A Little Italy, That Musty Guy Brett, and Fiddly McDancy

     First off, we owe a big THANK YOU to Drew, Marty and Kerry for holding down the CoWineCo fort while Jen and I escaped on a much appreciated vacation last week.  Unless we start hearing about that great "buy 1 glass, get 45 glasses free" deal at the bar last weekend, we're pretty sure things went smoothly and now we're rested and ready to hunt down some more wine for you all.

A New 'Week-O-Wine' 4-Pack for March - $40.99/4-pack

In case you're new to this idea, we pick 4 affordable wines a month that we think deserve more attention than they're getting, put them in a pretty white box (if you think square and white is 'pretty'), take a couple bucks off, and include a write-up for your educational pleasure.  This 4-pack will be available as of this Friday.

AbbeyVale Unwooded 'Vat 351' Chardonnay 2004, Margaret River, Australia

AbbeyVale’s vineyards were planted in 1986, prior to Margaret River gaining world class notoriety as a wine region. With a recent change of ownership, AbbeyVale is pouring tons of money into creating unique, balanced wines at an affordable price. The Vat 351 Chardonnay is oak-less, with grapes pulled from a variety of their vineyards in Margaret River. We get a clean, creamy white with medium weight and tastes of green apple and melon.

Villa Wolf Pinot Gris 2004, Pfalz, Germany

Germany produces more than great Riesling and here's an example.  This dry white is made by Dr. Ernst Loosen, whose reputation as Germany's foremost producer of top quality wine is worldwide.  This is a delicious full-bodied Pinot Gris from the Pfalz region of Germany, which lies between the Haardt Mountains and the Rhine River, directly north of France's Alsace region. The mountains protect the region from the harsh Atlantic weather, making it one of the drier and warmer areas of Germany.  It’s made in a dry style and has wonderful richness, with light peach and ashy notes. Clean tasting with a delicious creamy finish, we think the big value in this pinot gris is the weight,  balance and acidity of the finish.

Poppy Pinot Noir 2004, California

We tasted this Pinot back in early December, but it changed vintage to ’04 and we are happy that not only is it still a fantastic deal but it’s also a slightly more finessed, more supple wine this time around.  Some of the best Pinot Noir grapes grown in California in 2004 contribute to this wine:  fruit from Carneros, Santa Lucia and Monterey vineyards all pitch in here.  Pinot is a finicky grape, and single vineyard Pinots of great quality can mean higher price tags.  So 30-year wine industry veteran Lee Nordlund focuses on getting a lot of bang for your buck by utilizing his encyclopedic knowledge of California wine regions and getting a lot of the best fruit he can find.

A Mano Primitivo 2003, Puglia, Italy

Puglia is the heel of the boot in Italy and is producing some of the best deals in all of Europe. Because it is so far South where it is much hotter, you get very ripe, full reds like California Cabs and Zinfandels. In fact, Primitivo is the grape Zinfandel, centuries-old (but researchers disagree exactly when and from where). “A Mano” means handmade, and winemaker Mark Shannon handcrafted this wine from a spot of earth that was an old seabed, full of fossilized clam shells, oysters and urchins. The complexity of terrior shows: we get a beautiful nose of dark fruit and spice followed by a slightly sweet, medium bodied palate with soft tannins and tastes of plums and blueberries.

Wine Tasting Schedule

A Little Italy: All Italian Wines

This Friday the 10th

5:30-8:30pm

$15/person

Reservations recommended!  Fridays have been busy lately and we hate turning people away, so call ahead anytime and get your name down in advance:   info@cowineco.com or (323) 478-1985

We're continuing with our New Year's resolution to beef up our European wall and will be pouring some tasty new italian wines we recently picked up this Friday.

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Cantele Chardonnay 2004, Italy

Roma Farina Pinot Grigio, Italy

Copertino Riserva Red 2000, Puglia, Italy

Vignalta Rosso, Italy

Caprari Lambrusco, italy

Lazy Sunday Tasting

This Sunday the 12th

1:00-4:00pm

$10/person

4 wines and gourmet cheeses provided by Auntie Em's Marketplace

No reservations necessary     

This Sunday we'll be pouring two whites and two reds.  Email or call in this weekend for specific wine selections info@cowineco.com or (323) 478-1985.

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(Wines TBD)

Fiddly McDancy: A St. Patrick's Day Tasting 

Friday the 17th

5:30-8:30pm

$15/person

Reservations recommended!  Fridays have been busy lately.  Call ahead anytime and get your name down: info@cowineco.com or (323) 478-1985
As a pale and pasty Irish-American dude, I can't responsibly let this day go by without some sort of celebration.  So join us on the 17th as we drive the snakes out of CoWineCo and enjoy a night of Irish music (or as our good, Irish friend Nicky calls it, "Fiddly McDancy" music) and our usual selection of 5 tasty wines.  If anyone actually owns a "Kiss Me I'm Irish" pin and wears it to the tasting, they get $5 off.    

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(Wine selection TBD.  Check back next week --> www.cowineco.com/calendar )

Lazy Sunday Tasting

Sunday the 19th

1:00-4:00pm

$10/person

4 wines and gourmet cheeses provided by Auntie Em's Marketplace

No reservations necessary 

Every Sunday we pour a variety of wines for your gustatory pleasure.  Email or call next week for specific wine selections info@cowineco.com or (323) 478-1985.

wines

(Wine selection TBD.  Check back next week --> www.cowineco.com/calendar )

That Musty Guy, Brett

     Brettanomyces (sometimes referred to as "Brett") is a bacterial infection which gives a wine an unusual “musty” smell and taste, and often comes from wooden barrels wine is aged in.  This is a common, controversial issue in the wine industry, especially between winemakers.  To some, even the slightest hint of Brett is considered a flaw in winemaking, and to others, it is an integral part of most dry, red wines, providing a dimension of complexity. 

     First of all, without scientifically testing the wine, it is almost impossible even for an expert taster to definitively detect the presence of Brett in any particular wine.  The grape Mourvedre has a distinctly earthy character on its own and is often mis-labelled as a wine infected with Brett (in case you're curious, check out our Bedford Thompson Mourvedre or Casa De La Ermita Monastrell).  And really, the question should be, did the winemaker intend for this particular wine to taste this particular way?  If a touch of Brett was intentional, make a decision on the wine based on your palate, not on whether that's some form of cheating among purists.  Seems a shame to be such a black-and-white purist about something like wine which is supposed to bring people together, get their jaws a little loosened up and gab about more fun and important things than what they're pouring down their gullets.

See You Soon,

John and Jen

"Give an Irishman lager for a month, and he's a dead man. An Irishman is lined with copper, and the beer corrodes it. But whiskey polishes the copper and is the saving of him."
~ Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi