Red Wine & Soup Season!
Events
If you’ve been following us on social, you might have seen we’ve been doing impromptu Sample Saturdays the past few weeks. We’re excited to host a very special SAMple Saturday this week featuring Sam Long. Sam is bringing us Trimbach Pinot Blanc and Trimbach Pinot Noir from France and Bertani Valpolicella Ripasso from Italy. These are all wines that are great for fall patios, the dinner table, and the holidays! 🍷
And don’t forget to mark your calendars for November’s Flights + Bites! Britt from Tramonte and Sons will be here pouring five devilishly delightful wines and Chef Serenity will be scaring up pairings for the evening. Join us for an extra special spooky edition of Friday Night Flights + Bites on Friday, November 1st. You can purchase tickets below. 🎃🦇💀🍷
Gourmet Updates
Specials this week are Roasted Garlic Tomato Soup and Antipasto Farro Salad with Sun-Dried Tomato Vinaigrette. Stop by to grab yours on Thursday afternoon. Looking for a classic pairing? We suggest grabbing a loaf of Blue Oven’s Bad Boy bread and Gruyere and Cheddar for a delightful grilled cheese.
We have pre-orders open for Thanksgiving, you can give us a call or visit our website to submit a pre-order request. Keep an eye on the newsletters, we’ll let you know as soon as the seasonal Walnut Stilton Torta is available.
In addition to the ever-popular torta and charcuterie boards, we also make custom gift baskets. We’re working with Scatter Joy on customized items that are great for gifting. And our selection of wine bags and coolers would be great embroidered - check in next door at Just Add Embroidery to have custom embroidery done. Not sure what to get someone? Who wouldn’t love wine and a book? Stop in over at The Bookshelf to find the perfect book to pair with your gift basket. Have something particular in mind? Ask us! It might be something we can source for you. If you have something already purchased, just drop it off and we can add it to a gift basket for you.
We create hand-crafted, custom charcuterie and cheese boards for all occasions and any number of people. Order by emailing Serenity using the link below, giving us a call at 513-561-6956, or stopping in the shop.
Wines
Alto Moncayo is the flagship of the Bodegas Alto Moncayo winery. It is a single-grape variety of Garnacha, from vines between 40 and 70 years old, aged in new barrels for 20 months. It has a remarkable complex nose, with balsamic, black fruit, and roasted notes and a well-structured mouthfeel. The tannins are rounded, generous and very silky. It is juicy and full bodied with flavors of ripe red cherry, black raspberry and cassis with lots of fragrant spices on the finish.
The Garnacha grapes of Alto Moncayo undergo very strict vineyard selection, from vines planted as far back as the early 1900's through the 1970's. Only the most perfectly mature clusters are selected and carried in small crates to prevent crushing, where they are further sorted and selected at triage tables. The wine undergoes malolactic fermentation in both French & American oak, and is aged in new barrels for 20 months.
The garnacha grape is one of the varieties that best expresses its terroir. Thus, the Garnacha of Alto Moncayo is different from the rest of the Campo de Borja Denominación de Origen (DO) area. This is due to the very strict selection made from the vineyards, the type of soil in which they are grown, the microclimate and the age of the vines. As these vines are very old, the strains are very well-balanced, with a very deep root system. The soil where these old strains of Garnacha are located is on the foothills glacis or slopes of the mountains of Ainzón, Fuendejalón and Tabuenca; very stony, with slightly rounded edges of limestone or marl, dolomite, quartzite and slate. These are highly permeable soils that allow the water to seep into the deeper layers of clay. All of these factors, together with the location of the vineyards (between 500m and 800m above sea level), where the maturity is very slow, leads to wines of great fruitiness and minerality. In the mouth they are rich and complimentary, with pleasant, mature tannins and highly aromatic persistence.
Are you looking for something special or specific? Please feel free to email Rob with any wine questions or needs at the link below or give us a call in the shop at 513-561-6956. We’re always happy to source something for you if we don’t currently carry it in the store.
