 is certainly amongst the most impressive vintages in recent memory (plus the fact that our parcel on offer today is one of the only available in the nation currently), we urge you to act quickly… we’d wager that this may be a fast sell-out.
Please email us at offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463 to place your order.
Ian McFadden
Director, Fine & Rare Wine
Crush Wine & Spirits
Gilman, View from the Cellar: After the thundering close of the les Preuses, I was not sure if there were still higher gears to go for the les Clos, but it too is an utterly brilliant bottle in the making. The bouquet is deep, brilliantly complex and stunningly transparent, as it soars from the glass in a blaze of grapefruit, lemon, kaleidoscopic, flinty minerality, a touch of straw, supring flowers, perhaps a hint of new wood and a topnote of oyster shell. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, racy and very elegant on the attack, with a rock solid core of fruit, profound focus and grip and a very, very long, transparent and tensile finish. A great, great vintage for the Dauvissat Clos.
Tanzer, International Wine Cellar: Bright, pale yellow with green highlights. The purest and most perfumed of these 2008s, offering scents of lemon oil, pineapple, mirabelle and white pepper. Wonderfully sweet and large-scaled, even a bit youthfully monolithic today, with a flavor of pure crushed stone. This boasts outstanding grand cru weight and a finish that saturates every millimeter of the palate. A wine that's still on the starting block.
*Note: Dauvissat uses multiple U.S. importers whose labels are different. Dauvissat-Camus wines are 100% identical to those that appear under the Vincent Dauvissat label.
Wine arrives Fall 2010
NET | No further discount
Dan watches the Mets game.
Stephen & Chris spot a passing airplane.
Stephen loves planes.
Joe pours the Huet for Drew.
Max, Jose, Ian & Jason pose for a group shot photograph.
The partners: Josh, Drew & Bobby.
Santos & Juan.
Fine & Rare department.
Sam and Frantz.
Sam, Frantz & Max.
Stevie & Stephen celebrate an athletic victory.
Unbelievable dessert spread.
A lineup of wines in our suite.
Though I forgot to ask Marcel Tyrell why the estate decided to change their classification system this year, I can make some pretty good guesses.
First of all, 2009 is a profound vintage for dry wines, especially in the Saar and Ruwer where the deep, pure ripeness of 2009 is countered more forcefully by the vigorous acidity the regions are famous for. Second, the "Grosses Gewächs" name is really beginning to catch on. It translates, literally, to "Great Growth" and in the VDP-inspired system, this moniker can only be given to the greatest dry wine from the region's top sites.
]]> So today we present this bottling, the first-ever Grosses Gewächs from the great Karthauserhof. We're introducing this to the U.S. with special pricing that ends Friday... though quantities are likely to disappear long before that.
The Rieslings of the Ruwer Valley nearly always show an exquisitely enchanting dance of minerality and acidity - though the Trocken "S" (now called the Grosses Gewächs) takes this up a serious notch or two. For Karthauserhof specifically, these two elements are more than mere descriptors, they are the very core of the composition. The fruit, though lean and graceful, is never the most important part of a Karthauserhof. Rather, the wines quietly reveal a singular delicacy, a wispiness that is persistent and almost always refreshing, like a brisk morning fog where you can almost smell and taste the cold stones in the stream and the lemon orchards over the hill - which is, not surprisingly, very much the atmosphere at the estate.
While this is the inaugural "GG" bottling, Karthauserhof has a long history with dry Rieslings... frankly, a long history with GREAT dry Rieslings. One of the most impressively mineral wines I have ever had was the 2001 Karthauserhof Auslese Trocken "S" (I'm talking Clos Ste. Hune-like mineral). This particular bottle was drunk in 2007, and at six years of age it was still infantile, extraordinarily muscular, dense and compact - a detailed expression of rocks and salt, citrus and flowers that was so fine, yet so, so forceful.
This one experience was more than enough to make myself, and Joe, devout fans of this bottling and its a wine we've sought out and brought to the U.S. market in both 2005 and 2007 (there was no bottling made in 2008). Though they require tremendous patience, the rewards are well worth it.
The 2009 should be poised to stand shoulder to shoulder with the 2001 - the more and more I taste 2009, the more I believe the vintage has a similar tension, a ripeness balanced by (again, especially in 2009), a vigorous, sinewy acidity.
This is being bottled very soon by the estate and it will arrive in the U.S. early this fall. Please note that quantities will be very limited! Give us your maximum order and we'll allocate accordingly. I would personally consider grabbing a few because this is a wine that will most certainly cellar for 10+ years.
To order, email us at offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Stephen Bitterolf
Wine Director
Crush Wine & Spirits
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